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The Bible for Children: the Emergence and Development of the Genre, 1550-1990

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2016

Ruth B. Bottigheimer
Ruth B. Bottigheimer*
Affiliation:
State University of New York, Stony Brook
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Extract

Books for children have existed for centuries. Their contents range from instructional manuals to flights of fancy. In children’s literature, a variety of narrative forms have emerged, developed, flowered, and faded, but one genre, Bible stories for children’s use, has remained in existence as long as print itself.

Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in Church History , Volume 31: The Church and Childhood , 1994 , pp. 347 - 362
Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 1994

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References

1 [Georg Gessner], Biblische Geschichten zum Cebrauche der Landschulen (Zurich, 1774).

2 Johann Caspar Lavater, Christliche Religionsunterricht für denkendeJUnglinge (Zurich, 1788).

3 Johann Jakob Altdorfer, Sammlung des Gemeinnützlichsten aus den Schriften des Alten Testaments zum Cebrauch derjugend (Winterthur, 1788).

4 Both Nicolas Fontaine’s and Claude Oronce Finé de Brianville’s Bible stories (both Paris, 1670) were dedicated to the dauphin.

5 François Martin de Noirlieu, Histoire abrégée de l’Ancien et du Nouveau Testament, Bible de l’enfance … (Liège, [1847?]).

6 Anon., Petit cours d’Histoire Sainte à l’usage des Enfants qui apprennent à Lire et à Ecrire (Paris, 1828).

7 The Bible for Children from the Age of Gutenberg to the Present (Yale University Press, forthcoming).

8 I am leaving out of consideration at this point the Bible stories of Geoffroy de Latour-Landry’s Der Ritter von Turn (Basle, 1493), because it does not purport to be a Bible in the sense that subsequent collections of Bible stories for children do.

9 For additional publishing information see Schenda, Rudolf, Volk ohne Buch (Munich, 1970), p. 169 Google Scholar.

10 Bal, Mieke, Death and Dissymmetry (Chicago, 1988), pp. 26 Google Scholar, 212.1 take issue with Bal’s interpretation of the murder of Sisera as a reverse rape; Bal has, however, raised important issues about our understanding of the facts of the biblical text. For further criticism of theological exegesis of judges, see Bal, , Murder and Difference (Bloomington, 1988 Google Scholar).

11 For contemporary commentary on the power of women in seventeenth-century France see Charles Montesquieu’s Lettres Persanes (1721).

12 Moyne, Pierre Le, La Galerie des femmes fortes (Paris, 1647 Google Scholar).

13 La civil conversazione (Venice, 1616), p. 118, cited in The Pentamerone of Giambattista Basile, ed. and tr. N. M. Penzer (Westport, Conn, 1979) I, p. 172, n. 6.

14 Rosemary O’Day, The Debate on the English Reformation (New York, 1986), p. 20.

15 Salomon Glassius (Nuremberg, 1654?, 1686); Sagittarius (Altenburg, 1679); Lenderich (Nuremberg, 1677, 1717).

16 Fontaine, L’Histoire du vieux et du nouveau testament (1670); Finé de Brianville, Histoire Sacrée.

17 Fontaine, L’Histoire, pp. 133-4: ‘… cette femme combattent encore pour le peuple de Dieu … que Dieu peut donner aux femmes mesme quand il luy plaist, le conseil & la force, aussi-bien qu’aux hommes pour gouverner les grandes affaires.’

18 (1717) np: And Heber’s Wife whose Name was Jael/Thro’ Sisera’s Temple drove a Nail.

19 I used the London, 1726 edition. There may be an earlier edition, but it is the earliest recorded edition among the comprehensive computerized listings of the Research Libraries Network. Fontaine’s version of the tale entered England when his Old Testament history was translated and published for adults in 1690. A second adult Bible story book, Howel’s Compleat History of the Holy Bible (London, 1716), gratuitously doubted Deborah’s judgeship and disapproved of Jael’s act; moreover he erroneously stressed a non-existent vicious component of her act by borrowing words from the act of decapitation from the story of Judith and Holofernes to insert in the final scene in Jael’s murder of Sisera (1, pp. 301-3).

