Book Detective

"Asimov's Guide to the Bible" is Isaac Asimov at his professional and informal best.

With its careful scrutiny of Biblical places, events and characters in light of secular sources, it is an important fun of fascinating knowledge for anyone with an interest in history. For the Bible is, among other things, an important source for the history of the first 4,000 years of human civilization. Along with the explications of such historical phenomena as the place in the world of David's kingdom, Dr. Asimov offers informed speculations on the real nature of The Flood, the parting of the Red Sea, and many more historical and legendary events, places and people.

"I cannot pretend that I am making any significant original contribution to Biblical scholarship," says Dr. Asimov; yet by bringing the breadth of his scientific and historical erudition to bear on the Bible, he has added a new dimension to studies of the Bible's secular side.

With verse and subject indexes, appendix of dates, and nearly 100 maps.

The Bible: A Biography by Karen Armstrong

101 Myths of the Bible by Gary Greenberg

Who Wrote the Bible? by Richard Elliott Friedman

The Rise and Fall of the Bible by Timothy Beal

A History of the End of the World by Jonathan Kirsch

The Bible by John Riches

Misquoting Jesus by Bart D. Ehrman

Jesus, Interrupted by Bart D. Ehrman

Lost Scriptures by Bart D. Ehrman

The Sins of Scripture by John Shelby Spong

How Jesus Became God by Bart D. Ehrman

The Origin of Satan by Elaine Pagels

And Man Created God by Selina O'Grady

God and Sex by Michael Coogan

American Jesus by Stephen Prothero

The Fourth Thousand Years by W. Cleon Skousen

The Pursuit of the Millenium by Norman Cohn

The Germanization of Early Medieval Christianity by James C. Russell

Born in Blood by John J. Robinson

Paul Was Not a Christian by Pamela Eisenbaum