The Oxford Companion to the Bible by Bruce M. Metzger Michael David Coogan (Editors) - 1993

This book is in Very good condition. There is some minor wear on the front, back and spine of the cover boards. There is also minor wear to the edges of the cover boards and the corners have been slightly bumped. The previous owners name is affixed to the inside front cover board. The pages are crisp, white and clear of any markings.

"For nearly two millenia, the Bible has been the cardinal text for Judaism and Christianity. Its stories and characters are part of both the repertoire of Western literature and the vocabulary of educated women and men. It is, however, more than a collection of ancient tales. Even before a canonical list of books considered sacred scripture or holy writ was established, the writings we now call the Bible were considered normative: they laid down the essential principles of how human beings should deal with God and with each other. Te practice of quoting from, an alluding to, earlier texts as authoritative is found within the Bible itself and has continued unabated in subsequent Jewish and Christian writings. At the same time, the Bible has also been formative; subsequent generations of believers have seen themselves as descended from, and in continuity with, those to whom God had spoken and for whom he had acted definitively in the past, and the recital of those words and events has been instrumental in shaping the religious communities of succeeding generations. The Bible has thus had an immeasurable influence on Judaism and Christianity, on the cultures of which they have formed a part, and on all those traditions in some ways derived from them, such as Islam...." - Introduction from The Oxford Companion to the Bible