Bible Lit Crit?

[Inquisitive Raven]

Hi, I'm contemplating reading, and blogging about the Bible. This is not going to be like Slate's effort where the blogger read one specific translation and talked about what he read with no outside references. I want to go over at two translations, one Catholic and one Protestant, but I also want some references to the Bible as literature.

I know that I can probably find some useful titles from Prometheus Books, but I was interested in other references, and perhaps some specific books from Prometheus, so I don't have to go through their entire biblical section. Can anyone help me?

 

[Greediguts]

I'd recommend picking up an the New Oxford Annotated Bible. Many scholars of different religions contribute to the commentary and interpretation of the texts.

Randel Helms has written some good books. Bart Ehrman wrote Misquoting Jesus and Lost Christianities. His books cover how errors were made, how the bible was put together, why some books were not included, etc.

I just started reading Raymond Brown's books on the Gospel of John. Good stuff.

It was this thread here, that got me started on reading the bible. Please check it out. We could use more contributors. The first few pages are people arguing with Radrook, then it starts to actually deal with the Bible, the different authors, different interpretations, etc.

 

[gnome]

I recommend checking out this thread over at Skeptical Community...

http://www.skepticalcommunity.com/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=14908

A treasure trove of information and reading suggestions.

 

[kedo1981]

Great link
I’d never heard of the “Deuteronomy” translation before
But it leads me to contemplate the amount of time and human effort wasted on trying to explain supernatural nonsensical bs.

 

[gnome]

Or to explain away changes in how God has been perceived and presented since it was originally put down...

 

[tomwaits]

Bart Ehrman is a great source. I believe Richard Friedman also has a book that highlights the different sources of each part of the Torah.