Review of "Back to The Bible" by H G G Herklots

A surprisingly enjoyable read from the 1950s, written by the Vicar of Doncaster and intended as a guide for other parish priests covering what they need to know about the scriptures. Amazing that at that period it seemed possible for a local vicar to be familiar with and on top of this stuff...I rather feel that their equivalents today don't have the time or inclination to deal with any of this. I wonder how many local vicars even know what Aramaic is - I rather thnk that the one here, who is a lovely man in many ways, might not. 

This is primarily a straightforward non-fundamentalist view of how the various texts were created and transmitted. The early bit focuses on translations of the texts, and the later bit on different versions. There's not much on how texts were chosen or rejected for inclusion in the canon, which I would have liked. And the author assumes familiarity with the structure of the New Testament, though not so much with the Hebrew Bible (the "Old Testament")...whereas for me the opposite is true.

I got a lot out of it, though, including a confirmation of my gradually strengthening view that Christianity is not a "descendant" of Judaism, but that both religions are descendants of the earlier "Judaite" (my word, I'm sure there is a better one) religion, that centred on a single temple, hereditary priests and animal sacrifice - nothing at all like present-day Judaism, even though the latter presents itself as a natural continuation of the former.