New Book: 'Who Really Wrote the Bible - the Story of the Scribes'

https://www.amazon.com/Who-Really-Wrote-Bible-Scribes/dp/0691233179

The title is a little tiresome ... googling the phrase looks like a 5 year cycle (Who Wrote ...). Then, there's already lots of 'scribes' books. Oh, great.

But the book itself is terrible.. you can't stop reading! It discusses what I've long suspected (how's that). And probably I will never 'really' know.

- The likely influence from Egypt .... from the north. I always wondered how Joshua/Judges didn't seem to run into the Egyptians.

- What had to be significant professional scribal migration from multiple Assyrian attacks ... with an odd blossoming of writing that later disappeared in the Persian period (inscriptions, etc).

- Even the Siloam inscription ... that was a long mystery for me (workmen and a fancy-dancy pat on the back)

- Then, Isaiah not by Isaiah (never noticed!); most of the good stories sited in Israel; almost none in Judah. And who collected the Proverbs. From?

Chances are excellent, you won't agree with the author's larger conclusions (publisher blurbs). But he highlights evidence for his arguments. Hard to put down, and go fix dinner.

Added:

- Author well-represented in Logos (google 'site:logos.com Schniedewind'

- And Veli already recommended for Logos: https://community.logos.com/forums/t/221265.aspx

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Comments

MJ. Smith

I've been reading 101 Myths of the Bible: How Ancient Scribes Invented Biblical History - Kindle edition by Greenberg, Gary. Religion & Spirituality Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com. which also emphasizes Egypt ...

EDIT:

I just started Morey, Robert A. Is Eastern Orthodoxy Christian?. Las Vegas, NV: Christian Scholars Press, 2007. and discovered at least initially it has an Egyptian Christian bias. Note I would not recommend this book; I merely thought the Egyptian connection was interesting.

xnman

I just re-read "How we got the bible" by Neil Lightfoot. Personally, I think he does a good job with that topic.... [8-|]

MJ. Smith

I just re-read "How we got the bible" by Neil Lightfoot. Personally, I think he does a good job with that topic....

He wrote an excellent, broad introductory book which should be required reading. But I am always interested in what is shoved under the rug ... there are always bits and pieces that don't fit the primary narrative i.e. what one finds in books with broader subject matter. I think most people are satisfied looking at the rug, not under it. Greenberg is into Egyptian rather than Near Eastern influences.

Rick Carmickle

Neil Lightfoot misunderstands how textual variants are counted and grossly misleads his readers who don't know better. Lightfoot claims that textual variants are counted by the number of manuscripts that support such variants, rather than by the wording of the variants. His method was to count the number of manuscripts times the wording error. So for Lightfoot, 20 MSS with one reading and 1 MSS with another would be counted as 20 variants. But that's not true. That would be counted as only 1 variant from the base text. One out of 400,000. His book has been widely influential in evangelical circles and his particular definition of textual variants has found its way into countless apologetic works and misled millions. However, other than that, his book is well organized with good summaries for the most part.

Rosie Perera

Why do you (and Veli) just post about this title in the General forum and not even Suggestions? Better yet, make a suggestion for it on Feedbear and then tell others about that in the Suggestions forum to rack up votes. I'd vote for it.

DMB

Well, that's easy ... I have stock in Amazon! Not really.

I can't speak for Veli, but I've no idea where Feedbear's privacy goes, and I'm not convinced the suggestion itself goes anywhere. I admit, a bit negative.

But seriously .. top-notch authors in Logos should get prime billing in Logos HQ ... I'd assume. That's how I find them on Amazon ... Amazon tells me. Not me telling Amazon.

Now, the real reason is more practical ... the book's not for evangels (no offence intended).

Rosie Perera

Now, the real reason is more practical ... the book's not for evangels (no offence intended).

They have plenty of books for non-evangelicals. I suggest them all the time.

A whole bunch of books from HarperOne that I and others had suggested were recently released in Logos Ebook format, including this one, most definitely not evangelical approved. (HarperOne is an imprint of HarperCollins that specializes in spirituality, religion, personal growth, and social issues; their target audience is largely "spiritual but not religious" types.)

A bigger issue I think is that this book is from Princeton University Press, who are not a publisher Logos does a lot of business with, though they have published some of their stuff -- chiefly Kierkegaard's writings, and Ancient Near Eastern Texts (ANET).

top-notch authors in Logos should get prime billing in Logos HQ ... I'd assume. That's how I find them on Amazon ... Amazon tells me. Not me telling Amazon.

Agreed, but Logos wasn't doing very well at this for years, and they did accept requests and created the Feedback board for us to be able to post them.

But I do think Logos under the new CEO is committed to getting books out quicker than they had been doing in the past, so I've ramped up my suggestion volume.

I've added this one, because though I'd never buy it in print or Kindle, if it were available for Logos, I'd buy it. I like to build up my library for being able to do random searches and research now and then, not that I intend to read even a fraction of everything I buy all the way through.

VOTE HERE (if you care):

https://feedback.logos.com/boards/logos-book-requests/posts/who-really-wrote-the-bible-the-story-of-the-scribes

DMB

Thank you!

MJ. Smith

has found its way into countless apologetic works and misled millions.

I've been reading apologetic works recently and have found that the majority mislead the majority of their readers. I have been singularly unimpressed. Occasionally I'll run across one that at least tries to present reliable information.