chuntzy
15th April 2008, 11:11 AM
I was interested in this investigation into the Bible as a text.
Starting with Genesis and the background to the birth of Christ, Robin Lane Fox sets out to discover how far biblical descriptions of people, places and events are confirmed or contradicted by external written and archaeological evidence.
I've previously read his book on classical Greece and Rome and it's his historian's eye that tempted me rather than a Dawkins' or Hitchens' type of polemic.
When and where were the original texts composed? Whether the texts as originally written exist? He deals with how the canon was assembled and how the Gospels give varying accounts even of the trial and condemnation of Jesus.
It's quite a detailed 500 page read as you'd expect but I found it very convincing in its conclusions.
Starting with Genesis and the background to the birth of Christ, Robin Lane Fox sets out to discover how far biblical descriptions of people, places and events are confirmed or contradicted by external written and archaeological evidence.
I've previously read his book on classical Greece and Rome and it's his historian's eye that tempted me rather than a Dawkins' or Hitchens' type of polemic.
When and where were the original texts composed? Whether the texts as originally written exist? He deals with how the canon was assembled and how the Gospels give varying accounts even of the trial and condemnation of Jesus.
It's quite a detailed 500 page read as you'd expect but I found it very convincing in its conclusions.