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Loading... Whose Bible Is It?: A Short History of the Scriptures (original 2004; edition 2006)by Jaroslav Pelikan (Author)Mr. Pelikan's work is quite an interesting read on how the Bible came to be. The difficulty is sorting the theology from the history & for the most part he succeeds. He does understand that the Bible was meant to be read theologically rather than as a literary work by those who accept the Bible as God's word. A few odd things. One is his use of "Palestine" which was not used until after 135 AD by Roman Emperor Hadrian to wipe out any Jewish memory after the end of the Bar Kochba revolt. The 2nd is his PC use of "social justice" which is again unknown in the Bible. There is only God's justice & nothing else. Third, is his strange refusal to connect the accuracy of the Hebrew Masoretic text with the accuracy of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Although there is at least a 850 year gap, the Hebrew texts in the Dead Scrolls are remarkably accurate with the Masoretic texts. Other than these anomalies, the author does well in defining terms used by commentators over the centuries as well as showing the historical progress in biblical writing & canon development. His concluding remarks stands, "As both the Jewish & the Christian communities of faith have always affirmed, the Bible is the Book of God & the Word of God, & therefore it does not really belong to any of us." This is a succinct look at how the Bible has changed over a few thousand years. It starts with the Hebrew Tanakh (Old Testament to Christians) and how it is presented. It makes good points that the Tanakh is about God speaking rather than writing things down, showing that scriptures were meant to be heard. It also discusses how the Bible was translated in Greek (the Septuagint) and then to Latin (the Vulgate). These two versions were meant to be authoritative and were the means by which millions of people were introduced to the Bible over generations. Nevertheless, they had significant problems in translations from the original Hebrew, which has made for significant misunderstandings. As the book moves into the Christian era, it shows how Christians tried to appropriate the Hebrew texts as their own, ofter ignoring or rejecting Jewish interpretations of the Tanakh. It shows how Christians started calling it the Old Testament as means to show how it was building up to Jesus's life. As it gets to the Protestant Reformation, it discusses the emphasis on the infallibility of the Bible, which was not an issue prior to that. The Bible was used in tandem with Christian traditions of the Catholic Church. This was in keeping with the practice of early Christians who did not even have a codified Bible to work with, but rather used oral transmission and custom to organize the church. Protestants went back to the earliest known versions of the Bible, retranslated it into vernacular languages and then pushed their followers to read it for themselves as the only source of authentic christian doctrine. This practice had the unintended consequence of a more critical appraisal of the Bible, which led to "higher criticism", meaning questions about its authorship. Higher criticism coupled with Darwinism to undermine the legitimacy of the Bible as divinely inspired and unique among many but also drove others to double down on it as the infallible, despite the obvious problems of translation and the multiple versions of the texts. Up to this point, Pelikan's work is interesting and informative, but it finishes in a disappointing manner. The last chapter appears more of a cheerleading exercise for why the Bible still matters and why it affects people so strongly. It ignores the fact that most people who are introduced to the Bible but aren't from a Christian tradition are not inspired or particularly affected. This last part detracts a little from what was otherwise an interesting journey of exploration by moving away from way is supportable and going to what the author wishes to be true. Despite the lackluster finish, this is a book worth reading if you are interested in how the Bible developed over the course of millennia and how its interactions with societies changed. It’s been maybe a year since I read this book, but I recently dug it out again for a bit of research. I was looking into the Comma Johanneum, that controversial little verse in the first epistle of John that got a facelift in the Middle Ages: http://www.dubiousdisciple.com/2011/03/1-john-57-8-comma-johanneum.html . In this book, Pelikan discusses how the Bible came to be, how it was interpreted through the ages, and how Christianity built its own message atop the Tanakh (the Torah, the prophets, and the Writings). But the Bible didn’t stop growing 2,000 years ago; it continues to be interpreted, modified, translated through the ages. Did Christianity steal the Bible from the Jews? Pelikan has a way of uniting Christian and Jew even while recognizing an impenetrable rift. His writing is wonderfully readable and occasionally funny, as he points out how contradictory religions can read the same words and be inspired in different ways. He sees diversity as something to be appreciated, not condemned. One cannot help but appreciate the Bible more as a living, growing, entity after reading this. The Word is alive! And ultimately, in the search for who owns the Bible, we must conclude as Pelikan does: To speak of possessing the Bible or even to ask “Whose Bible is it?” is … not only presumptuous but blasphemous. Is it possible for a Christian clergyman to write an “objective” history of the Bible? Even if not, Jaroslaw Pelikan comes really close to it in “Whose Bible Is It? History of the Scriptures through the Ages”. He, besides being a Lutheran pastor was also a professor at Yale up till his death 4 years ago, gets a lot of the history and context right. This is the best concise book on the Bible I read for several reasons:
