Introduction to the Bible

In this essay, I will be addressing an introductory exploration of the historical context and

literary styles of the Bible. As a Christian, to study the Holy Bible, to understand its history

and the manner in which it was written, and spread to the world is critical to a deeper

understanding of one’s Christian faith. I plan to cover four basic areas applicable to gaining

this understanding; these are:

How to develop an ability to interpret each of the various sections of the Bible

independently, without the aid of commentaries, dictionaries, etc.

Become able to articulate and critique various contemporary methods of

exegeting (understanding) a Biblical text

Develop the ability to describe the history and transmission of the various

manuscripts of the Bible

Become able to evaluate and assess the numerous English translations available

today.

By gaining the understanding and ability to absorb and internalize this information, a committed

Christian can improve his/her comprehension of his/her faith. This paper will attempt to show

how I acquired the information, give examples of my understanding of the information, and

demonstrate that I can employ the information in venues outside of the learning environment.

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Over the course of 50 plus years, most of the information I will address was gained by formal

church-base Bible study and just about a full year of formal Bible study courses taken as a young

girl in England. I also was assisted in gaining this knowledge by use of informal self-initiated

avocational reading at home alone or with my family using (initially) written material such as

various versions of the Bible, commercially available study-guides, as well as other printed

material provided by the church I was attending at the time. Today, within the last 10 years or

so, I have been using Internet-accessible material.

(CO-1) Interpret each of the various sections of the Bible independently, without the aid of

commentaries, dictionaries, etc. .

While living in Stamford, Lincolnshire, England, when I was a young girl, just around age 12, I

was enrolled in Roman Catholic catechism class in preparation for my Roman Catholic

confirmation rite, establishing me as a practicing member of the Roman Catholic Church. It was

during this period of preparatory religious study that I learned the Roman Catholic Church uses a

translation of the Holy Bible (Douay-Rhiems Catholic Bible). This, like all Christian Bibles is

divided into two parts, the Old Testament, and the New Testament. I later learned that the

Douay-Rhiems Catholic Bible contains seven books that the Protestant faiths do not consider as

true parts of the Bible, rather they are termed as being Apocrypha, i.e. : not authentic and valid

books of the Biblical canon. (Oh, the interesting arguments a Protestant and a Catholic can get

into over this!!!) This initial exposure to the Holy Bible was not too terribly extensive, if I recall

correctly.

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It was just over three years later when I became very interested in matters religious. This interest

occurred following a bit of soul-searching after some conversation I had with a few of my fellow

employees at the Midland Garden Times newspaper and a burgeoning spiritual awakening. I

subsequently enrolled in a mail-based correspondence course of Bible study with the Seventh

Day Adventist’s British branch of the “Voice of Prophecy Bible School” program. While I was

an active participant in the Voice of Prophecy Bible School, I learned some interesting

information about the Bible and its history. I discovered that the “Old Testament” is actually the

Hebrew (Jewish) Bible which consists of three sections, the Torah (The Teaching), the Nevi’im

(Prophets-both major and minor), and the Ketuvim (Writings). (My Jewish Learning, 2015)

The Torah contains the five books of the Law, as given to Moses by GOD (aka: YHVH) on Mt

Sinai, according to our Abrahamic religious beliefs. (My Jewish Learning, 2015),

(AllAboutGOD, 2002-2015) These books, also called the “Pentateuch”, contain the first five

books of the Abrahamic holy scriptures. Within it, we find the stories of GOD’s, aka: YHVH’s

(possibly pronounced Jehovah or Yaweh) creation of our world, the choice and progression of

the household of Abraham and Sarah in connection to GOD in the land of Canaan, the casting

out of and restoration from Kingdom of Egypt of that family group known as Israel, and their

journeys through the wilderness of Sinai until the Israelites regain their rightful place in the land

of Canaan. The Pentateuch also discloses that along the way back to Canaan, the Israelites enter

into a pledged and bonded relationship with YHVH, and YHVH discloses many of the directions

for governing a just social order and for creating appropriate practices for the worship of YHVH.

(My Jewish Learning, 2015), (AllAboutGOD, 2002-2015)

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Within the Old Testament, one also finds the books of the Nevi’im (Prophets), According to

Westminster College’s Dr. Bryan S. Rennie, the Nevi’im is organized into two sections, each of

four books. (Rennie, Unknown"(but likely NLT 2014)) These books are grouped as follows:

the Former Prophets (Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings (in Protestant Bibles, this is

further separated into First and Second Kings))

the Latter Prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel),

the Twelve, or Minor, Prophets: Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum,

Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi). (In the Catholic Bible, one will

also find the book of Baruch located in the Minor Prophets, a book considered

apocryphal in protestant cannon. In the Nevi’im, it is shown that GOD sent prophets as

messengers to communicate His desires and directions for His people. God enters a new

covenant with Israel. (123HelpMe, 2015)

While I was reviewing my recollection of the events in the books of the Prophets, I re-

familiarized myself as to its content by using the internet source Jewish Virtual Library

(American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise, 2015) In attempting to understand and interpret the

meaning of the Nevi’im (the Prophets) the reader must note that this selection of books presents

the history of Israel as its own nation on its own land. The ancient Israelites are seen within

these books to conquer and settle the territory of Canaan. They are subsequently beset by the

military forces of various indigenous foes and eventually by the regional imperial powers of the

old Middle East. As this is occurring, political and prophetic leaders vie for hearts of the

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Israelite tribes; and we modern readers see the supporters of the Covenant of God fight against

the greatly disturbing and unwelcomed paganism of neighboring groups and, in some cases, see

fighting among their fellow Israelis who fall into religious error and began the worship of pagan

gods. In this section of the Bible, we also learn about how an Israelite kingdom, its capital city,

and its holy Temple were built and eventually destroyed by war (and some would say by a

falling away from the true faith). At the end of Nevi’im, the modern reader will learn of the

Israeli prophets who lived through the period of exile instruct their humbled fellow Israelis in a

renewed belief in the one true GOD, and thus recovering their position as the People of the

Covenant. (American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise, 2015)

As a practicing Christian, I also was interested in the third of the three sections, what the Hebrew

Bible calls the Ketuvim (Writings). This section contains three subsections, the books of

Wisdom: Psalms, Proverbs, and Job; the books of the Megillot (the Five Scrolls): Song of Songs,

Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, and Esther, and the four books of the Histories: Daniel, Ezra,

Nehemiah, and Chronicles (sometimes shown as two books, i.e.: First and Second Chronicles).