20 Usually the children’s Bibles that included Jael’s story in periods that otherwise ignored it occurred in Bibles that were collections of emended canonical text. See Foster, , The Story of the Bible (Philadelphia, 1884 Google Scholar); Robinson, , The Children’s Bible (1911 Google Scholar); Passages from Holy Writ (Philadelphia, 1894); Rogers, , The School and Children’s Bible (London, 1873 Google Scholar); The Child’s Bible (1883); Smith, , The Children’s Bible (London, 1911 Google Scholar).

21 (1670), pp. 133-4.

22 Bible en Estampes (Paris, 1817), p. 66: ‘Jael profita du sommeil de Sisera pour lui ôter la vie.’

23 Gustave Essards, La Bible des Enfans (Paris, [c. 1850]), p. 180: ‘inspirée par Dieu’.

24 Abrégé ie l’histoire et de la morale de l’ancien testament (Paris, 1853), p. 93: ‘… de mensonge et de trahison’ and ‘on peut supposer que, dans le moment qu’elle invita Sisera à entrer dans sa tente, elle n’avait point encore la pensée de le tuer, et que Dieu ne la lui inspira qu’après qu’il fut endormi, lui faisait entendre au fond du coeur qu’il voulait se servir d’elle pour délivrer son peuple de cet ennemi.’

25 Essards (see n. 23), p. 180: ‘Jael delivra ainsi le peuple d’Israël de celui qui l’avait tant opprimé.’

26 La Bible Illustrée (Paris, 1969), p. 198: ‘Jahel le tua.’

27 René Berthier, Bible (Paris, 1969).

28 Johan Ignaz von Felbiger, Geschichte des alten Testaments, 1st edn (Cologne, 1777, here 1801), p. 66: Jahel ‘schlug … ihm einen Zeltfloch in die Schläfe.’

29 Josef Anton Fuetscher, Die heilige Geschiehte, 2nd edn (Bregenz, 1791), p. 119: ‘Israel wurde hiedurch befreyt.’

30 Abraham Kyburz, Catechetische Kinder-Bibel, 2nd cdn (Zurich, 1763), p. 184: ‘… die trcue Mutter in Israel’.

31 Johann Caspar Lavater and Johann Jakob Hess, Biblische Erzähluttgett (Zurich, 1772), pp. 293, 298: ‘… ein heldenmütiges Weib … eine Prophetin und Lehrerin in Israel’.

32 Ibid., p. 300.

33 Lavater and Hess, Biblische Erzähluttgen, 3rd edn (Zurich, 1807), p. 119.

34 Johann Andreas Hofmann, Erzählungen aus der Geschichte des Menschgeschlechts (Zurich, 1842), p. 56.

35 Peter Scheitlin, Biblische Geschichte (St Gallen, 1843, 1844), pp. 136-8.

36 Johan Philipp Trefurt, Biblische Erzählungen nach Hübner, 4th edn (Hanover, 1828), p. 87.

37 The Children’s Bible (Philadelphia, 1763), p. 73.

38 James Baikie, The Bible (New York, 1923), p. 137.

39 Edward T. Bartlett and Peters, John P., Scriptures Hebrew and Christian (London, 1886), pp. 167, 171 Google Scholar.

40 Frisch, Sigisbert, Historia dil veder e niev Testament (Cuera, 1823), p. 60 Google Scholar.

41 Howel, Laurence, A Compkat History of the Holy Bible (London, 1716 Google Scholar). Family Bibles in eighteenth-century England were Bible story collections, much like children’s Bibles, but intended for an adult readership.

42 Charles R. Brown, Ten Short Stories from the Bible (New York, 1925), p. 29.

43 Meindert Dejong, The Mighty Ones (New York, 1959), p. 207.

44 Justus Gesenius, Biblische Historien (Braunschweig, 1684), pp. 199, 201.

45 Georg Friedrich Seiler, Das grössre biblische Erbauungsbuch (Erlangen, 1788-95), no vol., p. 66. Seiler’s sixteen-volume book was meant for pulpit use, and we can assume that its contents echoed off many hallowed walls.

