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Assembling orthodoxy

Outlining how the Bible came into being
by
March 2022, no. 440

The Making of the Bible: From the first fragments to sacred scripture by Konrad Schmid and Jens Schröter, translated by Peter Lewis

Harvard University Press, US$35 hb, 440 pp

Assembling orthodoxy

Outlining how the Bible came into being
by
March 2022, no. 440
The Leningrad Codex (or Codex Leningradensis), the oldest complete manuscript of the Hebrew Bible in Hebrew, dated AD 1008 (photograph via World History Archive/Alamy)
The Leningrad Codex (or Codex Leningradensis), the oldest complete manuscript of the Hebrew Bible in Hebrew, dated AD 1008 (photograph via World History Archive/Alamy)

The Bible is a collection of books with a long history. Not surprisingly, there is little agreement as to precisely which books it contains and what their collective importance might be. In The Making of the Bible, a distinguished Old Testament scholar, Konrad Schmid, and an equally prominent New Testament specialist, Jens Schröter, have combined forces to produce a volume (elegantly translated from the German by Peter Lewis) that outlines how different forms of the Bible came into being. Their focus is historical and philological rather than theological or literary. Yet the story they tell is engrossing: that of an unstable world needing to attend to the values of God’s kingdom. They help a non-specialist reader appreciate the fascinating diversity of ways in which the Bible’s message was regularly reinterpreted in a changing political situation.

Constant J. Mews reviews 'The Making of the Bible: From the first fragments to sacred scripture' by Konrad Schmid and Jens Schröter, translated by Peter Lewis

The Making of the Bible: From the first fragments to sacred scripture

by Konrad Schmid and Jens Schröter, translated by Peter Lewis

Harvard University Press, US$35 hb, 440 pp

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