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Bible refers to the canonical collections of religious writings or books of
Judaism and Christianity. Books included as canon in the Bible vary according to
different histories, traditions and myths.
The Jewish version of the Bible, often referred to as the 39 Books of the Hebrew
Bible or Tanakh, includes the books common to both the Christian and Jewish
biblical canons. The Torah is traditionally considered by believers to be God's
direct words and thus thought to be the most sacred part. Much of the Jewish
religious law is derived from the Torah.
The Christian version of the Bible is often called the Holy Bible, Scriptures,
or Word of God. It divides the books of the Bible into two parts: the 46 Books
of the Old Testament primarily sourced from the Tanakh (with some variations),
and the 27 Books of the New Testament containing books originally written
primarily in Greek. Some versions of the Christian Bible have a separate
Apocrypha section for the books not considered canonical by the publisher.
Additional versions exist, such as the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Old
Testament canons which contain books not found in the Tanakh, but that are found
in the Greek Septuagint, the oldest of several ancient translations of the
Hebrew Bible into Greek.
Etymology
An American family Bible dating to 1859.According to the Online Etymology
Dictionary, the word bible is from Anglo-Latin biblia, traced from the same word
through Medieval Latin and Late Latin, as used in the phrase biblia sacra ("holy
books"). This stemmed from the term (Greek: τ? βιβλ?α τ? ?για Ta biblia ta hagia,
"the holy books"), which derived from biblion ("paper" or "scroll," the ordinary
word for "book"), which was originally a diminutive of byblos ("Egyptian
papyrus"), possibly so called from the name of the Phoenician port from which
Egyptian papyrus was exported to Greece.
Biblical scholar Mark Hamilton states that the Greek phrase Ta biblia ("the
books") was "an expression Hellenistic Jews used to describe their sacred books
several centuries before the time of Jesus," and would have referred to the
Septuagint. The Online Etymology Dictionary states, "The Christian scripture was
referred to in Greek as Ta Biblia as early as c.223."
Hebrew Bible
Main articles: Hebrew Bible, Tanakh, and Old Testament
The Hebrew Bible (Hebrew: ??"?) consists of 39 books. "Hebrew" in "Hebrew Bible"
may refer to either the Hebrew language or to the Hebrew people who historically
used Hebrew as a spoken language, and have continuously used the language in
prayer and study, or both.
Tanakh is an acronym for the three parts of the Hebrew Bible: the Torah
("Teaching/Law" also known as the Pentateuch), Nevi'im ("Prophets"), and Ketuvim
("Writings," or Hagiographa), and is used commonly by Jews but unfamiliar to
many English speakers and others (Alexander 1999, p. 17). (See Table of books of
Judeo-Christian Scripture).
Torah
Torah
The Torah, or "Instruction," is also known as the "Five Books" of Moses, thus
Chumash from Hebrew meaning "fivesome," and Pentateuch from Greek meaning "five
scroll-cases."
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The Torah comprises the following five books:
1. Genesis, Ge—Bereshit (??????)
2. Exodus, Ex—Shemot (????)
3. Leviticus, Le—Vayikra (?????)
4. Numbers, Nu—Bamidbar (?????)
5. Deuteronomy, Dt—Devarim (?????)
The Hebrew book titles come from the first words in the respective texts. The
Hebrew title for Numbers, however, comes from the fifth word of that text.
The Torah focuses on three moments in the changing relationship between God and
people. The first eleven chapters of Genesis provide accounts of the creation
(or ordering) of the world, and the history of God's early relationship with
humanity. The remaining thirty-nine chapters of Genesis provide an account of
God's covenant with the Hebrew patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (also called
Israel), and Jacob's children (the "Children of Israel"), especially Joseph. It
tells of how God commanded Abraham to leave his family and home in the city of
Ur, eventually to settle in the land of Canaan, and how the Children of Israel
later moved to Egypt. The remaining four books of the Torah tell the story of
Moses, who lived hundreds of years after the patriarchs. His story coincides
with the story of the liberation of the Children of Israel from slavery in
Ancient Egypt, to the renewal of their covenant with God at Mount Sinai, and
their wanderings in the desert until a new generation would be ready to enter
the land of Canaan. The Torah ends with the death of Moses.
Traditionally, the Torah contains the 613 mitzvot, or commandments, of God,
revealed during the passage from slavery in the land of Egypt to freedom in the
land of Canaan. These commandments provide the basis for Halakha (Jewish
religious law).
The Torah is divided into fifty-four portions which are read in turn in Jewish
liturgy, from the beginning of Genesis to the end of Deuteronomy, each Sabbath.
The cycle ends and recommences at the end of Sukkot, which is called Simchat
Torah.
Nevi'im
Nevi'im
The Nevi'im, or "Prophets," tell the story of the rise of the Hebrew monarchy,
its division into two kingdoms, and the prophets who, in God's name, judged the
kings and the Children of Israel. It ends with the conquest of the Kingdom of
Israel by the Assyrians and the conquest of the Kingdom of Judah by the
Babylonians, and the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem. Portions of the
prophetic books are read by Jews on the Sabbath (Shabbat). The Book of Jonah is
read on Yom Kippur.
According to Jewish tradition, Nevi'im is divided into eight books. Contemporary
translations subdivide these into seventeen books.
The Nevi'im comprise the following eight books:
6. Joshua, Js—Yehoshua (?????)
7. Judges, Jg—Shoftim (??????)
8. Samuel, includes First and Second, 1Sa–2Sa—Shemuel (?????)
9. Kings, includes First and Second, 1Ki–2Ki—Melakhim (?????)
10. Isaiah, Is—Yeshayahu (??????)
11. Jeremiah, Je—Yirmiyahu (??????)
12. Ezekiel, Ez—Yekhezkel (??????)
13. Twelve, includes all Minor Prophets—Tre Asar (??? ???)
a. Hosea, Ho—Hoshea (????)
b. Joel, Jl—Yoel (????)
c. Amos, Am—Amos (????)
d. Obadiah, Ob—Ovadyah (?????)
e. Jonah, Jh—Yonah (????)
f. Micah, Mi—Mikhah (????)
g. Nahum, Na—Nahum (????)
h. Habakkuk, Hb—Havakuk (?????)
i. Zephaniah, Zp—Tsefanya (?????)
j. Haggai, Hg—Khagay (???)
k. Zechariah, Zc—Zekharyah (?????)
l. Malachi, Ml—Malakhi (?????)
Ketuvim
Ketuvim
The Ketuvim, or "Writings" or "Scriptures," may have been written during or
after the Babylonian Exile but no one can be sure. According to Rabbinic
tradition, many of the psalms in the book of Psalms are attributed to David;
King Solomon is believed to have written Song of Songs in his youth, Proverbs at
the prime of his life, and Ecclesiastes at old age; and the prophet Jeremiah is
thought to have written Lamentations. The Book of Ruth is the only biblical book
that centers entirely on a non-Jew. The book of Ruth tells the story of a
non-Jew (specifically, a Moabite) who married a Jew and, upon his death,
followed in the ways of the Jews; according to the Bible, she was the
great-grandmother of King David. Five of the books, called "The Five Scrolls" (Megilot),
are read on Jewish holidays: Song of Songs on Passover; the Book of Ruth on
Shavuot; Lamentations on the Ninth of Av; Ecclesiastes on Sukkot; and the Book
of Esther on Purim. Collectively, the Ketuvim contain lyrical poetry,
philosophical reflections on life, and the stories of the prophets and other
Jewish leaders during the Babylonian exile. It ends with the Persian decree
allowing Jews to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the Temple.
The Ketuvim comprise the following eleven books:
14. Psalms, Ps—Tehillim (?????)
15. Proverbs, Pr—Mishlei (????)
16. Job, Jb—Iyyov (????)
17. Song of Songs, So—Shir ha-Shirim (??? ??????)
18. Ruth, Ru—Rut (???)
19. Lamentations, La—Eikhah (????), also called Kinot (?????)
20. Ecclesiastes, Ec—Kohelet (????)
21. Esther, Es—Ester (????)
22. Daniel, Dn—Daniel (?????)
23. Ezra, Ea, includes Nehemiah, Ne—Ezra (????), includes Nehemiah (?????)
24. Chronicles, includes First and Second, 1Ch–2Ch—Divrei ha-Yamim (???? ?????),
also called Divrei (????)
Hebrew Bible translations and editions
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The Tanakh was mainly written in biblical Hebrew, with some portions (notably in
Daniel and Ezra) in Aramaic.
Some time in the 2nd or 3rd century BCE, the Torah was translated into Koine
Greek, and over the next century, other books were translated (or composed) as
well. This translation became known as the Septuagint and was widely used by
Greek-speaking Jews, and later by Christians. It differs somewhat from the later
standardized Hebrew (Masoretic Text). This translation was promoted by way of a
legend that seventy separate translators all produced identical texts.
From the 800s to the 1400s, Jewish scholars today known as Masoretes compared
the text of all known biblical manuscripts in an effort to create a unified,
standardized text. A series of highly similar texts eventually emerged, and any
of these texts are known as Masoretic Texts (MT). The Masoretes also added vowel
points (called niqqud) 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 vowels—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, the Dead Sea
scrolls, and other ancient fragments, as well as being attested in ancient
versions in other languages.
Versions of the Septuagint contain several passages and whole books beyond what
was included in the Masoretic texts of the Tanakh. In some cases these additions
were originally composed in Greek, while in other cases they are translations of
Hebrew books or variants not present in the Masoretic texts. Recent discoveries
have shown that more of the Septuagint additions have a Hebrew origin than was
once thought. While there are no complete surviving manuscripts of the Hebrew
texts on which the Septuagint was based, many scholars believe that they
represent a different textual tradition ("Vorlage") from the one that became the
basis for the Masoretic texts.
Jews also produced non-literal translations or paraphrases known as targums,
primarily in Aramaic. They frequently expanded on the text with additional
details taken from Rabbinic oral tradition.
