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Bible Overview
The word, Bible, never appears in the Bible!
References to the Old Testament are either "Scriptures"
or "The Law and the Prophets." The word,
Bible, is derived from the Greek word, biblia,
which simply means "books." Through
the ages, however, these many books came to be
recognized as one unit. In medieval Latin, the
neutral plural form of "biblia"
was transformed into a feminine singular, and
the word lost its plural meaning. Biblia
no longer meant "books;" instead it
became known as "The Book." Like many
other words of Greek origin, biblia passed into
Western vocabulary by common consent. "The
Bible" came to mean "The Book."
By the second century, the word "holy"
was added and "The Holy Bible" became
known as a collection of sacred writings.
Before there were writings, however, there was
"oral tradition." Many of the stories
of the Bible were told and handed down for centuries
before they were ever written. That makes it especially
difficult to determine authorship for the books
of the Bible. Even when a name is attributed to
a certain book, it doesn't tell us much about
the author. For example:
- The Gospels -- Who were Mark, Matthew, Luke,
or John? What can we say for sure about them?
Not much.
- Paul -- 13 books are attributed to his authorship.
Only 7 are not in dispute.
- Moses - He is alleged to be the author of
the first five books of the Bible ( the Pentateuch).
- Deuteronomy includes an account of his death,
and therefore cannot be his work.
- Isaiah -- The book covers three distinct periods
in history, ranging from the 8th century BCE
to 444BCE. That's over 300 years, requiring
at least three authors.
- Scholars have long identified distinct strands
in the stories told in the first five books
of the Bible, attributing these discrepancies
to different authors. This has evolved into
the documentary theory, which identifies 4 strands,
labeling them as J, E, D, and P.
- J -- represents the Jehovistic (Yahwistic)
strand, and dates from Judea (the southern kingdom)
about 850 BCE. J frequently describes God in
anthropomorphic terms, identifies God as Yahweh
(German translation is Jehovah, hence "J"),
and wrote an epic history.
- E -- represents the Elohistic strand, dates
from the northern kingdom in the 9th or 8th
century BCE. E wrote mostly about the northern
setting, identifies God as Elohim, and places
his emphasis on prophecy (possibly influenced
by Elijah).
- D -- references the author of Deuteronomy,
which is the "book of the Law" uncovered
during the reign of Josiah (651BCE). This led
to major reforms. He basically wrote a covenant
renewal document, reminding Israel of her agreement
to be God's people, demanding loyalty, and presenting
high moral and spiritual standards required
of God's people.
- P -- represents the priestly source. The priestly
writers, working in exile during the 6th or
5th century, are credited with giving the Torah
its final shape. They stressed Israelite rituals
and religious observances. They wrote genealogical,
legal, technical material; using little narrative.
They also wrote the first account of creation
in Genesis.
- The earliest documents of The Bible were scratched
on tablets of stone, clay, wood, or metal. Papyrus
was known in Egypt as early as 1100BCE, and
became a writing material. Several sheets could
be stuck together, thereby creating a "scroll."
Animal skins were also used when documents were
handled a lot.
- Ex.24:7 refers to "the book of
the covenant," which Moses read to the
people while they were still at Mt. Sinai.
- Ex. 34:27 -- God told Moses to write
the Ten Commandments on stone.
- I Sam 10:25 -- Samuel writes the rights
and duties of kingship in a book.
- Is. 8:16 -- Isaiah is instructed to
"Bind up the testimony, seal the law among
my disciples."
- Jer. 36:2 -- God tells him to "Take
thee a roll of a book, and write therein all
the words that I have spoken."
From these efforts we can surmise that it has
always been important to people to have a record
of God's words to them, illustrating their faith
and practice of them. These sacred writings constitute
a "canon." The Greek word is
derived from a Semitic root meaning "reed",
or something standing firm and tall. In Greek
the word refers to a shield, or rod, or a ruler
for measuring. Metaphorically, it had become a
rule or standard, a model or paradigm. Ancient
church fathers used it to mean articles of faith,
or doctrines of the church. When certain books
were "canonized," it meant that they
were recognized as being divinely revealed to
prophets. Hence the selection of books was limited
to the time of the prophets. It is believed that
prophecy began with Moses and ended in the fourth
century BCE (BCE = Before the common [or Christian]
era).
The Old Testament was the official collection
of sacred writings before the New Testament came
into being. But keep in mind that every written
word was preceded by an oral tradition. The actual
writing of the words took place over a span of
a thousand years, from 1150 to 125 BCE, ranging
from the time of Deborah to Esther. The first
book to be "canonized" was the book
of Deuteronomy in 651 BCE. This book was officially
recognized as being the Word of God. God had "spoken,"
and now Judah knew what God willed and expected.
This was followed by the five books of the Law
(The Torah/Pentateuch). Later came the Prophets,
then the writings (Psalms, Proverbs, etc.). This
process lasted until 90CE (CE = The common [or
Christian] era, which is the period since the
assumed year of Jesus birth). This resulted in
the Hebrew Bible comprising 24 books. (The twelve
minor prophets are counted as one book; the two-part
historical books are counted as one.) The Old
Testament was then "closed." No additional
books could be added or removed. Some scholars
feel the timing of this was in response to the
many New Testament writings that were in circulation
at that time.
Once rabbis decided which books to include,
they needed to come up with a plan for maintaining
the highest level of accuracy for the words in
the books. A group of Jewish scholars, called
the Masoretes, undertook this task. The text at
that time was comprised only of consonants and
the Masoretes invented a system for placing vowels
in the writing by placing signs above or below
the consonants. This is called "pointing."
They also began to punctuate the verses, thereby
determining sentence structure. There were two
separate Masorete schools, but eventually their
work was combined. When they agreed on a text,
they took it upon themselves to destroy conflicting
documents! The thought was that it was wrong to
preserve inaccuracies in Scripture, hence there
are very few manuscripts predating the Masoretic
Text. They completed their work by 600 CE,
and references to the Masoretic Text (MT) are
often found in footnotes.
One document that does predate the final MT version
is the Septuagint. This document is identified
as LXX, based on a legend that Ptolemy
II brought 72 elders from Israel to Egypt and
gave them 72 days to translate the Hebrew Bible
into Greek. The truth of the legend remains undetermined,
but most scholars agree that The Old Testament
was translated sometime during the third century
BCE, in Alexandria. Needless to say, there are
many differences between the Masoretic Text and
the Septuagint. The Septuagint contains variations
within the books, as well as additional books.
But since the original documents have been destroyed,
there is no way to determine which is more accurate.
The Septuagint was regularly used by the early
Church for worship and for preaching.
Next month we will continue our overview of the
Bible with an examination of the formation of
the New Testament.
Bibliography
Hinson, David. The Books Of The Old Testament,
London, SPCK, 1992.
The Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible.
Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1962.
Metzer, Bruce and Michael Coogan. Oxford Companion
to the Bible. Oxford: Oxford Press, 1993.
Miller, Madeleine S. and J. Lan Miller. Harpers
Dictionary of the Bible New York, Harper and
Row, 1973.
Soggin, Alberto. Introduction to the Old Testament.
Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1976.
Weiser, Artur. The Old Testament: Its Formation
And Development. New York: Associated Press,
1966.
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