1.
Bible
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The Bible is a collection of sacred texts or scriptures that Jews and Christians consider to be a product of divine inspiration and a record of the relationship between God and humans. Many different authors contributed to the Bible, what is regarded as canonical text differs depending on traditions and groups, a number of Bible canons have evolved, with overlapping and diverging contents. The Christian Old Testament overlaps with the Hebrew Bible and the Greek Septuagint, the New Testament is a collection of writings by early Christians, believed to be mostly Jewish disciples of Christ, written in first-century Koine Greek. These early Christian Greek writings consist of narratives, letters, among Christian denominations there is some disagreement about the contents of the canon, primarily the Apocrypha, a list of works that are regarded with varying levels of respect. Attitudes towards the Bible also differ amongst Christian groups and this concept arose during the Protestant Reformation, and many denominations today support the use of the Bible as the only source of Christian teaching. With estimated total sales of over 5 billion copies, the Bible is widely considered to be the book of all time. It has estimated sales of 100 million copies, and has been a major influence on literature and history, especially in the West. The English word Bible is from the Latin biblia, from the word in Medieval Latin and Late Latin. Medieval Latin biblia is short for biblia sacra holy book, while biblia in Greek and it gradually came to be regarded as a feminine singular noun in medieval Latin, and so the word was loaned as a singular into the vernaculars of Western Europe. Latin biblia sacra holy books translates Greek τὰ βιβλία τὰ ἅγια ta biblia ta hagia, the word βιβλίον itself had the literal meaning of paper or scroll and came to be used as the ordinary word for book. It is the diminutive of βύβλος byblos, Egyptian papyrus, possibly so called from the name of the Phoenician sea port Byblos from whence Egyptian papyrus was exported to Greece, the Greek ta biblia was an expression Hellenistic Jews used to describe their sacred books. Christian use of the term can be traced to c.223 CE, bruce notes that Chrysostom appears to be the first writer to use the Greek phrase ta biblia to describe both the Old and New Testaments together. The division of the Hebrew Bible into verses is based on the sof passuk cantillation mark used by the 10th-century Masoretes to record the verse divisions used in oral traditions. The oldest extant copy of a complete Bible is an early 4th-century parchment book preserved in the Vatican Library, the oldest copy of the Tanakh in Hebrew and Aramaic dates from the 10th century CE. The oldest copy of a complete Latin Bible is the Codex Amiatinus and he states that it is not a magical book, nor was it literally written by God and passed to mankind. In Christian Bibles, the New Testament Gospels were derived from traditions in the second half of the first century CE. Riches says that, Scholars have attempted to reconstruct something of the history of the oral traditions behind the Gospels, the period of transmission is short, less than 40 years passed between the death of Jesus and the writing of Marks Gospel. This means that there was time for oral traditions to assume fixed form
2.
Biblical canon
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A biblical canon or canon of scripture is a list of texts which a particular religious community regards as authoritative scripture. The word canon comes from the Greek κανών, meaning rule or measuring stick, Christians became the first to use the term in reference to scripture, but Eugene Ulrich regards the idea as Jewish. In contrast, a canon, which permits the addition of books through the process of continuous revelation. These canons have developed through debate and agreement by the authorities of their respective faiths. Believers consider canonical books as inspired by God or as expressive of the history of the relationship between God and his people. Differences exist between the Jewish Tanakh and Christian biblical canons, and between the canons of different Christian denominations, the differing criteria and processes of canonization dictate what the various communities regard as inspired scripture. In some cases where varying strata of scriptural inspiration have accumulated, Rabbinic Judaism recognizes the twenty-four books of the Masoretic Text, commonly called the Tanakh or Hebrew Bible. According to Marc Zvi Brettler, the Jewish scriptures outside the Torah, the book of Deuteronomy includes a prohibition against adding or subtracting which might apply to the book itself or to the instruction received by Moses on Mt. Sinai. The Book of Nehemiah suggests that the priest-scribe Ezra brought the Torah back from Babylon to Jerusalem, both I and II Maccabees suggest that Judas Maccabeus likewise collected sacred books, indeed some scholars argue that the Jewish canon was fixed by the Hasmonean dynasty. However, these sources do not suggest that the canon was at that time closed, moreover. They lived in a period of two centuries ending c.70 AD. In addition to the Tanakh, mainstream Rabbinic Judaism considers the Talmud to be another central and it takes the form of a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, philosophy, customs, and history. There are numerous citations of Sirach within the Talmud, even though the book was not ultimately accepted into the Hebrew canon, the Talmud is the basis for all codes of rabbinic law and is often quoted in other rabbinic literature. Certain groups of Jews, such as the Karaites, do not accept the oral Law as it is codified in the Talmud, Ethiopian Jews—also known as Beta Israel —possess a canon of scripture that is distinct from Rabbinic Judaism. Mäṣḥafä Kedus is the name for the literature of these Jews. Their holiest book, the Orit, consists of the Pentateuch, as well as Joshua, Judges, the rest of the Ethiopian Jewish canon is considered to be of secondary importance. It consists of the remainder of the Hebrew canon—with the possible exception of the Book of Lamentations—and various deuterocanonical books. These include Sirach, Judith, Tobit,1 and 2 Esdras,1 and 4 Baruch, the three books of Meqabyan, Jubilees, Enoch, the Testament of Abraham, the Testament of Isaac, the latter three patriarchal testaments are distinct to this scriptural tradition
3.
Books of the Bible
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Different religious groups include different books in their Biblical canons, in varying orders, and sometimes divide or combine books. Christian Bibles range from the 66 books of the Protestant canon to the 81 books of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church canon, the Tanakh contains 24 books divided into three parts, the five books of the Torah, the Neviim, and the Ketuvim. The first part of Christian Bibles is called the Old Testament, which contains, at minimum, the Catholic Church and Eastern Christian churches also hold that certain deuterocanonical books and passages are part of the Old Testament canon. The second part is the New Testament, containing 27 books, the four Canonical gospels, Acts of the Apostles,21 Epistles or letters, the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and Assyrian Christian churches may have minor differences in their lists of accepted books. The list given here for these churches is the most inclusive, rabbinic Judaism recognizes the 24 books of the Masoretic Text, commonly called the Tanakh or Hebrew Bible, as authoritative. Most conservative scholars believe that the Torah was canonized c.400 BCE, the Prophets c.200 BCE, the Council of Jamnia theory is increasingly rejected by most liberal scholars. Most of the quotations of the Old Testament in the New Testament, while differing more or less from the version presented by the Masoretic text, align with that of the Septuagint. These are works recognized by the Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Oriental Orthodox Churches as being part of scripture, Orthodox differentiate scriptural books by omitting these from corporate worship and from use as a sole basis for doctrine. Many recognize them as good, but not on the level of the books of the Bible. Anglicanism considers the apocrypha worthy of being read for example of life, Luther made a parallel statement in calling them, not considered equal to the Holy Scriptures, but. useful and good to read. The difference in canons derives from the difference in the Masoretic Text, Books found in both the Hebrew and the Greek are accepted by all denominations, and by Jews, these are the protocanonical books. Most quotations of the Old Testament in the New Testament, differing by varying degrees from the Masoretic Text, are taken from the Septuagint, the unanimous consensus of modern scholars consider several other books, including 1 Maccabees and Judith, to have been composed in Hebrew or Aramaic. Opinion is divided on the book of Baruch, while it is acknowledged that the Epistle of Jeremiah, the Wisdom of Solomon and it accepts the 39 protocanonical books along with the following books, called the narrow canon. The enumeration of books in the Ethiopic Bible varies greatly between different authorities and printings, for the Orthodox canon, Septuagint titles are provided in parentheses when these differ from those editions. For the Catholic canon, the Douaic titles are provided in parentheses when these differ from those editions, likewise, the King James Version references some of these books by the traditional spelling when referring to them in the New Testament, such as Esaias. In the spirit of more recent Catholic translations use the same standardized spellings. The Talmud in Bava Batra 14b gives a different order for the books in Neviim and Ketuvim and this order is also quoted in Mishneh Torah Hilchot Sefer Torah 7,15. The order of the books of the Torah are universal through all denominations of Judaism and they are present in a few historic Protestant versions, the German Luther Bible included such books, as did the English 1611 King James Version
4.
Torah
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The Torah is the central reference of Judaism. It has a range of meanings and it can most specifically mean the first five books of the twenty-four books of the Tanakh, and it usually includes the rabbinic commentaries. In rabbinic literature the word Torah denotes both the five books and the Oral Torah, the Oral Torah consists of interpretations and amplifications which according to rabbinic tradition have been handed down from generation to generation and are now embodied in the Talmud and Midrash. According to the Midrash, the Torah was created prior to the creation of the world, traditionally, the words of the Torah are written on a scroll by a scribe in Hebrew. A Torah portion is read publicly at least once every three days in the presence of a congregation, reading the Torah publicly is one of the bases for Jewish communal life. The word Torah in Hebrew is derived from the root ירה, the meaning of the word is therefore teaching, doctrine, or instruction, the commonly accepted law gives a wrong impression. Other translational contexts in the English language include custom, theory, guidance, the earliest name for the first part of the Bible seems to have been The Torah of Moses. This title, however, is neither in the Torah itself. It appears in Joshua and Kings, but it cannot be said to refer there to the entire corpus, in contrast, there is every likelihood that its use in the post-Exilic works was intended to be comprehensive. Other early titles were The Book of Moses and The Book of the Torah, Christian scholars usually refer to the first five books of the Hebrew Bible as the Pentateuch, a term first used in the Hellenistic Judaism of Alexandria, meaning five books, or as the Law. The Torah starts from the beginning of Gods creating the world, through the beginnings of the people of Israel, their descent into Egypt, and it ends with the death of Moses, just before the people of Israel cross to the promised land of Canaan. Interspersed in the narrative are the teachings given explicitly or implicitly embedded in the narrative. This is followed by the story of the three patriarchs, Joseph and the four matriarchs, God gives to the patriarchs a promise of the land of Canaan, but at the end of Genesis the sons of Jacob end up leaving Canaan for Egypt due to a regional famine. They had heard there was a grain storage and distribution facility in Egypt. Exodus begins the story of Gods revelation to his people of Israel through Moses, Moses receives the Torah from God, and teaches His laws and Covenant to the people of Israel. It also talks about the first violation of the covenant when the Golden Calf was constructed, Exodus includes the instructions on building the Tabernacle and concludes with its actual construction. Leviticus begins with instructions to the Israelites on how to use the Tabernacle, leviticus 26 provides a detailed list of rewards for following Gods commandments and a detailed list of punishments for not following them. Numbers tells how Israel consolidated itself as a community at Sinai, set out from Sinai to move towards Canaan, even Moses sins and is told he would not live to enter the land
5.