In the course of my Bible study (both formal and informal), I found that in reading the Ketuvim,

the name of the third section of the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible), the modern reader learns that its

Hebrew name means just “Writings”. I reconfirmed my understanding originally of this material

acquired in my off and on study of the Holy Bible by visiting the website My Jewish Learning,

(Hebrew Bible, 2015) This simple title hardly does justice to the diversity of spiritual expression

found within its pages. The Ketuvim, or “Writings” section of the Bible contains many different

themes: examples of poetry, descriptions of the ritual used in the Temple, depictions of private

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prayer, tales of wisdom, stories on national tragedy, even love-stories. Also seen within its pages

are intriguing examples of philosophical exploration: what is the wisest path in a person’s

existence, what is the import of GOD‘s goodness and justice. And lastly, the books of the

Writings contain fascinating retellings of historical events. The title "Ketuvim” is would actually

better be interpreted as “the anthology,” i.e.: “the canonical collection from the post-prophetic

age. ” (My Jewish Learning, 2015)

According to the information I have researched to refresh my memory, I rediscovered that most

of the separate books in the Ketuvim were created or at least finalized in the ancient country of

Judea in the period of Persian and Hellenistic control, from around 500 - 200 BCE. The Temple

of Solomon in Jerusalem, destroyed during the Babylonian conquest of 586 BCE, had been

reconstructed around 515 BCE. The actual text of the Torah was standardized not long after, but

there was never any more prophecy after the book of Malachi was written and compiled. Most

biblical scholars have found certain clues of language, literary style, and content which have led

them to see most of the material in the Ketuvim as “Second Temple” works. (My Jewish

Learning, 2015)

During the initial course of my exposure to the Holy Bible, I learned that the next section of the

Christian Bible is titled the “New Testament”. This part of the Bible contains the books of what

believing Christians call the New Covenant. It can be divided into three distinct components.

These are the Historical Books, the Pauline Epistles, and the Non-Pauline Epistles. (Slick,

2014) . In certain Protestant Bibles there is also a separate section which typically follows the

New Testament which contains the Deuterocanonical books (aka: The Apocrypha), seven books

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which in the Catholic Bible are interleaved within the other named sections of the Bible, in both

Old and New Testament. Protestants do not consider the books labeled Deuterocanonical as a

valid part of the biblical cannon.

The “Historical Books” of the Bible consist of the gospels of Mathew, Mark, Luke, John, and the

book of Acts. These books provide (at least to Christians) the genealogy/history of the life of

Jesus, his activities as the leading religious prophet/purported Messiah, challenger to the

established religious status quo, accounts of Jesus’s activities which would lead to belief in him

being the long awaited King of the Jews, and the accounts of his purported accession into

Heaven plus the travels of the Apostle Paul. (Slick, 2014)

The Pauline Epistles

The books of the Pauline Epistles (writings and letters attributed to the Apostle Paul) were

collected into 13 different books. These are as follows: Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians,

Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, 1 and 2 Timothy, Titus, and lastly,

Philemon. (Slick, 2014)

Paul included in the book of Romans a methodical examination of the reason to justify, sanctify,

and glorify the life and actions of Jesus of Nazareth. He also put forth the plan GOD had for

both Gentile and Jew alike. (Slick, 2014)

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The writings of the books of Corinthians consist of a letter from Paul (1st Corinthians) dealing

with factions within the burgeoning company of the followers of Jesus Christ as well as any

needed correction because of lawsuits, immorality, and abuse of the sacrament of the Lord’s

Supper. This missive also addresses the use of idols, the importance of marriage, and the

resurrection of the body when Christ comes again. In 2nd

Corinthians, Paul provides a solid

defense of his apostolic position, which some had challenged. (Slick, 2014)

The next book in this portion of the New Testament is the book of Galatians. In this portion of

Paul’s writings, he repudiates the faults of “legalism” (a slavish obedience to the EXACT letter

of the current religious laws). In Galatians, Paul also scrutinizes the appropriate place of (divine)

grace in the Christian’s life. (Slick, 2014)

In Paul’s next set of letters, he writes in the book of Ephesians what the proper position a

believer should hold on Christ and provides information as to how to conduct Spiritual warfare

…and win.

Paul wrote in Philippians, his next set of letters, about his imprisonment on the Isle of Patmos

and how his love for the believers in amongst the Philippians. He strongly encourages them to

stay true to the precepts of godliness and warns them against the lure of “legalism”. (Slick,

2014)

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In the book of Colossians, his next missive on proper understanding of our faith in Christ, Paul

emphasizes the preeminence of Jesus in the story of creation, in the redemption of believers, and

the need for godliness in our daily lives. (Slick, 2014)

The next two Pauline Epistles were titled 1st and 2

nd Thessalonians. First Thessalonians was a

missive on Paul’s ministry to the Thessalonians. It consisted of his teachings on the importance

of pure living and told of the return of Christ. (Slick, 2014) 2nd

Thessalonians speaks to the

corrections on the Day of the Lord. (Slick, 2014)

The next two part set of books are those known as 1st & 2nd

Timothy. In 1st Timothy, Paul

provides instructions to Timothy on the ways to properly lead the believers and how to deal with

false teachers, along with information on the role of women, the use of prayer, and what the

requirements are to be an elder or deacon within the body of believers. (Slick, 2014) In 2nd

Timothy, Paul writes an encouraging letter to Timothy to maintain his belief and to remain

strong in his faith in Jesus. (Slick, 2014)

The next to last of the Pauline Epistles is Titus. In this book, we read about how Paul left Titus

in Crete to care for the churches there. He also issued some more requirements for elders within

the new church of believers. (Slick, 2014)

The last of Paul’s Epistles is the letter he wrote to Philemon, the owner of Onesimus, a runaway

slave. In this letter, Paul appeals to Philemon to forgive the slave. (Slick, 2014)

