#2.whose bible is it.03

8/14/2019 #2.Whose Bible is It.03

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A Short History of the Scriptures



How the Bible Came to Be:

A Quick Overview



A Long Oral Tradition (many centuries)

Like other ancient literature

e.g., Homer was orally transmitted forcenturies



Shared story with othercultures of the ANE

Gilgamesh EpicEnuma Elish

Psalms: A sung tradition



Much (if not most) of our faith is taught

orally and informally.

Think of your own experience.



Most of our Sacred Scripture consists of the

Hebrew Bible.

This was the only scripture known by Jesusand the apostles, and first century

Christians.



1800 BCE Oral Traditions Form

(Abraham’s time)

1300 BCE First writing: Poetry, somesayings of Moses

1000 BCE Solomon begins to collectwritings

500 BCE Pentateuch gathered (post Exile)

400 BCE Law, Prophets standardized

200 BCE Prophets, Writings gathered

300-100 BCE Translation into Septuagint

90 CE Council of Jamnia (Official Canonof Hebrew Scriptures)



45-50 CE First letters of Paul

50-70 CE Gospel of Mark

63-70 Acts

70s Gospels Matthew, Luke

50-80 CE Gospel of John

90-100 CE Last canonical epistles

2nd

Century Church leaders agreed upon 4Gospels

353 CE Council of Laodicea CANON

397 CE Council of Carthage CANON

400 CE Vulgate (official Latin translation)



Ancient Hebrew---Nearly All of the Hebrew

Testament

22 lettersNo vowels (added later)

Read from right to left

Some words you will recognize:

David, Shalom, Elohim, Yahweh



Official language of Persian

Empire

Parts of the book of Daniel

Phrases in the New Testament

Ordinary language of Palestine

Jesus would have spoken it.

Still spoken today in parts of Syria.



NT written in ‘common’ Greek

Everyday language widely used in the easternpart of the Roman Empire.

No punctuation.

No chapter breaks.

No titles.

No verse numbering.



Scrolls (papyrus beaten together

in long strips)

Reed brushes

Black ink made from soot

modern scrolls

Not until 2nd CE were there “books” called“codexes”. Writing material folded &

fastened together at one side.



Hebrew Bible

2nd Century Nash Papyrus (4 fragments)

Decalogue & Shema8-10th Century Masoretic Text

12-13th Century Nablus Manuscripts

BUT. . . .



400 scrolls recovered---parts of 400 more

found (15,000 fragments, 500 manuscripts)



Discovered by shepherds:1946 to 1952

Caves southeast of Jerusalem (Qumran)

Qumran community, First century Jewishcommunity (ascetics)



Copies of every one of the OT books

except Esther



Scrolls hidden away in these remote caves

Copied by the Essenes, 200 BCE to 68 CE

Older by 1,000 years than the oldestprevious fragments found.



Shrine of the Book, Jerusalem

Complete book of Isaiah, 2000 years old



New Testament

130 CE Fragment of John’s Gospel

400 CE Codex Sinaiticus, earliest

complete mss of NT



5,300 known Greek manuscripts of the New

Testament

10,000 Latin Vulgates9,300 other early manuscripts

24,000 manuscript copies of portions of the

New Testament in existence today!



700 Aldhelm, Bishop of Sherborne

700 Bede (Gospel of John) into Anglo-

Saxon

871-901 King Alfred (Exodus, Psalms, Acts)14th C. Wycliffe: translation into the

English of the people

1525 Tyndale

1611 King James



1946-1952 RSV (from King James)

1961-1970 New English (British)1963 NAS (from American Revised)

1966 Jerusalem Bible (R. Catholic)

1978 NIV (completely new translation)1971 Living Bible (paraphrase)

2003 The Message (paraphrase)



Translation

Or

Paraphrase???

What’s the difference?



the WORD and the Hebrew Bible

For next week:

Read Pelikan Intro, Ch. 1 & 2

Who Else Needs a Book?

#2.whose bible is it.03

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