Topics index¶

These pages are intended to cover topics about the Bible: who wrote it and why, the history of its times, and how it has been used and understood from ancient times to the present day.

From this perspective, we stand outside the Bible, assessing it using the tools and methods mainly of the historian. This is in contrast to the Reading Guide, where we enter into the biblical world by reading the stories directly.

To begin with you may wish to look at the Basic pages, which explain some essential background and terminology you will encounter in commentary and debate about the Bible. There are two available now, the Jargon Buster and an overview of All the Bibles.

Jargon Buster¶

The Jargon Buster demystifies terms like these:

• The Canon
• Chapter and verse

All the Bibles¶

The canonical Bible itself is only a selection from the large library of different kinds of literature which were composed at around the same time. In this article, we take a brief overview of the books in and around the Bible, from the various canons and additional books, through to apocalyptic visions, heretical gospels and mystical gnostic tracts.

If you want to dig deeper¶

In the Go Deeper articles we take the basic grounding for granted and look more keenly at some of the major debates around establishing the Biblical text, at the complications of its role as a historical source. In a forthcoming section, we will find out more about the interpretations which all of these texts have attracted over the last twenty-something centuries.