Throughout history, interpretations of the Bible have been used to justify everything from peace and egalitarianism to war and repression. The Bible, a product of a millennium of writing, revising, and shifting cultural and political fortunes, advances many ideas troubling to modern consciousness. For example, it condones capital punishment, advocates slavery and genocide, and teaches that women were created to serve men and the family.

What the Bible Really Says, edited by noted Bible scholars Morton Smith and R. Joseph Hoffmann, separates age-old interpretations of (and apologies for) the Bible from what it actually teaches about social issues as government, segregation, marriage, war, and wealth.

These are concise essays, never lapsing into homilies or lengthly erudition. Written by many of the world's foremost biblical scholars, What the Bible Really Says is refreshingly different from others books on "biblical theory". It has no doctrinal axe to grind and does not edit Biblical quotations to agree with predetermined positions. It presents the evidence, much of it contradictory, and lets the reader decide.

Essayists include Baruch Levine, John Priest, James Tabor, Gerald A. Larue, Steven Davies, Bernhard Lang, Morton Smith, Robert P. Carroll, R. Joseph Hoffmann, John Townsend, Mary Callaway, Judith L. Kovacs, and Thomas Podella and Paolo Zella.