聖經...如何到我們的手中/圣经...如何到我们的手中(簡) Our Bible...How It Came to Us (Simplified) What if you wanted a short statement of the basic facts about the history of the Bible? You could not do better than to read the 20-page booklet produced in English and Mandarin by the Bible Society of Singapore, entitled Our Bible… How It Came to Us (Bible Society of Singapore, 2001), written by Dr. Peng Kuo-Wei. The booklet contains discussions of the formation of the OT and NT, the transmission of the texts of both Testaments (including brief decriptions of the ancient translations such as the Vulgate), and the history of Bible translations since the invention of printing, taking the story right up to the modern day. A large amount of information is surveyed in a brief compass, with a helpful selection of illustrations (mainly Bible manuscripts) and a number of handy Fact Finders. The treatment of the topics is generally conservative (e.g., early dates for the fomation of OT and NT canons), except that the right of the KJV to be considered the authoritative English Bible translation is gently questioned. I particularly appreciated the way the author contextualised his discussion of the text of the OT by means of a comparison with texts of some of the Chinese classics. Clearly a booklet like this will not be the last word on the topic, but it is a most helpful first word. My only criticism is that, in their desire to pack as many facts as possible into a few pages, the editors have used rather small fonts for some of their Fact Finders: I could make out the words, but some of you may need magnifying glasses! But with that qualification, I commend this booklet warmly. The Bible Society of Singapore has performed a valuable service in making it available. By Dr Philip E Satterthwaite Registrar & Director of Academic Research & Publications Biblical Graduate School of Theology 新加坡聖經公會 Bible Society of Singapore