Nevi'im
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Neviim is the second main division of the Hebrew Bible, between the Torah and Ketuvim. The Neviim are divided into two groups, the Former Prophets consists of the narrative books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings, while the Latter Prophets include the books of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and The Twelve minor prophets. In Judaism, Samuel and Kings are each counted as one book, in addition, twelve relatively short prophetic books are counted as one in a single collection called Trei Asar or The Twelve Minor Prophets. The Jewish tradition thus counts a total of eight books in Neviim out of a total of 24 books in the entire Tanakh, the Book of Daniel is part of the Writings, or Ketuvim, in the Tanakh. The Former Prophets are the books Joshua, Judges, 1st & 2nd Samuel, after Moses death, Joshua, by virtue of his previous appointment as Moses successor, receives from God the command to cross the Jordan. The book essentially consists of three parts, The history of the conquest of the land, the allotment of the land to the different tribes, with the appointment of cities of refuge, the provision for the Levites, and the dismissal of the eastern tribes to their homes. The farewell addresses of Joshua, with an account of his death, the Book of Judges consists of three distinct parts, The Introduction giving a summary of the book of Joshua. The Main Text, discussing the five Great Judges, Abimelech, the Appendices, giving two stories set in the time of the Judges, but not discussing the Judges themselves. The Books of Samuel consists of five parts, The period of Gods rejection of Eli, Samuels birth, the period of the life of Saul prior to meeting David. The period of Sauls interaction with David, the period of Davids reign and the rebellions he suffers. An appendix of material concerning David in no order. A conclusion of sorts appears at 1 Kings 1-2, concerning Solomon enacting a final revenge on those who did what David perceived as wrongdoing, the Latter Prophets are divided into two groups, the Major prophets and the Twelve Minor Prophets collected into a single book. The 66 chapters of Isaiah consist primarily of prophecies of the judgments awaiting nations that are persecuting Judah and these nations include Babylon, Assyria, Philistia, Moab, Syria, Israel, Ethiopia, Egypt, Arabia, and Phoenicia. Chapter 6 describes Isaiahs call to be a prophet of God, Chapters 36–39 provide historical material about King Hezekiah and his triumph of faith in God. This section is seen by Jews as describing an actual king, a descendant of their king, David. The prophecy continues with some scholars have called The Book of Comfort which begins in chapter 40. In chapter 45,1 the Persian ruler Cyrus is named as the messiah who will overthrow the Babylonians, the remaining chapters of the book contain prophecies of the future glory of Zion under the rule of a righteous servant. The Book of Jeremiah can be divided into subsections
6.
Ketuvim
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Ketuvim is the third and final section of the Tanakh, after Torah and Neviim. In English translations of the Hebrew Bible, this section is usually entitled Writings, another name used for this section is Hagiographa. The Ketuvim are believed to have written under divine inspiration. Found among the Writings within the Hebrew scriptures, I and II Chronicles form one book, along with Ezra, collectively, eleven books are included in the Ketuvim. In masoretic manuscripts, Psalms, Proverbs and Job are presented in a special two-column form emphasizing the parallel stichs in the verses, collectively, these three books are known as Sifrei Emet. These three books are also the ones in the Hebrew Bible with a special system of cantillation notes that are designed to emphasize parallel stichs within verses. However, the beginning and end of the book of Job are in the prose system. The five relatively short books of Song of Songs, Book of Ruth and these are the latest books collected and designated as authoritative in the Jewish canon. These scrolls are read over the course of the year in many Jewish communities. The list below presents them in the order they are read in the synagogue on holidays, besides the three poetic books and the five scrolls, the remaining books in Ketuvim are Daniel, Ezra-Nehemiah and Chronicles. Two of them are the books in Tanakh with significant portions in Aramaic. These two also describe relatively late events, the following list presents the books of Ketuvim in the order they appear in most printed editions. It also divides them into three based on the distinctiveness of Sifrei Emet and Hamesh Megillot. The Babylonian Talmud gives their order as Ruth, Psalms, Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, Lamentations of Jeremiah, Daniel, Scroll of Esther, Ezra, Chronicles. According to T. Henshaw, as early as 132 BCE some references suggesting that the Ketuvim was starting to take shape, jacob Neusner says something different, he argues that the notion of a biblical canon was not prominent in 2nd-century Rabbinic Judaism or even later. Against Apion, the writing of Josephus in 95 CE, treated the text of the Hebrew Bible as a canon to which. No one has ventured either to add, or to remove, michael Barber, however, avers that Josephus canon is not identical to that of the modern Hebrew Bible. For a long time, following this date, the inspiration of Esther, the Song of Songs
7.
Hebrew Bible
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They are composed mainly in Biblical Hebrew, with some passages in Biblical Aramaic. The term does not comment upon the naming, numbering or ordering of books, the term Hebrew Bible is an attempt to provide specificity with respect to contents but avoid allusion to any particular interpretative tradition or theological school of thought. Hebrew Bible refers to the Jewish biblical canon, in its Latin form, Biblia Hebraica, it traditionally serves as a title for printed editions of the Masoretic Text. Many biblical studies scholars advocate use of the term Hebrew Bible as a substitute to terms with religious connotations. Hebrew Bible Old Testament without prescribing the use of either, however, he accepts that there is no reason why non-Christians should feel obliged to refer to these books as the Old Testament, apart from custom of use. Modern Christian formulations of this tension include Supersessionism, Covenant Theology, New Covenant Theology, Dispensationalism, in terms of canon, Christian usage of Old Testament does not refer to a universally agreed upon set of books but, rather, varies depending on denomination. The Hebrew Bible includes small portions in Aramaic, written and printed in Aramaic square-script, the books that constitute the Hebrew Bible developed over roughly a millennium. The oldest texts seem to come from the 11th or 10th centuries BCE and they are edited works, being collections of various sources intricately and carefully woven together. Since the 19th century, most biblical scholars have agreed that the Pentateuch consists of four sources which have been woven together and these four sources are J, D, E and P sources. They were combined to form the Pentateuch sometime in the 6th century BCE and this theory is now known as the documentary hypothesis, and has been the dominant theory for the past two hundred years. The Deuteronomist credited with the Pentateuchs book of Deuteronomy is also said to be the source of the books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, several editions, all titled Biblia Hebraica, have been produced by various German publishers since 1906. Between 1906 and 1955, Rudolf Kittel published nine editions of it,1966, the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft published the renamed Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia in six editions until 1997. Since 2004 the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft has published the Biblia Hebraica Quinta, other projects include, Hebrew University Bible Project Hebrew Bible, A Critical Edition Biblical canon Books of the Bible Non-canonical books referenced in the Bible Torah Brueggemann, Walter. An introduction to the Old Testament, the canon and Christian imagination, the People of Ancient Israel, an introduction to Old Testament Literature, History, and Thought, Harper and Row,1974. Sinai and Zion, An Entry into the Jewish Bible, archived from the original on 14 March 2012. The Ancient Near East, Volume I, Princeton, New Jersey, Princeton University Press. An abridgement of Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament Noth, how the Bible Became a Book. The Old Testament, A Literary History, hebrew-English Tanakh, the Jewish Bible Complete, fully vocalized, contilated, Masoretic text of the Hebrew Bible, together with the classic English translation by the Jewish Publication Society
8.
Old Testament
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Its counterpart is the New Testament, the second part of the Christian Bible. The books that comprise the Old Testament canon differ between Christian Churches as well as their order and names. The most common Protestant canon comprises 39 books, the Catholic canon comprises 46 books, the 39 books in common to all the Christian canons corresponds to 24 books of the Tanakh, with some differences of order, and there are some differences in text. The additional number reflects the split of texts in the Christian Bibles into separate books, for example, Kings, Samuel and Chronicles, Ezra–Nehemiah, the books which are part of a Christian Old Testament but which are not part of the Hebrew canon are sometimes described as deuterocanonical. In general, Protestant bibles do not include books in its canon. The Old Testament consists of translations of many books by various authors produced over a period of centuries. The canon formed in stages, first the Pentateuch by around 400 BC, then the Prophets during the Hasmonean dynasty, and finally the remaining books. The Old Testament contains 39 or 46 or more books, divided, very broadly, into the Pentateuch, the books, the wisdom books. For the Orthodox canon, Septuagint titles are provided in parentheses when these differ from those editions, for the Catholic canon, the Douaic titles are provided in parentheses when these differ from those editions. Likewise, the King James Version references some of these books by the spelling when referring to them in the New Testament. The Talmud in Bava Batra 14b gives a different order for the books in Neviim and Ketuvim and this order is also cited in Mishneh Torah Hilchot Sefer Torah 7,15. The order of the books of the Torah is universal through all denominations of Judaism and they are present in a few historic Protestant versions, the German Luther Bible included such books, as did the English 1611 King James Version. Empty table cells indicate that a book is absent from that canon, several of the books in the Eastern Orthodox canon are also found in the appendix to the Latin Vulgate, formerly the official Bible of the Roman Catholic Church. The books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings follow, there is a broad consensus among scholars that these originated as a single work during the Babylonian exile of the 6th century BC. The two Books of Chronicles cover much the material as the Pentateuch and Deuteronomistic history and probably date from the 4th century BC. Chronicles, and Ezra–Nehemiah, were finished during the 3rd century BC. Catholic and Orthodox Old Testaments contain two to four Books of Maccabees, written in the 2nd and 1st centuries BC and these history books make up around half the total content of the Old Testament. God is consistently depicted as the one who created or put into order the world, the Old Testament stresses the special relationship between God and his chosen people, Israel, but includes instructions for proselytes as well
9.
New Testament
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The New Testament is the second major part of the Christian biblical canon, the first part being the Old Testament, based on the Hebrew Bible. The New Testament discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Christianity, Christians regard both the Old and New Testaments together as sacred scripture. The New Testament has frequently accompanied the spread of Christianity around the world and it reflects and serves as a source for Christian theology and morality. Both extended readings and phrases directly from the New Testament are also incorporated into the various Christian liturgies, the New Testament has influenced religious, philosophical, and political movements in Christendom and left an indelible mark on literature, art, and music. In almost all Christian traditions today, the New Testament consists of 27 books, John A. T. Robinson, Dan Wallace, and William F. Albright dated all the books of the New Testament before 70 AD. Others give a date of 80 AD, or at 96 AD. Over time, some disputed books, such as the Book of Revelation, other works earlier held to be Scripture, such as 1 Clement, the Shepherd of Hermas, and the Diatessaron, were excluded from the New Testament. However, the canon of the New Testament, at least since Late Antiquity, has been almost universally recognized within Christianity. The term new testament, or new covenant first occurs in Jeremiah 31,31, the same Greek phrase for new covenant is found elsewhere in the New Testament. Modern English, like Latin, distinguishes testament and covenant as alternative translations, John Wycliffes 1395 version is a translation of the Latin Vulgate and so follows different terms in Jeremiah and Hebrews, Lo. Days shall come, saith the Lord, and I shall make a new covenant with the house of Israel, for he reproving him saith, Lo. Days come, saith the Lord, when I shall establish a new testament on the house of Israel, use of the term New Testament to describe a collection of first and second-century Christian Greek Scriptures can be traced back to Tertullian. In Against Marcion, written circa 208 AD, he writes of the Divine Word, by the 4th century, the existence—even if not the exact contents—of both an Old and New Testament had been established. Lactantius, a 3rd–4th century Christian author wrote in his early-4th-century Latin Institutiones Divinae and that which preceded the advent and passion of Christ—that is, the law and the prophets—is called the Old, but those things which were written after His resurrection are named the New Testament. The canon of the New Testament is the collection of books that most Christians regard as divinely inspired, several of these writings sought to extend, interpret, and apply apostolic teaching to meet the needs of Christians in a given locality. The book order is the same in the Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholic, the Slavonic, Armenian and Ethiopian traditions have different New Testament book orders. Each of the four gospels in the New Testament narrates the life, death, the word gospel derives from the Old English gōd-spell, meaning good news or glad tidings. The gospel was considered the good news of the coming Kingdom of Messiah, and the redemption through the life and death of Jesus, Gospel is a calque of the Greek word εὐαγγέλιον, euangelion
10.
