The Voice, the Word, the Books: The Sacred Scripture of the Jews, Christians, and Muslims

by F.E. Peters

Jews, Christians, and Muslims all believe that their Scriptures preserve God's words to humanity, and that those words were spoken uniquely to them. In The Voice, the Word, the Books , F. E. Peters leads readers on an extraordinary journey through centuries of written tradition to uncover the human fingerprints on the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament, and the Quran, sacred texts that have enriched millions of lives.


Bringing the latest Biblical and Quranic scholarship to a general audience, Peters explains how these three powerfully influential books passed from God's mouth, so to speak, to become the Scriptures that we possess today. He reveals new insights into their origins, contents, canonization, and the important roles they have played in the lives of their communities. He explores how they evolved through time from oral to written texts, who composed them and who wrote them, as well as the theological commonalities and points of disagreement among their adherents. Writing in the comparative style for which he is renowned, Peters charts the transmission of faith from the spoken word to the printed page, from the revelations on Sinai and Mount Hira to Mamluk ateliers in Cairo and Gutenberg's press in Mainz.


Peters is an acknowledged expert who has written extensively on these three great world religions, each of them an inheritor of the faith of Abraham. Published in conjunction with an exhibit at the British Library, this illustrated book includes beautiful images of the rare editions on exhibit and constitutes Peters's most ambitious and illuminating examination yet of the sacred texts that so inform civilization both East and West.

Genres: Religion, Islam, History

328 pages, Hardcover

First published January 4, 2007

Reviews

[Jan Rice · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book stands as the first book of critical scholarship I ever read. I had seen some review and just ordered it. The Voice, The Word, The Books gets a lot right; it's a fine place to begin to get your head out of the box. While perhaps not so easily readable as Bart Ehrman, F. E. Peters in this book avoids some of Ehrman's pitfalls.

Looking for a reference I remembered from this book led me to reread half the book before I found it yesterday.

Recommended.

[Blair Hodges · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an unusual book that discusses the concept and creation of scripture in its Jewish, Muslim, and Christian iterations. It's unusual to me because the only voice in the book is F. E. Peters, aside from quotations from the scriptures being discussed.

In other words, there's a striking absence of reference to contemporary secondary scholarship. The author speaks authoritatively and confidently without any footnotes at all. The prose is complex but enjoyable, but I admit feeling like I still needed the supportive superstructure that other references would provide.

Even so, I enjoyed the discussions about different concepts of revelation, different views about the place of good and the human in the process, the relation between oral and written scripture, the advances in technology and scholarship which changed the way scripture was understood and interpreted, the problems of translation, the place of art and illustration, the role of scripture in private worship and public liturgy, and all sorts of other fascinating topics. If the narrative was hard to follow, the various scenes were informative enough.

[Melissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Somewhat slow, but very interesting book. Showed many similarities between the 3 most dominant religions in the western world. Brought up a lot of interesting topics and debates.

[Tracy Laverty · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting and informative, but thick.