Unearthing the bible's hidden treasures.

So long as the Bible remains the "greatest story ever told," it will continue to inspire plenty of spin-offs. The recent bumper crop of books on the Good Book focus, among other things, on how scripture has shaped society--and how society has shaped scripture.

FOLKS SERVING ON KANSAS SCHOOL BOARDS OR WRITING bestsellers on the "Bible code" may not know this, but scripture doesn't provide a good scientific account of the origin of the species or encrypted prophesies about upcoming catastrophes. Notwithstanding these limitations, the Bible has been the book of the Western canon for two millennia, and nearly 2 billion Christians and Jews think of it as the Word of God. The American Bible Association says nine out of 10 Americans have one in their home, and the Gideons have already delivered nearly a billion copies of this holy writ to hotels, hospitals, and prisons around the planet.

Not surprisingly, a bestseller this big has generated whole libraries of books explaining, interpreting, and commenting on its meaning, history, and importance--as well as monstrous concordances tracking and counting every jot and tittle appearing between Genesis and Revelation. Six recent books on the Bible look back at the people and places from whence the Good Book sprang, examine the ways we have interpreted these sacred writings, and ask how scripture has shaped our own language and politics.

The Bible is a story of religious pilgrims. Exodus follows the Hebrews' trek to the promised land, and Luke tracks Jesus' journey up to Jerusalem. In turn, scripture has inspired countless waves of Christians and Jews to pick up their staffs or carry-on luggage and set out for the land of the burning bush, the golden calf, and the empty cave.

Still, not all of us can afford a trip to the Holy Land, and many of those who can know little about the history of the places trod by Moses and Jesus. Fortunately, for both groups, Bruce Feiler has written an extraordinary travel guide and spiritual odyssey, walking us through the places made holy and famous by the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible. In Walking the Bible: A Journey by Land Through the Five Books of Moses (William Morrow, 2001), Feiler joins forces with Israeli archeologist Avner Goren and sets out on a 10,000-mile trek from Mount Ararat (where Noah's ark supposedly landed) to Mount Nebo (where a dying Moses may have seen the promised land). Along the way the pilgrim and his guide visit the sites where Abraham could have brought Isaac to sacrifice and follow the trail of Joseph and his siblings into Egypt.

Meeting with contemporary residents and pilgrims of various faiths, Feiler reads the biblical stories in the places where they may have occurred and ponders the meaning and enduring power of these narratives. This is a book any Holy Land pilgrim should read before getting on the plane--and a terrific read for homebound tourists wanting a spiritual trek through the lands of the Bible.

We get a slightly different historical tour of the Bible from the two archeologists who wrote The Bible Unearthed: Archeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts (The Free Press, 2001). In the 19th and early 20th century, archeological discoveries in Egypt and Palestine were used to prove the historicity of the Bible--to show that the flight from Egypt took place largely as reported in Exodus and that scriptural accounts of the exploits of kings David and Solomon are fairly accurate.

But Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman argue that the evidence from mounds and ruins in the Holy Land do not support claims that the Bible is a good history book. Instead, like many contemporary biblical scholars, the two archeologists argue that the Hebrews and their ancient kingdoms of Judah and Israel had very different histories than those recorded in Hebrew scripture, that the Bible was written as a theological and not a historical text.

According to the authors, the saga of the Hebrew people found in the Pentateuch and the books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings is a fabric of narratives woven together to give voice to Israel's deepening faith in the one God to whom the Jews were covenanted. Some readers will be startled by the archeologists' assertions that the Exodus did not take place as described in the Bible and that David and Solomon were "little more than country chieftains." Still, the authors present a provocative thesis about the real meaning and import of scripture as the record of a people's faith, if not their history.

WHILE FINKELSTEIN AND SILBERMAN ARE CONCERNED with how the Bible interprets history, Harvard biblical scholar James Kugel wants us to look at the ways Jews and Christians have interpreted (and reinterpreted) the Bible. In The Bible As It Was (Harvard University Press, 1997) Kugel notes that even within the pages of Hebrew scripture--the so-called "Old" Testament--biblical authors felt free to edit and reinterpret earlier texts to further a point.

This interpretive license was picked up by later Jewish and Christian scholars who read the first five books of the Bible through the filter of their own perspective or bias. So, as Kugel argues, our shared vision of Jacob as a good and righteous (if somewhat wily) character comes not so much from the biblical text itself (in which Isaac's second son seems more than a little dishonest) as from ancient interpreters who were committed to portraying this ancestor in a more favorable light.

