An Updated and Expanded Edition!

Comprehensive and accessible, Formation of the Bible: The Story of the Church’s Canon is a succinct but detailed account of how the books of the Christian Bible were chosen.

Carefully documented and written in sterling prose, Lee Martin McDonald uses a lifetime of scholarship to tell one of history’s most remarkable stories—the story of the Judeo-Christian Bible. From the ancient texts of the Pentateuch, to the development of the LXX, to the Dead Sea Scrolls, to the Gospels and the rest of the New Testament, McDonald’s work educates, enriches, and edifies. Highly recommended.

This second edition includes charts with more precise dating, interactions with recent scholarship that elucidates the historical context of the relevant ancient literature, a new chapter on ancient pseudepigrapha in Judaism and early Christianity, and a bibliography bolstered by the addition of new and helpful resources for further study of canon formation.