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Non-Pauline Epistles

The next set of eight books of the New Testament are called the non-Pauline Epistles, i.e. : letters

written by someone other than the Apostle Paul. These are a set of letters, seven of which are

termed the General or Catholic Epistles, while the book of Hebrews is excluded from this

description. The term Catholic Epistles was employed by Bible scholars in the context of

meaning general or universal to distinguish them from the Pauline Epistles which were addressed

to churches or persons. (Slick, 2014)

Hebrews: This is an epistle directed to wavering Hebrew believers of Jesus who were in danger

of losing their faith in Christ and his message and subsequently returning to their traditional

Jewish practices. This epistle validates the supremacy of Jesus over the system contained within

the Old Testament. Within the epistle, the Melchizedek priesthood is addressed. (Some biblical

scholars think that Hebrews may have been written by the Apostle Paul. There is still

considerable debate on who actually wrote the Book of Hebrews. ) (Slick, 2014)

James: The next book of the General Epistles is a practical call for believers in Jesus to live a

life evidencing Christian regeneration. This book urges self-examination of the proof of the

changed life. (Slick, 2014)

1st& 2

nd Peter: The next two books of the General Epistles are 1

st and 2

nd Peter. The Apostle

Peter wrote 1st Peter to hearten the receivers of this letter in the time of their suffering and

persecution and to be humble in it. In this letter, Peter also mentions the rite of baptism and its

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place in the Christian faith. In 2nd

Peter, the epistle addresses a believers’ situation on an inward

level, warns against deceitful teachers, and addresses the importance of the Day of the Lord.

(Slick, 2014)

1st, 2

nd, & 3

rd John: These three books are attributed to the Apostle John. In 1

st John, the author

of the book describes true fellowship of the believers in Christ with other Christians and with

GOD. GOD is shown as the embodiment of light and love. The material in this book

encourages a Christian to maintain a holy path before GOD. It contains considerable discourse

on Christian love. The book of 2nd

John contains the message of praising believers’ walking in

the path of Christ as well as a reminder to always maintain your walk in the love of GOD. The

epistle 3rd

John, is where John thanks a believer named Gaius, a Christian church leader, for his

kindness to God’s people and rebukes Diotrephes, a former member of Gaius’ church

congregation, for his exceedingly bad, selfish, and mean-spirited behavior. (Slick, 2014)

The next to last book in the New Testament, the epistle of Jude—has information on the need to

expose false teachers and employs Old Testament references to validate the judgment which

GOD lays upon them. It also contains information as to how best to contend for the faith.

(Slick, 2014)

Revelation is the last book of the New Testament and is a highly symbolic visualization of the

future rebellion, judgment, and consummation of human life itself. (Slick, 2014) It is thought by

some Christian theologians to have been written by the Apostle John, although this idea is still

subject to much debate.

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While I was searching for a church home in the various locations I have lived in over the years, I

made sure that I engaged the members of this prospective church home as well as the clergy of

the church in conversations regarding my Christian faith and how their interpretations of their

understanding would tally up to my own understanding. I wanted to be sure I would be mentally

and spiritually comfortable with any prospective church family. It was important to me to

understand what it was these folks thought and taught about the various books of the Holy Bible,

as I did not want to be encouraged/compelled to agree to unbiblical teachings.

(CO-2) Articulate and critique various contemporary methods of exegeting

(understanding) a Biblical text

Textual criticism

In order for a true student of the Bible to engage in textural criticism in order to understand what

it actually means requires that student to be fluent in Hebrew and Greek, especially as used in the

days of the events described in the Bible. I can make no claim to being such a student, as all my

knowledge of things biblical is derived by my many years of reading and studying various

English translations of the ancient Hebrew and Greek versions of the Holy Scriptures. It would

have been better for me to have taken on the study of these languages so I could better

understand the REAL meaning of the Word of GOD when I was a teenager or young adult, but I

did not even think of such a thing when I was younger.

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In order to appreciate what “textual criticism” consists of, it is helpful to first define it.

According to one of my sources (Faith Bible Church Online), it is as follows: “Textual Criticism

is the science of studying ancient manuscripts to determine the authentic text of the Bible.” This

term is occasionally called “Lower Criticism” (Faith Bible Church Online). The use of this

functionality is required as we no longer have the original writings of Moses, Paul and others.

What remains to use for true understanding is the Hebrew and Greek translations of the Holy

Scriptures. Textual Criticism is the method used in order to derive at the actual meanings of

these texts as English translations are too fraught with potential error for certainty of its true

content. When one looks at “Textural Criticism”, we must be aware that because of the great

amount of material and the problems of understanding the numerous other languages involved, it

is considered as one of biblical scholarship’s most difficult sciences. (Faith Bible Church

Online) Another source I discovered (Got Questions Ministries , 2002-2015 ) when I went to

learn about the actual particulars of Textural Criticism informed me that this concept could be

defined as the following: “Simply stated, textual criticism is a method used to determine what

the original manuscripts of the Bible said.” According to this source, there are three primary

methods to textual criticism:

Textus Receptus

According to one source (Textual criticism - what is it?, 2002-2015 ), the first method of textual

criticism is called Textus Receptus. The term Textus Receptus actually refers to a particular

manuscript of the Holy Bible that was assembled by a person whose name was Erasmus. Way

back in the 1500s AD, he compiled this version of the Bible when he took the small number of

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manuscripts he had access to and assembled them into what ultimately became known as the

Textus Receptus. “The Textus Receptus is the textual basis behind the King James Version and

New King James Version.” (Textual criticism - what is it?, 2002-2015 )

Majority Text

The second technique of textual criticism is identified as the Majority Text method. The

Majority Text technique reviews all of the scriptural manuscripts existing nowadays, compares

the dissimilarities, and selects the best possible true interpretation based on which interpretation

occurs most frequently. To date, the Majority Text method of textual criticism has yet to be used

for any major Bible translations. (Textual criticism - what is it?, 2002-2015 )

Critical or Eclectic Method.

