---
product_id: 15322003
title: "Whose Bible Is It? : A Short History of the Scriptures"
brand: "jaroslav pelikan"
price: "€ 36.97"
currency: EUR
in_stock: true
reviews_count: 9
url: https://www.desertcart.es/products/15322003-whose-bible-is-it-a-short-history-of-the-scriptures
store_origin: ES
region: Spain
---

# Whose Bible Is It? : A Short History of the Scriptures

**Brand:** jaroslav pelikan
**Price:** € 36.97
**Availability:** ✅ In Stock

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- **What is this?** Whose Bible Is It? : A Short History of the Scriptures by jaroslav pelikan
- **How much does it cost?** € 36.97 with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship
- **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.es](https://www.desertcart.es/products/15322003-whose-bible-is-it-a-short-history-of-the-scriptures)

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## Description

Whose Bible Is It? : A Short History of the Scriptures

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## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    An interesting overview
  

*by J***L on Reviewed in the United States on June 10, 2006*

Pelikans's "Whose Bible Is It?" does not truly seek to answer the question posed in the title.  Instead, the author, a acclaimed, able, and recently deceased professor at Yale provides a historic overview of Biblical development, particularly as it applies to the Christian era of the past 2000 years.  While the author gives attention to the Jewish Biblical tradition, he spends a relatively short part of this extremely short work reviewing the Bible's pre-Christian development.  One can well forgive this choice, since biblical origination is a topic requiring a great deal of conjuncture and anthropological analysis, while also being treacherously fraught with political and religious conflict.Pelikan's makes a few mistakes along the road.  For example he lumps Orthodox Jewish epexegesis in with the literalism of the Christian analytical tradition, a proposition proved demonstrably false by Maimonidies commentary on the Bible as metaphor and Nachmanidies positions on Genesis, such as positing that a day in the human experience is not the same as creations 7 days which refers to days in the life of G-d.  Curiously, Jewish tradition, occupying a position of weakness in the social scheme generally allowed a greater diversity of textual approaches than the far more powerful Christian majority.In the end Pelikan's text includes one overriding weakness; he never tells the reader definitively where he stands.  One gets to the end of what seems an overly long introductory essay, only to find an all too brief conclusion that never lets us know this scholars answer to this important question.  If he had a deep answer, it seems one he took with him to his grave.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    Whose Bible is It?
  

*by J***R on Reviewed in the United States on August 22, 2005*

This is a very good analysis of the organization of the modern Bible and the changes its undergone in the past 2000 years.  Author Pelikan has organized a concise history book and a good overview of the various religious sects and how they've put their own spirtuality into book format.Jews and Christians, specifically Protestants and Catholics, have argued theolgy for centuries only to agree to disagree on most major topics.  The western world has taken the process a step or two further when they translated the original scriptures into their own languages.  Guttenberg, the King James Version, American Standard, etc. have all attempted to become definitive translations.  Interestingly each succeeeded and failed at the same time.  Nearly every Bible translator sets out to do the best their abilities and knowledge will permit, but each must make important decisions on what and what not to include.  Since few people read Hebrew and Greek, translations are inevitable, and we all must learn to live with the results.  Modern technology has made nearly any Bible currently in print available, so read what suits you.Pelikan treds a path through the variations not formally endorsing any specific one.  His knowledge of his topic and his writing style makes this a very good book that Biblical scholars on down to church librarians will want to include in their collections.  The book would have been helped had an index been included, but this is but a minor flaw in an otherwise very commendable effort.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    Divine inspiration?
  

*by P***N on Reviewed in the United States on September 15, 2005*

Eventho I'm no longer a believer, I purchased and read Pelikan's "Whose Bible Is It?" in order to understand how Scripture, which many still revere as the revealed word of God,  was compiled, translated and generally modified thru-out its three millennia life. And I wasn't disappointed. Pelikan does an excellent job of tracing the Bible's long history objectively, eventho he's clearly a believer. I'd rate his book five stars except for the inexcusable omission of an index (altho Amazon's `Search Inside' provides a substitute). I also found amusing his habit of making a strong statement then immediately qualify it.The Bible authors believed that God &al. spoke directly to them - at least that's what their inspirations seemed like - that the words came thru them, not from them. Yet musicians, artists, writers, scientists, mathematicians &al. also report similar inspirations from their unconscious. So why not now attribute the Bible authors' inspirations to the same unconscious source? Given what they knew back then about the world and our mind, it's understandable that they misattributed their inspirations to a supernatural rather than a natural source. But why continue now to perpetuate that illusion? In my book, "Concepts: A ProtoTheist Quest for Science-Minded Skeptics" I explore such questions and propose alternative explanations.

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*Last updated: 2026-03-17*