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LESSONS

• The Bible
• The Canon of the Bible
• Four Writers of the Pent
• The Translations, etc.

(no links yet! still under "construction")

CALENDAR

July 2002

* 8-13 Prelims Week

August 2002

* 26 National Heroes Day
28-29 SU Founders Day

September 2002

October 2002

* 7-11 Finals Week

Dear Students,

Kindly take time to visit this site regularly as notes, readings, illustrations and pointers to exams and quizzes will be placed here soon. Thanks!

- Callum Tabada
Instructor, Rel. 11 Class

>>1. What is the Bible?
>>2. What Does the Word "Bible" Mean?
>>3. Who Wrote the Bible?
>>4. When Was the Bible Written?
>>5. Is the Bible the World's Oldest Book?
>>6. In What Languages was the Bible Originally Written?
>>7. For Study Purposes, How Do Scholars Recommend That We Read the Bible?

Manuscripts and Translations
>>8. When Was the Bible First Translated?
>>9. In What Form Has the Bible's Text Been Preserved?
>>10. How Did Our Modern English Translations Come About?

The Old Testament Canon
>>11. What Is Meant by Canon?
>>12. How Did the Biblical Canon Come into Being, and Which Parts of the Bible Were First Accepted as Canonical?
>>13. What Are the Old Testament Apocrypha?
>>14. Is Inclusion of the Apocrypha the Only Difference Among Jewish, Protestant, and Roman Catholic Bibles?
>>15. Are There Any Other Jewish Writings That Were Not Received into the Bible?
>>16. What Are the Dead Sea Scrolls?

1. What is the Bible?

Known as the Good Book asa if it were a single volume, the Bible is a collection or library of many small books written over a period ofmore many small books written over a period of more than 1000 years. The Hebrew Bible, known to Christians as the Old Testament, is largely a record of the Hebrew Deity's dealings with the chosen people, Israel. It contains twenty-four bookds (divided into thrity-nine in the Christian Bible) of narrative, legal material,poetry, and prophecy.

To the original Hebrew Bible Christians add the New Testament, consisting of four narratives of Jesus' life (Gospels), a theological account of the early Church (Acts), twenty-one letters, and an Apocalypse (revelation of future history). Most Protestant Bibles contain sixty-six books (thirty-nine from the Old Testament and twenty-seven from the New Testament). Roman Catholics, most Eastern churches, and some Protestants, however, include a number of additions to the Old Testament list, and these deuterocanonical books are commonly known as the Apocrypha.

2. What does the word "Bible" mean?

The word "Bible" means "little books." It is derived from the Greek term "biblion," the diminutive form of "byblos," which means "papyrus" or "book." That usage in turn comes from the ancient Phoenician city of Byblos, where the papyrus plant was cut and dried in strips for use as writing paper. The manuscript material thus produced was called after the place of its manufacture, Babylon.

3. Who wrote the Bible?

We do not know who wrote most of the Bible. The Old Testament authors did not labor for personal recognition but to convey their sense of Israel's God and his purpose for the world. Old Testament authorship was typically anynymous, although later traditions assigned important books to eminent figures of the past. In the last several centuries B.C.E. (Before the Common Era), Moses was regarded as the author of the Bible's first five books, the Pentateuch, although most modern scholars believe that these books assumed their present form long after Moses' day. Most of the narrative books - Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings and Chronicles - are the work of nameless priests, scribes,a nd archivists. None make direct statements about their origin or compilers. Scholars believe that the great prophets - Amos, Isaiah, Micah, and others - delivered their messages orally and that their words were collected and written down by later disciples whose names are unknown.

The same anonymity prevails in the New Testament. Although late second-century Church traditions attributed various Gospels and letters to prominent early disciples and apostles, most of the texts make no claims of the authorship. The conspicuous exceptions are Paul's letters, written between about 50 and 62 C.E. (of the Common Era) to newly founded Christian churches in such cities as Corinth, Thessalonica, Philippie, and Rome. Although the author of Luke-Acts may have been a Gentile (non-Jew), all other Bible writers were Jewish, members of the Israelite nation.

4. When was the Bible written?

Most scholars dated the first connected written account of biblical history - from the creation of Adam (humanity) in Genesis 2 to Israel's conquest of Palestine - at about the tenth century B.C.E. This document, which forms the oldes narrative strand in the Pentateuch, is characterized by its relatively consistent use of the personal name Yahweh for the Hebrew God and is usually called J, for Jahveh, the German form of the divine name.

Before J was written, Israel's history had been transmitted orally in the form of isolated songs, cultic recitations, and poetry. Stories concerning Israel's most famous ancestors-the patriarchs and matriarchs (tribal fathers and mothers), Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebekah, Jacob, Leah, and Rachel-had been passed by word of mouth thorugh many generations until they were incorporated into J. Early priests, prophets, and other national leaders also recited accounts of the central events in Israel's past-Egypt and giving them his Torah (law) on Mount Sinai-at public festivals and ceremonies. These creedlike recitals of the Moses-Sinai story, once isolated fracments of oral traditions, are now embedded in longer narratives (see 1 Sam. 12:7-15; Deut. 26:6-10; Josh. 24:1-13).

Certain poems celebrating decisive historical victories are thought to be older than the written context in which they now appear. A good example is Miriam's song of Yahweh's trimph at the Sea of Reeds (Exod. 15:21), which may have circulated independently of other oral material and was included in the J narrative around 950 B.C.E. The final editing of the long narrative sequence from genesis through 2 Kings is believed to have taken place during and after Israel's exile in Babylon (the century following 587 B.C.E.). The last books of the Hebrew Bible were composed only a century or two before the birth of Jesus; some of the Apocrypha, such as the Wisdom of Solomon and 2 Esdras, were written even later.

Where as the library of the Hebrew Scriptures took approximately a millenium to complete, the New Testament was composed during a much shorter period, probably between about 50 C.E. (for Paul's earliest letters) and 150 C.E. (for the final form of 2 Peter). In all, biblical literature represents a time span of approximately 1100 years.

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(5. Is the Bible the World's Oldest Book?) >>