Kugel's book serves as a helpful reminder that we don't see or read the Bible through our own eyes only, but also through the shared interpretations of the communities, churches, and tradition to which we belong. It's a particularly striking point when you realize just how many people have been introduced to the Bible not by reading the original text--or hearing it read to us at church--but by movies or mini-series coming out of Hollywood. It's at least a little bit troubling to think that millions of us may have had our most powerful encounter with the stories of Genesis, Exodus, and the four gospels in versions produced and edited by Cecil B. DeMille or by Dreamworks.

BUT THE BIBLE IS NOT JUST A BOOK WE INTERPRET. IT IS ALSO a text that has shaped our hearts and minds, and--if Alister McGrath and Benson Bobrick are correct--our language and politics.

McGrath's book, In the Beginning: The Story of the King James Bible and How It Changed a Nation, a Language, and a Culture (Doubleday, 2001), makes the case that the translations of the Bible into English by John Wycliffe, William Tyndale, and the publishers of the King James version had a tremendous impact on the development of the language that has become the world's first tongue.

Today countless modern idioms--among them, "sour grapes," "like a lamb to the slaughter," "a broken reed," and "forever and ever"--can be traced to biblical roots. And a fair chunk of our daily vocabulary, including words like beautiful, scapegoat, long-suffering, and peacemaker, came to us by way of an English Bible. Reading McGrath, it becomes clear just how deeply embedded the "word" of the Bible is in our own linguistic imagination.

In Wide as the Waters: The Story of the English Bible and the Revolution It Inspired (Simon & Schuster, 2001), Benson Bobrick argues that translating the Bible into English and mass-producing copies of this holy writ led to social and political revolutions in England and America and helped introduce democratic governments in both places.

In an age when religion and biblical faith is too often caricatured as democracy's foe, it is refreshing to read Bobrick's argument that putting the Bible in the hands of common folk gave them the vision and courage to struggle for political justice and equality for all. For what many ordinary readers found in their newly translated scripture was a faith in the inviolable dignity and worth of each person. This in turn led them to struggle for a government that would acknowledge and protect the rights of all those fashioned "in the image of God."

But the revolutions inspired by the Bible are not yet over, and at least one of those revolutions has taken the Bible itself to task. In The Word According to Eve: Women and the Bible in Ancient Times and Our Own (Houghton Mifflin, 1998), Cullen Murphy has sketched out a friendly history of the last quarter century of feminist biblical scholarship, describing the central arguments and positions of a wide spectrum of thinkers who find both solace and sin in the Bible's portrayal and treatment of women.

Beginning with Elizabeth Cady Stanton's 19th-century Women's Bible, Cullen traces complaints about a misogynist legacy and attempts to recover the silenced voices and overlooked contributions of women in the Bible. Readers get a good sense of the concerns and arguments feminist authors have brought to the table and of the need to address the place and voice of women in the book that shapes Christian and Western thought.

Looking back on these differing books, it seems clear that the Bible continues to be a major force in our lives. Perhaps that's a good reason to pick up the original from time to time and see what all the fuss is about.

RELATED ARTICLE: McCormick's quick takes: new books on the bible

Walking the Bible: A Journey by Land Through the Five Books of Moses, by Bruce Feller (William Morrow, 2001). Feller and archeologist Avner Goren take a 10,000-mile pilgrimage across the lands of the Bible, following the stories and journeys of Genesis through Deuteronomy. The result is a spiritual odyssey to enrich any tourist's visit to the Holy Land, and a virtual retreat for home-bound pilgrims of every sort. ****

The Bible Unearthed: Archeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts, by Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman (The Free Press, 2001). Archeologists Finkelstein and Silberman say the evidence from Holy Land ruins shows the Bible is not a good history book Indeed, the kingdoms of Judah and Israel had very different pasts than those recounted in scripture, they argue, because the Bible was written as theology, not history. ***

Wide as the Waters: The Story of the English Bible and the Revolution It Inspired, by Benson Bobrick (Simon & Schuster, 2001). Bobrick claims the English Bible fueled the social and political revolutions that gave birth to democracy in England and America. Putting the Bible into the language and hands of common folk gave them the courage to fight for governments that respected their dignity as people fashioned in God's image. ****

The Word According to Eve: Women and the Bible in Ancient Times and Our Own, by Cullen Murphy (Houghton Mifflin, 1998). How does the Bible treat women, and what are feminist scholars saying about the "Good Book"? Cullen Murphy traces the recent history of feminist biblical scholarship, presenting the concerns and arguments of thinkers who find solace and sexism in the Bible, and who challenge their churches to address a legacy of bias and recover the silenced voices of biblical women. ***

By PATRICK MCCORMICK, an associate professor of Christian ethics at Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington.