When we first pick it up and open it, the Bible can seem confusing and perhaps even frightening. Here is this bulky book, made up of seventy-three sections with unfamiliar titles such as Deuteronomy, Ecclesiastes, Colossians, and Corinthians, with numbers in front of almost every sentence, rarely any pictures, and perhaps a few maps of ancient areas such as Mesopotamia, Assyria, and Judah. Since the Bible looks like a book, we may start to read it as we would any other book, hoping to move from cover to cover. Then we begin to wonder, Who wrote this? When was it written? What kind of writing is this: History? Science? Biography? Fiction? What am I supposed to get out of it? As (or if) we keep reading the Bible page by page, section by section, we soon realize that this is no ordinary run-of-the-bookshelf volume. Without a guide the Bible is likely to remain the book most often purchased but not very often read and even less often understood.
To rescue Bible readers and students from turning their initial enthusiasm into boredom, Gregory Dawes gives us this Introduction to the Bible, the indispensable prologue to the entire series of the New Collegeville Bible Commentary. Dividing the contents into two parts, the author first describes how the Old and New Testaments came to be put together, and then explores how their stories have been interpreted over the centuries. In the words of Dawes, this very broad overview of a very complex history offers the general reader a helpful framework within which to begin to understand the Bible. The author writes clearly, frequently seasoning his explanations with crisp examples. This book anchors individual and group Bible study on the solid foundation of basic biblical vocabulary and concepts.
Gregory W. Dawes is senior lecturer in both religious studies and philosophy at the University of Otago (New Zealand). He undertook graduate study at the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome, where he completed the Licentiate degree, before receiving a PhD from the University of Otago in 1995. He has written several books, the most recent being The Historical Jesus Question: The Challenge of History to Religious Authority (Westminster John Knox, 2001). He is currently researching Christian responses to the work of Charles Darwin.
Show moreWhen we first pick it up and open it, the Bible can seem confusing and perhaps even frightening. Here is this bulky book, made up of seventy-three sections with unfamiliar titles such as Deuteronomy, Ecclesiastes, Colossians, and Corinthians, with numbers in front of almost every sentence, rarely any pictures, and perhaps a few maps of ancient areas such as Mesopotamia, Assyria, and Judah. Since the Bible looks like a book, we may start to read it as we would any other book, hoping to move from cover to cover. Then we begin to wonder, Who wrote this? When was it written? What kind of writing is this: History? Science? Biography? Fiction? What am I supposed to get out of it? As (or if) we keep reading the Bible page by page, section by section, we soon realize that this is no ordinary run-of-the-bookshelf volume. Without a guide the Bible is likely to remain the book most often purchased but not very often read and even less often understood.
To rescue Bible readers and students from turning their initial enthusiasm into boredom, Gregory Dawes gives us this Introduction to the Bible, the indispensable prologue to the entire series of the New Collegeville Bible Commentary. Dividing the contents into two parts, the author first describes how the Old and New Testaments came to be put together, and then explores how their stories have been interpreted over the centuries. In the words of Dawes, this very broad overview of a very complex history offers the general reader a helpful framework within which to begin to understand the Bible. The author writes clearly, frequently seasoning his explanations with crisp examples. This book anchors individual and group Bible study on the solid foundation of basic biblical vocabulary and concepts.
Gregory W. Dawes is senior lecturer in both religious studies and philosophy at the University of Otago (New Zealand). He undertook graduate study at the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome, where he completed the Licentiate degree, before receiving a PhD from the University of Otago in 1995. He has written several books, the most recent being The Historical Jesus Question: The Challenge of History to Religious Authority (Westminster John Knox, 2001). He is currently researching Christian responses to the work of Charles Darwin.