The two Torahs of Rabbinic Judaism
By the Hellenistic period of Jewish history, Jews were divided over the nature
of the Torah. Some (for example, the Sadducees) believed that the Chumash
contained the entire Torah, that is, the entire contents of what God revealed to
Moses at Sinai and in the desert. Others, principally the Pharisees, believed
that the Chumash represented only that portion of the revelation that had been
written down (i.e., the Written Torah or the Written Law), but that the rest of
God's revelation had been passed down orally (thus composing the Oral Law or
Oral Torah). Orthodox and Masorti and Conservative Judaism state that the Talmud
contains some of the Oral Torah. Reform Judaism also gives credence to the
Talmud containing the Oral Torah, but, as with the written Torah, asserts that
both were inspired by, but not dictated by, God.
The Old Testament
Old Testament
The Christian Old Testament, while having most or all books in common with the
Jewish Tanakh, varies from Judaism in the emphasis it places and the
interpretations it gives them. The books come in a slightly different order. In
addition, some Christian groups recognize additional books as canonical members
of the Old Testament, and they may use a different text as the canonical basis
for translations.
Differing Christian usages of the Old Testament
Biblical Canon
The Septuagint (Greek translation, from Alexandria in Egypt under the Ptolemies)
was generally abandoned in favour of the Masoretic text as the basis for
translations of the Old Testament into Western languages from Martin Luther's
Protestant Bible to the present day; already Jerome's Vulgate was based on the
Hebrew. In Eastern Christianity, translations based on the Septuagint still
prevail. Some modern Western translations make use of the Septuagint to clarify
passages in the Masoretic text, where the Septuagint may preserve a variant
reading of the Hebrew text. They also sometimes adopt variants that appear in
texts discovered among the Dead Sea Scrolls.
A number of books which are part of the Greek Septuagint but are not found in
the Hebrew (Rabbinic) Bible are often referred to as deuterocanonical books by
Catholics referring to a later secondary (i.e., deutero) canon. Most Protestants
term these books as apocrypha. Evangelicals and those of the Modern Protestant
traditions do not accept the deuterocanonical books as canonical, although
Protestant Bibles included them until around the 1820s. However, the Catholic,
Eastern Orthodox, and Oriental Orthodox Churches include these books as part of
their Old Testament. The Catholic Church recognizes seven such books (Tobit,
Judith, 1 Maccabees, 2 Maccabees, Wisdom of Solomon, Ecclesiasticus, and
Baruch), as well as some passages in Esther and Daniel. Various Orthodox
Churches include a few others, typically 3 Maccabees, Psalm 151, 1 Esdras, Odes,
Psalms of Solomon, and the Prayer of Manasseh. The Anglican Church uses the
Apocryphal books liturgically, but not to establish doctrine. Therefore,
editions of the Bible intended for use in the Anglican Church include these
books, plus 1 Esdras, 2 Esdras and the Prayer of Manasseh.
The New Testament
New Testament
The Bible as used by the majority of Christians includes the Rabbinic Hebrew
Scripture and the New Testament, which relates the life and teachings of Jesus,
the letters of the Apostle Paul and other disciples to the early church and the
Book of Revelation.
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The New Testament is a collection of 27 books, of 4 different genres of
Christian literature (Gospels, one account of the Acts of the Apostles, Epistles
and an Apocalypse). Jesus is its central figure. The New Testament was written
primarily in Koine Greek in the early Christian period. Nearly all Christians
recognize the New Testament (as stated below) as canonical scripture. These
books can be grouped into:
The Gospels
Synoptic Gospels
Gospel According to Matthew, Mt
Gospel According to Mark, Mk
Gospel According to Luke, Lk
Gospel According to John, Jn
Acts of the Apostles, Ac (continues Luke)
Pauline Epistles
Epistle to the Romans, Ro
First Epistle to the Corinthians, 1Co
Second Epistle to the Corinthians, 2Co
Epistle to the Galatians, Ga
Epistle to the Ephesians, Ep
Epistle to the Philippians, Pp
Epistle to the Colossians, Cl
First Epistle to the Thessalonians, 1Th
Second Epistle to the Thessalonians, 2Th
Pastoral Epistles
First Epistle to Timothy, 1Ti
Second Epistle to Timothy, 2Ti
Epistle to Titus, Tt
Epistle to Philemon, Pm
Epistle to the Hebrews, He
General Epistles, also called Jewish Epistles
Epistle of James, Jm
First Epistle of Peter, 1Pe
Second Epistle of Peter, 2Pe
First Epistle of John, 1Jn
Second Epistle of John, 2Jn
Third Epistle of John, 3Jn
Epistle of Jude, Jd
Revelation, Re
Original language
Probably, the books of the New Testament were written in Koine Greek, the
language of the earliest extant manuscripts, even though some authors often
included translations from Hebrew and Aramaic texts. Certainly the Pauline
Epistles were written in Greek for Greek-speaking audiences. See Greek primacy.
Some scholars believe that some books of the Greek New Testament (in particular,
the Gospel of Matthew) are actually translations of a Hebrew or Aramaic
original. Of these, a small number accept the Syriac Peshitta as representative
of the original. See Aramaic primacy.
