Skip to content

The Library

Forty Centuries of Christian Writing

1774 works catalogued century by century, from the literature the Bible was written among to the present — each with a note on what it is, why it lasted, and where to read it.

1900–1801 BC

The Nineteenth Century BC

1 work

c. 1875 BC

Egyptian

The Tale of Sinuhe

Anonymous

A court official flees Egypt on hearing of the king's death, settles among the Asiatics of Retjenu, prospers, marries a chief's daughter, kills a champion in single combat — and grows old longing to be buried at home, until the pharaoh writes and calls him back.

Egyptian · NarrativeGenesisExodus1 SamuelRead elsewhere

1–100

The First Century

1 work

c. 70

Hebrew, surviving in Latin

Biblical Antiquities

Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum

Pseudo-Philo

A retelling of the Bible from Adam to the death of Saul that fills every silence — naming Cain's wife, giving Jephthah's daughter a lament and a name, inventing whole speeches for judges the book of Judges dismisses in a line.

Second Temple Jewish · Retold narrativeGenesisJudges1 SamuelHebrewsRead elsewhere

101–200

The Second Century

1 work

c. 100–130

Greek

Fourth Baruch

Paraleipomena Jeremiou

Anonymous

Jeremiah's servant Abimelech sleeps sixty-six years under a tree and wakes with figs still fresh in his basket to find the exile over. The book ends with Jeremiah proclaiming the Son of God, being stoned by the people, and a stone taking his shape so that he can finish the message.

Contested · NarrativeJeremiahLamentations2 KingsRead elsewhere

1501–1600

The Sixteenth Century

1 work

c. 1559–1571

Scots

The History of the Reformation in Scotland

John Knox · c. 1514–1572

A partisan and vivid account of the Scottish Reformation, including verbatim reconstructions of the author's own interviews with Mary Queen of Scots.

Reformed · HistoryRead elsewhere