The Bible for Children: From the Age of Gutenberg to the Present (Dialogues of Plato; 3)

The stories of the Bible are often promoted as fascinating in and of themselves. Outlandish tales range from a single soldier fighting an army with a bone from an ass to a bearded man parting the sea to save a community of refugees. Yet, as Ruth B. Bottigheimer details in this remarkable book, many of these stories underwent extensive overhaul to make them palatable to children. These alterations include simplification, censorship and rewriting, all of which have changed the nature of the book. Bottigheimer has meticulously researched these changes and produced a work that should appeal not only to Biblical scholars but to any of us interested in the making of that monumental book.