The Book: A History of the Bible

by Christopher de Hamel

Presents a history of the Bible, covering such topics as Hebrew, Greek, and Latin texts, the Vulgate, Bibles of the Middle Ages, the Gutenberg Bible, and the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Genres: History, Religion, Nonfiction, Books About Books, Christianity, Christian, Reference

352 pages, Hardcover

First published September 25, 2001

About the author

Dr Christopher de Hamel is a Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, and is Fellow Librarian of the Parker Library, one of the most important small collections of early manuscripts in Britain. For 25 years from 1975 he was responsible for all sales of medieval manuscripts at Sotheby’s. He has doctorates from Oxford and Cambridge and honorary doctorates from St John’s University, Collegeville, Minnesota, and Otago University, New Zealand. He is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and a member of the Comité international de paléographie. He is author of numerous books on illuminated manuscripts and book collecting, including Glossed Books of the Bible (1984), The Book, A History of the Bible (2001), and Bibles, An Illustrated History from Papyrus to Print (2011). He was recipient of a festschrift in 2010, The Medieval Book, Glosses from Friends and Colleagues of Christopher de Hamel (ed. J. H. Marrow, R. A. Linenthal and W. Noel)

Reviews

[Stephanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

The author approaches complicated information in a clear, easy to follow way. His writing is simple, not sensational, and still endlessly intriguing. I felt invited into a scholarly world, approached on my humble level yet never talked down to. Christopher de Hamel is a gifted writer and guide.

[Aaron · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent historical narrative on the Bible. From Codex Sinaitacus to the Vicotrian Age--this is the best book to know about The Book.

[Kathryn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a splendidly large book that gives the history of The Bible, which the author allows is a very emotionally charged subject, as very few people have neutral views of it. The author does a very good job of explaining the changes that have happened to the Bible over the centuries, and I am very happy to have read this book and to have my own copy on my shelves.

After an Introduction, the book begins with Latin Bibles from Jerome to Charlemagne, and continues with various Bibles (or what we now know as Bibles) from that point, through history, to the present time; the last chapter deals with the search for ancient Bibles, which brings us back to Saint Jerome again. Throughout the book are full-color plates illustrating pages of manuscripts (which are especially stunning when considering medieval bibles), and copious illustrations of people and places mentioned in the text.

This is almost a coffee-table book, though not quite large enough; the author is very thorough on all aspects of Bible history, including the changes wrought by the invention of the printing press and the effects of the Protestant Reformation on Bibles. There is also a chapter on Missionary Bibles; the Catholics would send priests to perform liturgy and conduct instruction to pagan lands, while the Protestants sent missionaries with bibles, on the very Protestant view that anyone reading the Bible (especially in one’s native tongue) would automatically see the light of Protestant Christianity.

I am very glad that I purchased this book at some past point (a sticker on the front of my copy says “Half Price Books $9.98″) because it is a marvelous resource on the formation of The Bible as we know it today, whether we may be Jewish, Catholic, or Protestant.

[Colleen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is beautifully illustrated and full of informative details about the Bible as a book - a literary text - rather than as a religious artefact. Easy to read, down to earth, not esoteric.

[Paul Gibson · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Book: A History of the Bible, by Christopher de Hamel, was well written, informative and worthy of a 5-star review. I've read about a dozen books on the history of the Bible (my focus is on early English Bibles), and this book filled in details I hadn't read elsewhere. The Book contains many photographs of manuscripts, and the writing style was easy to follow and engaging. I tend to judge books based on how many notes I take, and I took enough that it was worth my time.

I had expected much of the information to overlap with other books I've read, so I was pleasantly surprised to find there was a lot of information that was new to me. I particularly enjoyed reading about different manuscripts and seeing pictures of these amazing works of art. I was reminded of the book "The Bible Illuminated: How Art Brought the Bible to an Illiterate World" by Karen York, but this book goes into more detail about the history of Bible transmission and translations, not just focusing on Illuminated manuscripts.

I felt the writing style was easier for me to follow than David Daniell's "The Bible in English: It's History and Influence" (which I can also recommend). The style reminded me of two books by Donald Brake: "A Visual History of the English Bible: The Tumultuous Tale of the World's Best-selling Book" and "A Visual History of the King James Bible: Dramatic Story of the World's Best-Known Translation" (both recommended). The Book is a nice middle ground for someone who wants to go more in depth than the two books by Brake, but isn't ready to commit the time to read Daniell's book.

I have just a few quibbles. 1) Because The Book has a large quantity of pictures, the whole book is printed on semi-gloss paper, and light reflecting off the pages caused eyestrain. I was often only able to read 10-15 pages before taking a break. 2) The bibliography is in prose format with comments, rather than a simple list of resources. I often scan through bibliographies looking for other books I might be interested in, but I skipped it this time. 3) The book is a paperback with dust jacket (I believe it's a first edition, but I'm not sure). It's rather hefty at about 350 pages of semi-gloss paper. I was a bit afraid I'd rip the cover while reading it; fortunately I didn't. This book really deserves to be a hardcover.

[Steve Eagle · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great book, but sometimes a bit dry. It’s one of the books one reads portions of, then sets aside for a short period.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic and well-informed history of the Bible. The wonderful pictures make it a truly superb coffee table book for any house. Definitely recommend.

[Ginger Heskett]

I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/14340365

[Todd Stockslager · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finally, after reading several non-fiction books of great interest but lesser quality writing, a good match of both subject and quality.

The Bible as a book is the subject of this history, which is not explicitly (or explicitly is not) a religious or spiritual work, and the author announces his intention not to declare his personal spiritual intentions.

However, by the end of the book, when he has examined recent archaeological manuscript discoveries that historically place the original of the some books of the New Testament back to 100-125 BC, he is certainly secure that these are real books written at the time they claimed.

Further, he concludes that the Bible as translated and transcribed through the many centuries for many reasons, is remarkably accurate to the originals, which of course we know to be due to the hand of God over His perfect Word.

It is also just plain fun and interesting to see how the Bible came together as a book, not just a collection of disparate writings. Probably the most fascinating "Bible" is a picture Bible that just told the Bible events with pictures (no captions). Apparently the value of a picture of the time (I believe 1100-1200 time frame) was devalued from a thousand words, because captions in Latin were added after the book was written and bound.

Then, the book was taken to Asia on a missionary/discovery expedition, where it was used to witness to Kubla Khan, who was so intrigued by it that he had his scribes write captions below and around the Latin captions based on the explanations of the pictures by the missionaries. And there's more! The book was brought back, and sent on another trip to the Middle East, where it was annotated there in Arabic, around the Chinese and Latin!

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Full of beautiful pictures of other beautiful books, this book tells a thorough history of the development of what we know of as the Bible. I learned a ton -- about the invention of printing, about the Protestant Reformation, about the ways the Bible was used, particularly in western Europe -- and appreciated De Hamel's clear prose and excellent research.

[Alexandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

1. No mention of nunneries and only one female patron so far, 1/3 though.
2. Uncomfortable with assertion of how v early medieval Christians used texts without much evidence given.
3. He can't really seem to work out whether he is or is not talking about the texts and what they say, or focussing exclusively on the material culture. If both, he shouldn't have denied the former early on.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just ran out of time to finish before having to return it to the library... very interesting book on the history of the Bible AS a book.

[Cat. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really checked this out for the photos, which are beautiful. I only read a chapter, maybe two. Too complicated and dry for me right now.

[Mary Warnement · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating. I read for a class but enjoyed it as well.

[Sarah]

Interesting content, but it was a little too dense for me to get through. There is so much information that just went over my head.