Michael Coogan's eagerly awaited addition to Oxford's What Everyone Needs to KnowRG series addresses the conflicts, scholarship, and controversies surrounding the world's bestselling book. As the foundational text of Judaism and Christianity, the Bible has been interpreted and reinterpreted over millennia, used to further a seemingly endless run of theological and political positions. In a straightforward Q&A format, Coogan offers answers to a wide range of questions about Biblical authority, influence, and scholarship.

Michael Coogan has been Lecturer on the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible at the Harvard Divinity School and the Director of Publications for the Harvard Semitic Museum. He is the editor of The New Oxford Annotated Bible, The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Books of the Bible, and The Old Testament: A Very Short Introduction.

• 1. What is the Bible?


• 2. Why are Bibles different?


• 3. What is in the Bible?


• 4. Who wrote the Bible?


• 5. How can the Bible be studied?


• 6. Is the Bible true?


• 7. How has the Bible influenced Western culture?


• 8. What is not in the Bible?


• 9. Why is the Bible such an important book?


• Timeline of principal biblical events and characters


• Index