Kindle
$9.99
Available instantly
Audible Logo Audiobook
$0.00
with membership trial
Hardcover
$15.94
Paperback
$11.65
Buy new:
-22% $11.65
FREE delivery Sunday, May 19 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35
Ships from: Amazon.com
Sold by: Amazon.com
$11.65 with 22 percent savings
List Price: $14.95

The List Price is the suggested retail price of a new product as provided by a manufacturer, supplier, or seller. Except for books, Amazon will display a List Price if the product was purchased by customers on Amazon or offered by other retailers at or above the List Price in at least the past 90 days. List prices may not necessarily reflect the product's prevailing market price.
Learn more
Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime FREE Returns
FREE delivery Sunday, May 19 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35
Or fastest delivery Wednesday, May 15. Order within 18 hrs 3 mins
In Stock
$$11.65 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
$$11.65
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Shipping cost, delivery date, and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Ships from
Amazon.com
Ships from
Amazon.com
Sold by
Amazon.com
Sold by
Amazon.com
Returns
30-day easy returns
30-day easy returns
This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt.
Read full return policy
Returns
30-day easy returns
This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt.
Read full return policy
Payment
Secure transaction
Your transaction is secure
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
Payment
Secure transaction
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
$8.00
Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime FREE Returns
FREE delivery Sunday, May 19 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35
Or fastest delivery Wednesday, May 15. Order within 18 hrs 3 mins
Only 1 left in stock - order soon.
$$11.65 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
$$11.65
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Shipping cost, delivery date, and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.
Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Follow the author

Karen Armstrong
+ Follow
More books from this author
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.

The Bible: A Biography (Books That Changed the World) Paperback – November 1, 2008

by Karen Armstrong (Author)
4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 775 ratings
See all formats and editions
Great on Kindle
Great Experience. Great Value.
iphone with kindle app
Putting our best book forward
Each Great on Kindle book offers a great reading experience, at a better value than print to keep your wallet happy.

Explore your book, then jump right back to where you left off with Page Flip.

View high quality images that let you zoom in to take a closer look.

Enjoy features only possible in digital – start reading right away, carry your library with you, adjust the font, create shareable notes and highlights, and more.

Discover additional details about the events, people, and places in your book, with Wikipedia integration.
Get the free Kindle app: Link to the kindle app page Link to the kindle app page
Enjoy a great reading experience when you buy the Kindle edition of this book. Learn more about Great on Kindle, available in select categories.
View Kindle Edition
{"desktop_buybox_group_1":[{"displayPrice":"$11.65","priceAmount":11.65,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"11","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"65","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"c%2Bv8T%2BMynFyMJe7qTyQkWAXWTFEs9f0HFZsdqm0wflTh9juyNy4GyyexTavOGyBTnriOtMGn6MJOZ6Gon%2FPP%2BtEzBWrbd5vb5zbWMeTdYrSLuH3%2Fb7Unu6MIadK2Yk4W%2F2iKlhOEncw%3D","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"NEW","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":0}, {"displayPrice":"$8.00","priceAmount":8.00,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"8","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"00","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"c%2Bv8T%2BMynFyMJe7qTyQkWAXWTFEs9f0HBAqWEf38NUgFW0ylfbD36jplSKqgPBclcN0bDQIN570bW5NMcffzzD8lcvpAeZjIawuY%2FxpAxZMgeyhpvT4K3TbRgvLr0hdL42bCAJicPjOO%2BzGbq%2FgoFWHNh%2ByeUzTXcRWCbPLxC4Pz2Xbpo5V5l1kMzsu8YpKy","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"USED","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":1}]}

Purchase options and add-ons

As the single work at the heart of Christianity, the world’s largest organized religion, the Bible is the spiritual guide for one out of every three people in the world. It is also the world’s most widely distributed book and its best-selling, with an estimated six billion copies sold in the last two hundred years. But the Bible is a complex work with a complicated and obscure history. Its contents have changed over the centuries, it has been transformed by translation and, through interpretation, has developed manifold meanings to various religions, denominations, and sects.