Historic editions
See also: Biblical manuscript and Bible translations
The Codex Gigas from the 13th century, held at the Royal Library in Sweden.When
ancient scribes copied earlier books, they wrote notes on the margins of the
page (marginal glosses) to correct their text—especially if a scribe
accidentally omitted a word or line—and to comment about the text. When later
scribes were copying the copy, they were sometimes uncertain if a note was
intended to be included as part of the text. See textual criticism. Over time,
different regions evolved different versions, each with its own assemblage of
omissions and additions.
The autographs, the Greek manuscripts written by the original 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 (generally minimalist), the Byzantine
text-type (generally maximalist), and the Western text-type (occasionally wild).
Together they comprise most of the ancient manuscripts.
There are also several ancient translations, most important of which are in the
Syriac dialect of Aramaic (including the Peshitta and the Diatessaron gospel
harmony), in the Ethiopian language of Ge'ez, and in Latin (both the Vetus
Latina and the Vulgate).
The earliest surviving complete manuscript of the entire Bible is the Codex
Amiatinus, a Latin Vulgate edition produced in eighth century England at the
double monastery of Wearmouth-Jarrow.
The earliest printed edition of the Greek New Testament appeared in 1516 from
the Froben press, by Desiderius Erasmus, who reconstructed its Greek text from
several recent manuscripts of the Byzantine text-type. He occasionally added a
Greek translation of the Latin Vulgate for parts that did not exist in the Greek
manuscripts. He produced four later editions of this text. Erasmus was Roman
Catholic, but his preference for the Byzantine Greek manuscripts rather than the
Latin Vulgate led some church authorities to view him with suspicion.
The first printed edition with critical apparatus (noting variant readings among
the manuscripts) was produced by the printer Robert Estienne of Paris in 1550.
The Greek text of this edition and of those of Erasmus became known as the
Textus Receptus (Latin for "received text"), a name given to it in the Elzevier
edition of 1633, which termed it as the text nunc ab omnibus receptum ("now
received by all").
The churches of the Protestant Reformation translated the Greek of the Textus
Receptus to produce vernacular Bibles, such as the German Luther Bible and the
English King James Bible.
The discovery of older manuscripts, which belong to the Alexandrian text-type,
including the 4th-century Codex Vaticanus and Codex Sinaiticus, led scholars to
revise their view about the original Greek text. Attempts to reconstruct the
original text are called critical editions. Karl Lachmann based his critical
edition of 1831 on manuscripts dating from the 4th century and earlier, to
demonstrate that the Textus Receptus must be corrected according to these
earlier texts.
Later critical editions incorporate ongoing scholarly research, including
discoveries of Greek papyrus fragments from near Alexandria, Egypt, that date in
some cases within a few decades of the original New Testament writings. Today,
most critical editions of the Greek New Testament, such as UBS4 and NA27,
consider the Alexandrian text-type corrected by papyrii, to be the Greek text
that is closest to the original autographs. Their apparatus includes the result
of votes among scholars, ranging from certain {A} to doubtful {E}, on which
variants best preserve the original Greek text of the New Testament.
Most variants among the manuscripts are minor, such as alternate spelling,
alternate word order, the presence or absence of an optional definite article
("the"), and so on. Occasionally, a major variant happens when a portion of a
text was accidentally omitted (or perhaps even censored), or was added from a
marginal gloss. Fortunately, major variants tend to be easier to correct.
Critical editions that rely primarily on the Alexandrian text-type inform nearly
all modern translations (and revisions of older translations).
However for reasons of tradition, especially the doctrine of the inerrancy of
the King James Bible, some modern scholars prefer to use the Textus Receptus for
the Greek text, or use the Majority Text which is similar to it but is a
critical edition that relies on earlier manuscripts of the Byzantine text-type.
Among these scholars, some argue that the Byzantine tradition contains scribal
additions, but these later interpolations preserve the orthodox interpretations
of the biblical text—as part of the ongoing Christian experience—and in this
sense are authoritative.
Christian theology
While individual books within the Christian Bible present narratives set in
certain historical periods, most Christian denominations teach that the Bible
itself has an overarching message.
There are among Christians wide differences of opinion as to how particular
incidents as described in the Bible are to be interpreted and as to what meaning
should be attached to various prophecies. However, Christians in general are in
agreement as to the Bible's basic message. A general outline, as described by
C.S. Lewis, is as follows:
At some point in the past, humanity learned to depart from God's will and began
to sin.
Because no one is free from sin, people cannot deal with God directly, so God
revealed Himself in ways people could understand.
God called Abraham and his progeny to be the means for saving all of humanity.
To this end, He gave the Law to Moses.
The resulting nation of Israel went through cycles of sin and repentance, yet
the prophets show an increasing understanding of the Law as a moral, not just a
ceremonial, force.
Jesus brought a perfect understanding of the Mosaic Law, that of love and
salvation.
By His death and resurrection, all who believe are saved and reconciled to God.
