2nd Edition

King James's Bible A Selection

By W. H Stevenson Copyright 2011
    576 Pages
    by Routledge

    576 Pages
    by Routledge

    Without an understanding of Biblical stories, readers lose out on much of the richness of English literature, as authors from Milton through T.S. Eliot to Jeanette Winterson draw inspiration from Biblical stories in their own writing.   This user-friendly annotated selection of key passages from the King James’s Bible clarifies the key themes, characters, stories and genealogies for students, offering timelines, a bibliography, and a detailed index for quick and easy reference.

    The original 1984 version, of which this is a revised edition, was written by Bill Stevenson as a response to his students' difficulty with biblical references in literature - a selection from the King James’s Bible that would give the student a notion of what the book contains, including the history of the 1611 text, the strands of imagery that bind the whole together. It gives the student a brief overview of the political, historical and religious contexts of the stories in the Bible as well as a brief history of the different versions of the Bible. 

    Foreword  List of abbreviations  Acknowledgements  Introduction  Originals and translations  The Writings  Early translations  The language of AV  THE OLD TESTAMENT  The Pentateuch  Genesis  Abraham and Sarah  About Jacob  Exodus  Leviticus  Numbers  Deuteronomy  THE HISTORIES  Joshua  Ruth  David and Absalom  Kings: Solomon’s kingdom  Kings: Decadence  THE PROPHETS  Prophets of the two kingdoms: Amos  Hosea  Micah  Isaiah (1)  Prophets of the Exile: Jeremiah  Hinnom  Ezekiel  Prophets of the return: ‘Second’ Isaiah  Zechariah  Malachi  Daniel  THE WRITINGS  Job  The Psalms  Proverbs  Ecclesiastes  The Song of Solomon  Epilogue to the Old Testament  THE NEW TESTAMENT  THE GOSPELS  St Mark’s Gospel  St Matthew’s Gospel  St Luke’s Gospel  St John’s Gospel  The Acts of the Apostles  THE EPISTLES  The Epistles of Paul: To the Romans  To the Corinthians (1–2): The First Epistle  The Second Epistle  The Second Epistle to Timothy  An Epistle from James  The First Epistle of John  The Revelation of St John the Divine  Bibliography  Maps  Index

    Biography

    W. H. Stevenson is retired Professor of English at Calabar University, Nigeria.

    "Many of my students stumble into vaguely mythological stories in their writing. When I ask them anything about the Bible, they frankly, by and large, don't know. I don't particularly blame them for it. But I do think there is a real problem with the education system that has allowed these great stories to disappear, to fade out of the diet everyone gets at school. It's an essential piece of cultural luggage." - Poet Laureate Andrew Motion