In this seminal account, acclaimed historian Karen Armstrong discusses the conception, gestation, life, and afterlife of history’s most powerful book. Armstrong analyzes the social and political situation in which oral history turned into written scripture, how this all-pervasive scripture was collected into one work, and how it became accepted as Christianity’s sacred text, and how its interpretation changed over time. Armstrong’s history of the Bible is a brilliant, captivating book, crucial in an age of declining faith and rising fundamentalism.
Read more Read less
Previous page
  1. Part of series
    Books That Changed the World
  2. Print length
    176 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Publisher
    Grove Press
  5. Publication date
    November 1, 2008
  6. Dimensions
    5 x 1 x 7.75 inches
  7. ISBN-10
    0802143849
  8. ISBN-13
    978-0802143846
  9. See all details
Next page
The Amazon Book Review
The Amazon Book Review
Book recommendations, author interviews, editors' picks, and more. Read it now.

Frequently bought together

The Bible: A Biography (Books That Changed the World)
$11.65
Get it as soon as Sunday, May 19
In Stock
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
+
A History of God: The 4,000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity and Islam
$12.99
Get it as soon as Sunday, May 19
In Stock
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
+
The Great Transformation: The Beginning of Our Religious Traditions
$16.77
Get it as soon as Sunday, May 19
In Stock
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
Total price:
To see our price, add these items to your cart.
Details
Added to Cart
Choose items to buy together.

Editorial Reviews

Review


“A fascinating investigation.” —Christian Advance

“For the Books That Changed the World series . . . Armstrong accepted the arguably most daunting assignment. What other book has as long a history of influence as the Bible, or has affected more people and societies? [Armstrong] is, of course, up to the task and provides an excellent précis of the writing and compiling of the Bible and the ensuing centuries of biblical interpretation. . . . This is one terrific little book.” —Booklist

“Dispels any notion of religion as a rigidly fixed reading of sacred texts. Spanning millennia, from the scripture's origins in oral stories to the conflicting beliefs, ancient and modern, over its message, her book will discomfort fundamentalists who believe that the Bible means what it says and says what it means.” —Rich Barlow, The Boston Globe

“One of the merits of Armstrong’s book is that it points to the modern origin of literalist interpretations of Scripture, and then revisits the preceding centuries of Biblical scholarship to bring its considerable diversity to the notice of modern readers.” —Edward Norman, Literary Review

“Vintage Armstrong: sweeping, bold, incisive, and insightful. In eight chapters it covers the history of the writing, canonizing, and reading of the Bible… Her choice of topics is impeccable … and her brief, 23-page discussion on the rise of the Talmud is masterful.” —P.L. Redditt, Choice

“A handy, erudite primer on the Holy Books.” —The Jerusalem Report

“A whirlwind tour through biblical studies. . . Armstrong’s analysis of the freedom previous generations (however far removed) felt with adapting, editing, redacting and re-writing the texts to suit contemporary purposes will undoubtedly remind savvy readers of all the current uses to which these same texts are being put.” —Kel Munger, Sacramento News & Review

“[Armstrong] shows how the highly disparate writings that now compose the Jewish and Christian scriptures came together and examines the very different methods of interpretation used over the centuries. Her book's great strength is the way she unfolds the Jewish and Christian histories of formation and interpretation in parallel with one another.” —Richard Harries, The Guardian“A learned but accessible history of the Bible's origins and genesis. Armstrong goes behind the authorized versions preached by the churches to recreate the order – and the political and social circumstances – in which the books of the Old and New testaments were first written down, amended, and then endlessly reinterpreted and recast…. Armstrong's great achievement, however, is that, as well as leaving you with a clearer, more historically accurate picture as to what precisely the Bible is (and isn't), she also makes you want to go back and read it again with fresh eyes.” —Peter Stanford, The Independent (UK)

