Die Entstehung der Bibel

The Bible gathers a wide variety of writings spanning over a thousand years, yet it reads like a single book. How did this masterpiece come to be? Konrad Schmid and Jens Schröter explain how ancient stories, songs, wisdom sayings, and laws, along with letters to early Christian communities and accounts of Jesus, evolved over a long process into sacred writings of Jews and Christians that are now read worldwide. Research in recent decades has revised many common assumptions about the history of Israel and the formation of the Bible. Events such as the Exodus from Egypt or the construction of the Temple under King Solomon are no longer considered historical. This raises the question of how the great stories of the Old Testament came to be and when they became part of sacred scriptures. Common assumptions about the collection of the Gospels or early apostolic letters are also being re-evaluated. This book describes, based on the current state of research, the long journey from early narratives of ancient Israel through key texts of Jewish monotheism and early Christianity to the sacred books of the world religions of Judaism and Christianity. Anyone wanting to understand how such a historical transmission miracle could occur should read this biography of the world's most famous book.