Why the Bible Began

An Alternative History of Scripture and its Origins

Religion

About

Why did no other ancient society produce a text remotely like the Bible? That a tiny, out of the way community, could have produced a text so determinative for peoples across the globe seems improbable.For Jacob Wright, the Bible is not only a testimony of survival, but also an unparalleled achievement in human history. Forged during Babylonian exile after the shattering destruction of Jerusalem, it makes not victory but total humiliation the foundation of a new idea of belonging. Lamenting the destruction of their homeland, scribes who composed the Bible turned to the golden ages of the past, reflecting deeply on abject failure. More than just religious scripture, the Bible is a resonant blueprint for the inspiring creation of a nation. As a response to catastrophe, it offers a powerful, message of hope and restoration that is unique in the Ancient Near Eastern and Greco-Roman worlds.

Key Features

• Compellingly conveys why we are still reading the Bible – two millenia after it was written

• Interrogates why no other ancient society – Babylon, Assyria, and Rome – produced any comparable text

• Conveys a story of triumph over defeat and explains how the scribes who wrote the Bible inspired the creation of a nation

About the Author

Advance praise

‘In this profoundly insightful book Wright demonstrates how ancient Israel and Judah developed the resources to construct a resilient nationhood not in spite of but, paradoxically, because of the experience of military defeat, economic devastation, and diaspora. No other kingdom of the ancient Near East was able to do so. Today, as so many communities, peoples and nations face similar critical threats to their existence, Wright’s book provides a fascinating and incisively argued case study of how one people drew upon its cultural resources not simply to survive but to generate a vibrantly creative intellectual and spiritual tradition.’

Carol A. Newsom, C. H. Candler Professor Emerita of Old Testament/ Hebrew Bible, Emory University

Jacob L. Wright is Associate Professor of Hebrew Bible at the Candler School of Theology, Emory University. His first book, Rebuilding Identity: The Nehemiah Memoir and its Earliest Readers (de Gruyter, 2004), won the 2008 Templeton prize for a first book in the field of religion. He is also the author of David, King of Israel, and Caleb in Biblical Memory (Cambridge University Press, 2014), which won The Nancy Lapp Popular Book Award from the American Schools of Oriental Research, and most recently, War, Memory, and National Identity in the Hebrew Bible (Cambridge University Press, 2020).

9781009277365

Paperback

AUD $28.95 / NZD $31.95

Available July 2023

Raymond Noble, University College London

Denis Noble, University of Oxford

Key Features

• Corrects fundamental misunderstandings about the role of genes in living systems. Organisms use genes functionally and are not controlled by them

• Explains why the gene-centric view of evolution is a mistake

• Presents a new understanding of how living systems function and evolve creatively