"[Armstrong] has never written on such a broad scale, or with as much passion . . . [her] concern that religion should no longer be used to promote violence animates her measured, lucid prose and vivifies her summar of the development of the Bible and its interpretation.”
—Bruce Chilton, New York Sun

“Karen Armstrong preaches the gospel truth in The Bible, explaining how the spiritual guide for one out of three people on the planet came into being and evolved over the centuries”
—Elissa Schappell, Vanity Fair

“[A] richly interwoven and often surprising history.” —Michael Alec Rose, Bookpage

“While there are countless guides to reading the Bible, noted academic Karen Armstrong looks at the history of the book with a keen historian’s eye. … Armstrong condenses into a manageable volume the many ideas and traditions that influenced the creation of the Good Book.” —Kirkus Reviews

“This is one terrific little book.” —Booklist

“[A] spending series." —Bill Ward, Minneapolis Star-Tribune

“[Armstrong] does an exceptional job of balancing and interweaving Jewish and Christian approaches to scripture.” —Kirkus Reviews

“Of all the ‘Books that Changed the World’ surely the Bible is among the most important. And of all contemporary popularizes of religious history, surely Armstrong is among the bestselling. Who better, then, to recount the history of the Bible in eight short chapters than this former nun and literature professor who relishes huge topics and panoramic descriptions? Armstrong not only describes how, when and by whom the Bible was written, she also examines some 2,000 years of biblical interpretation.” —Publishers Weekly

“Armstrong judiciously summarizes centuries of history and writes with remarkable insight.”
—Christian Science Sentinel

"Armstrong is at her best when explaining how today’s focus on the Bible as a literal, static text runs counter to a longstanding interpretative tradition that viewed study of the good book as ‘an activity for attaining transcendence.’” —Andrea McQuillin, Shambhala Sun

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Grove Press; Reprint edition (November 1, 2008)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 176 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0802143849
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0802143846
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 8.6 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5 x 1 x 7.75 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 775 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Karen Armstrong

Karen Armstrong

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Karen Armstrong is the author of numerous other books on religious affairs-including A History of God, The Battle for God, Holy War, Islam, Buddha, and The Great Transformation-and two memoirs, Through the Narrow Gate and The Spiral Staircase. Her work has been translated into forty-five languages. She has addressed members of the U.S. Congress on three occasions; lectured to policy makers at the U.S. State Department; participated in the World Economic Forum in New York, Jordan, and Davos; addressed the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington and New York; is increasingly invited to speak in Muslim countries; and is now an ambassador for the UN Alliance of Civilizations. In February 2008 she was awarded the TED Prize and is currently working with TED on a major international project to launch and propagate a Charter for Compassion, created online by the general public and crafted by leading thinkers in Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism, to be signed in the fall of 2009 by a thousand religious and secular leaders. She lives in London.

Customer reviews

4.2 out of 5 stars
4.2 out of 5
775 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Glenn Sianipar
5.0 out of 5 stars Opening eyes
Reviewed in the United States on December 16, 2023
Verified Purchase
This is help me to understand Bible better. This book is anguidance to study Bible well.This good for all Christians.
Helpful
 Report
Me
4.0 out of 5 stars Nice historical perspective on Bible interpretation
Reviewed in the United States on February 26, 2024
Verified Purchase
Interesting history of the Bible and its interpretation. In the end the author summarizes everything in the succinct statement of “treating others as you would like to be treated “
Helpful
 Report
J. C. Kuehne
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Short Course in Bible History
Reviewed in the United States on March 15, 2014
Verified Purchase
This is an excellent, concise yet very thorough summary of how and when the various parts of the Bible were written and put together to arrive at what we have today. The Bible is not a single book, nor does it present a single overarching concept of God handed down from on high. By looking at the chronology and cultural influences of the various writings put together by different authors, based on the best scholarship available, we can get an understanding of how the concept of God in the Jewish people evolved from a tribal deity to universal God over more than a thousand year period of time, and also how the understanding of Jesus among his followers evolved during the decades following his death. Karen Armstrong is about the best at combining the best scholarship available with a very readable and understandable style. Recommended for anyone serious about going beyond the dogma of religious fundamentalism in understanding the Bible, which has had so much influence on the history of Western civilization that it should be required reading for an educated person.
2 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Amazon Customer
3.0 out of 5 stars Boaring book to read
Reviewed in the United States on March 21, 2024
Verified Purchase
I purchased this book to read as part of my church book club review. It took everything I could muster to read every chapter. Now down to last chapter, thank goodness, so unless something changes, I'll be glad its done. Retrospectively, as I look back at book/author's writing, if one takes one time global review of the essence, it's how the Bible developed and changed over the centuries, but it is awfully dry reading. Good book to put you to sleep.
Helpful
 Report
Rev. Sandra Rogers
5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant and extremely helpful
Reviewed in the United States on January 9, 2017
Verified Purchase
I have always loved Karen Armstrong's writing, and I thought I had all her books, both hard copy and Kindle versions. I was surprised I did not have this one when I saw a copy on a friend's table. So, of course, I came to Amazon.