Chapters and verses of the Bible
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The Bible is a compilation of many shorter books written at different times by a variety of authors, and later assembled into the biblical canon. All but the shortest of these books have been divided into chapters, generally a page or so in length, since the mid-16th century, each chapter has been further divided into verses of a few short lines or sentences. Sometimes a sentence spans more than one verse, as in the case of Ephesians 2, 8–9, as the chapter and verse divisions were not part of the original texts, they form part of the paratext of the Bible. The Jewish divisions of the Hebrew text differ at various points from those used by Christians, some chapter divisions also occur in different places, e. g.1 Chronicles 5, 27–41 in Hebrew Bibles is numbered as 1 Chronicles 6, 1–15 in Christian translations. The original manuscripts did not contain the chapter and verse divisions in the form familiar to modern readers. In antiquity Hebrew texts were divided into paragraphs that were identified by two letters of the Hebrew alphabet, peh פ indicated an open paragraph that began on a new line, while Samekh ס indicated a closed paragraph that began on the same line after a small space. These two letters begin the Hebrew words open and closed, and are, themselves, open פ, the earliest known copies of the Book of Isaiah from the Dead Sea Scrolls used parashot divisions, although they differ slightly from the Masoretic divisions. The Hebrew Bible was also divided into larger sections. In Israel the Torah were divided into 154 sections so that they could be read aloud in weekly worship over the course of three years. In Babylonia it was divided into 53 or 54 sections so it could be read through in one year, the New Testament was divided into topical sections known as kephalaia by the fourth century. Eusebius of Caesarea divided the gospels into parts that he listed in tables or canons, neither of these systems corresponds with modern chapter divisions. Chapter divisions, with titles, are found in the 9th century Tours manuscript. 3, the so-called Bible of Rorigo, Archbishop Stephen Langton and Cardinal Hugo de Sancto Caro developed different schemas for systematic division of the Bible in the early 13th century. It is the system of Archbishop Langton on which the chapter divisions are based. While chapter divisions have become universal, editions of the Bible have sometimes been published without them. Such editions, which typically use thematic or literary criteria to divide the biblical books instead, include John Lockes Paraphrase and Notes on the Epistles of St. One of the most frequent of these was a type of punctuation. Most attribute these to Rabbi Isaac Nathan ben Kalonymuss work for the first Hebrew Bible concordance around 1440, the first person to divide New Testament chapters into verses was Italian Dominican biblical scholar Santi Pagnini, but his system was never widely adopted
11.
Biblical apocrypha
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Some Christian Churches include some or all of the same texts within the body of their version of the Old Testament. Although the term apocrypha had been in use since the 5th century, to this date, the Apocrypha is included in the lectionaries of Anglican and Lutheran Churches. Today, English Bibles with the Apocrypha are becoming popular again. Jerome completed his version of the Bible, the Latin Vulgate, in the Middle Ages the Vulgate became the de facto standard version of the Bible in the West. The Vulgate manuscripts included prologues that Jerome clearly identified certain books of the Vulgate Old Testament as apocryphal or non-canonical. Wisdom, therefore, which bears the name of Solomon, and the book of Jesus, the Son of Sirach, and Judith, and Tobias. The first book of Maccabees I have found to be Hebrew, in the prologue to Esdras he mentions 3 and 4 Esdras as being apocrypha. In his prologue to the books of Solomon, he says, Also included is the book of the model of virtue Jesus son of Sirach, the second was never among the Hebrews, the very style of which reeks of Greek eloquence. And none of the ancient scribes affirm this one is of Philo Judaeus and he mentions the book of Baruch in his prologue to the Jeremias and does not explicitly refer to it as apocryphal, but he does mention that it is neither read nor held among the Hebrews. In his prologue to the Judith he mentions that among the Hebrews, the authority came into contention, according to Michael Barber, although Jerome was once suspicious of the apocrypha, he later viewed them as Scripture as shown in his epistles. Barber cites Jeromes letter to Eustochium, in which Jerome quotes Sirach 13,2, elsewhere Jerome also refers to Baruch, the Story of Susannah and Wisdom as scripture. Apocrypha are well attested in surviving manuscripts of the Christian Bible and this famous edition of the Vulgate was published in 1455. The Prayer of Manasses was located after the Books of Chronicles, and 3 and 4 Esdras followed 2 Esdras, martin Luther translated the Bible into German during the early part of the 16th century, first releasing a complete Bible in 1534. His Bible was the first major edition to have a section called Apocrypha. Books and portions of books not found in the Masoretic Text of Judaism were moved out of the body of the Old Testament to this section, Luther placed these books between the Old and New Testaments. For this reason, these works are known as inter-testamental books. The books 1 and 2 Esdras were omitted entirely, Luther was making a polemical point about the canonicity of these books. Although his statement was controversial in his day, Jerome was later titled a Doctor of the Church and he did not put them in a separate named section, but he did move them to the end of his New Testament
12.
Authorship of the Bible
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Few biblical books are regarded by scholars as the product of a single individual, and all have been edited to produce the works known today. The following article outlines the conclusions of the majority of scholars, along with the traditional views. Jews, Samaritans, and Christians have, in different ways, regarded the Bible as being the Word of God, in many Christian liturgies, the words This is the word of the Lord will follow a Scripture reading. As Saint Thomas Aquinas stated, The author of Holy Scripture is God, the Westminster Confession of Faith asserts that the Bibles authority depends wholly upon God, the Author thereof, and therefore it is to be received, because it is the Word of God. A few of the books of the Minor Prophets claim divine origin, Hosea 1,1 has, The word of the Lord that came to Hosea son of Beeri. While Joel, Micah and Zephaniah all commence in a similar fashion, James L. Mays suggests that it was the theological understanding of the final redactor that the book as a whole is the word of Yahweh. There is some debate as to how the word of God may have transmitted to the authors. Modern Christian theology usually sees the word as inspired by God, many evangelicals appeal to 2 Timothy 3,16 as indicating the Bibles divine authorship, All Scripture is breathed out by God. The Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh, is the collection of scriptures making up the Bible used by Judaism, the order used here follows the divisions used in Jewish Bibles. The first division of the Jewish Bible is the Torah, meaning Instruction or Law, in literature it is frequently called by its Greek name. It is the group of five books made up of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, according to Rabbinic tradition the five books of the Torah were written by Moses, with the exception of the last eight verses of Deuteronomy which describe his death. Today, the majority of scholars agree that the Pentateuch does not have an author. At the same time there has been a tendency to bring the origins of the Pentateuch further forward in time, Deuteronomy is treated separately from Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers. Its place in the hypothesis is anomalous, as it, unlike the other four. The Former Prophets, make up the first part of the division of the Hebrew Bible, the Neviim. In Christian Bibles the Book of Ruth, which belongs in the section of the Hebrew Bible, is inserted between Judges and Samuel. Since 1943 most scholars have accepted Martin Noths argument that Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings make up a single work, noth believed that the history was the work of a single author writing in the time of the Babylonian exile. Still later scholars have discovered further layers and further author-editors, in the 1990s some scholars began to question the existence of a Deuteronomistic history and the question of the origin of these books continues to be debated
13.
Development of the Old Testament canon
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Orthodox Christians, Catholics and Protestants use different canons, which differ with respect to the texts that are included in the Old Testament. Following Jeromes Veritas Hebraica principle, the Protestant Old Testament consists of the books as the Hebrew Bible. Protestants number the Old Testament books at 39, while the Hebrew Bible numbers the same books as 24. The Hebrew Bible counts Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles as one each, and the 12 minor prophets are one book. Many of these canons include books and sections of books that the others do not, for a fuller discussion of these differences, see Books of the Bible. The Hebrew Bible consists of 24 books of the Masoretic Text recognizes by Rabbinic Judaism, according to Marc Zvi Brettler, the Jewish scriptures outside the Torah and the Prophets were fluid, with different groups seeing authority in different books. Michael Barber says that the earliest and most explicit evidence of a Hebrew canonical list comes from Jewish historian Josephus who wrote about a used by Jews in the first century AD. The remaining four books contain hymns to God, and precepts for the conduct of human life, Josephus mentions Ezra and Nehemiah in Antiquities of the Jews and Esther in Chapter 6. The canon is till the reign of Artaxerxes as mentioned by Josephus above in Against Apion, for a long time, following this date, the divine inspiration of Esther, the Song of Songs, and Ecclesiastes was often under scrutiny. Barber says that Josephus 22 books were not universally accepted, since other Jewish communities used more than 22 books, in 1871, Heinrich Graetz concluded that there had been a Council of Jamnia which had decided Jewish canon sometime in the late 1st century. This became the scholarly consensus for much of the 20th century. However, the theory of the Council of Jamnia is largely discredited today, one early record of the deuterocanonical books is found in the early Koine Greek Septuagint translation of the Jewish scriptures. This translation was used by the Early Christians and is the one most often quoted in the New Testament when it quotes the Old Testament. Other, older versions of the texts in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek, have since been discovered among the Dead Sea scrolls, the traditional explanation of the development of the Old Testament canon describes two sets of Old Testament books, the protocanonical and the deuterocanonical books. Michael Barber argues that this reconstruction is grossly inaccurate and that the case against the apocrypha is overstated.44. For most Early Christians, the Hebrew Bible was Holy Scripture but was to be understood, while deuterocanonical books were referenced by some fathers as Scripture, men such as Athanasius held that they were for reading only and not to be used for determination of doctrine. Athanasius includes the Book of Baruch and the Letter of Jeremiah in the list of the Canon of the Old Testament, following Martin Luther, Protestants regard the deuterocanonical books as apocryphal. The Early Christian Church used the Greek texts since Greek was a lingua franca of the Roman Empire at the time, the Septuagint seems to have been a major source for the Apostles, but it is not the only one
14.