The third means of textual criticism is identified as the Critical or Eclectic Method. This is

where the consideration of both the external and internal evidences so to determine the most

probable text as the original text. When we use external evidence, this method forces us to ask

the following questions: What is the number of manuscripts in which the reading occurs? When

did the manuscripts get written? What was the location in which these manuscripts were found?

Internal evidence prompts these questions: Why did these readings have varying meanings?

What was the reading that could possibly explain the origination of all the additional readings?

There are three widely used translations that use this method of textural criticism: The New

International Version, New American Standard, and the New Living Translation. It is interesting

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to note that the majority of the other Biblical translations employ the Eclectic Text method as

well.

Historical and cultural backgrounds for the author, the text, and the original audience

When one looks at the Bible, one quickly realizes that it is not a single work written by a single

person, but rather it is a library of 66 books (15 more if the Apocryphal books are factored in),

written by 40 authors (plus the various additional writers of the Apocryphal books), written in

three languages from three different continents over a long period of time, some 1500 years, or

so. (Carlson & Carlson, 2015) The student of the Bible must keep these facts in mind, for in an

attempt to gain understanding of these collected religious texts, a failure to remember that the

time frame of the Bible covers a period of time as long as it was from the days of the fall of the

Roman Empire until today. In that span of time, cultures change, populations alter their

composition, technology causes societal shifts…everything is DIFFERENT than what it was at

its beginning.

Classification of the type of literary genres present in the text

When learning about the books of the Bible, it is helpful to realize that these 66 books contain an

assortment of literary types, ranging from poetry, history, wisdom literature, prophecy, letters,

and even apocalyptic texts, just to name a few. (Carlson & Carlson, 2015) By knowing what

genre a given Biblical text is formatted as, one can gather a better understanding as to what it

actually meant.

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For instance, according to one source (Concise Old Testament Survey, 2006) the books of the

Bible that comprise its poetical offerings are Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of

Solomon. When I examined the content of these books during the course of my home Bible

study over many years, I realized that these five books were more concerned about the condition

of the human heart. According to the Concise Old Testament Survey (The Poetical Books,

2006), the identification of these books as “poetical” does not propose to say that these books are

merely fashioned from the whole cloth of human imagination. Rather, they attempt to depict a

very real experience as lived by the people in those far away days, while the content

demonstrates that these people had to struggle with tough problems, and to show that they were

dealing with huge realities. (Concise Old Testament Survey, 2006) These five books, upon

review, show that the experiences they depict focus on the activity of the godly, and demonstrate

how to live while dealing with life’s changing and challenging conditions.

To look at another literary genre contained in the Holy Bible, twelve books deal with the history

of the people of GOD, These books are Joshua, Judges, Ruth, First Samuel, Second Samuel, First

Kings, Second Kings, First Chronicles, Second Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther.

I learned that the historical books of the Old Testament examine the life of the Hebrew nation,

beginning with their possession of the Land of Canaan through the Jewish people’s two

deportations and loss of their promised land due to disobedience and unbelief. According to

Concise Old Testament Survey (The Historical Books, 2006), the twelve historical books span a

period of about 800 years. These books address the stories of the conquest and acquisition of the

Land of Canaan, the time in power of the Judges of Israel, the creation of the concept and rule of

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the Kings of Israel, the separation of Israel into the northern and southern kingdoms, the loss of

the northern kingdom to the fierce Assyrians. These books also address the conquest of the

southern kingdom by the Babylonian Empire and subsequent enslavement of its people and their

exile into Babylon, and their triumphant return to Jerusalem under the wise leadership of great

men such as Nehemiah and Ezra.

Analysis of grammatical and syntactical features in the text itself.

When one examines the Holy Bible for its use of grammar and its employment of understandable

and meaningful syntax, it is vital for the true student of the Bible to be able to read the original

Hebrew and Greek texts. To attempt to employ grammatical and syntactical analysis from the

versions subsequently translated into English places that student completely at the mercy of the

accuracy of the translator. As a result of my inability to read the original Hebrew and Greek

texts, I cannot personally attest to how I could properly examine the Holy Bible for proper

grammar and use of understandable and meaningful syntax. There is hope for some greater

understanding of the impact of grammar and syntax, though. In my current research on this type

of approach to Biblical understanding, I did encounter a well thought out and presented work that

examines the book of Jeremiah for grammar and syntax usage, without apparently needing to

operate in the original Hebrew and Greek. This work by Dr. Bob Utley, Professor of

Hermeneutics, from Bible Lessons International, Marshall, TX, uses the New American Standard

Bible (NASB), which is considered by many Biblical scholars to be the most accurate English

translation, given to the use of literal translation of the original Hebrew and Greek text into

modern English. The book of Jeremiah, being a book of the Old Testament, was, of course,

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written in the ancient Hebrew. According to this source (YOU CAN UNDERSTAND THE

BIBLE, 2012),

[t]he Hebrew text used is Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia from the German Bible Society,

1997, which is based on the Leningrad Codex (A. D. 1009). Occasionally, the ancient

versions (Greek Septuagint, Aramaic Targums, Syriac Peshitta, and Latin Vulgate) are

consulted if the Hebrew is ambiguous or obviously confused.

As an example of how different Hebrew is to English, the reader needs to examine the time

concept of that language. According to Utley (YOU CAN UNDERSTAND THE BIBLE, 2012),

the Hebrew language is a language devoid of “tenses” in the English language sense. With

Hebrew, it is not a matter of “when” something occurred or will occur, but rather if the action

was “perfect” (i.e.: complete) or “imperfect” (in the process of being developed). So, in Hebrew,

it was more concerned with the “state” of the action, rather than the “timing” of the action.

(Utley, 2012)

As I searched for my church home in the locations where I live, I tried to make sure that the

preachers who led the churches I was visiting had some direct knowledge of the original Hebrew

and Greek texts. By this inquiry, I wanted to make sure that the words coming out of the mouths

of these preachers had some greater closeness to the original words of the Old and New

Testaments than merely them regurgitating a translation from a third party. I figured that if the

preacher could read and write both Hebrew and Greek, he is LIKELY to be a SERIOUS bible

scholar and his words would, at least for me, carry much more weight. Not being able to read the

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original texts in their original language, I must, perforce, be dependent on the knowledge and

scholarship of my pastor.