I am SO grateful I discovered this one. It was very helpful to me in sorting out issues related to our Progressive Christian study group. As an interfaith minister, I am excited about her suggestion in the epilogue for finding a common exegete. The rest of the book I highlighted way too much, so as I go back to study, I'll reduce to major highlights.

If you're curious about how to take the Bible and wonder what the options are, I recommend this book. It would make an excellent text for a class for ordinary people who find the academic approach to the subject way too daunting.
34 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Fezziwig
4.0 out of 5 stars A Story of the People Who Shaped and Were Shaped By the Bible
Reviewed in the United States on March 16, 2015
Verified Purchase
As its subtitle implies, this book tells the story behind the creation of the various books that are assembled together as the Bible. This is a long history. The “biography” begins with the ancient tribes called Judah and Israel about 1000 BCE. It was not until the second century CE, that Jews settled on a canon of writings that now makes up the TaNaKh, or what Christians, somewhat derisively, call the Old Testament. Armstrong tells us, “By the middle of the second century, nearly all the twenty-seven books of the New Testament had been completed.” (p. 65) But the canon was not firmly fixed until the fourth century. Those who pick up Armstrong’s book expecting a history of the Bible may be disappointed. Rather than a history of the Bible’s development, it is more a story of the peoples whose lives were shaped by this sacred scripture and who in turn shaped it.

Throughout this book, Armstrong uses quite a number of arcane terms, mostly Hebrew (midrash, mishnah, shekhinah, pesher), some Latin (ex nihilo), and some Greek (exegesis). The repetition of these terms had this lay reader repeatedly flipping back to the glossary until the terms could be drilled into my memory. So, the book is not an easy read.

In spite of the challenges, I was glad that I stuck with it. It was enlightening to learn that “The fundamentalist emphasis on the literal reflects the modern ethos but is a breach with tradition, which usually preferred some kind of figurative or innovative interpretation.” (pp. 222-3) I wish she had just said that fundamentalism and its literalism is a dead end. What kind of thinking person can accept as fact the story of Noah and the flood? Or the one about Jonah being swallowed by a whale---sorry, I mean a big fish?
12 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
JohnDoe
5.0 out of 5 stars Auyhor does MAGNIFICENT JOB
Reviewed in the United States on December 13, 2020
Verified Purchase
Of accurately, yet concisely tracing the West journey over past several thousand years, AS WE GROPE, endlessly, fitfully, STILL blindly, like 3 blind men and the elephant, into RELIGION. AFTER many years of study, in shadows of erudite semanarians, for whom I continue to have intellectual respect, this book BECAUSE of its brevity provides veritable path through the TOTALLY inadequate explanations e seek for biologically based horrors, which result from a defective genetic code which has provided for a defective brain.