Documentary hypothesis
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All three agree that the Torah is not a unified work from a single author but is made up of sources combined over many centuries by many hands. They differ on the nature of these sources and how they were combined, according to the documentary hypothesis there were four sources, each originally a separate and independent book, joined together at various points in time by a series of editors. Fragmentary hypotheses see the Torah as a collection of small fragments, of its constituent sources, Deuteronomy is generally dated between the 7th and 5th centuries, there is much discussion of the unity, extent, nature, and date of the Priestly material. The Torah is the name for the first five books of the Bible, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers. As a result, the Mosaic authorship of the Torah had been rejected by leading scholars by the 17th century. Later still the Elohist was split into Elohist and Priestly sources and these documentary approaches were in competition with two other models, the fragmentary and the supplementary. The table is based on that in Walter Houstons The Pentateuch, note that the three hypotheses are not mutually exclusive. In 1878 Julius Wellhausen published Geschichte Israels, Bd 1, the edition he printed as Prolegomena zur Geschichte Israels in 1883. Wellhausens documentary hypothesis owed little to Wellhausen himself but was mainly the work of Hupfeld, Eduard Reuss, Graf, and others and he accepted Hupfields four sources and, in agreement with Graf, placed the Priestly work last. Wellhausens explanation of the formation of the Torah was also an explanation of the history of Israel. The consensus around the documentary hypothesis collapsed in the last decades of the 20th century and this led to the current position which sees only two major sources in the Pentateuch, the Deuteronomist and the Priestly. Most scholars also agree that some form of Priestly source existed, although its extent, the remainder is called collectively non-Priestly, a grouping which includes both pre-Priestly and post-Priestly material. There is also a recognition that Genesis developed separately from Exodus-Leviticus-Numbers. A revised version of the documentary hypothesis still has adherents, especially in North America and its resurrection of an E source is probably the single element most often criticised by other scholars, as European scholars have largely rejected it as fragmentary or non-existent
15.
Mosaic authorship
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Mosaic authorship is the Jewish and Christian tradition that Moses was the author of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. This culminated in the the 8th of Maimonides 13 Principles of Faith, the Torah is the collective name for the first five books of the Bible - Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. Authorship was not considered important by the society produced the Hebrew Bible. The Babylonian Talmud, an encyclopedia of Jewish scholarship composed between 200-500 CE, states that Moses wrote his own book and the section concerning Balaam. Orthodox rabbis therefore say that thanks to this chain of custodians the Torah of today is identical with that received by Moses, not varying by a single letter. This explanation is a minority one, but it explains, for example, why every step in the description of the construction of the Tabernacle is followed by the phrase, As the Lord commanded Moses. There were also passages which seemed impossible for Moses to have written, notably the account of his own death and burial in last verses of Deuteronomy, Biblical scholars today agree almost unanimously that the Torah is the work of many authors over many centuries. The documentary hypothesis aroused understandable opposition from traditional scholars, the most he would concede to the proponents of the hypothesis was that Moses may have written various scrolls over his career and that these may have been collated and united before his death. He further states that while the text of the Torah was corrupted, oral tradition was preserved intact, as David Levi had feared, the questioning of Mosaic authorship had led to a profound skepticism towards the very idea of revealed religion. Took the Pentateuch as Mosaic put their seal on it as Holy Scripture, authorship of the Bible Dating the Bible Documentary hypothesis The Exodus Oral Torah Wiseman hypothesis Bandstra, Barry L. Reading the Old Testament, an introduction to the Hebrew Bible, in Coogan, Marc Z. Brettler, Michael D. Brettler, Marc Zvi, Newsom, Carol. The New Oxford Annotated Bible with Apocrypha, New Revised Standard Version, in Freedman, David Noel, Myers, Allen C. Remembering Biblical Figures in the Late Persian and Early Hellenistic Periods, Social Memory, greifenhagen, Franz V. Egypt on the Pentateuchs Ideological Map, Constructing Biblical Israels Identity. Heavenly Torah, As Refracted Through the Generations, the Old Testament between theology and history, a critical survey. The Hebrew Bible, the Old Testament, and Historical Criticism, Jews, the Old testament, a brief introduction. An Introduction to the Old Testament, mcDermott, John J. Reading the Pentateuch, a historical introduction. Struggling with God, An Introduction to the Pentateuch, the History of Scepticism, From Savonarola to Bayle. Essential Torah, A Complete Guide to the Five Books of Moses, expanding the Palace of Torah, Orthodoxy and Feminism
16.
Authorship of the Pauline epistles
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The Pauline epistles are the fourteen books in the New Testament traditionally attributed to Paul the Apostle, although many dispute the anonymous Epistle to the Hebrews as being a Pauline epistle. Several additional letters bearing Pauls name are disputed among scholars, namely Ephesians, Colossians,2 Thessalonians,1 and 2 Timothy, scholarly opinion is sharply divided on whether or not Colossians and 2 Thessalonians are genuine letters of Paul. The remaining four contested epistles-- Ephesians, as well as the three known as the Pastoral epistles–- have been labeled pseudepigraphical works by most critical scholars. There are two examples of letters written in Paul’s name apart from the New Testament epistles, the Epistle to the Laodiceans and 3 Corinthians. The Epistle to the Hebrews is actually anonymous, but it has been attributed to Paul. Most modern scholars agree that Hebrews was not written by the apostle Paul. Various other possible authorships have been suggested, scholars use a number of methods of historiography and higher criticism to determine whether a text is properly attributed to its author. This evidence is important in spite of its problems, for example, because the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews never identified him or herself, scholars as early as Origen of Alexandria in the 3rd century suspected that Paul was not the author. This consists of references, again either explicit or implicit, to the text, explicit references would be mentioning the text or letter by name, or a recognizable form of that text. Examples include a list of accepted books, such as the Muratorian fragment, or the contents of an early manuscript. Unfortunately, these witnesses are either damaged or too late in date to provide much help. Implicit references are quotation from Paul, especially indirect or unattributed, or expressing ideas and this use or reference implies the material quoted was in existence at the time the external evidence was created. On the other hand, lack of witness by ancient sources suggests a later date, however, use of this line of reasoning is dangerous, because of the incompleteness of the historical record, many ancient texts are lost, damaged, or have been revised. One difficulty with this position is the data available on Pauls historical setting. It also assumes that the book of Acts was written by a traveling companion of Pauls. Vocabulary, sentence structure, employment of idioms and common phrases, a similar style implies common authorship, while a radically divergent vocabulary implies different authors. For example, E. J. Goodspeed argued that the vocabulary of the Epistle to the Ephesians showed a relationship with the First Epistle of Clement. Similarly, E. Percy argued that the speech and style of Colossians more strongly resembled Pauline authorship than not, similar to internal evidence, doctrinal consistency and development are examined against the authors other known works
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Authorship of the Johannine works
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The authorship of the Johannine works has been debated by scholars since at least the 2nd century AD. The main debate centers on who authored the writings, and which of the writings, if any, there may have been a single author for the gospel and the three epistles. Orthodox tradition attributes all the books to John the Apostle, however, in the 6th century, the Decretum Gelasianum argued that Second and Third John have a separate author known as John, a priest. 90-110, but perhaps, according to scholars, from Syria. Some scholars, however, argue that the apostle John wrote none of these works, although others, Robinson, F. F. Bruce, Leon Morris, and Martin Hengel hold the apostle to be behind at least some, in particular the gospel. In the case of Revelation, many scholars agree that it was written by a separate author, John of Patmos. While evidence regarding the author is slight, some believe this gospel developed from a school or Johannine circle working at the end of the 1st century. Some 19th-century scholars, however, agreed with the traditional authorship view, in favor of the historical and eyewitness character of the Gospel, a few passages are cited. Fredriksen sees the Fourth Gospels unique explanation for Jesus arrest and crucifixion as the most historically plausible, The priests motivation is clear and commonsensical, the Romans will come and destroy both our holy place and our nation. Caiaphas continues, It is expedient that one man should die for the people and these three epistles are similar in terminology, style, and general situation. They are loosely associated with the Gospel of John and may result from that gospels theology and these epistles are commonly accepted as deriving from the Johannine community in Asia Minor. Early references to the epistles, the organization of the church apparent in the text, and the lack of reference to persecution suggests that they were written early in the 2nd century. The phraseology of the first letter of John is very similar to that of the fourth gospel, so the question of its authorship is often connected to the question of authorship of the gospel. The two works use many of the characteristic words and phrases, such as light, darkness, life, truth. In both works, the basic concepts are explored, the Word, the incarnation, the passing from death to life. The two works also bear many stylistic affinities to one another, given the similarity with the Gospel, the great majority of critical scholars assign the same authorship to the epistle that they assign to the Gospel. Starting with Heinrich Julius Holtzmann, however, and continuing with C. H. Dodd, some scholars have maintained that the epistle, there are at least two principal arguments for this view. The second is that the author of the epistle, uses the sentence in a variety of rhetorical figures which are unknown to the gospel
18.
Bible translations
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The Bible has been translated into many languages from the biblical languages of Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek. As of September 2016 the full Bible has been translated into 636 languages, thus at least some portion of the Bible has been translated into 3,223 languages. The Latin Vulgate was dominant in Western Christianity through the Middle Ages, since then, the Bible has been translated into many more languages. English Bible translations also have a rich and varied history of more than a millennium, the Tanakh was mainly written in Biblical Hebrew, with some portions in Biblical Aramaic. From the 6th century to the 10th century, Jewish scholars, today known as Masoretes, a series of highly similar texts eventually emerged, and any of these texts are known as Masoretic Texts. The Masoretes also added points to the text, since the original text only contained consonant letters. This sometimes required the selection of an interpretation, since some words differ only in their meaning can vary in accordance with the vowels chosen. In antiquity, variant Hebrew readings existed, some of which have survived in the Samaritan Pentateuch and other ancient fragments, the New Testament was written in Koine Greek. Attempts to reconstruct the text are called critical editions. Karl Lachmann based his edition of 1831 on manuscripts dating from the 4th century and earlier. However, it has not been proven that these manuscripts are in fact more reliable than the Textus Receptus. The autographs, the Greek manuscripts written by the authors, have not survived. Scholars surmise the original Greek text from the versions that do survive, the three main textual traditions of the Greek New Testament are sometimes called the Alexandrian text-type, the Byzantine text-type, and the Western text-type. Together they comprise most of the ancient manuscripts, most variants among the manuscripts are minor, such as alternative spelling, alternative word order, the presence or absence of an optional definite article, and so on. Occasionally, a major variant happens when a portion of a text was missing, examples of major variants are the endings of Mark, the Pericope Adulteræ, the Comma Johanneum, and the Western version of Acts. Early manuscripts of the letters of Paul and other New Testament writings show no punctuation whatsoever, the punctuation was added later by other editors, according to their own understanding of the text. Some of the first translations of the Jewish Torah began during the first exile in Babylonia, with most people speaking only Aramaic and not understanding Hebrew, the Targums were created to allow the common person to understand the Torah as it was read in ancient synagogues. The Septuagint, the very first translation of the Hebrew Bible into Greek, later became the text of the Old Testament in the Christian church
19.
