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Synopsis
In MISQUOTING JESUS, religion professor Bart Ehrman presents, for the general reader, an account of what "the Bible" is and how it came to be. He sheds fascinating light on the process whereby "the book," both before and after Gutenberg, was assembled from many disparate sources, oral and written, and how it went through many imperfect renderings--with mistakes, changes, and omissions that are significant both in themselves and as they have influenced theology. He attributes these disparities to the contentious times of the Bible's origin as well as to the theological politics of the centuries that followed.
Ehrman recovers the language of the Bible's source letters and gospels and places them in the context of their day, providing a fascinating history of the early church and its subsequent development. In this one highly accessible volume, Ehrman shows what scores of theologians do with their time--arguing over and parsing texts--but he in no way diminishes the Bible. Indeed, his revelations do credit to its many-sourced inspirations and traditions., When Biblical scholar Ehrman first began to study the texts of the Bible in their original languages, he was startled to discover the multitude of mistakes and intentional alterations that had been made by earlier translators. For almost 1500 years these manuscripts were hand copied by scribes who were influenced by the cultural, theological and political disputes of their day. Both mistakes and intentional changes abound in the surviving manuscripts, making the original words difficult to reconstruct. Ehrman reveals where and why these changes were made and how scholars go about reconstructing the original words of the New Testament as closely as possible. He makes the provocative case that many of our cherished biblical stories and beliefs stem from both intentional and accidental alterations by scribes--alterations that dramatically affected subsequent versions.--From publisher description.
| Size | | Length: | 242 pages | | Height: | 0.2 in | | Width: | 0.2 in | | Thickness: | 0.8 in | | Weight: | 16.8 oz |
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