Unfortuneately, on WE can examine this defective organ. An oversimplification, i know: Religion represents the expression of the very worst expressions of our inherently violence prone amygdalas; a CONGLOMRATION of ideas around which we commit atrocities, one upon the other, about things OF WHICH WE CANNOT BE SURE.
Most succinctly in Rogers and Hammerstein's THD KING and I : I wish I could be more certain of the the things of which I cannot be sure!
8 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report

Top reviews from other countries

Tham Chee Wah
5.0 out of 5 stars Unbiased research
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 4, 2020
Verified Purchase
This is a very difficult book to read. For me, I’ve decided to read it two pages at a time, some days another two pages, depends on the intensity of the content.

I pulled through, nevertheless, after three months. But it is a thin book, about 10% of the last few pages dedicated to bibliography and appendixes. The research is thorough, making this book the authority on the subject the author expounds.

I begin to see the disparities in the thoughts the most read book in the world wish to present. Although it has changed in its context due to men’s egoistic meddling over the past centuries, it is now up to the present men to decide what they want to take home.

I’m still wondering, why aren’t women have a say in the text? No where in this book mentioned that women were involved in the discussion.

Now I wonder - why didn’t the men seek advice from the women? Perhaps we could have a more just and feminine aspect of the thoughts... then there will be balance.
6 people found this helpful
 Report
Pete Muileboom
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in Canada on September 28, 2015
Verified Purchase
a must read if you want to understand how the bible was written and changed over 1500 years
2 people found this helpful
 Report
Mick
4.0 out of 5 stars excellent description of the development of the Bible
Reviewed in Australia on January 3, 2015
Verified Purchase
Authoritative, well researched and insightful. The introduction and epilogue alone are worth the price of the book reminding us of the need to be charitable instead of fundamentalist.
Report
Rowland Nelken
4.0 out of 5 stars An unconvincing apologist
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 1, 2009
Verified Purchase
For many years I was a fan of Karen Armstrong. She appeared to have an understanding of the mindset of the religious fundamentalist,as well as a nature essentially humane. What is more she writes beautifully. Style is not lacking here; I read this book eagerly and quickly.

The book, however, lacks authority. She falls into the common trap of trying to convince herself, and thus her readers, that textual literalism or 'fundamentalism' is a recent phenomenon. 'The ancients' whoever they might have been, she asserts, had a much more subtle appreciation of myth and metaphor than, say, the Jehovah's Witnesses, one of many malign fundamentalist cults, whose cruel doctrines overshadowed my childhood.

She is mistaken. Christian fundamentalism arose in early 20th century America in response to scepticism, not least amongst Christians, about the historical veracity of the six day creation, the Virgin Birth and all the myriad fantasies which make up the Old and New Testaments. Prior to the late 18th century the Bible as history needed no defenders. It was all but universally accepted throughout Christendom. Has Karen Armstrong never read Josephus? The Creation and Flood are as real to him as the Herods and Caesars of his own day.

She declares that Isaac Newton ignored the Bible. The greater part of Newton's work was Biblical exegesis. He believed the Book implicitly. As an eloquent Biblical apologist, Karen Armstrong is fine. I fear she may have been beguiled by the charm of most Jews and Christians that she has met on a personal level. She is unwilling to confront the difficult truth that many of the evils perpetrated by those who claim to live by the Bible cannot be blamed on its misinterpretation. The fault lies in its absurdly exalted status.
6 people found this helpful
 Report
simon
5.0 out of 5 stars This a fantastic book.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 22, 2019
Verified Purchase
This is the book to read before you read her book on St.Paul. It reminded me of so much I had forgotten from my A level days about source document theory and she very much took my own insights forward in this respect. I love the fact that she is so liberal, focused and well balanced in her approach to these topics and she is the same when she writes about other religions, for example: Buddhism and Islam. Highly recommended to all thinking religious people. She is a national treasure both for her insistence on compassion in the world and her brilliant work on comparative religion. What a tremendous gift for communicating difficult theologically insights she possesses.
6 people found this helpful
 Report