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I have read most of both of these books by Paul Johnson and wondered if any other ‘staylds-ers’ had done so and what their opinions were. There are vast amounts of material in these books, but I found it highly informatative and the books have shaped my views of Old Testament times, New Testament times, the early church organization and the scriptures themselves.
Examples:
– We are taught that the bible is suspect, because of the number of translations it has gone through. In actuality, it’s only gone through a handful of translations, but scads of transcriptions, as devout men tried to deal with the temporary nature of the mediums on which the scriptures were recorded.
– I found the history of the early church at the time of apostles and shortly thereafter to be very interesting, although it challenges some of our common views about the early church.
– I found the sections dealing with David, which is the beginning of Jewish history in the sense that it is well-document in sources other than the scriptures, to be extremely fascinating.
– I found the sections dealing with the contributions of the Jews through the ages to be highly interesting, particularly in light of their status as a chosen people juxtaposed with the common view of anti-semitism through the ages.
That’s just a couple of thoughts on tons of material..
Thanks Silentstruggle, I haven’t run into the books myself but they look like something that needs to go onto the reading list. Winter is on the way and once it turns cold up here I get some time to read instead of farm so I am always looking and I appreciate the heads up. 
Yeah, thanks! I was buying several books at half.com so I added “History of the Jews” to my basket. it was less than a buck, plus shipping. Good deal. If you are a history geek like me, you should have no troubles with them! I haven’t read the book, but a few of the things you said seemed a bit problematic to me. -The Documentary Hypothesis says that countless editors have compiled the Bible, and claims that each of at least 4 writers (J, D, E, and P) were later edited by others. Matthew, Mark, and Luke seem to share a Source Q as well. Mark has a new ending–the original talks nothing of Christ’s resurrection–just of his dying on the cross.
-There is only 1 obscure reference on the Tel Dan Stele where a Syrian King claims to have conquered “the House of David.” This is the only non-Biblical reference to David, and it seems to be long after the time of David. I’d be curious to learn more about these non-Biblical sources of David–I don’t think these are well-accepted references.
– I have heard some say that James, the brother of Jesus, was the actual leader of the early church rather than Peter. Does the book make this claim?
Just looked up Paul Johnson and looks like my library’s going to fatten. thanks again. Quote:-There is only 1 obscure reference on the Tel Dan Stele where a Syrian King claims to have conquered “the House of David.” This is the only non-Biblical reference to David, and it seems to be long after the time of David. I’d be curious to learn more about these non-Biblical sources of David–I don’t think these are well-accepted references.
– I have heard some say that James, the brother of Jesus, was the actual leader of the early church rather than Peter. Does the book make this claim?
For the first point, I’d have to go back and spend some time, which I haven’t had lately, finding the source information. It could be that my memory is faulty . . . it’s happened before. I’ll try and spend a bit of time to find the references.
For the last point; I don’t think so.
Another interesting thing that I remember from the book is that our notion of the Prophet as the head of the church. We tend to take our current paradigm and apply it to other times. That was not always the case of the prophets in the OT. They were more a regulatory body that provided checks and balances to the priestly class of Levites. There were many prophets and at times, many at a single time.
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