The Bible Designed to Be Read as Literature

This volume is designed to present a selection of the greater part of the English Bible as literature. It is intended for all readers, of whatever belief, opinion, or bringing-up. It is not the first attempt, but the selection and arrangement of it are new. Ernest Sutherland Bates is the editor and arranger.

The following purposes are given:

1. To afford a conservative narration from the creation to the exile, supplementing it with a selection from 1 Maccabees to complete the story down to the times of Jesus;
2. To emphasize the greatest of the Prophets and minimize the others;
3. To rearrange the drama, poetry, and fiction, adding parts of the Apocrypha;
4. To give the basic biography of Jesus found in the Gospels;
5. To restrict the utterances of Paul to those that have immortal value and to omit entirely the unimportant pseudonymous epistles;
6. To print all the works in order of their composition, as far as possible.

The Authorized (King James) Version is used, except for a few instances in Job, Ecclesiastes, Proverbs, and the Song of Songs, where the Revised Version is far superior. Confusing scholia and irrelevant repetitions are eliminated.

There is an introduction to each book. Within this is described the literary type of the book. At the back are two short appendices: “A Note on Translations” and “Dates of the Books.”

It contains much of the Old Testament and the New Testament, and part of the Apocrypha.

Genesis 1: 1, 2
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

Wisdom 1: 1
[Omitted]

John 1: 1 – 3
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.

The following comparative studies include this version:

(none)