Many people who identify themselves as Christians, Muslims, or Jews regard the
Bible as inspired by God yet written by a variety of imperfect men over
thousands of years. Bible-believing Christians regard both the New and Old
Testament as the undiluted Word of God, spoken by God and written down in its
perfect form by humans. Belief in sacred texts is attested to in Jewish
antiquity, and this belief can also be seen in the earliest of Christian
writings. Various texts of the Bible mention Divine agency in relation to
prophetic writings, the most explicit being 2 Tm 3:16: "All scripture is
breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction,
and for training in righteousness." In their book A General Introduction to the
Bible, Norman Geisler and William Nix wrote: "The process of inspiration is a
mystery of the providence of God, but the result of this process is a verbal,
plenary, inerrant, and authoritative record." Some biblical scholars,
particularly Evangelicals, associate inspiration with only the original text;
for example some American Protestants adhere to the 1978 Chicago Statement on
Biblical Inerrancy which asserted that inspiration applied only to the
autographic text of Scripture.
The canonization of the Bible
Biblical Canon
The word "canon" etymologically means cane or reed. In early Christianity
"canon" referred to a list of books approved for public reading. Books not on
the list were referred to as "apocryphal" — meaning they were for private
reading only. Under Latin usage from the fourth century on, canon came to stand
for a closed and authoritative list in the sense of rule or norm.
Canonization of the Hebrew Bible
The New Testament refers to the threefold division of the Hebrew Scriptures: the
law, the prophets, and the writings. Luke 24:44 refers to the "law of Moses"
(Pentateuch), the "prophets" which include certain historical books in addition
to the books now called "prophets," and the psalms (the "writings" designated by
its most prominent collection). The Hebrew Bible probably was canonized in these
three stages: the law canonized before the Exile, the prophets by the time of
the Syrian persecution of the Jews, and the writings shortly after AD 70 (the
fall of Jerusalem). About that time, early Christian writings began being
accepted by Christians as "scripture." These events, taken together, may have
caused the Jews to close their "canon." They listed their own recognized
Scriptures and also excluded both Christian and Jewish writings considered by
them to be "apocryphal." In this canon the thirty-nine books found in the Old
Testament of today's Christian Bibles were grouped together as twenty-two books,
equaling the number of letters in the Hebrew alphabet. This canon of Jewish
scripture is attested to by Philo, Josephus, the New Testament (Luke 11:51, Luke
24:44), and the Talmud.
The New Testament writers assumed the inspiration of the Old Testament, probably
earliest stated in 2 Timothy 3:16 which may be rendered "All Scripture is
inspired of God" or "Every God-inspired Scripture is profitable for teaching."
Both translations consider inspiration as a fact.
Canonization of the Old Testament and New Testament
The Old Testament canon entered into Christian use in the Greek Septuagint
translations and original books, and their differing lists of texts. In addition
to the Septuagint, Christianity subsequently added various writings that would
become the New Testament. Somewhat different lists of accepted works continued
to develop in antiquity. In the fourth century a series of synods produced a
list of texts equal to the 46-book canon of the Old testament and to the 27-book
canon of the New Testament that would be subsequently used to today, most
notably the Synod of Hippo in AD 393. Also c. 400, Jerome produced a definitive
Latin edition of the Bible (see Vulgate), the canon of which, at the insistence
of the Pope, was in accord with the earlier Synods. With the benefit of
hindsight it can be said that this process effectively set the New Testament
canon, although there are examples of other canonical lists in use after this
time. A definitive list did not come from an Ecumenical Council until the
Council of Trent (1545–63).
During the Protestant Reformation, certain reformers proposed different
canonical lists than what was currently in use. Though not without debate, the
list of New Testament books would come to remain the same; however, the Old
Testament texts present in the Septuagint, but not included in the Jewish canon,
fell out of favour. In time they would come to be removed from most Protestant
canons. Hence, in a Catholic context these texts are referred to as
deuterocanonical books, whereas in a Protestant context they are referred to as
Apocrypha, the label applied to all texts excluded from the biblical canon. It
should also be noted, that Catholics and Protestants both describe certain other
books, such as the ‘’Acts of Peter’’, as apocryphal.
Thus, the Protestant Old Testament of today has a 39-book canon—the number
varies from that of the books in the Tanakh (though not in content) because of a
different method of division—while the Roman Catholic Church recognizes 46 books
as part of the canonical Old Testament. The term "Hebrew Scriptures" is only
synonymous with the Protestant Old Testament, not the Catholic, which contains
the Hebrew Scriptures and additional texts. Both Catholics and Protestants have
the same 27-book New Testament Canon.
Canonicity, which involves the discernment of which texts are divinely inspired,
is distinct from questions of human authorship and the formation of the books of
the Bible.
Ethiopian Orthodox canon
The Canon of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church is wider than for most other
Christian groups. The Ethiopian "narrower" Old Testament Canon includes the
books found in the Septuagint accepted by other Orthodox Christians, in addition
to Enoch, Jubilees, 1 Esdras and 2 Esdras, 3 books of Meqabyan (Maccabees), and
Psalm 151. However, the three books of Meqabyan are similar to Maccabees in
title only, and quite different in content from those of the other Christian
churches which include them. The order of the other books is somewhat different
from other groups', as well. The Church also has a "broader canon" that includes
more books.
Bible versions and translations
Further information: Bible translations
A Bible handwritten in Latin, on display in Malmesbury Abbey, Wiltshire,
England. This Bible was transcribed in Belgium in 1407 for reading aloud in a
monastery.In scholarly writing, ancient translations are frequently referred to
as "versions," with the term "translation" being reserved for medieval or modern
translations. Bible versions are discussed below, while Bible translations can
be found on a separate page.
