How Often Do You Have to Guess at What the Bible Really Says?

The Anchor Bible is different from any Bible you have ever read or used. Different because it is still being written, incorporating up-to-the-minute advances in our knowledge of the Bible and its soutces. Different because its notes and comments fully explain its changes from the traditional text. And different because each book is accompanied by its own introduction, giving you more background information than any other Bible.

Not Just Today’S Scholarship—But Tomorrow’S As Well

Twenty-four volumes have been published to date, and thirty-five more (including the Apocrypha) will complete The Anchor Bible during the next decade. As you read this, contributors to forthcoming Anchor Bible volumes are engaged in new archaeological digs in the Near East. Others are studying and deciphering scrolls and texts that will add to the sum of our knowledge about the Bible and the civilization that produced it. Anchor Bible subscribers are participating in an ongoing project of enormous scope, one that will continue to shed new light on previously misunderstood passages and biblical episodes.

Above All, A Bible To Be Read

The Anchor Bible is an unprecedented opportunity for the modern reader to appreciate fully, perhaps for the first time, the central book of Western civilization. Each AnchorBible volume includes literary, historical, and archaeological insights in the translator’s notes and comments, as well as fascinating introductions which often are books in themselves. This brings you as close as any reader can come today to the actual message of each book of the Bible … to what it says and how it emerged from its historical background.

The Anchor Bible translators also introduce you to the remarkably varied beauty of biblical language. You know that, through the centuries, the Bible has served as inspiration for our greatest poets. Now, by reproducing the original literary flavor and spontaneity of each book of the Bible, The Anchor Bible translations show how many of the ancient authors were poets in their own right.

Free Of Creeds

In choosing contributors, general editors William Foxwell Albright and David Noel Freedman have sought the scholar best qualified to translate and introduce each particular book of the Bible. This means that each volume of the Anchor Bible is translated by an individual, not a committee. It also means that Anchor Bible translators come from many nations and faiths—Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish. All are concerned exclusively with what the Bible says, not with any one sectarian interpretation of “what it means.”

Continuing Acclaim

The Anchor Bible has already been awarded the highest honor of the American publishing industry, the Carey-Thomas Award for Creative Publishing. About the project as a whole there is general agreement: “The Anchor Bible constitutes the outstanding biblical commentary of our generation,” says Professor Cyrus Gordon of Brandeis University. “The best English Bible yet,” writes the Baltimore Sun. And, for critic David Daiches, The Anchor Bible is “the most exciting development in biblical studies in the English speaking world.”

The range of comments on each new volume is just as extraordinary. GENESIS was described by literary critic Edmund Wilson as “the best commentary I have seen … The introduction is fascinating. Together they throw new light in many dark places.” Frederick L. Moriarty, S.J., of Weston College, writes that the PSALMS represents “the most significant work on the Psalter in the last hundred years.” William H. Brownlee calls JOB “a great adventure with a great scholar who really knows how to translate ancient Hebrew poetry into beautiful and accurate English.” And Christian Century hails the second volume of THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JOHN as “the best commentary on John available in English.” Truly, every volume of The Anchor Bible reflects the richness and variety of each individual book of the Old or New Testament.

A Family Investment

The Anchor Bible is a family investment of lifelong significance and value. The postage-paid reply card bound into this magazine explains in full detail a subscription plan which guarantees you substantial savings during the duration of the publishing project, without committing you in any way to buy any volumes you do not wish to keep. Because of rising costs of printing and preparation, this subscription plan may have to be withdrawn in the near future, so mail the card today. Doubleday & Company, Inc., Dept. 5-CZ-5S Garden City, New York 11530

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