How the Bible was Built

by Charles Merrill Smith

The Bible continues to be the world’s runaway best-seller. But very few people could say just how its seemingly disparate jumble of writings — stories, letters, poems, collections of laws, religious visions — got there. Filling this knowledge gap, How the Bible Was Built clearly tells the story of how the Bible came to be. Penned by Charles Merrill Smith in response to his teenage granddaughter’s questions, the manuscript was discovered after Smith’s death and has been reworked by his friend James Bennett for a wider audience. Free of theological or sectarian slant, this little volume provides a concise, factual overview of the Bible’s construction throughout history, outlining how its various books were written and collected and later canonized and translated. Written in an easy conversational style and enhanced by two helpful appendixes (of biblical terms and dates), How the Bible Was Built will give a more informed understanding of the Bible to people of virtually any reading level and any religious persuasion.

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Genres: Religion, History, Theology, Nonfiction, Christianity, Christian, Historical

97 pages, Paperback

First published September 29, 2005

About the author

United Methodist minister. Father of Terrence Lore Smith

American Charles Merrill Smith, a United Methodist minister, who used his own first hand experience of the church bureaucracy, as well as his own personal beliefs, to provide his entertaining crime stories with a really fascinating and convincing church background.

His first non-fiction book, How to Become a Bishop Without Being Religious (published in 1965), had revealed the humorous style (religious but never pious) that he was to develop further in his detection fiction. His irreverent humor won him many admirers among fellow clergy and others, and made the book a best-seller - even if it may not have appealed quite so much to his local bishop!

Reviews

[Philip · Rating 4 out of 5]

Slim but fascinating explanation of how 2000 years of scattered religious writings came together to create the Bible as we know it today. While other reviews (I'm sure rightly) describe it as "simple" and "basic," for an idiot like me it was generally revelatory - the fact that Paul's letters were actually written before the Gospels, or that as late as 1535, William Tyndale was executed - "strangled while tied to the stake, and then his body was burned" - in Belgium (of all places) for trying to translate the Old Testament into English (among other heresies - it's complicated).

Spelled out this way, it does (again, to my idiot brain) make the assumption of "divine inspiration" a bit dodgy - God would have had to be whispering in a lot of different ears over several millennia, to inspire all the original authors and subsequent organizers.

Smith does hammer his "like building a house" comparison a little hard, but by and large does pull it off. Again - fascinating information for anyone looking to understand the story behind The Story.

[Ryan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nice little review of the formation of the old and new testament. Written for people of all faiths, it's a very basic interpretation of when the books were written, which groups accepted them, and some disputed books. Definitely a good read for those not familiar with the Christian faith, but like Wikipedia, it's a good starting point, but you wouldn't want to stop with just this book.

[ForgetMeNot(Katie Cooley) · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 and a half stars ⭐️
This was a very fun and informative book. I had to take notes as I read it because it gives a lot of facts. It was really cool to read how God directed everything.

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very simple, high level look at how the Bible was put together using a house as the analogy. Not bad, but it was too simple for me.

An excellent introduction book for junior high students or younger though.

[Phil · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very quick read. Interesting. I might have liked a few more details regarding books that were left out of the bible, but this book really wasn't meant to be that comprehensive. I would highly recommend to Bible novices.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Really liked it" (rating 4) seems a little off here, as I plodded through the very detailed accounting of how the various versions of the Bible came to be -- but it was easy to read and still got it all in there!

[Reba · Rating 4 out of 5]

Succinct, well-written, I'm a fan. I even learned some stuff. Yay for me!

[Susie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice brief and basic history of the Bible. I wish some parts had been more in depth. I think this book world be really good for a young audience, based on the simple writing style.

[Joshua Heller · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very VERY simplified version of how the Catholic, Protestant, and current Hebrew Bible got to their current forms. Charles Smith jumps over much to make it simple enough for a child to understand (and he wrote this book for his granddaughter) so do not buy this thinking you get in-depth analysis and quotes from early fathers. Instead, expect a very broad overview that can be read to the least of these to get a glimpse of how we got where we are today.

[John Paul Arceno · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very readablez. Can be read in one seating. Balanced presentation and well-informed. However, not scholarly written which makes sense because of the target audience. Anyone can read it and understand it even without seminary background. Glossary is also helpful for beginners. I gave three stars because most the information are Google-able too.

[K.M. Sharrow · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an informative read if you want the dry facts about how the Bible was constructed over time. It is not based on any bias, just breaks down how the decisions were made on what books were considered holy scripture. It is a good read for Christians who want to know a little more about its construction or for anyone who just enjoys history in general.