Biblical manuscript
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A biblical manuscript is any handwritten copy of a portion of the text of the Bible. The word Bible comes from the Greek biblia, manuscript comes from Latin manu, the original manuscript is called the autographa. The study of manuscripts is important because handwritten copies of books can contain errors. The science of textual criticism attempts to reconstruct the text of books. The Aleppo Codex and Leningrad Codex were the oldest Hebrew language manuscripts of the Tanakh, in 1947 the finding of the Dead Sea scrolls at Qumran pushed the manuscript history of the Tanakh back a millennium from the two earliest complete codices. Before this discovery, the earliest extant manuscripts of the Old Testament were in Greek in manuscripts such as Codex Vaticanus, out of the roughly 800 manuscripts found at Qumran,220 are from the Tanakh. Every book of the Tanakh is represented except for the Book of Esther, however, notably, there are two scrolls of the Book of Isaiah, one complete, and one around 75% complete. These manuscripts generally date between 150 BCE to 70 CE and these variations are not seen to affect the meaning or interpretation of NT scriptures and are usually given reference to as in-page footnotes in most of todays bibles. The difficulty is in where the manuscripts are coming from, the first was to simply wash the manuscript and reuse it. This was very common in the ancient world and even up into the Middle Ages, the most famous palimpsest is probably the Archimedes Palimpsest. If this was not done within a period of time after the papyri was made, then washing it was less likely since the papyri might deteriorate. The third option was simply to leave them in what has become known as a manuscript gravesite, in addition, texts thought to be complete and correct but which had deteriorated due to heavy usage or had missing folios would also be placed in these caches. Once in a cache, insects and humidity would often contribute to the deterioration of the documents. Complete and correctly copied texts would usually be placed in use and thus usually would wear out fairly quickly. Would be determined by the one commissioning the work and this is part of the reason why scholars are more likely to find incomplete, and at times conflicting, segments of manuscripts than complete and largely consistent works. Distribution of Greek manuscripts by century The task of copying manuscripts was generally done by scribes who were trained professionals in the arts of writing and bookmaking, some manuscripts were also proofread, and scholars closely examining a text can sometimes find the original and corrections found in certain manuscripts. In the 6th century, a room devoted to the practice of manuscript writing and illumination called the scriptorium came into use. Sometimes a group of scribes would make copies at the time as one individual read from the text
20.
Samaritan Pentateuch
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The Samaritan Pentateuch, also known as the Samaritan Torah, is a text of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, written in the Samaritan alphabet and used as a scripture by the Samaritans. It constitutes their entire biblical canon, some six thousand differences exist between the Samaritan and the Masoretic Text. Nearly two thousand of these textual variations agree with the Koine Greek Septuagint and some are shared with the Latin Vulgate. Throughout their history, Samaritans have made use of translations of the Samaritan Pentateuch into Aramaic, Greek, some Pentateuchal manuscripts discovered among the Dead Sea Scrolls have been identified as bearing a pre-Samaritan text type. Samaritans believe that God authored their Pentateuch and gave Moses the first copy along with the two containing the Ten Commandments. They believe that they preserve this divinely composed text uncorrupted to the present day, Samaritans commonly refer to their Pentateuch as קושטה. Samaritans include only the Pentateuch in their biblical canon and they do not recognize divine authorship or inspiration in any other book in the Jewish Tanakh. A Samaritan Book of Joshua partly based upon the Tanakhs Book of Joshua exists, according to a view based on the biblical Book of Ezra, the Samaritans are the people of Samaria who parted ways with the people of Judah in the Persian period. The Samaritans believe that it was not they, but the Jews, modern scholarship connects the formation of the Samaritan community with events which followed the Babylonian Captivity. One view is that the Samaritans are the people of the Kingdom of Israel who separated from the Judaites, others believe that the real schism between the peoples did not take place until Hasmonean times when the Gerizim temple was destroyed in 128 BCE by John Hyrcanus. The script of the Samaritan Pentateuch, its connections at many points with the Septuagint. Manuscripts of the Samaritan Pentateuch are written in a different Hebrew script than is used in other Hebrew Pentateuchs, Samaritans employ the Samaritan alphabet which is derived from the Paleo-Hebrew alphabet used by the Israelite community prior to the Babylonian captivity. Afterwards, Jews adopted a script based on the Aramaic alphabet that developed into the Hebrew alphabet, originally all manuscripts of the Samaritan Pentateuch consisted of unvocalized text written using only the letters of the Samaritan alphabet. Beginning in the 12th century, some show a partial vocalization resembling the Jewish Tiberian vocalization used in Masoretic manuscripts. More recently a few manuscripts have produced with full vocalization. However, many extant manuscripts show no tendency towards vocalization, the Pentateuchal text is divided into 904 paragraphs. Divisions between sections of text are marked with various combinations of lines, dots or an asterisk, the critical apparatus accompanying the London Polyglots publication of the Samaritan Pentateuch lists six thousand instances where the Samaritan differs from the Masoretic Text. However, as different printed editions of the Samaritan Pentateuch are based upon different sets of manuscripts, only a minority are significant, most can be categorized as one of the following types, More matres lectionis in the Samaritan Pentateuch to indicate vowels compared with the Masoretic
21.
Dead Sea Scrolls
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The caves are located about two kilometres inland from the northwest shore of the Dead Sea, from which they derive their name. The consensus is that the Qumran Caves Scrolls date from the last three centuries BCE and the first century CE. Bronze coins found at the same sites form a series beginning with John Hyrcanus and continuing until the First Jewish–Roman War, supporting the radiocarbon and paleographic dating of the scrolls. In the larger sense, the Dead Sea Scrolls include manuscripts from additional Judaean Desert sites, most of the texts are written in Hebrew, with some in Aramaic, and a few in Greek. If discoveries from the Judean desert are included, Latin and Arabic can be added, most texts are written on parchment, some on papyrus, and one on copper. Owing to the condition of some of the scrolls, not all of them have been identified. The practice of storing worn-out sacred manuscripts in earthenware vessels buried in the earth or within caves is related to the ancient Jewish custom of Genizah. The initial discovery, by Bedouin shepherd Muhammed edh-Dhib, his cousin Juma Muhammed, the shepherds discovered seven scrolls housed in jars in a cave near what is now known as the Qumran site. Trever reconstructed the story of the scrolls from several interviews with the Bedouin, edh-Dhibs cousin noticed the caves, but edh-Dhib himself was the first to actually fall into one. He retrieved a handful of scrolls, which Trever identifies as the Isaiah Scroll, Habakkuk Commentary, and the Community Rule, none of the scrolls were destroyed in this process, despite popular rumor. The Bedouin kept the scrolls hanging on a tent pole while they figured out what to do with them, at some point during this time, the Community Rule was split in two. The Bedouin first took the scrolls to a dealer named Ibrahim Ijha in Bethlehem, Ijha returned them, saying they were worthless, after being warned that they might have been stolen from a synagogue. Undaunted, the Bedouin went to a market, where a Syrian Christian offered to buy them. A sheikh joined their conversation and suggested they take the scrolls to Khalil Eskander Shahin, Kando, the Bedouin and the dealers returned to the site, leaving one scroll with Kando and selling three others to a dealer for 7 GBP. The original scrolls continued to change hands after the Bedouin left them in the possession of a party until a sale could be arranged. In 1947 the original seven scrolls caught the attention of Dr. John C, in March the 1948 Arab-Israeli War prompted the move of some of the scrolls to Beirut, Lebanon, for safekeeping. On 11 April 1948, Millar Burrows, head of the ASOR, early in September 1948, Metropolitan bishop Mar Samuel brought some additional scroll fragments that he had acquired to Professor Ovid R. Sellers, the new Director of ASOR. By the end of 1948, nearly two years after their discovery, scholars had yet to locate the cave where the fragments had been found
22.