(CO-3) Describe the history and transmission of the various manuscripts of the Bible

When I first began to study the Holy Bible back when I was about 12 -13 years old, I wondered

how the “Word of God” had spread throughout the western world at the start of the Christian era.

I knew that it had not been written in English originally, so how it got established in our culture

interested me. I have since learned that the transmission of the books of the Holy Bible out of

the Middle East occurred somewhat gradually, not, as some might think, in the form of a

completed, collected work of theology which arrived on the scene in a given year.

As we study the manner in which the Bible assumed its written form, we need to keep in mind

how such piece of theology is written. There are but three ways any religious literature becomes

a published work. They are the following (Ringer, 2007):

Autographs: The original texts were written either by the author's own hand or by a

scribe under their personal supervision.

Manuscripts: Until Gutenberg first printed the Latin Bible in 1456, all Bibles were hand

copied onto papyrus, parchment, and/or paper.

Translations: When the Bible is translated into a different language it is usually

translated from the original Hebrew and Greek. However some translations in the past

were derived from an earlier translation.

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Old Testament

According to Ringer (History of the Bible: How The Bible Came To Us, 2007), who validates

my understanding of the origin of the Holy Bible, the Bible comes from two basic sources.

These are the two divisions in the Christian Bible, the Old Testament and the New Testament.

The 23,000 verses contained within the Old Testament were written in two languages, mainly

Hebrew, with a just few hundred verses written in Aramaic. (Lewis, 2015) Please note that there

are no known actual “Autographs” of any of the books of the Old Testament in existence, so

what has come down the lanes of history are a variety of manuscripts written by authors

(typically unknown, but often credited to biblical personalities) in the ancient Hebrew (most

frequently) and the ancient Aramaic (much, much less frequently). (Ringer, 2007)

The traditional date for the creation of the book of Genesis, credited with being written by Moses

using the Hebrew language, was around 1450-1400 B. C. . The first five books of the Jewish

Bible were written in almost exclusively in Hebrew and comprise the “Torah” or the “Law” of

the Jewish people. “But around 250 Bible verses —primarily portions of the Book of Daniel

(Dan 2:4-7:28) and fifth-century B. C. E. official court documents embedded in Ezra (Ezra 4:8-

6:18, Ezra 7:12-26)—are in a related language, Aramaic. ” (Lewis, 2015)

The next method of transmission of the Holy Books of the Jews was by the use of manuscripts,

collections of religious writings gathered into a sequence of verses and books, and written in

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either Hebrew (most likely) or Aramaic (not so likely). The following list of manuscripts

identify the oldest Hebrew manuscripts of the Old Testament. (Lewis, 2015):

The Dead Sea Scrolls: These scrolls date from 200 B. C. to 70 A. D. and contain the

complete book of Isaiah and some of every other Old Testament book but the book of

Esther.

Geniza Fragments: These are portions of the Old Testament in Hebrew and Aramaic,

written on parchment now crumbling, discovered in an old synagogue in Cairo, Egypt, in

the year of 1947; these fragments date from about 400 A. D.

Ben Asher Manuscripts: From 700-950 A. D. , over the course of five or six generations,

this Ben Asher family made several copies of the Jewish Holy Books, writing in the

Masoretic Hebrew language The following are two examples of the Hebrew Masoretic

text-type manuscripts.

o Aleppo Codex: This manuscript, dated around 950 A. D., includes the whole Old

Testament. Regrettably, over 25% of this Codex was destroyed during anti-

Semitic riots in 1947.

o Codex Leningradensis: The last member of the Ben Asher family copied the

complete Old Testament in Hebrew in A. D. 1008.

Translations

The next method of transmission of the Jewish Holy books was by the use of various early

translations of the ancient Hebrew into Aramaic and Greek. The Holy Books of the Jewish faith

were first translated into Aramaic around 400 BC. According to Lewis (What Was the Original

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Language of the Bible?, 2015), this particular translation was called the Aramaic Targums. The

Aramaic Targums was initially translated from Hebrew into the Aramaic tongue in order to assist

the Jewish people, who had effectively lost the ability to read and speak Hebrew due to their long

captivity in Babylon. (Lewis, 2015) This language was the language spoken by the Jews in the

first century Palestine of Jesus' day, according to Lewis. (What Was the Original Language of

the Bible?, 2015), “Aramaic was still the commonly spoken language. For example

“maranatha”, "Our Lord has come, as seen in 1st Corinthians 16:22, is an example of an

Aramaic word that is used in the New Testament. ” (Lewis, 2015)

I remembered from my home studies, that later on, around 250 B.C. the Old Testament was

translated into the langue franca of the Mediterranean world, Greek. According to Lewis (What

Was the Original Language of the Bible?, 2015), “[t]his translation is known as the ‘Septuagint’.

It is sometimes designated "LXX" (which is Roman numeral for "70") because it was believed

that 70 to 72 translators worked to translate the Hebrew Old Testament in Greek.” Frequently,

when New Testament writers quoted from the Old Testament, they would use the Septuagint as

their source of scripture. The ‘LXX’ was the translation of the Old Testament that was most

often used by the early Christian Church. (Lewis, 2015)

The following titles are a list of the oldest Old Testament Greek LXX translations that remain in

existence (Lewis, 2015):

Chester Beatty Papyri: Contains nine Old Testament Books in the Greek Septuagint and dates

between 100-400 A. D.

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Codex Vaticanus and Codex Sinaiticus individually comprise virtually the whole Old Testament

of the Greek Septuagint and they both were written around 350 A. D.

I recall from my home Bible Study that following the ministry of Jesus came the writing and

compiling of the disciples’ letters and epistles…writings that ultimately became the New

Testament, so the form of the Christian Holy Bible came into being.

According to Mr. Lewis (What Was the Original Language of the Bible?, 2015), the New

Testament was written in Greek, the langue franca of the Mediterranean world. It is in this

language that it (and the rest of the Holy Bible) was spread around the Mediterranean littoral and

later, all of the European continent. It is thought that the books of the Epistles of Paul, the

Gospels of Mark and Luke, and the book of Acts were all written about the same time, around

45-63 A. D. by the named individuals (or at least, that is what is accepted religious thought),

which gives them the form of an Autograph. It is thought that the Gospel of John and the

Revelations of John were likely written somewhat later, perhaps even as late as 95 A. D..