These were the main reasons the book was a joy to read: its objectivity, scope, historical depth and respect. However I have two reservations about the book. One has to do with the minimal coverage of modern Biblical criticism. Pelikan mentions it, but doesn't devote as much space to it as I think it deserves. The “documentary hypothesis” for example gets zero coverage, while I think this is the most important development in biblical scholarship in the 19th/20th century. I suspect that its suggestions are in such a contrast with Pelikan's own belief system that his conscience prevented him to write about it. The other caveat is the point he is trying to make in the book. Besides writing a great book on the good book, I believe, he also had an agenda: he was trying to advocate better understanding between Christians and Jews. That is something I can fully support to. But I think his reasoning was mistaken. I am afraid I need to provide a extended quote before I can counter it. This is from page 122: "How much better the nations of the world would understand one another, we regularly urge, if only they all knew what those “others” are saying, unfiltered through a translation.... [Serbs and Croats] speak basically the same language-- which means they ca understand each other very well when they call each other some of those obscene and quite untranslatable names, and they are kept apart by a common language. Sometimes it almost seems as though the peoples of the Balkans might get along better if only they could not understand each other. So also during the “Middle Ages,” both in Western Europe and in the Eastern Roman so-called Byzantine Empire, rabbinical scholars and Christian scholars were kept apart by a common text, whether they called it Tanakh in Hebrew or Graphe in Greek of Biblia Sacra in Latin." He is right that it would be simpler to share the same language, because translations distort. I don't think thought that he is right that having different languages (or scriptures) would help understand each other better. At least sharing something common gives them/us connecting point. The question is whether these connecting points cause more friction or help to improve relations. The answer I believe is up to us, what we make of it. But as any couple therapist would tell you those couples last longer who have more in common. The same principles apply here too. This is a very nice introduction to the history of the Bible from the Hebrew scriptures up to present. Pelikan traces the development and use of the various parts of the Bible from Jewish origins of the Torah, prophets, and writings, through Christian beginnings and forming a canon to translations and dissemination to the public. Pelikan is always lucid and fair to the various traditions who use or don't use the various parts of the Bible. Although there is no index, there is something of an annotated bibliography to help one find out more than this shorter book can provide. A quick overview of the history of scripture and how it has had a changing influence on society. Very accessible and interesting. I know that Pelikan is a very respected biblical scholar, but I do not know which faith he practices: he doesn't let on in this book. However, he does not seem to place much stock in the sola scriptura approach that has been advanced since the Reformation. Jaroslav Pelikan is a Kluge Prize-winning historian and author. In this short book he traces what he says as the evolution of the Jewish and Christian Bibles from early Hebrew, Greek and Latin texts to the modern versions. He also examines the formation of the New Testament, influences of the Renaissance and Protestant Reformation. The author is respectful and this work will appeal to a broad audience. He does correctly affirm the role of the Bible as the Word of God. Pointing out that the Bible has been through many revisions and was once a body of oral tradition. The author seems to mainly be summarizing his knowledge on the history of the Bible with broad-brush strokes as we follow its history over the centuries. But he does state the obvious, which I agree with, that it is important to study the Bible in the original languages. I suggest you take your time reading this book in order to gain the most benefit from it. |
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As the book moves into the Christian era, it shows how Christians tried to appropriate the Hebrew texts as their own, ofter ignoring or rejecting Jewish interpretations of the Tanakh. It shows how Christians started calling it the Old Testament as means to show how it was building up to Jesus's life.
As it gets to the Protestant Reformation, it discusses the emphasis on the infallibility of the Bible, which was not an issue prior to that. The Bible was used in tandem with Christian traditions of the Catholic Church. This was in keeping with the practice of early Christians who did not even have a codified Bible to work with, but rather used oral transmission and custom to organize the church. Protestants went back to the earliest known versions of the Bible, retranslated it into vernacular languages and then pushed their followers to read it for themselves as the only source of authentic christian doctrine. This practice had the unintended consequence of a more critical appraisal of the Bible, which led to "higher criticism", meaning questions about its authorship. Higher criticism coupled with Darwinism to undermine the legitimacy of the Bible as divinely inspired and unique among many but also drove others to double down on it as the infallible, despite the obvious problems of translation and the multiple versions of the texts.
Up to this point, Pelikan's work is interesting and informative, but it finishes in a disappointing manner. The last chapter appears more of a cheerleading exercise for why the Bible still matters and why it affects people so strongly. It ignores the fact that most people who are introduced to the Bible but aren't from a Christian tradition are not inspired or particularly affected. This last part detracts a little from what was otherwise an interesting journey of exploration by moving away from way is supportable and going to what the author wishes to be true.
Despite the lackluster finish, this is a book worth reading if you are interested in how the Bible developed over the course of millennia and how its interactions with societies changed. ( )