Masoretic Text
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The Masoretic Text is the authoritative Hebrew and Aramaic text of the Tanakh for Rabbinic Judaism. However, contemporary scholars seeking to understand the history of the Hebrew Bible’s text use a range of other sources and these include Greek and Syriac translations, quotations from rabbinic manuscripts, the Samaritan Pentateuch and others such as the Dead Sea Scrolls. Many of these are older than the Masoretic text and often contradict it, while the Masoretic Text defines the books of the Jewish canon, it also defines the precise letter-text of these biblical books, with their vocalization and accentuation known as the Masorah. The Masoretic Text is widely used as the basis for translations of the Old Testament in Protestant Bibles, in modern times the Dead Sea Scrolls have shown the Masoretic Text to be nearly identical to some texts of the Tanakh dating from 200 BCE but different from others. The Masoretic Text was primarily copied, edited and distributed by a group of Jews known as the Masoretes between the 7th and 10th centuries CE, the Hebrew word mesorah refers to the transmission of a tradition. In a very broad sense it can refer to the chain of Jewish tradition. This Jewish tradition is claimed to be unchanged and infallible, the oldest extant manuscripts of the Masoretic Text date from approximately the 9th century CE. The Aleppo Codex dates from the 10th century and this copy is mentioned in the Letter of Aristeas, in the statements of Philo, and in Josephus. A Talmudic story, perhaps referring to an time, relates that three Torah scrolls were found in the Temple court but were at variance with each other. The differences were resolved by majority decision among the three. The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls at Qumran, dating from c.150 BCE-75 CE, the scrolls show numerous small variations in orthography, both as against the later Masoretic text, and between each other. It is also evident from the notings of corrections and of variant alternatives that scribes felt free to choose according to their personal taste and discretion between different readings. However, despite these variations, most of the Qumran fragments can be classified as being closer to the Masoretic text than to any other group that has survived. On the other hand, some of the fragments conforming most accurately to the Masoretic text were found in Cave 4, an emphasis on minute details of words and spellings, already used among the Pharisees as bases for argumentation, reached its height with the example of Rabbi Akiva. Very few manuscripts are said to have survived the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE and this both drastically reduced the number of variants in circulation, and gave a new urgency that the text must be preserved. New Greek translations were also made, unlike the Septuagint, large-scale deviations in sense between the Greek of Aquila of Sinope and Theodotion and what we now know as the Masoretic text are minimal. According to Menachem Cohen these schools developed such prestige for the accuracy, differences remained, sometimes bolstered by systematic local differences in pronunciation and cantillation. Every locality, following the tradition of its school, had a standard codex embodying its readings, in the first half of the 10th century Aaron ben Moses ben Asher and Ben Naphtali were the leading Masoretes in Tiberias
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Targum
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The targumim were spoken paraphrases, explanations and expansions of the Jewish scriptures that a Rabbi would give in the common language of the listeners, which was then often Aramaic. That had become necessary near the end of the 1st century BCE, as the language was in transition and Hebrew was used for little more than schooling. The noun Targum is derived from the early semitic quadriliteral root trgm, and it occurs in the Hebrew Bible in Ezra 4,7. and the writing of the letter was written in the Syrian tongue and interpreted in the Syrian tongue. Besides denoting the translations of the Bible, the term Targum also denote the oral rendering of Bible lections in synagogue, other than the meaning translate the verb Tirgem also means to explain. The word Targum refers to translation and argumentation or explanation, writing down the targum was prohibited, nevertheless, some targumatic writings appeared as early as the middle of the first century CE. They were then not recognized as authoritative by the religious leaders, some subsequent Jewish traditions accepted the written targumim as authoritative, and eventually, it became a matter of debate. Today, only Jews from the republic of Yemen continue to use the targumim liturgically, as translations, the targumim largely reflect midrashic interpretation of the Tanakh from the time they were written and are notable for eschewing anthropomorphisms in favor of allegorical readings. That is true both for those targumim that are fairly literal as well as for those that contain many midrashic expansions, in 1541, Elia Levita wrote and published Sefer Meturgeman, explaining all the Aramaic words found in the Targum. An Aramaic Bible is also used in the Syriac Church, in addition, targumim are used today as sources in text-critical editions of the Bible. In the synagogues of talmudic times, Targum Onkelos was read alternately with the Torah, verse by verse and this custom continues today in Yemenite Jewish synagogues. The Yemenite Jews are the only Jewish community to continue the use of Targum as liturgical text and this too refers to Targum Onkelos on the public Torah reading and to Targum Jonathan on the haftarot from Neviim. Medieval biblical manuscripts of the Tiberian mesorah sometimes contain the Hebrew text interpolated, verse-by-verse and this scribal practice has its roots both in the public reading of the Targum and in the private study requirement. The two official targumim are considered eastern, nevertheless, scholars believe they too originated in the Land of Israel because of a strong linguistic substratum of western Aramaic. Though these targumim were later easternized, the substratum belying their origins still remains, for instance, it serves as a major source in the Torah commentary of Shlomo Yitzhaki, Rashi, and therefor has always been the standard fare for Ashkenazs Jews. For these reasons, Jewish editions of the Tanakh which include commentaries still almost always print the Targum alongside the text, the Talmud explicitly states that no official targumim were composed besides these two on Torah and Neviim alone, and that there is no official targum to Ketuvim. An official targum was in fact unnecessary for Ketuvim because its books played no fixed liturgical role, the Talmud states The Targum of the Pentateuch was composed by Onkelos the proselyte from the mouths of R. Eleazar and R. Joshua. Uzziel thereupon arose and said, It is I who have revealed Thy secrets to mankind. It is fully known to Thee that I have not done this for my own honour or for the honour of my fathers house, but for Thy honour l have done it, that dissension may not increase in Israel
24.
Peshitta
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The Peshitta is the standard version of the Bible for churches in the Syriac tradition. This New Testament, originally excluding certain disputed books, had become a standard by the early 5th century, the five excluded books were added in the Harklean Version of Thomas of Harqel. However, the 1905 United Bible Society Peshitta used new editions prepared by the Irish Syriacist John Gwynn for the missing books, the name Peshitta is derived from the Syriac mappaqtâ pšîṭtâ, literally meaning simple version. However, it is possible to translate pšîṭtâ as common, or straight. Syriac is a dialect, or group of dialects, of Eastern Aramaic and it is written in the Syriac alphabet, and is transliterated into the Latin script in a number of ways, Peshitta, Peshittâ, Pshitta, Pšittâ, Pshitto, Fshitto. All of these are acceptable, but Peshitta is the most conventional spelling in English, there is no full and clear knowledge of the circumstances under which the Peshitta was produced and came into circulation. Whereas the authorship of the Latin Vulgate has never been in dispute, almost every assertion regarding the authorship of the Peshitta and its time, the chief ground of analogy between the Vulgate and the Peshitta is that both came into existence as the result of a revision. This, indeed, has strenuously denied, but since Dr. The very designation, Peshito, has given rise to dispute and it has been applied to the Syriac as the version in common use, and regarded as equivalent to the Greek koiné and the Latin Vulgate. The word itself is a form, meaning simple, as in easy to be understood. It seems to have used to distinguish the version from others which are encumbered with marks. However, the term as a designation of the version has not been found in any Syriac author earlier than the 9th or 10th century, as regards the Old Testament, the antiquity of the version is admitted on all hands. The tradition, however, that part of it was translated from Hebrew into Syriac for the benefit of Hiram in the days of Solomon is surely a myth. That a translation was made by a priest named Assa, or Ezra and that the translation of the Old Testament and New Testament was made in connection with the visit of Thaddaeus to Abgar at Edessa belongs also to unreliable tradition. Mark has even been credited in ancient Syriac tradition with translating his own Gospel, F. Crawford Burkitt concluded that the translation of the Old Testament was probably the work of Jews, of whom there was a colony in Edessa about the commencement of the Christian era. The older view was that the translators were Christians, and that the work was late in the 1st century or early in the 2nd. The Old Testament known to the early Syrian church was substantially that of the Palestinian Jews and it contained the same number of books but it arranged them in a different order. Most of the Deuterocanonical books of the Old Testament are found in the Syriac, of the New Testament, attempts at translation must have been made very early, and among the ancient versions of New Testament Scripture the Syriac in all likelihood is the earliest
25.
Septuagint
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The Septuagint is a Koine Greek translation of an Hebraic textual tradition that included certain texts which were later included in the canonical Hebrew Bible and other related texts which were not. As the primary Greek translation of the Old Testament, it is called the Greek Old Testament. This translation is quoted a number of times in the New Testament, particularly in Pauline epistles, the title and its Roman numeral LXX refer to the legendary seventy Jewish scholars who solely translated the Five Books of Moses into Koine Greek as early as the 3rd century BCE. Separated from the Hebrew canon of the Jewish Bible in Rabbinic Judaism, the traditional story is that Ptolemy II sponsored the translation of the Torah. The Septuagint should not be confused with the seven or more other Greek versions of the Old Testament, of these, the most important are those by Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion. However, it was not until the time of Augustine of Hippo that the Greek translation of the Jewish scriptures came to be called by the Latin term Septuaginta. This narrative is found in the pseudepigraphic Letter of Aristeas to his brother Philocrates, the story is also found in the Tractate Megillah of the Babylonian Talmud, King Ptolemy once gathered 72 Elders. He placed them in 72 chambers, each of them in a separate one and he entered each ones room and said, Write for me the Torah of Moshe, your teacher. God put it in the heart of one to translate identically as all the others did. Philo of Alexandria, who relied extensively on the Septuagint, says that the number of scholars was chosen by selecting six scholars from each of the tribes of Israel. After the Torah, other books were translated over the two to three centuries. It is not altogether clear which was translated when, or where, some may even have been translated twice, into different versions, the quality and style of the different translators also varied considerably from book to book, from the literal to paraphrasing to interpretative. The translation of the Septuagint itself began in the 3rd century BCE and was completed by 132 BCE, initially in Alexandria, the Septuagint is the basis for the Old Latin, Slavonic, Syriac, Old Armenian, Old Georgian and Coptic versions of the Christian Old Testament. Some sections of the Septuagint may show Semiticisms, or idioms and phrases based on Semitic languages like Hebrew, other books, such as Daniel and Proverbs, show Greek influence more strongly. The Septuagint may also elucidate pronunciation of pre-Masoretic Hebrew, many nouns are spelled out with Greek vowels in the LXX. However, it is unlikely that all ancient Hebrew sounds had precise Greek equivalents. As the work of translation progressed, the canon of the Greek Bible expanded, the Torah always maintained its pre-eminence as the basis of the canon, but the collection of prophetic writings, based on the Jewish Neviim, had various hagiographical works incorporated into it. In addition, some books were included in the Septuagint
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Vulgate
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The Vulgate is a late fourth-century Latin translation of the Bible that became, during the 16th century, the Catholic Churchs officially promulgated Latin version of the Bible. The translation was largely the work of St. Jerome, who, in 382 AD, was commissioned by Pope Damasus I to revise the Vetus Latina collection of biblical texts in Latin then in use by the Church. Once published, it was adopted and eventually eclipsed the Vetus Latina and, by the 13th century, was known as the versio vulgata or, more simply. The Catholic Church affirmed it as its official Latin Bible at the Council of Trent, the Vulgate has a compound text that is not entirely the work of Jerome. Its components include, Jeromes independent translation from the Hebrew, the books of the Hebrew Bible, usually not including his translation of the Psalms. Translation from the Greek of Theodotion by Jerome, The three additions to the Book of Daniel, Song of the Three Children, Story of Susanna, and The Idol Bel and the Dragon. The Song of the Three Children was retained within the narrative of Daniel, translation from the Septuagint by Jerome, the Rest of Esther. Jerome gathered all these additions together at the end of the Book of Esther, translation from the Hexaplar Septuagint by Jerome, his Gallican version of the Book of Psalms. Jeromes Hexaplaric revisions of other books of Old Testament continued to circulate in Italy for several centuries, free translation by Jerome from a secondary Aramaic version, Tobias and Judith. Revision by Jerome of the Old Latin, corrected with reference to the oldest Greek manuscripts available, Old Latin, more or less revised by a person or persons unknown, Baruch, Letter of Jeremiah,3 Esdras, Acts, Epistles, and the Apocalypse. Old Latin, wholly unrevised, Epistle to the Laodiceans, Prayer of Manasses,4 Esdras, Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, and 1 and 2 Maccabees. Jerome did not embark on the work with the intention of creating a new version of the whole Bible, how much of the rest of the New Testament he then revised is difficult to judge today, but little of his work survived in the Vulgate text. Jerome first embarked on a revision of the Psalms, translated from the revised Septuagint Greek column of the Hexapla and he also appears to have undertaken further new translations into Latin from the Hexaplar Septuagint column for other books. But from 390 to 405, Jerome translated anew from the Hebrew all 39 books in the Hebrew Bible, including a further version of the Psalms. This new translation of the Psalms was labelled by him as iuxta Hebraeos, the Vulgate is usually credited as being the first translation of the Old Testament into Latin directly from the Hebrew Tanakh, rather than the Greek Septuagint. Moreover, Augustine in that passage demonstrates his own preference for the Greek thus eliminating any possibility that Saint Jerome translated the OT from Greek. In these letters, Jerome described those books or portions of books in the Septuagint that were not found in the Hebrew as being non-canonical, Jeromes views did not, however, prevail, and all complete manuscripts and editions of the Vulgate include some or all of these books. Their style is markedly distinguishable from Jeromes
