What is the Bible?

1. What is the Bible?

2. Hebrew Bible • Torah (law – teaching, instruction) • Nabiim (prophets) • Kethuvim(writings)

3. Hebrew Bible Torah a Nabiim a Kethuvim = Tanak

4. Hebrew Script Most Hebrew words consist of 3 consonants, written from Right to Left, with vowels signs underneath to indicate whether noun, verb, singular, plural etc. MLK = Rule or Reign MeLeK = King MaLaK = To rule

5. Genesis 1:1

6. ‘God formed man from the dust of the ground’ Heb: adamadamah ‘God formed the earth creature from the dust of the earth’ When the male is differentiated from the female, he is called Adam as a proper noun.

7. Torah Genesis Exodus Leviticus Numbers Deuteronomy Hebrew names consist of first word of the book. So Genesis is bereshith (‘in the beginning’)

8. Prophets Former prophets Joshua Judges 1 Samuel 2 Samuel 1 Kings 2 Kings

9. Prophets Latter prophets Isaiah Jeremiah Ezekiel The Twelve (Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi)

10. Writings Psalms Ezra Proverbs Nehemiah Job 1 Chronicles Song of songs 2 Chronicles Ruth Lamentations Ecclesiastes Esther Daniel

11. Luke 24:44 ‘These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you - that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled’. Question: Is Psalms given as a summary of the third section or is the third section still incomplete?

12. The Septuagint c. 3rd Century BCE • Jews in Alexandria spoke Greek and could not understand Hebrew • Translation was ordered – tradition speaks of 70 scribes (hence Septuagint or LXX) • Probably just the Torah at first • Tradition claims the translation was inspired as God caused the scribes to agree down to the very letter • We know this is not true – there are sometimes major discrepancies (see Bible footnotes)

13. Genesis 1:1

14. The Septuagint Genesis Exodus Leviticus Numbers Deuteronomy

15. The Septuagint Joshua Judges Ruth 1-4 Kings 1 Esdra 2 Esdra = Ezra/Nehemiah Esther Judith Tobit 1-4 Maccabees

16. The Septuagint Psalms Odes Proverbs Ecclesiastes Song of songs Job Wisdom Sirach Psalms of Solomon

17. The Septuagint Twelve (Hosea – Malachi) Isaiah Jeremiah Baruch Lamentations Epistle of Jeremiah Ezekiel Susanna Daniel Bel and the dragon

18. New Testament Christians wrote in Greek and thus quoted the Old Testament in Greek (Septuagint) Isa 52:5: ‘continually, all day long, my name is (Heb) despised’ LXX ‘because of you, continually, my name is blasphemed among the Gentiles’

19. Rom 2:24 • You that abhor idols, do you rob temples? You that boast in the law, do you dishonour God by breaking the law? For, as it is written, ‘The name of God is blasphemed among the gentiles because of you’.

20. Genesis 1:1?

21. Bible manuscripts: Hebrew • The Masoretic Text: Pointed 10th Century AD • The Dead Sea Scrolls: texts of Psalms and Isaiah and commentaries on Joel, Habakkuk and other books • A tradition of accurate transmission

22. Bible Manuscripts: Papyri • Over 120 exist and are the earliest NT texts • P52, P90 and P104 (P.Oxy 66) are the earliest (150 AD) showing parts of John and Matthew’s Gospels • Some NT books have more papyri than others: John (30), Matthew (23), Acts (14), Luke (10), Romans (10), Hebrews (8), 1 Timothy (0). • Over 1000 ‘miniscules’: later texts on parchment written in normal handwriting.

23. Bible Manuscripts: Uncials • Official texts, written to be used in liturgy or scholarship from the 3rd to the 7th Centuries • Codex Sinaiticus (4th Century), contains half the ‘Septuagint’, the whole NT, the Letter of Barnabas and the Shepherd of Hermas. In the British Library(!) • Codex Vaticanus (4th Century), contains most of the ‘Septuagint’ and most of the NT. • Codex Bezae (5th Century), contains most of the four Gospels and 3 John in Greek and Latin. Bezae represents the Western Text tradition.

24. The Vulgate By the 4th c. ADthe language of the Church was Latin. Jerome was commissioned to make a translation which became known as the Vulgate. It made a fresh translation of the Hebrew books but also translated the additional books of the LXX. This remained the Church Bible until the Reformation

25. Erasmus and the Greek NT • Erasmus believed that proper study (and devotion) should depend on the best manuscripts – and for the NT these were Greek. • This showed that some of the Vulgate was in error (eg. Greek metanoia means ‘repentance’ not ‘penance’). • Luther used Erasmus to translate Bible into German

26. Principles of Translation: Ps 1:1 • Word for word replication: ESV, NRSV ‘Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers’ • Dynamic equivalence: GNB, the Message ‘How well God must like you— you don’t hang out at Sin Saloon, you don’t slink along Dead-End Road, you don’t go to Smart-Mouth College.’

27. The English Bible 1384 Wycliffe (hand written) 1526 Tyndale (first printed edition) 1535 Coverdale 1609 Douay/Rheims (Catholic – trans of Vulgate) 1611 King James Bible (AV) 1885 Revised Version (RV) 1946/52 Revised Standard Version (RSV)

28. The English Bible 1966 Jerusalem Bible (JB) – Catholic with apocrypha 1970 New English Bible (NEB) 1973 New International Version (NIV) 1976 Good News Bible (GNB) 1985 New Jerusalem Bible (NJB) 1989 Revised English Bible (REB) 1989 New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) 2001 English Standard Version (ESV) 2011 New International Version (revision)