The use of the Greek language for the New Testament allowed for people literate in Greek to

copy and recopy the existing Greek manuscripts for the benefit of the burgeoning Christian faith

community and the large and growing body of Believers, most of whom spoke Greek, to

understand the words of comfort and faith contained within these manuscripts. According to

Mr. Lewis (What Was the Original Language of the Bible?, 2015), so many early Greek

manuscripts were written that today there are still over 5600 in existence. The earliest ones were

written on papyrus while the newer ones were copied onto a type of leather known as parchment.

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The following are a list of manuscripts dating from 125 AD to about 350 AD (Lewis, 2015):

125 A. D. : P-52 (the "p" stands for papyrus. ) is the name for the New Testament

manuscript copied around 125 A. D, which makes it date as the manuscript which was

written most closely to the original autograph, i. e. : within 35 years of the original. It

contains a small portion of John 18.

200 A. D. : Bodmer P- 66 – this is a manuscript written on papyrus (hence the “P”

designation) which comprises the greatest part of the Gospel of John.

200 A. D. : Chester Beatty Biblical papyrus P-46 – this papyrus scroll covers the Pauline

Epistles and Hebrews.

225 A. D. : Bodmer Papyrus P- 75 encompasses the complete Gospels of Luke and John.

250-300 A. D. : Chester Beatty Biblical papyrus P- 45 contains certain segments of the

four Gospels and Acts.

350 A. D. : Codex Sinaiticus was a parchment book which contains the entire New

Testament and nearly the entire Old Testament in Greek. It was discovered by the

German academic Tisendorf in 1856 at an Orthodox monastery at Mt. Sinai.

350 A. D. : Codex Vaticanus {B} manuscript contains practically the whole New

Testament. It was recorded as having been in the Vatican Library since 1475.

I remember reading long ago during my formal home Bible Study, that the next method of

transmission of the New Testament to the Holy Bible into the wider world of the Western

European landmass as well as its further spread along the African littoral areas was by the use of

the various early translations of the original Greek into languages that the people of the local

areas could understand. According to one source (Stearns, 1992) “…Rome's decline brought

25

vital new religious influences to societies around the Mediterranean. Christianity moved

westward from its original center in the Middle East…”

These early translations of the New Testament from the Greek into other languages, such as

Latin (spoken throughout the Roman Empire), Syriac (spoken through the area of the Holy

Land), and Coptic (spoken throughout the nation of New Testament era Egypt).

According to Lewis (What Was the Original Language of the Bible?, 2015), these early

translations of the books of the New Testament are able to give us crucial knowledge of the

original Greek manuscripts from which they were converted into a readable language for use by

the local people. The use of these manuscripts spread over the Mediterranean Basin in the

course of 1200 years, from 180 A.D. to 1380 A.D. various translations have been used as the

foundation of the then current popular version of the Bible for that particular language group.

(Figure 1: Map showing spread of Christianity in the Mediterranean Basin) (Ridling, 2015)

26

These translations, as stated, apparently started around 180 AD, with the conversion of the Greek

into Latin, Syriac, and Coptic versions. (Lewis, 2015) Shortly afterward, the first translation of

both the Old and New Testament into Latin was completed, around 195 AD with the copying of

the original Greek into the translation termed “The Old Latin”. Just over a hundred years later,

another significant translation was completed, with the Greek being translated into Syriac, in a

translation termed “The Old Syriac” in about 300 AD. Around the same time, the original Greek

New Testament was translated into the four Coptic dialects spoken in Egypt. (Lewis, 2015)

About 80 years later, in 380 AD, St. Jerome translated the Old Testament from Hebrew and the

New Testament from Greek into the Latin language version titled “The Latin Vulgate”. This

translation became the Holy Bible of the Western Church until the Protestant Reformation in the

1500's. It continues to be the authoritative translation of the Roman Catholic Church to this day.

The Protestant Reformation saw an increase in translations of the Bible into the common

languages of the people.

There were several other languages into which the Old and New Testament Hebrew and Greek

were translated, so to provide Holy Bibles in the vernacular of the people of the region. These

were the new languages used: Armenian, Georgian, Ethiopic, Slavic, and Gothic. (Lewis, 2015)

The previously mentioned versions were the available Bible translations used for almost 1000

years, according to Lewis (What Was the Original Language of the Bible?, 2015), until the first

English translation was written in 1380 AD by John Wycliffe, a noted philosopher, church

reformer, and English theologian. (Stacey, 2015) It must be made clear that Wycliffe had to base

this first English Holy Bible on the Latin Vulgate translation of the Bible as he was not literate in

Hebrew or Greek, and could not use the originals. (Lewis, 2015)

27

I remember from my self-education in the Bible and matters religious, after the advent of the

Guttenberg’s movable type printing press and his successful first run of 200 Holy Bibles in

1455-56 A.D. (the year is in some dispute), the transmission the now much less expensive Holy

Bible throughout Europe became possible. A heavily “illuminated” Bible such as was first

printed by Guttenberg need not cost a king’s ransom to create, as it was merely just expensive

(three year’s wages for an average clerk), but well within reach of the well-to-do. (Kreis, 2000 )

The spread of this innovative printing technology occurred in spite of Guttenberg’s desire to hold

the concept close to his chest, and just before 1500 A.D. over 2500 cities in Europe had at least

one movable type printing press. “Printing revolutionized the way books were made. From now

on books could be published in great numbers and at a lower cost. ” (Lewis, 2015)

Following the spread of printing technology, many other religious works, including one of the

most well known New Testaments, printed in 1514 A.D., with some minor modifications, by

Desiderius Erasmus, perhaps the most brilliant and most important leader of German humanism,

based on only five Greek manuscripts, titled “Textus Receptus” or the "received texts”. (Sauer,

1909), (Lewis, 2015) About eight years later, another religious work by Erasmus was published

titled the “Polyglot Bible”. In this work, the Old Testament was printed in three languages,

Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek, and the New Testament was printed in Greek and Latin. Erasmus

later used the Polyglot Bible to revise his later editions of the New Testament. Also, the English

theologian and scholar, William Tyndale Overview used the Polyglot Bible in his own

translation of the Old Testament into English tongue, although he did not finish this work as he

was martyred in 1534 AD for heresy and treason. (Lewis, 2015), (Greatsite Marketing, 2013)

In 1604, King James I of England directed that a new translation of the Holy Bible into the

English language be created. The Authorized Version, or King James Version, quickly became

28

the standard for English-speaking Protestants. (Bible Gateway, 2015) This is most well-known

of all translations of the Holy Bible, and was translated from the original Hebrew and Greek into

English and was completed in 1611 A,D, just 85 years after the first translation of the New

Testament into English appeared (Tyndale, 1526). (Bible Gateway, 2015) (This is the version of

the Holy Bible I am most familiar with as it is the one I used in my home Bible study program,

and of which I have several copies!) “The King James translators of the New Testament used the

“Textus Receptus” as the basis for their translations. ” (Lewis, 2015)

According to Lewis (What Was the Original Language of the Bible?, 2015), the next three most

important religious works translations began in the second half of the 20th

Century. The first of

the three was the United Bible Societies 4th

Edition of the Greek New Testament which was

published in 1968 A.D.. This version made use of the oldest available Greek manuscripts dating

from as far back as 175 A.D. This was the “Greek New Testament” text from which the New

American Standard Version (NASV) and the New International Version (NIV) were translated.

Lewis (What Was the Original Language of the Bible?, 2015) tells us that the second translation

in this selection was published in 1971 A.D. and is named the New American Standard Version

(NASV). This particular translation makes use of the large amount of the much older Hebrew

and Greek manuscripts available today that were not obtainable at the time of the KJV was

translated. The NASV demonstrates in its wording and sentence structure to closely follow the

Greek manuscripts in a more word-to-word style.

The third translation in this series is the 1983 AD published New International Version (NIV).

According to Lewis (What Was the Original Language of the Bible?, 2015), the oldest Greek and

Hebrew manuscripts are used in the NIV translation. This version is considered to be better at

29

representing a "thought-for-thought" translation, integrates the “understood” background

information normally assumed to be known by the ancient reader, and the sentence structure and

grammar usage incorporated by the NIV allows it to be read more easily by the modern reader

than the NASV.

During the course of my years of Bible study, I have endeavored to maintain a relatively open

mind regarding the worth and truth of the various translations of the Holy Bible I own and read.

I have in my house the King James Version, the New Living Translation, the New International

Version, and the Roman Catholic used Douay-Rheims Holy Bible. All of these are of a certain

degree of value to me in my home bible study, but I have found that the King James Version has

a flow and sonorous feel to it that the other bible versions do not. As a result, I tend to read my

King James Version more than the others.

(CO-4) Evaluate and assess the numerous English translations available today.

In the course of my home Bible study, I realized that there were numerous translations of the

Bible to choose from to use in the course of self-paced learning efforts. I never really knew just

HOW many different versions of the Christian Holy Scriptures there actually were until just

recently.

Today, most people interested in the study of the Christian faith in general and the Bible in

particular, hold to the idea of there being 16 major translations; these are considered the best

known, as well as recognizing that there are at least ten additional significant translations used by

some Christian churches in the world. These best known translations are listed below:

30

a. American Standard Version ASV

b. Common English Bible CEB

c. English Standard Version ESV

d. GOD'S WORD Translation GW

e. Good News Translation GNT

f. Holman Christian Standard Bible CSB

g. Jubilee Bible 2000 JUB

h. King James Version KJV

i. Lexham English Bible LEB

j. Douay-Rhiems Catholic Bible RHE

k. New American Standard Bible NAS

l. New International Version NIV

m. New King James Version NKJV

n. New Living Translation NLT

o. New Revised Standard NRS

p. Revised Standard Version RSV.

q. The Message Bible MSG

The ten other significant modern translations are named in the list below:

r. Hebrew Names Version HNV

s. New Century Version NCV

t. New International Reader's Version NIRV

u. Orthodox Jewish Bible OJB

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v. The Bible in Basic English BBE

w. The Complete Jewish Bible CJB

x. Third Millennium Bible TMB

y. Today's New International Version TNIV

z. World English Bible WEB

aa. Young's Literal Translation YLT

In the interest of brevity, I will address/discuss the first five of the most popular and widespread

translations currently in use as determined by units sold during the year of 2012 (the most current

year I have data for). (Rainer, 2013) (I cannot determine the penetration into the market the

large number Holy Bibles that are given away for free by various organizations such as the

Jehovah’s Witnesses (the 1950 New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures) or the Gideon’s

(the New International Version [NIV])) I will also address/discuss use of the Douay-Rhiems

Catholic Bible (RHE) because it incorporates the seven Deutero-Canonical books, known to

Protestants as the “Apocrypha”.

(#1) New Living Translation NLT: The NLT was written to create a translation that is correct

with the intent of the original languages, yet lively and dynamic. (Marlowe, 2001-2012) “The

challenge for the translators was to create a text that would make the same “impact” in the life of

modern readers that the original text had for the original readers.” (Bible Gateway, 2015) This is

the Bible whose penetration into the Christian community is most widespread, at least in terms of

sales volume as of 2012. (Rainer, 2013) This Bible translation was so well received by the

public it had reached the top of the sales charts in 2012. (Rainer, 2013)

32

(#2) New International Version NIV: The NIV offers a balance between a word-for-word and

thought-for-thought translation and is considered by many as a highly accurate and smooth-

reading version of the Bible in modern English. (Lewis, 2015) According to Marlowe (Marlowe

M. , 2011), the New International Version (NIV) was created by a committee of religious

scholars associated with various evangelical denominations in the USA. These individuals

began work on this version in 1965. This translation was not a modification of any earlier

existing account, but instead was an entirely new version in idiomatic twentieth-century English.

