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John Barton’s fascinating A History of the Bible investigates the origins, development and contemporary meaning of this greatest of unread bestsellers. From a disparate collection of writings that first emerged deep in the distant past Barton charts the gradual emergence of both the Old and the New Testaments and their evolution into what have become the two revered volumes of authoritative Scripture that we know today. In a series of lively and engaging essays Barton shows how meaning has both been drawn from the Bible and been imposed up on it and explores how differently Judaism and Christianity approach and interpret the books of both the Old and New Testaments.

In the third episode A History of the Bible examines the genesis of the Old Testament, asking if we should call it rather ‘the Hebrew Bible’, and exploring the many languages it was written in and subsequently been translated into.

Read by Hugh Bonneville
Adapted for radio by John Barton and Richard Hamilton
Produced by Karen Holden