David Crystal, the world's greatest authority on the English language. His books include Linguistics, Language and Religion, The Stories of English, The Fight for English, and Just a Phrase I'm Going through: my Life in Language. He is Honorary Professor of Linguistics at the University of Wales, Bangor. He has written extensively on religious language, including 'Linguistics and Liturgy' for Church Quarterly and 'Language in Church' for The Tablet.

• Prologue 1 ; Prologue 2 ; 1. In the beginning ; 2. Let there be light ; 3. Be fruitful and multiply ; 4. My brother's keeper? ; 5. Two by two ; 6. A coat of many colours ; 7. Fire and brimstone ; 8. Begat ; 9. Thou shalt not ; 10. Manna, milk, and honey ; 11. Eyes, teeth, and loins ; 12. What hath been wrought ; 13. Bread alone ; 14. How are the mighty fallen! ; 15. The skin of one's teeth ; 16. Out of the mouths of babes ; 17. Pride goes before a fall ; 18. Nothing new under the sun ; 19. Fly in the ointment ; 20. No peace for the wicked ; 21. Be horribly afraid ; Interlude ; 22. Seeing the light ; 23. Eyes, ears, cheeks ; 24. Speaking, shouting, wailing, writing ; 25. Shaking, turning, moving ; 26. Many and few, first and last ; 27. Fights, foes, fools, friends ; 28. Praising famous men ; 29. Sheep, goats, swine ; 30. Money, wages, pearls, mites ; 31. Blessed are the servants ; 32. Heal thyself ; 33. Times and seasons ; 34. Birth, life, and death ; 35. Countries, kingdoms, Armageddon ; 36. Building houses, mansions, sepulchres ; 37. Millstones, crosses, yokes, pricks ; 38. Sowing seeds ; 39. Salt and wine ; 40. The law, judges, thieves, swords ; 41. Love and charity ; 42. Peace and patience, wrath, whore ; Epilogue ; Appendixes ; Indexes

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