Writing in 1828, Lord Macaulay described the King James Bible as ‘a book which, if everything else in our language should perish, would alone suffice to show the whole extent of its beauty and power’, and for many people today, this 400-year-old translation remains the finest. Marking Collins’s 200th anniversary, this edition continues the company’s tradition of Bible publishing; it presents the complete Old and New Testaments, with a foreword by Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury. Bound in white covers with gold lettering.

In this detailed analysis of the Hebrew Scriptures’ most sensual text, Gillow Reynolds offers a fresh interpretation, reading the Song of Songs not as a symbolic expression of longing for God but as representing the human embodiment of divine love and wisdom.

The earliest surviving accounts of Jesus’ life date from several decades after his death, and their reliability has been questioned. Ehrman brings a fresh approach to the study of the Gospels, drawing on research, by anthropologists, sociologists and psychologists, which examines how memory is distorted and how stories change within oral traditions. He argues that the Gospels form ‘shared memories of the past’ that reveal how the early Christians’ beliefs about Jesus were shaped by the world in which they lived. Slightly off-mint and felt-tip mark on lower trimmed edge.

The New Testament is here rearranged so that each gospel is placed at the beginning of a group of closely related books, allowing the reader to have a more meaningful encounter with their different theological traditions. The New International Version’s text is used, but without the distraction of chapter numbers and headings. The book accompanies the four Lumo Project films of the gospels and includes photographs from them.

In 1859 Constantin Tischendorf brought to Europe the Codex Sinaiticus, the earliest known copy of the New Testament, previously kept at the remote Sinai monastery or St Catherine's. Gottschlich describes his own visit to Sinai, reflecting on his predecessor’s obsessions and the continuing controversy over the manuscript’s removal.

In this book accompanying his BBC radio series, the former director of the British Museum explores the role of shared beliefs in the life of human communities around the globe. Rather than focusing on religious doctrine, he concentrates on practices, objects and places, tracing how societies from the Ice Age onwards have used stories and rituals to mark their identity and strengthen cohesion: ‘for in deciding how we live with our gods we also decide how to live with each other’.

‘Christianity doesn’t abrogate the Old Testament; it completes it.’ Limbaugh presents a reading of the 39 books from Genesis to Malachi, arguing that they offer rich and plentiful insights to help us understand Jesus’ life, deeds and message. After an overview of Old Testament history and key themes such as prophecy, covenants and salvation, he unlocks each book’s mysteries through an analysis of the passages that herald the coming of the Saviour. (Previously published as The Emmaus Code.)

This introduction to Christianity’s foundational documents is also a guide to the main approaches that scholars have used in discussing them. Telford begins by describing the Jewish and Greco-Roman contexts of the early church. He then outlines the dating and classification of the New Testament’s 27 books before providing a closer analysis of the Synoptic Gospels and the sources of their traditions about Jesus.

The Bible is an anthology of diverse writings that were compiled, revised and rewritten between 800 BCE and 150 CE; standardized canons of Jewish and Christian holy books emerged several centuries later still. As he traces this long and complex development, Satlow challenges modern assumptions about the nature of biblical authority, asking how, when and why individuals and communities in antiquity regarded texts as authoritative and how a variety of attitudes evolved.

‘Religiously motivated violence must be fought religiously as well as militarily, and with passionate intensity.’ So writes the former Chief Rabbi in this powerful exploration of the roots of religious extremism. By analysing stories of sibling rivalry in the biblical texts shared by the Abrahamic faiths, he shows how centuries of misreadings have led to the ‘altruistic evil’ by which murder is seen as a moral act – an idea against which those of all faiths and none must stand together. Off-mint.

M David Litwa tells the stories of six self-deifiers in their historical, social and ideological contexts: the cosmic rebels Adam, Lucifer and Yaldaboath; and the heroes, Jesus (in John’s Gospel), Simon of Samaria and Allogenes (in Nag Hammadi library).

This lively but always scholarly book forms a tour of 14 ancient cities, from Nineveh and Babylon to Alexandria and Rome, which played a significant role in the ‘construction’ of the Bible. Blending archaeology, biblical history and accounts of his own travels in the Holy Land, the author identifies how some of the locations connect with Bible stories, and explains how others contributed to the long process of selection, translation and compilation behind the texts we know today. Felt-tip mark on lower trimmed edge.

As distant in time from the Pentateuch of Moses as Updike is from Shakespeare, these later books of the Old Testament are innovative and entertaining works of literature, in which women are often centre stage. The Song of Songs is a sensuous celebration of young love, Queen Esther’s shrewd triumph is a sly sexual comedy, while the story of Ruth celebrates loyalty, charity and love. Robert Alter’s award-winning translation from the Hebrew captures all their freshness and immediacy.

Why do the creation stories in Genesis contradict each other? Did the Exodus really happen? In a discussion which ‘neither requires, nor rejects, belief’, Loveday brings a literary critic’s eye to the Biblical authors. Presenting insights from modern scholarship, he shows how to read their texts ‘with our brains in gear’, by viewing the Bible as a structure of the imagination rather than through modern concepts of ‘history’ and ‘truth’.

These 15 essays on aspects of Latin exegesis up to the 9th century discuss topics ranging from the controversy over Methuselah’s death and the concept of inerrancy to the mysticism of number.

Including historical and prophetic texts as well as psalms and two wisdom books, the Jewish documents known collectively as the ‘Old Testament Apocrypha’ originated between the third century BCE and first century CE. In his succinct survey of their contents and structure, Kaiser explains the historical background to each text, traces the development of Jewish theological ideas and provides information on modern commentaries, articles and other scholarly works. (Previously published in German.)

This series introduces the texts that have helped shape Western civilization, every volume providing a detailed examination of the central ideas and arguments of a seminal text and discussion of its lasting significance.

Intended as first introductions for students new to a subject, each of these guidebooks gives an overview of the fundamental principles of a subject area in an accessible format and jargon-free language.

Intended as first introductions for students new to a subject, each of these guidebooks gives an overview of the fundamental principles of a subject area in an accessible format and jargon-free language.

In short essays, each of these volumes focuses on the 50 essential writers, movements, works or themes in disciplines ranging from ancient history to modern media studies.

With 1,450 articles written by scholars from the USA's National Association of Baptist Professors of Religion, but including a broad range of opinion and approach, this dictionary aims to provide the student with accurate, relevant and interesting information about the history, traditions and literature of the Bible. The well-illustrated A–Z includes outlines of each canonical book and articles on key people, places and terms, non-canonical books and Biblical scholarship.