The New Cambridge History of the Bible Volume 1, From the Beginnings to 600

1. The languages of the Old Testament
2. Varieties of Greek in the Septuagint and the New Testament
3. Writing and book production in the ancient Near East
4. Writing and book production in the Hellenistic and Roman periods
5. The Old Testament text and its transmission
6. The literary history of the Hebrew Bible
7. The Old Testament canons
8. The ‘apocryphal’ Old Testament
9. From inner-biblical interpretation to rabbinic exegesis
10. The Aramaic Targums
11. Scriptural interpretation at Qumran
12. The Septuagint
13. Biblical interpretation in Greek Jewish writings
14. Scripture in the Jerusalem temple
15. The political and legal uses of scripture
16. Modern editions of the Hebrew Bible
17. The New Testament canon
18. The New Testament text and versions
19. The ‘apocryphal’ New Testament
20. The Old Testament in the New Testament
21. The Latin Bible
22. The Syriac versions of the Bible
23. The translation of the Bible into Coptic
24. The interpretation of the Bible in the second century
25. Gnostic and Manichaean interpretation
26. Origen
27. Eusebius
28. Jerome
29. Augustine
30. Syriac exegesis
31. Figurative readings: their scope and justification
32. Traditions of exegesis
33. Pagans and the Bible
34. Exegetical genres in the patristic era
35. The Bible in doctrinal development and Christian councils
36. The Bible in liturgy
37. The Bible in popular and non-literary culture

Recent years have witnessed significant discoveries of texts and artefacts relevant to the study of the Old and New Testaments and remarkable shifts in scholarly methods of study. The present volume mirrors the increasing specialization of Old Testament studies, including the Hebrew and Greek Bibles, and reflects rich research activity that has unfolded over the last four decades in Pentateuch theory, Septuagint scholarship, Qumran studies and early Jewish exegesis of biblical texts. The second half of the volume discusses the period running from the New Testament to 600, including chapters on the Coptic, Syriac and Latin bibles, the 'Gnostic' use of the scriptures, pagan engagement with the Bible, the use of the Bible in Christian councils and in popular and non-literary culture. A fascinating in-depth account of the reception of the Bible in the earliest period of its history.