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Gothic Bible
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The Gothic Bible or Wulfila Bible is the Christian Bible as translated by Wulfila in the fourth century into the Gothic language spoken by the Eastern Germanic tribes. Surviving fragments of the Wulfila Bible consist of codices from the 6th to 8th century containing a part of the New Testament and some parts of the Old Testament. During the third century, the Goths lived on the northeast border of the Roman Empire, in what is now Ukraine, portions of this translation survive, affording the main surviving text written in the Gothic language. Gothic Christianity differed from Catholic and Orthodox doctrine as to the divinity of Jesus, with the Gothic Christians maintaining that Jesus was a creation of God, the Goths rejected the Holy Trinity. During the fifth century, the Goths overran parts of the Western Roman Empire, including Italy, southern France, the Wulfila Bible, although fragmentary, is the only extensive document in an ancient East Germanic language and one of the earliest documents in any Germanic language. Since the other East Germanic texts are of limited extent, except maybe Skeireins. H. C. von Gabelentz, J. Loebe, Ulfilas, Veteris et Novi Testamenti Versionis Gothicae fragmenta quae supersunt, Leipzig, wilhelm Streitberg, Die Gotische Bibel, Heidelberg, Universitätsverlag C. Winter,2000, ISBN 3-8253-0745-X Carla Falluomini
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Vetus Latina
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However, the Vetus Latina texts survive in places in the liturgy. The Vetus Latina manuscripts that are preserved today are dated from 350 to the 13th century AD, there is no single Vetus Latina Bible. Instead, Vetus Latina is a collection of biblical texts that are Latin translations of Septuagint passages that preceded Jeromes Vulgate. After comparing readings for Luke 24, 4–5 in Vetus Latina manuscripts, other biblical passages, however, are extant only in excerpts or fragments. The language of Vetus Latina translations is uneven in quality, as Augustine of Hippo lamented in De Doctrina Christiana, grammatical solecisms abound, some reproduce literally Greek or Hebrew idioms as they appear in the Septuagint. Many grammatical idiosyncrasies come from the use of Vulgar Latin grammatical forms in the text and he broke with church tradition and translated most of the Old Testament of his Vulgate from Hebrew sources rather than from the Greek Septuagint. His choice was criticized by Augustine, his contemporary, a flood of still less moderate criticism came from those who regarded Jerome as a forger. Jeromes Vulgate offered a single, stylistically consistent Latin text translated from the original tongues, Jerome, in a letter, complains that his new version was initially disliked by Christians who were familiar with the phrasing of the old translations. Vetus Latina translations of books continued to be found in manuscripts as late as the 13th century. However, the Vulgate generally displaced the Vetus Latina as the standard Latin translation of the Bible to be used by the Catholic church, below are some comparisons of the Vetus Latina with text from critical editions of the Vulgate
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Luther Bible
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The Luther Bible is a German language Bible translation from Hebrew and ancient Greek by Martin Luther. The New Testament was first published in 1522 and the complete Bible, containing the Old and New Testaments and Apocrypha, the project absorbed Luthers later years. Thanks to the recently invented printing press, the result was widely disseminated and contributed significantly to the development of todays modern High German language. He translated from the Greek text, using Erasmus second edition of the Greek New Testament, Luther did not translate from the Latin Vulgate translation, which is the Latin translation officially used by the Roman Catholic Church. Like Erasmus, Luther had learned Greek at the Latin schools led by the Brethren of the Common Life and these lay brothers added Greek as a new subject to their curriculum in the late 15th century. At that time Greek was seldom taught even at universities, to help him in translating into contemporary German, Luther would make forays into nearby towns and markets to listen to people speaking. He wanted to ensure their comprehension by translating as closely as possible to their contemporary language usage and his translation was published in September 1522, six months after he had returned to Wittenberg. It was a republication of the gospel and he made the Bible the peoples book in church, school, and house. Luther worked on refining the translation up to his death in 1546, there were 117 original woodcuts included in the 1534 edition issued by the Hans Lufft press in Wittenberg. They reflected the recent trend of including artwork to reinforce the textual message, apologist James Swan lists numerous Catholic sources that also translated Romans 3,28 with the word alone, or testified to others doing so before Luther. He called the Letter of James an epistle of straw, finding little in it pointed to Christ. He also had harsh words for the Revelation of John, saying that he could in no way detect that the Holy Spirit produced it, the four which follow have from ancient times had a different reputation. His views on some of these books changed in later years, Luther chose to place the Biblical apocrypha between the Old and New Testaments. These books and addenda to Biblical canon of the Old Testament are found in the ancient Greek Septuagint, Luther left the translating of them largely to Philipp Melanchthon and Justus Jonas. See also Biblical canon, Development of the Christian Biblical canon, the Luther Bible was not the first German Bible translation, but it was the most influential. It is also considered a landmark in German literature, with Luthers vernacular style often praised by modern German sources for the forceful vigor with which he translated the Holy Scripture, a large part of Luthers significance was his influence on the emergence of the German language and national identity. This stemmed predominantly from his translation of the Bible into the vernacular, which was potentially as revolutionary as canon law, although Luther was not the first to attempt such a translation, his was superior to all its predecessors. Previous translations had contained poor German, and had been from the Vulgate Latin translation, i. e. translations of a translation rather than a direct translation into German from the originals
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Bible translations into English
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Partial Bible translations into languages of the English people can be traced back to the late 7th century, including translations into Old and Middle English. More than 450 translations into English have been written, the New Revised Standard Version is the version most commonly preferred by biblical scholars. Although John Wycliffe is often credited with the first translation of the Bible into English, there were, in fact, the English Bible was first translated from the Latin Vulgate into Old English by a few select monks and scholars. Such translations were generally in the form of prose or as interlinear glosses, very few complete translations existed during that time. Rather, most of the books of the Bible existed separately and were read as individual texts, thus, the sense of the Bible as history that often exists today did not exist at that time. Instead, a rendering of the Bible was more common. Toward the end of the 7th century, the Venerable Bede began a translation of scripture into Old English, aldhelm translated the complete Book of Psalms and large portions of other scriptures into Old English. This is the oldest extant translation of the Gospels into the English language, the Wessex Gospels are a full translation of the four gospels into a West Saxon dialect of Old English. Produced in approximately 990, they are the first translation of all four gospels into English without the Latin text, in the 11th century, Abbot Ælfric translated much of the Old Testament into Old English. The Ormulum is in Middle English of the 12th century, like its Old English precursor from Ælfric, an Abbot of Eynsham, it includes very little Biblical text, and focuses more on personal commentary. This style was adopted by many of the original English translators, for example, the story of the Wedding at Cana is almost 800 lines long, but fewer than 40 lines are the actual translation of the text. An unusual characteristic is that the translation mimics Latin verse, and so is similar to the known and appreciated 14th-century English poem. Richard Rolle wrote an English Psalter, many religious works are attributed to Rolle, but it has been questioned how many are genuinely from his hand. Many of his works were concerned with personal devotion, and some were used by the Lollards, the 14th century theologian John Wycliffe is credited with translating what is now known as Wycliffes Bible, though it is not clear how much of the translation he himself did. This translation came out in two different versions, the earlier text is characterised by a strong adherence to the word order of Latin, and might have been difficult for the layperson to comprehend. The later text made more concessions to the grammar of English. Early Modern English Bible translations are of between about 1500 and 1800, the period of Early Modern English and this, the first major period of Bible translation into the English language, began with the introduction of the Tyndale Bible. The first complete edition of his New Testament was in 1526, Tyndale used the Greek and Hebrew texts of the New Testament and Old Testament in addition to Jeromes Latin translation
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Biblical archaeology
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For the movement associated with William F. Albright and also known as biblical archaeology, see Biblical archaeology school. The principal location of interest is what is known in the relevant religions as the Holy Land, the scientific techniques used are the same as those used in general archaeology, such as excavation and radiocarbon dating. Biblical archaeology is polemical as there are a number of points of view regarding the nature of its purpose, a number of points of view from important archaeologists are included in the section on Expert Commentaries. In order to understand the significance of biblical archaeology it is first necessary to understand two basic concepts, archaeology as a framework and the Bible as an object for research. Archaeology is a science, not in the Aristotelian sense of cognitio certa per causas and it might be thought that archaeology would have to disregard the information contained within religions and many philosophical systems. This contemporary perception of the myth, mainly developed by Bultmann, has encouraged scientists such as archaeologists to examine the areas indicated by the biblical tales. Other authors prefer to talk about the archaeology of Palestine and to define the relevant territories as those to the east and west of the River Jordan and this indicates that biblical archaeology or that of Palestine is circumscribed by the territories that were the backdrop to the biblical stories. The raison d’etre of biblical archaeology derives from the fact that it allows an understanding of the peoples that inhabited the Holy Land and it allows an understanding of their history, culture, identity and movements. This makes it possible to know the location of the stories. Albright, G. Ernest Wright and Yigael Yadin, using this approach, introduced by P. Biblical archaeology lends fundamental support to exegetical studies, the geographical area that circumscribes the area of interest for biblical archaeology is obviously the biblical lands, also known as the Holy Land. Asia Minor, Macedonia, Greece and Rome have greater connections with the stories from the New Testament, in the same way that the spatial criteria vary according to the various points of view of the different researchers, there are also a variety of dates that are of interest. This time period is considered by authorities to be too wide. The term Apostolic Church is taken to mean the period when Jesuss apostles were alive. This period ends with the death of John the Evangelist, the date of his death is not known. However, some consider that the authors of the Fourth Gospel. 8500–4300 BC Pre-Pottery Neolithic = c, 8500–6000 BC Pre-Pottery Neolithic A = c. The most important historical sources include Josephus, Origen, Eusebius, Egeria or Aetheria, was a Spanish woman who made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land between 381 and 384
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Historicity of the Bible
