The Story of the Bible

Discover the story of the world's most consistently best-selling book, which came into being through a remarkable and complicated process. In 24 stimulating lectures, Professor Johnson investigates the many forms the Bible has taken and the ways history, scholarship, and technology have helped shape this great tradition, as well as the Bible's powerful influence on human history and culture. The Bible has long served as a powerful force, both reflecting and shaping the cultures that have read and embraced it. Over the centuries, perceptions of the Bible have inspired men and women and shaped nations; they've sent nations to war and martyrs to their deaths. The struggle of translation has been a battleground for controlling the meaning of sacred text, a struggle that reached its peak during the Renaissance and the Enlightenment. From the early history of the New Testament, when Hebrew and Greek sources built a new story on the foundation of the ancient Jewish tradition, to the world-changing invention of the printing press, a revolutionary innovation that contributed to the Protestant Reformation, this enthralling story gives you a deep appreciation for the tremendous power of this astonishing book - one that has endured through centuries and touched the lives of countless millions.

All Lectures:
1. Telling the Story of a Book
2. Making TaNaK
3. Forms of Jewish Scripture
4. Birth of the Christian Bible
5. Formation of Jewish and Christian Canons
6. Writing and Copying Manuscripts
7. Imperial Sponsorship and the Bible
8. Texts and Translations - The Ancient East
9. Old Latin and the Vulgate
10. Other Ancient Versions
11. Monasteries and Manuscripts
12. Interpretation within Judaism
13. Interpretation in Medieval Christianity
14. The Renaissance, Printing, and the Bible
15. The Protestant Reformation and the Bible
16. Translating the Bible into Modern Languages
17. The First Efforts at Englishing the Bible
18. The King James Version
19. The Romance of Manuscripts
20. Searching for the Critical Text
21. The Historical-Critical Approach
22. The Bible in Contemporary Judaism
23. Contemporary Christians and Their Bibles
24. The Bible's Story Continues