Barron's How to Prepare for the Sat II United States History Book

This is a splendidly large book that gives the history of The Bible, which the author allows is a very emotionally charged subject, as very few people have neutral views of it. The author does a very good job of explaining the changes that have happened to the Bible over the centuries, and I am very happy to have read this book and to have my own copy on my shelves.

After an Introduction, the book begins with Latin Bibles from Jerome to Charlemagne, and continues with various Bibles (or what we now know as Bibles) from that point, through history, to the present time; the last chapter deals with the search for ancient Bibles, which brings us back to Saint Jerome again. Throughout the book are full-color plates illustrating pages of manuscripts (which are especially stunning when considering medieval bibles), and copious illustrations of people and places mentioned in the text.

This is almost a coffee-table book, though not quite large enough; the author is very thorough on all aspects of Bible history, including the changes wrought by the invention of the printing press and the effects of the Protestant Reformation on Bibles. There is also a chapter on Missionary Bibles; the Catholics would send priests to perform liturgy and conduct instruction to pagan lands, while the Protestants sent missionaries with bibles, on the very Protestant view that anyone reading the Bible (especially in one’s native tongue) would automatically see the light of Protestant Christianity.

I am very glad that I purchased this book at some past point (a sticker on the front of my copy says “Half Price Books $9.98″) because it is a marvelous resource on the formation of The Bible as we know it today, whether we may be Jewish, Catholic, or Protestant.