The original texts of the Tanakh were in Hebrew, although some portions were in
Aramaic. In addition to the authoritative Masoretic Text, Jews still refer to
the Septuagint, the translation of the Hebrew Bible into Greek, and the Targum
Onkelos, an Aramaic version of the Bible. There are several different ancient
versions of the Tanakh in Hebrew, mostly differing by spelling, and the
traditional Jewish version is based on the version known as Aleppo Codex. Even
in this version by itself, there are words which are traditionally read
differently than written (sometimes one word is written and another is read),
because the oral tradition is considered more fundamental than the written one,
and presumably mistakes had been made in copying the text over the generations.
The primary biblical text for early Christians was the Septuagint or (LXX). In
addition they translated the Hebrew Bible into several other languages.
Translations were made into Syriac, Coptic, Ge'ez and Latin, among other
languages. The Latin translations were historically the most important for the
Church in the West, while the Greek-speaking East continued to use the
Septuagint translation of the Old Testament and had no need to translate the New
Testament.
The earliest Latin translation was the Old Latin text, or Vetus Latina, which,
from internal evidence, seems to have been made by several authors over a period
of time. It was based on the Septuagint, and thus included books not in the
Hebrew Bible.
Pope Damasus I assembled the first list of books of the Bible at the Council of
Rome in 382 AD. He commissioned Saint Jerome to produce a reliable and
consistent text by translating the original Greek and Hebrew texts into Latin.
This translation became known as the Latin Vulgate Bible and was declared by the
Church to be the only authentic and official Bible.
Bible translations for many languages have been made through the various
influences of Catholicism, Orthodox, Protestant, etc especially since the
Protestant Reformation. The Bible has seen a notably large number of English
language translations.
The work of Bible translation continues, including by Christian organisations
such as Wycliffe Bible Translators (wycliffe.net), New Tribes Missions (ntm.org)
and the Bible Societies (biblesociety.org). Of the world's 6,900 languages,
2,400 have some or all of the Bible, 1,600 (spoken by more than a billion
people) have translation underway, and some 2,500 (spoken by 270 million people)
are judged as needing translation to begin.
Important characteristics of early Bible texts
See also: Chapters and verses of the Bible
The use of chapters and verses was not introduced until the Middle Ages and
later. The system used in English was developed by Stephanus (Robert Estienne of
Paris) (as noted below)
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.
Differences in Bible translations
This Gutenberg Bible is displayed by the United States Library of Congress.See
also: Bible translations: Approaches.
As Hebrew and Greek, the original languages of the Bible, have idioms and
concepts not easily translated, there is an on going critical tension about
whether it is better to give a word for word translation or to give a
translation that gives a parallel idiom in the target language. For instance, in
the English language Catholic translation, the New American Bible, as well as
the Protestant translations of the Christian Bible, translations like the King
James Version, the New Revised Standard Version and the New American Standard
Bible are seen as literal translations (or "word for word"), whereas
translations like the New International Version and New Living Version attempt
to give relevant parallel idioms. The Living Bible and The Message are two
paraphrases of the Bible that try to convey the original meaning in contemporary
language. The further away one gets from word to word translation, the text
becomes more readable while relying more on the theological, linguistic or
cultural understanding of the translator, which one would not normally expect a
lay reader to require.
Inclusive language
Traditionally, English masculine pronouns have been used interchangeably to
refer to the male gender and to all people. For instance, "All men are mortal"
is not intended to imply that males are mortal but females are immortal. English
language readers and hearers have had to interpret masculine pronouns (and such
words as "man" and "mankind") based on context. Further, both Hebrew and Greek,
like some of the Latin-origin languages, use the male gender of nouns and
pronouns to refer to groups that contain both sexes. This creates some
difficulty in determining whether a noun or pronoun should be translated using
terms that refer to men only, or generically to men and women inclusively.
Context sometimes, but not always, helps determine whether to decode them in a
gender-insensitive or gender-specific way.
Contemporary language has changed in many cases to reflect criticism of the use
of the masculine gender, which has been characterized as discriminatory. Current
style guides, such as APA, MLA, NCTE, and others, have published statements
encouraging, and in some cases requiring, the use of inclusive language, which
avoids language this approach regards as sexist or class-distinctive.
Until recently, virtually all English translations of the Bible have used
masculine nouns and pronouns both specifically (to refer to males) and
generically (when the reference is not necessarily gender-specific). Recent
examples of translations which incorporate gender-inclusive language include the
New Revised Standard Version, the Revised English Bible, and Today's New
International Version.
Comparison of Traditional vs Gender-Inclusive Translations of Rom. 12:6-8
Original New International Version Today's New International Version
We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man's gift is
prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. If it is serving, let
him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; if it is encouraging, let him
encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give
generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing
mercy, let him do it cheerfully. We have different gifts, according to the grace
given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance
with your faith; if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; if
it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give
generously; if it is to lead, do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it
cheerfully.
