Wide as the Waters: The Story of the English Bible and the Revolution It Inspired. By Benson Bobrick. Simon & Shuster, 379 pp., $26.00.

In the Beginning: The Story of the King James Bible and How It Changed a Nation, a Language, and a Culture. By Alister E. McGrath. Doubleday, 340 pp., $24.95.

A History of the English Bible as Literature. By David Norton. Cambridge University Press, 484 pp., $74.95; paperback, $29.95.