Understanding the Bible as a Scripture in History, Culture, and Religion

The Bible is a popular subject of study and research, yet biblical studies gives little attention to the reason for its popularity: its religious role as a scripture. Understanding the Bible as a Scripture in History, Culture, and Religion integrates the history of the religious interpretation and ritual uses of biblical books into a survey of their rhetoric, composition, and theology in their ancient contexts. Emphasizing insights from comparative studies of different religious scriptures, it combines discussion of the Bible’s origins with its cultural history into a coherent understanding of its past and present function as a scripture.

A prominent expert on biblical rhetoric and the ritualization of books, James W. Watts describes how Jews and Christians ritualize the Bible by interpreting it, by expressing it in recitations, music, art, and film, and by venerating the physical scroll and book. The first two sections of the book are organized around the Torah and the Gospels—which have been the focus of Jewish and Christian ritualization of scriptures from ancient to modern times—and treat the history of other biblical books in relation to these two central blocks of the Hebrew Bible and New Testament. In addition to analyzing the semantic contents of all the Bible’s books as persuasive rhetoric, Watts describes their ritualization in the iconic and expressive dimensions in the centuries since they began to function as a scripture, as well as in their origins in ancient Judaism and Christianity. The third section on the cultural history and scriptural function of modern bibles concludes by discussing their influence today and the controversies they have fueled about history, science, race, and gender.

Innovative and insightful, Understanding the Bible as a Scripture in History, Culture, and Religion is a groundbreaking introduction to the study of the Bible as a scripture, and an ideal textbook for courses in biblical studies and comparative scripture studies.

Preface 7

Chapter 1: Scripture and Ritual 10

The Three Dimensions of Written Texts 13

Ritualizing Scriptures in Three Dimensions 15

Jewish and Christian Scriptures 18

Manuscripts and Printing 21

Section 1: The Torah as a Scripture 24

Chapter 2: Torah and Pentateuch 25

The Pentateuch in Three Dimensions 26

Scripturalizing Torah in the Time of Ezra 29

Chapter 3: The Torah’s Rhetoric 34

The Torah’s Rhetoric of Origins 35

Authority, Sanctions, Readers 48

The Rhetoric of the Deuteronomistic History 62

Chapter 4: The Torah’s Iconic Dimension 70

The Pentateuch’s Iconic Dimension After Ezra 72

The Pentateuch’s Iconic Dimension Before Ezra 92

Ancient Lost-and-Found Books 100

Chapter 5: The Torah’s Expressive Dimension 105

Reading Torah after Ezra 109

Songs and Poetry in the Hebrew Bible 123

Expressing the Covenant: the Prophets 128

Expressing Torah Before Ezra 130

Chapter 6: The Torah’s Semantic Dimension 138

Interpreting Life: Wisdom Literature 138

The Tanak as a Scripture 141

Promises, Threats, and Apocalyptic 146

Scripturalizing Prophets, Psalms and Wisdom 153

Interpreting Scripture: Scribes and Rabbis 160

Identifying with Israel 171

The Pentateuch Before Ezra 180

Section 2: The Gospels as a Scripture 192

Chapter 7: Rhetoric about Jesus 192

Jesus in the Gospels

Paul and his Letters

Chapter 8: The Rhetoric of the Gospels

The Gospel According to Mark

The Gospel According to Matthew

The Gospel According to Luke

The Gospel According to John

Chapter 9: The Gospels’ Iconic Dimension

Irenaeus and the Four Gospels

Iconic Gospels and Bibles

Chapter 10: The Gospels’ Expressive Dimension

Christian Lectionaries

Singing Christian Scriptures

The Languages of Christian Scriptures

Expert Translators

Portraying Jesus in Visual Art and Media

Chapter 11: The Gospels’ Semantic Dimension

Interpreting Jesus’s Death

Other Ancient Gospels

Women in the Gospels and Ancient Cultures

The Gospel before the Gospels

Writing Paul’s Letters

The Search for the Historical Jesus

Section 3: The Bible as a Scripture 248

Chapter 12: The Bible’s Iconic Dimension 248

Publishing Tanaks and Bibles 248

Relic Books 255

Decalogue Tablets 261

Chapter 13: The Bible’s Expressive Dimension 264

The Bible in Art 264

Illustrated Bibles 267

Bible Maps 270

The Bible in Theater and Film 272

Chapter 14: The Bible’s Semantic Dimension 277

Biblical Law and Authority 277

Modern Controversies about Genesis 288

Chapter 15: The History of the Bible as a Scripture 303

Scripturalization and Canonization 303

Understanding the Bible as a Scripture 304

Cited Works and Further Reading 307

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