The introduction of chapters and verses
Chapters and verses of the Bible
; see Tanakh for the Jewish textual tradition.
The Hebrew Masoretic text contains verse endings as an important feature.
According to the Talmudic tradition, the verse endings are of ancient origin.
The Masoretic textual tradition also contains section endings called parashiyot,
which are indicated by a space within a line (a "closed" section") or a new line
beginning (an "open" section). The division of the text reflected in the
parashiyot is usually thematic. The parashiyot are not numbered.
In early manuscripts (most importantly in Tiberian Masoretic manuscripts, such
as the Aleppo codex) an "open" section may also be represented by a blank line,
and a "closed" section by a new line that is slightly indented (the preceding
line may also not be full). These latter conventions are no longer used in Torah
scrolls and printed Hebrew Bibles. In this system the one rule differentiating
"open" and "closed" sections is that "open" sections must always begin at the
beginning of a new line, while "closed" sections never start at the beginning of
a new line.
Another related feature of the Masoretic text is the division of the sedarim.
This division is not thematic, but is almost entirely based upon the quantity of
text.
The Byzantines also introduced a chapter division of sorts, called Kephalaia. It
is not identical to the present chapters.
The current division of the Bible into chapters and the verse numbers within the
chapters has no basis in any ancient textual tradition. Rather, they are
medieval Christian inventions. They were later adopted by many Jews as well, as
technical references within the Hebrew text. Such technical references became
crucial to medieval rabbis in the historical context of forced debates with
Christian clergy (who used the chapter and verse numbers), especially in late
medieval Spain. Chapter divisions were first used by Jews in a 1330 manuscript
and for a printed edition in 1516. However, for the past generation, most Jewish
editions of the complete Hebrew Bible have made a systematic effort to relegate
chapter and verse numbers to the margins of the text.
The division of the Bible into chapters and verses has often elicited severe
criticism from traditionalists and modern scholars alike. Critics charge that
the text is often divided into chapters in an incoherent way, or at
inappropriate rhetorical points, and that it encourages citing passages out of
context, in effect turning the Bible into a kind of textual quarry for clerical
citations. Nevertheless, the chapter divisions and verse numbers have become
indispensable as technical references for Bible study.
Stephen Langton is reputed to have been the first to put the chapter divisions
into a Vulgate edition of the Bible, in 1205. They were then inserted into Greek
manuscripts of the New Testament in the 1400s. Robert Estienne (Robert
Stephanus) was the first to number the verses within each chapter, his verse
numbers entering printed editions in 1551 (New Testament) and 1571 (Hebrew
Bible).
Textual criticism
Main articles: Biblical criticism and Criticism of the Bible.
Textual criticism refers to the investigation of the Bible as a text, and
addresses questions such as authorship, dates of composition, and authorial
intention.
Early criticism
The traditional view of the Mosaic authorship of the Torah came under sporadic
criticism from medieval scholars including Isaac ibn Yashush, Abraham ibn Ezra,
Bonfils of Damascus and bishop Tostatus of Avila, who pointed to passages such
as the description of the death of Moses in Deuteronomy as evidence that some
portions, at least, could not have been written by Moses. In the 17th century
Thomas Hobbes collected the current evidence and became the first scholar to
conclude outright that Moses could not have written the bulk of the Torah.
Shortly afterwards the philosopher Baruch Spinoza published a unified critical
analysis, demonstrating that the problematic passages were not isolated cases
that could be explained away one by one, but pervasive throughout the five
books, concluding that it was "clearer than the sun at noon that the Pentateuch
was not written by Moses…." Despite determined opposition from the Church, both
Catholic and Protestant, the views of Hobbes and Spinoza gained increasing
acceptance amongst scholars.
The documentary hypothesis
Having established the hypothesis that Moses had not written the Pentateuch,
attention next turned to the question of who had. Independent but nearly
simultaneous proposals by H. B. Witter, Jean Astruc, and J. G. Eichhorn
separated the Pentateuch into two original documentary components, both dating
from after the time of Moses. Others hypothesized the presence of two additional
sources. The four documents were given working titles: J (or Yahwist), E
(Elohist), P (Priestly), and D (Deuteronomist), each was discernable by its own
characteristic language, and each, when read in isolation, presented a unified,
coherent narrative.
Subsequent scholars, notably Eduard Reuss, Karl Heinrich Graf and Wilhelm Vatke,
turned their attention to the order in which the documents had been composed
(which they deduced from internal clues) and placed them in the context of a
theory of the development of ancient Israelite religion, suggesting that much of
the Laws and the narrative of the Pentateuch were unknown to the Israelites in
the time of Moses. These were synthesized by Julius Wellhausen (1844-1918), who
suggested a historical framework for the composition of the documents and their
redaction (combination) into the final document known as the Pentateuch. This
hypothesis was challenged by William Henry Green in his The Mosaic Origins of
the Pentateuchal Codes (available online). Nonetheless, according to
contemporary Torah scholar Richard Elliott Friedman, Wellhausen's model of the
documentary hypothesis continues to dominate the field of biblical scholarship:
"To this day, if you want to disagree, you disagree with Wellhausen. If you want
to pose a new model, you compare its merits with those of Wellhausen's model."