[Christina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very short and to the point creation of the Bible. This is very factual with no slant towards any denomination. There are definitions and historical dates, but it also doesn't really go into the details of why certain books were chosen over others or the Apocrypha. A good intro book for anyone curious about the Bible.

[Eddie Bennett · Rating 2 out of 5]

It’s a very basic introduction. It should be required reading for Christian Sunday schools and Bible studies. The information is presented in a simple, somewhat unassuming way. This book was a Christians attempt at religious neutrality.

[Shay · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great introduction to the history of how the Christian Bible was formed. Considering it was intended for older kids and teenagers [or at least started out that way] it does what it intended to do.

[Julie Ohrberg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating history of how The Bible as we know it came together. Really interesting and quick read.

[Larry Koester · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting. But takes a more liberal liberal view than I do.

[Kelli · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating

[Jordan Gillette · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved how easy this book was to understand! It’s written to be a quick resource! I want to look up some of the facts from it, but I plan to suggest it to others.

[Viktoriaf · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lovely

[Jenni Heins · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's good and a very simple answer to his granddaughter's questions. But it left me with many more questions!! Argh!

[Emma Ogilvie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Straightforward, almost objective, and simple without being patronizing. Good reference point to guide further research and reading.

[Jo Gardner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting read. High-level review filled with good information.

[Katy Lovejoy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kind of hard to follow but that might have been because I'm tired

[Tim · Rating 1 out of 5]

There's a lot of inaccurate info in here. Liberal scholar nonsense, such as disregarding the gospels of being eyewitness testimonies.

[Speak to the Book · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought this book provided a decent overview of the process. It skillfully sidestepped several controversial issues about the canon and its scriptural basis in order to keep to a relatively unbiased version of events. Some areas that appeared especially strong were the discussions of the Samaritans, the early church and the Apocrypha, and the early church fathers' discussions about canonicity. I was fascinated with the books' assertion that recognizing that much of the Old Testament was written as poetry rather than prose was a relatively recent development undertaken by a poetry professor.

Overall, while some of the book was simplistic, and I usually wanted much more detail than this book provides, I felt that this was a great book to pique interest in the subject of the canon. It can interest people across the spectrum of beliefs in different ways - devout Christians for its theological implications and scholars of the humanities for its study of the development of a compilation of sources into a cohesive canon of religious texts.

[Roger Fernandez · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm reading this book & sharing what I read as I read it, there are to many theist who have become DUMBASSESS by believing everything you've read in the bible, also try to have some common sense when you read something, also understand that when you read something that was written thousands of years in the past, those ppl didn't have the advances we have today, ppl waseded to make up things, to make things greater than how they actually were. BOTTOM LINE God does not exist he,it however you want to refer to it as NEVER EXISTED, it was a myth carried on from previews religions that were made up too, depending on its cultures & beliefs. on page 41, I'll quote this paragraph, So in much the same way that Deuteronneomy was the foundation on which in the Old Testament was laid, the four Gospels became the first building blocks of the New Testament.

ALL christians should read this book, after reading it I'm sure you'll have new thoughts about your holy bible, not so holy

[Kathryn · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you are looking for a quick overview of how the bible was constructed, this is an amazing resource. All the bases of bible building are covered, in an easy to understand format. However, this book is very much the tip of the iceberg as far as information goes. It's not a tell all, but is good for giving general information to a friend, or for using to jog your memory on certain events. The only complaint I have is that sometimes the house building analogy used to explain the books can seem a bit jumpy. I found this especially true in the case of explaining apocalyptic literature. But overall I would definitely recommend this book to those looking to learn a little more about their bible.

[Kyle · Rating 1 out of 5]

The author set out to write a brief book on how we got the Bible, from a non-bias perspective, which doesn't work. To do so, means you have to leave on the Divine inspiration, which he did. Also, his views of the authors and the times some books were written, are liberal.
Not much new information, and coupled with the writer's presuppositions, doesn't add much by way of helpfulness.

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Easy to read , concise and thorough. Most books I've read on the subject are written from a decidedly Christian slant. This is the first one I have found that gives only the facts and tells actually where the books of the Bible came from and how they came to be included in the final product.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fairly breezy account of the history of the Christian bible in several of its forms, more of a publishing timeline than a deep look into particular reasons an inclusion/exclusion was made. Written (technically for the author's granddaughter but also) for the general reader, religious or secular, wondering how the current particular canon came to be considered Scripture.