This Companion volume offers a sweeping survey of the Bible as a work of literature and its impact on Western writing. Underscoring the sophistication of the biblical writers' thinking in diverse areas of thought, it demonstrates how the Bible relates to many types of knowledge and its immense contribution to education through the ages. The volume emphasizes selected texts chosen from different books of the Bible and from later Western writers inspired by it. Individual essays, each written specially for this book, examine topics such as the gruesome wonders of apocalyptic texts, the erotic content of the Song of Songs, and Jesus' and Paul's language and reasoning, as well as Shakespeare's reflections on repentance in King Lear, Milton's genius in writing Paradise Lost, the social necessity of individual virtue in Shelley's poetry, and the mythic status of Melville's Moby Dick in the United States and the Western world in general.

List of contributors
List of abbreviations
1. Literature of the Ancient Near East and the Bible Steve A. Wiggins
2. The primary narrative (Genesis through 2 Kings) Thomas L. Brodie
3. Reading biblical literature from a legal and political perspective Geoffrey P. Miller
4. Biblical law and literature Calum Carmichael
5. Kings, prophets, and judges Graeme Auld
6. Prophetic literature Victor H. Matthews
7. Wisdom literature James Crenshaw
8. The Gospels Jeannine K. Brown
9. Paul's Letters Todd D. Still
10. Apocalyptic literature Meghan Henning
11. Shakespeare's King Lear and the Bible William J. Kennedy
12. The Bible and John Milton's Paradise Lost Gordon Teskey
13. The Bible, Shelley, and English Romanticism Jonathan Fortier
14. Herman Melville and the Bible Ruth Blair
15. The Song of Songs and two biblical readings Emily O. Gravett
Index

Calum Carmichael, Cornell University, New York
Calum Carmichael is Professor of Comparative Literature Emeritus at Cornell University, New York.

Steve A. Wiggins, Thomas L. Brodie, Geoffrey P. Miller, Calum Carmichael, Graeme Auld, Victor H. Matthews, James Crenshaw, Jeannine K. Brown, Todd D. Still, Meghan Henning, William J. Kennedy, Gordon Teskey, Jonathan Fortier, Ruth Blair, Emily O. Gravett