Show moreCONTENTS
Abbreviations 5
Introduction 6
THE ORIGINS OF THE BIBLE 11
The Biblical Canon 11
The Formation of the Old Testament Canon
13
(a) The crisis of the Exile
13
(b) The growth of the canon
16
(c) Canonical and deuterocanonical
books 18
The Formation of the New Testament Canon
22
(a) The Old Testament as Christian
Scripture 22
(b) Stages in the development of a
canon 23
Texts and Translations 26
(a) The transmission of the biblical
text 26
(b) Ancient translations
28
(c) Modern translations
30
(d) Division into chapters and
verses 33
THE INTERPRETATION OF THE BIBLE 34
The Task of Interpretation 34
Patristic and Medieval Interpretation (ca. 200–1500)
38
Principles of Patristic and Medieval
Interpretation 38
(a) Old and New Testaments
39
(b) Bible and church 39
(c) Sacred and secular knowledge
40
Patristic and Medieval Exegesis 41
(a) The regula fidei (rule of
faith) 42
(b) The spiritual sense of
Scripture 42
(c) The four senses of Scripture
43
Reformation and Counter-Reformation (ca. 1500–1650)
46
The Bible and the Church 48
(a) The Bible interprets itself
48
(b) The Bible authenticates
itself 49
(c) The Bible has a single
meaning 51
The Catholic Response 52
The Bible in the Modern Era (ca. 1650–today) 54
The Development of Historical Criticism
54
The Reception of Historical Criticism
57
(a) The Protestant Churches
57
(b) The Catholic Church
59
Postmodern Biblical Interpretation 65
The Indeterminacy of Meaning 65
(a) Part and whole 65
(b) The historical context
67
(c) The “intentional fallacy”
68
(d) Text and reader 70
(e) A hermeneutics of suspicion
71
Conclusions 73
Review Aids and Discussion Topics 75
Maps 79
Gregory W. Dawes is senior lecturer in both religious studies and philosophy at the University of Otago (New Zealand). He undertook graduate study at the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome, where he completed the Licentiate degree, before receiving a PhD from the University of Otago in 1995. He has written several books, the most recent being The Historical Jesus Question: The Challenge of History to Religious Authority (Westminster John Knox, 2001). He is currently researching Christian responses to the work of Charles Darwin.
This is a fine introductory volume to a series that holds great
promise for the average reader.The Bible Today
Complementing the highly successful New Testament New Collegeville
Bible Commentary, this short book is an indispensable introduction
to the entire series.Catholic Library World
Dawes continues, underscores our need to appreciate the ways in
which the Bible has been interpreted throughout Christian history.
. . . Dawes certainly has met his goal of presenting a clear
overview of the origins of the Bible and its interpretation. His
concise writing style, logical organization, and helpful format
devices make this a work suitable for individual and group
use.WritingWorks
Highly recommended for novice to intermediate biblical students and
scholars.Midwest Book Review
At a time when knowledge of the Bible has declined while religious
fundamentalism is on the rise, this concise, clear and accurate
account of the origins of the Bible and history of its
interpretation is invaluable. Dawes is a gifted writer. He not only
communicates a great deal of information in a short space but also
invites the reader on a journey of discovery, which concludes with
a sympathetic but not uncritical account of post-modern
developments. This slim volume admirably succeeds in its aim to
provide readers of the New Collegeville Bible Commentary with
essential background information concerning the Bible and the
variety of ways in which it was been interpreted down to the
present.Brendan Byrne, S.J., Jesuit Theological College, Parkville,
Victoria, Australia
This highly readable guide to the origins of the Biblical writings
and to the history of how the Bible has been interpreted provides a
rich context for our own informed reading of Scripture. Greg Dawes
has the gift of expressing complex and detailed matters in a
crystal clear and yet profound way. The book is wonderfully well
written and greatly helps us to understand the way the Bible has
been and is used in the Church, and the way that theology has
developed. Readers of Scripture will greatly benefit from this
excellent book.Paul Trebilco, Department of Theology and Religious
Studies, University of Otago, New Zealand
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