About the Book
Why did no other ancient society produce something like the Bible? That a tiny, out of the way community could have created a literary corpus 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 after Babylon's devastation of Jerusalem, it makes not victory but total humiliation the foundation of a new idea of belonging. Lamenting the destruction of their homeland, scribes who composed the Bible imagined a promise-filled past while reflecting deeply on abject failure. More than just religious scripture, the Bible began as a trailblazing blueprint for a new form of political community. Its response to catastrophe 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 for communities confronting societal collapse.
Table of Contents:
I. The Rise and Fall: 1. Abraham and Sarah: From One to the Many; 2. Miriam: Empire and Exodus; 3. Deborah: A New Dawn; 4. David: Between North and South; 5. Ahab and Jezebel: Putting Israel on the Map; 6. Jehu and Elisha: Israel's Downfall and Judah's Jubilation; 7. Hezekiah and Isaiah: Putting Judah on the Map; 8. Josiah and Huldah: Judah's Downfall and Deportation; II. Admitting Defeat: 9. Daughter Zion: Finding One's Voice; 10. The Creator: Comforting the Afflicted; 11. Haggai the Prophet: Laying the Foundation; 12. Nehemiah the Builder: Restoring Judean Pride; 13. Ezra the Educator: Becoming a People of the Book; 14. Hoshayahu the Soldier: Peoplehood as a Pedagogical Project; III. A New Narrative: 15. Jeremiah and Baruch: A Monument to Defeat; 16. Isaac and Rebekah: The Family Story; 17. Moses and Joshua: The People's History; 18. Hannah and Samuel: The Palace History; 19. Solomon and the Queen of Sheba: The National Narrative; 20. Jonah: The Prophets as Survival Literature; 21. Yhwh's People: Codes, Covenant, and Kinship; IV. A People of Protest: 22. Matriarch: Women and the Biblical Agenda; 23. The Hero: Redefining Gender Roles; 24. The Other: Tales of War, Outsiders, and Allegiance; 25. The Soldier: Sacrificial Death and Eternal Life; 26. Prophet and Priest: Open Access and Separation of Powers; 27. The Sage: Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes; 28. The Poet: The Song of Songs and Psalms; 29. The Queen: Peoplehood without Piety.
About the Author :
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 (de Gruyter, 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, and most recently, War, Memory, and National Identity in the Hebrew Bible (Cambridge University Press, 2020).
Review :
'The Bible began, Jacob Wright argues, for reasons that have everything to do with why the termsnation and religion remain so fearfully combustible to this day. A large and important topic engaged in a fresh and welcome way.' Jack Miles, author of the Pulitzer-Prize winning God: A Biography
'Profoundly insightful. 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, Candler Professor Emerita of Old Testament/Hebrew Bible, Emory University
'This book takes questions about the Bible's origins to another level of historical inquiry…. Superbly written and a fascinating approach that expands the normal range of biblical studies in a remarkable way!' Konrad Schmid, co-author of The Making of the Bible: From the First Fragments to Sacred Scripture
'By one of the brightest minds in the field, this is a book on the Bible that all will want to read: an exquisitely written and innovative tribute to the nameless scribes who responded to destruction and defeat by building a powerful new form of community that no army could conquer. Venturing beyond the Bible's religious teachings to its political and social dimensions, Wright's tour de force demonstrates why this body of literature still matters for us today.' Rabbi Tamara Cohn Eskenazi, Professor and President of the Society of Biblical Literature, 2024
'What a compelling read, and I found myself enthralled! This beautifully written work offers fresh insights on the origins of the People of the Book. It not only draws on the most recent historical research, but also incorporates contemporary approaches such as trauma hermeneutics, gender, and postcolonial criticism in a way that makes it feel that these approaches are central to the project and not merely an afterthought. The presence of female characters especially struck me as we move from the nation's earliest origins, with a Family Story becoming a People's History and the National Narrative supplementing a Palace History. Indeed, this book speaks of writing to survive as the voices of the people of protest are preserved for us amidst the pages of the biblical witness.' L. Juliana Claassens, author of Writing and Reading to Survive
'A revelation, even to those who have read the Bible for a lifetime! We witness how in the aftermath of catastrophic defeat and devastation, the biblical authors fashioned a new form of political community--one in which a shared body of texts provided common ground for deeply divided communities and the marginalized in their communities. At the heart of the Hebrew Bible is, as Wright shows, not a creed but a question: What does it mean to be a people? In our time of deepening divisions, both this question and the ways in which these ancient writers addressed it deserve renewed, and serious, attention.' Robert M. Franklin, President Emeritus, Morehouse College
'Wright's analysis is often brilliant and persuasive, leading us to see ideological fractures in texts that we thought we knew. And though much of the textual history will be familiar to scholars who have gone deep into the weeds, or the bulrushes, Wright does a terrific job of bringing it forward for his readers.' Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker
'[a] landmark study … Thought-provoking and scrupulously researched, this is a tour de force.' Unsigned, Publisher's Weekly
'secular scholarship at its best' Tibor Krausz, The Jerusalem Post
'This is one of those books that lead readers to reexamine questions they thought had been thoroughly studied and around which there has grown a good measure of scholarly consensus … Serious students of the Scriptures will want to read this important work of creative scholarship.' Leslie J. Hoppe, The Bible Today
'An exceptional and seminal study, Why the Bible Began is impressively well written, organized and presented, making it a significant and unreservedly recommended addition to personal, professional, community, seminary, and college/university library Biblical Studies collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists.' Paul Vogel, Midwest Book Review
'Wright's well-written, accessible book is rich with wide-ranging learning about Israel's environment, neighbors, and archaeological artifacts. He engagingly highlights topics such as war, politics, literacy, economics, and arrogance that matter to every one of us.' Stephen L. Cook, Interpretation: A Journal of Bible and Theology
''Why the Bible Began' is a provocative and erudite monograph aimed to rewrite the metanarrative of the Tanakh for the modern world. … the book models what it means to be a public scholar who brings professional acumen to address the most pressing questions of today. I look forward to the continued conversations that this book will elicit.' Corrine Carvalho, Review of Biblical Literature
'Wright has succeeded in creating a highly readable new history of the origins of (some) biblical books, presenting an interesting and, above all, new approach to the design of these books.' Christoffer Theis, Journal of the American Society for Premodern Asia