The documentary hypothesis is important in the field of biblical studies not
only because it claims that the Torah was written by different people at
different times—generally long after the events it describes— but it also
proposed what was at the time a radically new way of reading the Bible. Many
proponents of the documentary hypothesis view the Bible more as a body of
literature than a work of history, believing that the historical value of the
text lies not in its account of the events that it describes, but in what
critics can infer about the times in which the authors lived (as critics may
read Hamlet to learn about seventeenth-century England, but will not read it to
learn about seventh-century Denmark).
Modern developments
The critical analysis of authorship now encompasses every book of the bible.
Every book in turn has been hypothesized to bear traces of multiple authorship,
even the book of Obadiah, which is only a single page. In some cases the
traditional view on authorship has been overturned; in others, additional
support, at least in part has been found.
The development of the hypothesis has not stopped with Wellhausen. Wellhausen's
hypothesis, for example, proposed that the four documents were composed in the
order J-E-D-P, with P, containing the bulk of the Jewish law, dating from the
post-Exilic Second Temple period (i.e., after 515 BC); but the contemporary view
is that P is earlier than D, and that all four books date from the First Temple
period (i.e., prior to 587 BC). The documentary hypothesis has more recently
been refined by later scholars such as Martin Noth (who in 1943 provided
evidence that Deuteronomy plus the following six books make a unified history
from the hand of a single editor), Harold Bloom, Frank Moore Cross and Richard
Elliot Friedman.
The documentary hypothesis, at least in the four-document version advanced by
Wellhausen, has been controverisal since its formulation. The direction of this
criticism is to question the existence of separate, identifiable documents,
positing instead that the biblical text is made up of almost innumerable strands
so interwoven as to be hardly untangleable—the J document, in particular, has
been subjected to such intense dissection that it seems in danger of
disappearing.
Although biblical archeology has confirmed the existence of many people, places,
and events mentioned in the Bible , many critical scholars have argued that the
Bible be read not as an accurate historical document, but rather as a work of
literature and theology that often draws on historical events—and often draws on
non-Hebrew mythology—as primary source material. For these critics the Bible
reveals much about the lives and times of its authors. Whether the ideas of
these authors have any relevance to contemporary society is left to clerics and
adherents of contemporary religions to decide.
Theological responses
Judaism
The claim that the Torah—"the Five Books of Moses"—were not written by Moses but
by many authors long after Moses was said to have lived, directly challenged
Jewish orthodoxy. For most, this claim implies that the Torah itself—especially
its account of God's revelation at Mt. Sinai—is not historically reliable.
Although many Orthodox scholars have rejected Higher Criticism, most
Conservative and virtually all Reform Jewish scholars have accepted it.
Consequently, there has been considerable debate among Jewish scholars as to the
nature of revelation and the divine nature of the Torah. Conservative Jewish
philosopher Elliot Dorff has categorized five distinct major Jewish positions in
these debates that emerged in the twentieth century :
Orthodox (characterized by Eliezer Berkovitz and Norman Lamm): "Verbal
Revelation: The Torah, including both the Written and Oral Traditions, consists
of the exact words of God. He gave it all as one piece at Sinai."
Conservative I (characterized by Isaac Lesser, Alexander Kohut, Abraham Joshua
Heschel, and David Novak): "Continuous Revelation:God dictated His will at Sinai
and other times. It was written down by human beings, however, and hence the
diverse traditions in the Bible."
Conservative II (characterized by Ben Zion Bokser, Robert Gordis, Max
Routtenberg and Emil Fackenheim): "Continuous Revelation: Human beings wrote the
Torah, but they were divinely inspired."
Conservative III (characterized by Louis Jacobs, Seymour Seigel, Jacob Agus,
David Lieber and Elliot Dorff): "Continuous Revelation: The Torah is the human
record of the concounter between God and the People Israel at Sinai. Since it
was written by human beings, it contains some laws and ideas which we find
repugnant today."
Conservative IV/Reconstructionist (characterized by Mordecai Kaplan, Ira
Eisenstein and Harold Schulweis): "No Revelation: Human beings wrote the Torah.
No claim for divinity of the product."
Reform (characterized by the Movement's 1937 Guiding Principles): "Progressive
revelation: The Torah is God's will written by human beings. As time goes on, we
get to understand his will better and better (="progressive revelation").
Rabbi David Weiss HaLivni, the founder of the Union for Traditional Judaism, has
adapted a position he describes as chatu yisrael ("Israel sinned"), that God
revealed the Torah to Moses on Mount Sinai but it subsequently became corrupted
and lost, and Ezra restored it by redacting it from multiple manuscripts
reflecting disparate traditions. Under this view, the Torah is the best
available record of the Divine will, has prophetic commendation, and is binding
on the Jewish people, but is not necessarily entirely free of disparaties.
Reform Judaism and Reconstructionist Judaism generally adapt the textual
critical approach in toto and regard the Torah as either inspired rather than
revealed, or a human product rather than the product of an external God.
Christianity
In 1943 pope Pius XII's encyclical Divino Afflante Spiritu gave the Vatican's
imprimatur to textual criticism.
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