46 Bible du jeune age ([1850]). Many Catholic children’s Bibles, some of them very influential, have omitted Jael’s story in the twentieth century. See Belloso, J. M. Rovira, Die neue Patmos Bibel (Düsseldorf, 1990 Google Scholar) and the many translations of Anne de Vries’ children’s Bible.

47 Some examples are [Biber], , The Child’s Own Bible (London, 1838 Google Scholar); Ludwigjerrer, Georg, Erzählungen aus der Bibel (Nuremberg, 1820 Google Scholar); Sophie Ségur, Bible d’une grand’mere (np, 1976); the first edition was about a century earlier.

48 As in The Bible for Boys and Girls (London, [1952]).

49 Hülle, Ernst, Hundert-Bilder Bibel (Berlin, [c. 1910 Google Scholar]).

50 The Child’s Bible (London and New York, 1912); Battigelli, Marina, Il Vecchio Testamento (Brescia, 1953 Google Scholar); Biblische Geschichte (Bozen, 1959); Alexander, Pat, The Puffin Children’s Bible (Harmondsworth, 1983 Google Scholar); A. Rutgers van der Loeff, De Bijbel voor Kinderen (Leyden, nd).

51 Daniel-Rops, , Histoire sainte (Paris, 1st edn 1948, 1961), p. 100 Google Scholar.

52 Biblische Geschichte (Bozen, 1959), p. 65.

53 Zeidler, Johann Gottfried, Neu-Ausgefertigte Bilder-Bibel, 2nd edn (Magdeburg, 1701 Google Scholar), or Browne, Lewis, The Graphic Bible (London, 1950), pp. 36–7 Google Scholar.

54 Reents, Christine, Die Bibel als Schul- und Hausbuch (Göttingen, 1984), pp. 240–74 Google Scholar.

55 Some omitted all or most of the book of Judges as did [Schmid, Christoph von], Biblische Geschichte, 2nd edn (Munich, 1806 Google Scholar); Decoin, Didier, La Bible Illustrée (Geneva, 1980 Google Scholar); Crouch, Nathaniel, Youth’s Divine Pastime (London, 1691 Google Scholar); Lossius, Kaspar Friedrich, Moralische Bilderbibel (Gotha, 1821 Google Scholar); some cut out Joshua and Judges as did Miller, Johann Peter, Erbauliche Erzählungen, 1st edn (Helmstedt, 1753 Google Scholar); Davidson, J., Setectae e veteri testamento (Philadelphia, 1789 Google Scholar); some left out Judges, 1 and 2 Samuel, and 1 and 2 Kings as did Seidentopf, Johann Gottlieb, Moral der biblischen Geschichte (Berlin, 1803-6 Google Scholar); and some leapt from Moses to Samson as did Pascal, Abbé, Bible de la Jeunesse (Paris, c. 1840 Google Scholar); Hübner, Johann, Zweymahl zwey und funffzig Auserlesene Biblische Historien, 1st edn (Leipzig, 1714 Google Scholar).

56 Simon, Richard, Histoire critique du Nouveau Testament (Rotterdam, 1690 Google Scholar).

57 New Illustrated Bible for the Young (Philadelphia, 1874), p. 128; Bible for Infant Minds (1188s]), pp. 43-4; Mackail, John William, Biblia Innocentium (Hammersmith, [1892]), pp. 97–8 Google Scholar; Canton, William, The Bible Story (New York and London, 1915), pp. 136—41 Google Scholar.

58 Allen, J. F., The New Illustrated Children’s Bible (London, 1970), pp. 142–5 Google Scholar; Die Bibel im Bild (Stuttgart, [1980s]), 3; Roche, Paul, The Bible’s Greatest Stories (New York, 1990), p. 135 Google Scholar.

59 Bridget Hadaway and Atcheson, Jean, The Bible for Children (London, 1974), p. 102 Google Scholar; Stoddard, Sandol, The Illustrated Children’s Bible (London, 1984), pp. 95–7 Google Scholar; Tusquets, Esther, Despues de Moises (Barcelona, 1989), pp. 16–19 Google Scholar.

60 Büdinger, Moses Mordecai, Der Weg des Glaubens (Stuttgart, 1823 Google Scholar).