Why the Bible Began
An Alternative History of Scripture and its Origins

If you have a read an academic text on the Hebrew Bible, you have probably read about the what, or the who, or the where, or when, or how. What I had never read about was the why. WHY did the Jewish people write the Hebrew Bible the way it is? What was going on historically that led to not only the......more

This book does have moments of brilliance and chapters that do really get one to think. Two quick examples that come to mind are his chapter highlighting how the role and importance of women in the Bible is far beyond that of other contemporary literature, and his chapter highlighting the friendship......more

The Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) is one of the foundational sacred scriptures for three (3) [Abrahamic] religions. Each tradition takes a slightly different approach to interpreting what it actually says (exegesis), but few commentaries explore why each story is told the way it is told … perhaps bec......more

An impressive (although to my taste overly detailed and complex at times) reinterpretation of why the (Hebrew) bible was written the way it was over the last millennia BCE and how it came to be continuously transmitted to us since that time. Jacob Wright's overarching argument is that it was written......more

From the rubble of the Babylonian invasion and the fall of Jerusalem, the people of Israel created a remarkable and enduring work of literature unequaled in the ancient world. In "Why the Bible Began," the author argues that the Jewish Bible created a national identity from experiences of trauma and......more