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This can be extended to the question of the Christian New Testament as an accurate record of the historical Jesus and the Apostolic Age. Many fields of study span the Bible and history, such fields range from archeology and astronomy to linguistics, Archaeological discoveries since the 19th century, like any evidence, is open to interpretation. But broadly speaking, they support to some of the Old Testaments historical narratives. The Bible exists in multiple manuscripts, none of them autographs, the early discussions about the exclusion or integration of various apocryphes involve an early idea about the historicity of the core. The Ionian Enlightenment influenced early patrons like Justin Martyr and Tertullian - both saw the texts as being different than the myths of other religions. Augustine was aware of the difference between science and scripture and defended the historicity of the biblical texts e. g. against claims of Faustus of Mileve. According to Barstad, to burden the Bible with our views of truth is not only anachronistic. Instead, the Bible should not be treated differently from historical sources from the ancient world. To determine the accuracy of a manuscript, textual critics scrutinize the way the transcripts have passed through history to their extant forms. The higher the volume of the earliest texts, the greater the textual reliability, multiple copies may also be grouped into text types, with some types judged closer to the hypothetical original than others. Differences often extend beyond minor variations and may involve, for instance, interpolation of material central to issues of historicity and doctrine, the meaning of the term history is itself dependent on social and historical context. Paula McNutt, for instance, notes that the Old Testament narratives do not record history in the sense that history is understood in the twentieth century. The past, for biblical writers as well as for readers of the Bible, has meaning only when it is considered in light of the present. Even from the earliest times, there was an awareness that parts of the scriptures could not be interpreted as a strictly consistent sequence of events, the Talmud cites a dictum ascribed to the third-century teacher Abba Arika that there is no chronological order in the Torah. During the modern era, the focus of Biblical history has also diversified, the project of biblical archaeology associated with W. F. A special challenge for assessing the historicity of the Bible is sharply differing perspectives on the relationship between history and theological meaning. We further deny that scientific hypotheses about earth history may properly be used to overturn the teaching of Scripture on creation and he had earlier been effectively excommunicated by the rabbinical council of Amsterdam for his perceived heresies. By the end of the 19th century the scholarly consensus was that the Pentateuch was the work of authors writing from 1000 BCE to 500 BCE
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Internal consistency of the Bible
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The question of the internal consistency of the Bible concerns the coherence and textual integrity of the biblical scriptures. Disputes regarding biblical consistency have a long history, on the subject of the Jewish text, B. Barry Levy writes about the Torah that the integrity of every biblical book should be extremely important to those interested in either the Hebrew Bible or classical Jewish thought. However, the modern writer Joshua Golding states that though it contains inconsistencies. Similarly, Catholic writers have argued that If we believe the Scriptures are divinely inspired, one response to this kind of criticism is to argue that no inconsistencies exist. Barton states that this is not the Bible that we have in fact got and he also points out that Judaism understands that texts may sometimes be in dialogue with each other and something positive may emerge from a kind of creative tension. So, for example, Paul said that he opposed Peter because he felt that Peter was clearly in the wrong, helms notes that Jeremiah condemned the entire religious establishment, that the prophets and priests were frauds, every one of them. Luke felt the need to write another gospel even though other writers had already drawn up their own account of events, Luke felt that Marks gospel was filled with errors and edited it freely, even the words of the dying Christ were not left unaltered. Jewish scholars divide the Hebrew Bible into the Torah, the Prophets, the Torah is viewed by some as the literal word of God, dictated to Moses. From the perspective of the 12th century Jewish scholar Maimonides, The Torah that we have today is the one dictated to Moses by God. However, In the broadest sense, the Scriptures taken as a whole, many modern Jewish scholars have an accommodating view of the nature of the Torah, not necessarily viewing it as strictly internally consistent. Ancient to Reformation This tripartite division is not found in the mainstream Christian Old Testament, justin Martyr, a 2nd-century Christian writer, declared the Septuagint—the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible generally preferred in the early Church—to be completely free of errors. Thomas Aquinas wrote that, The author of Holy Scripture is God, also, the Westminster Confession of Faith asserts that the Bibles authority depends wholly upon God, the Author thereof, and therefore it is to be received, because it is the Word of God. Some Christian groups, such as the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches follow the Jewish practice of describing certain books as apocrypha, following the doctrine of divine inspiration, assertions that the Bible contains inconsistencies contradicts Martin Luthers statement that God cannot lie. Luther accepted that mistakes and inconsistencies existed, but concluded that they did not necessarily undermine the truth of the Gospel, Modern Modern Christian approaches to biblical consistency are reminiscent of the split between Luther and Osiander, and can be broadly divided between inerrancy and infallibility. The theme of tahrif was first explored in the writings of Ibn Hazm and he argued that the falsification of the Torah could have taken place while there existed only one copy kept by the Aaronic priesthood of the Temple in Jerusalem. Ibn Hazms arguments had an impact upon Muslim literature and scholars. The study of inconsistencies in the Bible has a long history, in the 17th century, Spinoza considered the Bible to be. a book rich in contradictions
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Synoptic Gospels
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The gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke are referred to as the Synoptic Gospels because they include many of the same stories, often in a similar sequence and in similar wording. They stand in contrast to John, whose content is comparatively distinct, the term synoptic comes via Latin from the Greek σύνοψις, synopsis, i. e. This strong parallelism among the three gospels in content, arrangement, and specific language is attributed to literary interdependence. Broadly speaking, the gospels are similar to John, all are composed in Koine Greek, have a similar length. In content and in wording, though, the synoptics diverge widely from John but have a deal in common with each other. Though each gospel includes some material, the majority of Mark and roughly half of Matthew and Luke coincide in content, in much the same sequence. This common material is termed the triple tradition and this stands in contrast to the material found in only two of the gospels, which is much more variable in order. The classification of text as belonging to the tradition is not always definitive. For example, Matthew and Mark report the cursing of the fig tree, clearly a single incident, despite some differences of wording. Searching Luke, however, we find only the parable of the fig tree. Some would say that Luke has extensively adapted an element of the triple tradition, an illustrative example of the three texts in parallel is the healing of the leper, More than half the wording in this passage is identical. Just as interesting, though, is that each gospel includes words absent in the two and omits something included by the other two. It has been observed that the tradition itself constitutes a complete gospel quite similar to the shortest gospel. Mark, unlike Matthew and Luke, adds little to the triple tradition. Pericopae unique to Mark are scarce, notably two healings involving saliva and the naked runaway, Marks additions within the triple tradition tend to be explanatory elaborations or Aramaisms. The pericopae Mark shares with only Luke are also few, the Capernaum exorcism and departure from Capernaum, the strange exorcist. A greater number, but still not many, are shared with only Matthew, most notably the so-called Great Omission from Luke of Mk 6, most scholars take these observations as a strong clue to the literary relationship among the synoptics and Marks special place in that relationship. The hypothesis favored by most experts is Marcan priority, that Mark was composed first, a leading alternative hypothesis is Marcan posteriority, that Mark was formed primarily by extracting what Matthew and Luke shared in common
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Biblical criticism
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Biblical criticism is the scholarly study and investigation of biblical writings that seeks to make discerning judgments about these writings. It will vary depending on whether the focus is on the Hebrew Bible, the Old Testament. It also plays an important role in the quest for a historical Jesus and it also addresses the physical text, including the meaning of the words and the way in which they are used, its preservation, history and integrity. Biblical criticism draws upon a range of scholarly disciplines including archaeology, anthropology, folklore, linguistics, Oral Tradition studies. Biblical criticism, defined as the treatment of biblical texts as natural rather than supernatural artifacts, a division is still sometimes made between historical criticism and literary criticism. Literary criticism asks what audience the authors wrote for, their purpose. In the 18th century Jean Astruc, a French physician, set out to refute these critics, borrowing methods of textual criticism already in use to investigate Greek and Roman texts, he discovered what he believed were two distinct documents within Genesis. These, he felt, were the original written by Moses, much as the four Gospel writers had produced four separate but complementary accounts of the life. Later generations, he believed, had conflated these original documents to produce the book of Genesis, producing the inconsistencies and contradictions noted by Hobbes. The implications of higher criticism were not welcomed by many religious scholars, quite rightly employed in the case of the Sacred Books. For the fact is that truth is presented and expressed in the various types of historical writing, in prophetical and poetical texts. Reimaruss conclusions appealed to the rationalism of 18th century intellectuals, but were deeply troubling to contemporary believers, baron dHolbach - Ecce Homo -The History of Jesus of Nazareth, a Critical Inquiry, the first Life of Jesus described as a mere historical man, published anonymously in Amsterdam. George Houston translated the work into English—published in Edinburgh,1799, London,1813, the questions they addressed were, What was Jesus’s key message. How was that message related to Judaism, does that message speak to our reality today. The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1948 revitalised interest in the possible contribution archaeology could make to the understanding of the New Testament, contemporary New Testament criticism continues to follow the synthesising trend set during the latter half of the 20th century. The critical methods and perspectives now to be found are numerous, Textual criticism refers to the examination of the text itself to identify its provenance or to trace its history. It takes as its basis the fact that errors crept into texts as generations of scribes reproduced each others manuscripts. For example, Josephus employed scribes to copy his Antiquities of the Jews, as the scribes copied the Antiquities, they made mistakes
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Textual criticism
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Textual criticism is a branch of textual scholarship, philology, and literary criticism that is concerned with the identification of textual variants in either manuscripts or printed books. Ancient scribes made alterations when copying manuscripts by hand, given a manuscript copy, several or many copies, but not the original document, the textual critic might seek to reconstruct the original text as closely as possible. The same processes can be used to attempt to reconstruct intermediate versions, or recensions, the ultimate objective of the textual critics work is the production of a critical edition containing a scholarly curated text. There are three approaches to textual criticism, eclecticism, stemmatics, and copy-text editing. Techniques from the discipline of cladistics are currently also being used to determine the relationships between manuscripts. Textual criticism has been practiced for two thousand years. Early textual critics were concerned with preserving the works of antiquity, many ancient works, such as the Bible and the Greek tragedies, survive in hundreds of copies, and the relationship of each copy to the original may be unclear. Textual scholars have debated for centuries which sources are most closely derived from the original, hence which readings in those sources are correct. Although biblical books that are letters, like Greek plays, presumably had one original, interest in applying textual criticism to the Quran has also developed after the discovery of the Sanaa manuscripts in 1972, which possibly date back to the 7–8th centuries. However, the application of textual criticism to non-religious works does not antedate the invention of printing, while Christianity has been relatively receptive to textual criticism, application of it to the Jewish Torah and the Quran is, to the devout, taboo. The business of textual criticism is to produce a text as close as possible to the original, Maas comments further that A dictation revised by the author must be regarded as equivalent to an autograph manuscript. The lack of autograph manuscripts applies to many cultures other than Greek, in such a situation, a key objective becomes the identification of the first exemplar before any split in the tradition. That exemplar is known as the archetype, if we succeed in establishing the text of, the constitutio is considerably advanced. The textual critics ultimate objective is the production of a critical edition and this contains the text that the author has determined most closely approximates the original, and is accompanied by an apparatus criticus or critical apparatus. Before mechanical printing, literature was copied by hand, and many variations were introduced by copyists, the age of printing made the scribal profession effectively redundant. Printed editions, while less susceptible to the proliferation of variations likely to arise during manual transmission, are not immune to introducing variations from an authors autograph. Instead of a scribe miscopying his source, a compositor or a shop may read or typeset a work in a way that differs from the autograph. Since each scribe or printer commits different errors, reconstruction of the lost original is often aided by a selection of readings taken from many sources, an edited text that draws from multiple sources is said to be eclectic
Bible book 