The NIV committee members were aware of the reasons for conservative dismissal of the

Revised Standard Version (RSV), and so they intentionally sidestepped the “liberal" features of

that version. The most objectionable feature of the RSV was its practice of interpreting the Old

Testament without any concern for how the Old Testament passages were construed in the New

Testament, and so the NIV translation committee members on Bible Translation Committee in

1968 stipulated in their Translator’s Manual that “the translation shall reflect clearly the unity

and harmony of the Spirit-inspired writings.” This translation was sold in sufficient volume to

achieve the second place position by sales in 2012. (Rainer, 2013)

(#3) King James Version KJV: The KJV is the first version of Holy Scripture sanctioned by the

English Protestant church and ordered created by England's King James I. (Bible Study Tools,

2014) In 1604, King James I of England commissioned a new translation of the Holy Bible into

English. It was completed in the year 1611, just eight and a half decades after the first

translation of the New Testament into English appeared (Tyndale, 1526). The preface to the

1611 edition, the translators of the “Authorized Version”, or “King James Version”, state that

33

was not their resolve “to make a new translation . . . but to make a good one better. ” The King

James Version rapidly became the standard Holy Bible for English-speaking Protestants to use

for worship and study. The KJV’s prose rhythms and flowing language enabled it to have a

profound influence on the literature the English speaking world for the past 400 years, and in

spite of its age, achieved the ranking of third most popular by sales volume in 2012. (Got

Questions Ministries, 2002-2015 ), (Rainer, 2013)

(#4) New King James Version NKJV: The NKJV is a contemporary language update of the

original King James Version. It keeps much of the sentence structure and customary

interpretation of the KJV Bible. (Bible Study Tools, 2014) The NKJV is a conservative

modification of the King James version that does not make any changes on the basis of a revised

Hebrew or Greek text, but follows the interpretations accepted to inspire the King James version.

In the New Testament, the KJV follows the Greek Textus Receptus of the early published

editions of the sixteenth century. The other ancient Greek manuscripts, upon which crucial

editions of the Greek text were based for nearly two centuries now, are almost fully ignored

(except in the marginal notes); this Bible version was the fourth best-selling Bible in the USA in

2012. (Marlowe M. , New King James Version, 2009), (Rainer, 2013)

(#5) English Standard Version ESV: The ESV Bible is a relatively new Bible translation that

combines word-for-word precision and accuracy with literary excellence, beauty, and readability.

The ESV occupies a spot within the characteristic mainstream of English Bible translations over

the past 500 years. The fountainhead of that stream of translations was the New Testament of

1526, written by the noted biblical scholar, William Tyndale; marking its path were the King

34

James Version (KJV - 1611), the English Revised Version (RV - 1885), the American Standard

Version (ASV - 1901), and the Revised Standard Version (RSV – 1952/1971). In that stream,

faithfulness to the text and vigorous pursuit of accuracy were combined with simplicity, beauty,

and dignity of expression, making this the fifth most popular Bible sold in the year 2012. (Bible

Gateway, 2015), (Rainer, 2013)

(#6) Douay-Rhiems Catholic Bible (RHE): The Douay-Rheims (1582-1609) is the Bible

translation nearly all English Catholic Bible versions are based upon. It includes the seven

Deutero-Canonical books (also known as the Apocrypha), inter-leavened within its pages. (Bible

Study Tools, 2014) The RHE is a translation of the Bible made from the Latin Vulgate into

English by members of the Catholic seminary English College, Douai, France. It is the basis

upon which almost all English Catholic versions of the Bible are still based. It was translated

chiefly by Gregory Martin, a scholar trained at Oxford, working within a select group of English

Catholic exiles on the European Continent, under the patronage of William (later Cardinal)

Allen. (Bible Gateway, 2015) The New Testament portion appeared at Rheims, France in 1582;

the Old Testament portion appeared at Douai, France in 1609. The translation, although

competent, showed a taste for Latinisms that was not unusual in English writing of the period but

seemed disproportionate in the view of later generations. The New Testament of the RHE

influenced the Authorized Version (aka: King James Version). (Bible Gateway, 2015) Between

the years 1749 and 1752, Richard Challoner, an English bishop, substantively revised the

translation with the goal to improve comprehensibility and readability. The RHE’s first

American printing was in 1790 by Mathew Carey of Philadelphia. There were several American

editions which followed in the 19th and early 20th centuries; conspicuous among them was the

35

Douay-Rheims 1899 American Edition Version, the version currently used by most Roman

Catholics in the USA today. (Bible Gateway, 2015)

Over the course of many years, I have encountered a variety of Bibles I could and did use for

education and instruction in matters of faith. I have several bibles I keep at home, which I have

previously mentioned, but the reason why I think it is important to recognize the utility of more

than one favorite translation is because a complete dependence on just one version can lead one

into theological error. Of the many Bibles that are available, I have read many verses (in some

cases, several books) in an effort to compare and contrast. I rather like using the translations that

do a verse by verse side-by-side comparison. That way, I can better evaluate what seems MORE

true to ME. This being the case, the use of the website Bible Study Tools, is a tremendous

website to use. (Compare Bible Verses in All Translations, 2014) This website allows one to do a

compare and contrast reading of any bible verse desired amongst numerous translations.

Summary and Conclusion

During the course of this paper, I have attempted to discuss in sufficient detail the course

objectives (CO) one through four of the AMU course, Introduction to the Bible (RELS311). The

paper addressed CO-1, i.e.: “Interpret each of the various sections of the Bible independently,

without the aid of commentaries, dictionaries, etc.”. It also dealt with CO-2, i.e.: “Articulate and

critique various contemporary methods of exegeting (understanding) a Biblical text”. The paper

subsequently addressed CO-3, i.e.: “Describe the history and transmission of the various

manuscripts of the Bible”. Lastly, it dealt with CO-4, i.e.: “Evaluate and assess the numerous

36

English translations available today.” where an attempt was made to appraise and consider the

numerous English translations available today. In this essay, I wanted to show how, as a

Christian, to study the Holy Bible, to understand its history and the manner in which it was

written, and spread to the world is critical to a deeper understanding of one’s Christian faith.

In conclusion, this paper has given evidence to my understanding of the coursework for

Introduction to the Bible (RELS311), an understanding that I have picked up over much formal

and informal study of the Holy Bible over the course of many years.

37

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