Jesus at Bethany, James Jacque Tissot [1886-94]. See Number 90

Self-Contradictions of the Bible by William Henry Burr [1860]

Published anonymously by Burr in pamphlet form, Self-Contradictions of the Bible was, and remains an essential reference work for Atheists, Biblical skeptics and doubters, as well as believers who want to know what the opposition is up to. It is a set of 144 thematically organized pairs of Bible quotations that for the most part, will immediately induce cognitive dissonance in some. You have been warned.

Burr was not an academic: he was a newspaper reporter, an Atheist obviously, a supporter of Darwinism, but an amateur Bible scholar, and sometimes that shows in the selections. Not everything here is, frankly, a direct hit, and the relentless out-of-context quotes mirror how the text can be abused by its adherents. However, this is a working-class Atheist tract. It is not concerned with philosophical niceities. Rather, it is a playbook for use in actual battle.

This is another one of those books which you'll either love or hate. Or perhaps you'll like half of it. It is strange that even in the midst of this critical broadside against the Bible, it is possible to enjoy the poetry and archaic wisdom of this text, and perhaps some of the mystery as well.