WHY THE BIBLE BEGAN Why the Bible Began

An Alternative History of Scripture and its Origins

Jacob L. Wright

Why did no other ancient society produce a text remotely like the Bible? That a tiny, out of the way community could have produced a text so determinative for peoples across the globe seems improbable. For Jacob Wright, the Bible is not only a testimony of survival, but also an unparalleled achievement in human history. Forged during Babylonian exile after the shattering destruction of Jerusalem, it marks not victory but total humiliation and the foundation of a new idea of belonging. Lamenting the destruction of their homeland, scribes who composed the Bible turned to the golden ages of the past, reflecting deeply on abject failure. More than just religious scripture, the Bible is a resonant blueprint for the inspiring creation of a nation. As a response to catastrophe, it offers a powerful message of hope and restoration that is unique in the Ancient Near Eastern and Greco-Roman worlds. Wright’s Bible is thus a social, political, and even economic roadmap – one that enabled a small and obscure community located on the periphery of leading civilizations and empires, not just to come back from the brink, but ultimately to shape the world’s destiny. The Bible speaks ultimately of being a united, yet diverse people, and its pages present a manual of pragmatic survival strategies in response to societal collapse.

Jacob L. Wright is Associate Professor of Hebrew Bible at the Candler School of Theology, Emory University. His first book, Rebuilding Identity: The Nehemiah Memoir and its Earliest Readers (2004), won the 2008 Templeton prize for a first book in the field of religion. He is also the author of David, King of Israel and Caleb in Biblical Memory (Cambridge University Press, 2014), which won The Nancy Lapp Popular Book Award from the American Schools of Oriental Research. His most recent book is War, Memory, and National Identity in the Hebrew Bible (Cambridge University Press, 2020).

Advance praise

‘In this profoundly insightful book Wright demonstrates how ancient Israel and Judah developed the resources to construct a resilient nationhood not in spite of but, paradoxically, because of the experience of military defeat, economic devastation, and diaspora. No other kingdom of the ancient Near East was able to do so. Today, as so many communities, peoples and nations face similar critical threats to their existence, Wright’s book provides a fascinating and incisively argued case study of how one people drew upon its cultural resources not simply to survive but to generate a vibrantly creative intellectual and spiritual tradition.’

Carol A. Newsom, C. H. Candler Professor Emerita of Old Testament/Hebrew Bible, Emory University

UK publication August 2023

US publication October 2023

300 Pages 9781108490931 Hardback

£26.99 | $34.99 USD | $39.99 CAD

At a glance

• Compellingly conveys why we are still reading the Bible two millenia after it was written

• Interrogates why no other ancient society – Babylon, Assyria, and Rome – produced any comparable text

• Conveys a story of triumph over defeat and explains how the scribes who wrote the Bible inspired the creation of a nation

DAVID STERLING BROWN