Understanding the Bible: Overview and History

1. Introduction to the Bible St. Catherine of Siena Church Lent, 2019 Michael Twomey

2. What is a Bible? The word “Bible” comes from Greek Biblion (βιβλίον), which means ‘papyrus’ or ‘book,’ after the Phoenician city of Byblos, a major supplier of papyrus. Thus, “the Bible” means “the book.” But in fact, the Bible is composed of many books—that is, Genesis, Exodus, Numbers, etc. are all considered to be individual books.

3. What is a Bible? The oldest Bibles that we know of were scrolls made of papyrus. To this day, the Torah in a Jewish synagogue is a scroll, although it is paper, not papyrus. Right: Torah scroll (paper) with a yod (pointer)

4. What is a Bible? From about the late 4th century onward, Bibles and most other books were made from parchment—specially treated animal skin—that was assembled in codex form, the form in which modern books are made. Codex Sinaiticus, copied in the 4th century; the oldest existing complete copy of the New Testament; it also contains much of the Old Testament from 2 Chronicles onward. Language: Greek. It exists in four parts held by these libraries: the British Library, the Library of the University of Leipzig, the National Library of Russia in Saint Petersburg, and the Holy Monastery of the God-Trodden Mount Sinai (Saint Catherine’s). Source: http://www.codexsinaiticus.org/en/

5. Reflection: What is a Bible? What Bible do you have/use/know?

6. What is the Bible? The Bible is divided into two testaments, each embodying the two major covenants made by God with human beings. (1) Old Testament = Hebrew Bible. The story of God’s covenant with Abraham and his descendants, who were first called Hebrews, then Israelites, then Jews. The OT also includes wisdom texts (in verse), plus the writings of the “major” and ”minor” prophets. (2) New Testament = Christian Bible. The story of God’s covenant with all people, foretold in the Prophets, and taking effect at the Last Supper (see Matt. 26:26-28, etc.), continuing through the story of the founding of the Church, and ending with the Revelation to John.

7. What is the Bible? • New testament: • Prose narratives presented as history • Parables • Epistles • Prayers (praise, complaint,thanksgiving) • Wisdom and instruction • Prophecy • Apocalypse Old Testament: • Prose narratives presentedas history • Laws • Verse • Prayers (praise, complaint,thanksgiving) • Wisdom and instruction • Prophecy • Apocalypse

8. What is the Bible? We refer to the Bible by citing book, chapter number, and verse number. Examples of how we cite: • Spoken: Genesis, chapter twelve, verses one through three.Written: Gen. 12:1-3. • Spoken: One Samuel (or First Book of Samuel), eight, three through five.Written: 1 Sam. 12:3-5. • Spoken: The Gospel of Mark, chapter sixteen, verses nineteen and twenty.Written: Mark 16:19-20. • Spoken: First Corinthians, four, one.Written: 1 Cor. 4:1.

9. Reflection: What is the Bibleto you? What parts do you read? Workshop of Robert Campin, Merode Altar, Annunciation Triptych (1427-32)(Luke 1) Juan de Flandes (1450-1519), The Temptation of Christ (Luke 4)

10. The Bible as a canon of texts The books in the Bible together represent a canon, which is a set of texts officially approved by a defined community of readers. Biblical scholars have reconstructed the development of the OT canon according to this timeline: • By ca. 400 BC/BCE: Jews regard the first 5 OT books (called the Torah, meaning “teaching”) as canonical. • By ca. 200 BC/BCE: Jews accept a second group of books into the canon (Former and Latter Prophets). • By ca. 150 BC/BCE: Jews accept a third group of books (Ketuvim, meaning “Writings”).

11. The Bible as a canon of texts After the Romans destroyed the Temple (site of worship and sacrifice) in Jerusalem in 70 AD/CE, when they put down the Jewish Revolt, a group of rabbis in Palestine established the modern Hebrew Bible, known as Tanakh. However, in doing this, they removed several books from the Bible. They did this in the belief that they were restoring the Bible to its purest state. Why did the rabbis believe the Bible needed to be reformed? 

12. The Bible as a canon of texts In the 3rd century BC/BCE, the Bible had been translated into Greek for the benefit of diaspora Jews living all around the Mediterranean who did not read Hebrew, but who used Greek, the lingua franca of the Hellenistic world (area under rulers who succeeded Alexander the Great). We now call this Bible the Septuagint, after the ancient legend that it was made by a group of 70 scholars (Latin septuaginta = 70). The Septuagint contained books that the 1st century rabbis considered to be apocrypha—that is, they contained wisdom that they believed should be kept from ordinary readers. (The word apocrypha is from a Greek root meaning “hidden.”)

13. The Bible as a canon of texts Early Christians, continuing older Jewish practice, used the Septuagint as their OT, and they added their own scriptures, also in Greek, to form the NT. The Vulgate, a Latin translation of the Hebrew and Septuagint OT plus Greek NT, was made by St. Jerome (340-420) and associates. The Vatican website has the current version of the Latin Vulgate. In the Reformation, Protestants de-Catholicized the OT by removing the apocryphal books that Catholics had preserved from the Septuagint in the Latin Vulgate.

14. The Bible as a canon of texts Finally, pseudepigrapha (Greek, “false writings”) are books that were rejected from the major canons but which were preserved because some religious groups within Judaism and Christianity read them. They are now studied by scholars. In some cases, the pseudepigrapha influenced canonical texts. Example: the Book of Enoch tells an alternate version of the Flood story (Gen. 6-9) in which angels sinned before the Flood and were chained in hell as punishment, which is alluded to in 2 Pet. 2:4.

15. Reflection: The Bible as a canon of texts.Questions? Above: Fragment of the Gospel of Mary Magdalene, early 2nd c., Ashmolean Museum, Oxford University (see http://gnosis.org/library/marygosp.htm) Right: Codex Vaticanus (8th c.): ending of 2 Thess. and beginning of Heb. Oldest surviving complete Bible in Greek

16. Footnote: the Dead Sea Scrolls Before the Dead Sea Scrolls’ discovery, the oldest written copies of the Hebrew Bible were the so-called Masoretic texts from the 9th century AD/CE. In 1947, a shepherd boy discovered clay jars in a cave at Qumran near the Dead Sea, and inside there were leather scrolls, which scholars discovered to be an ancient library of books from the 2nd century BC/BCE to 1st century AD/CE. Many of the scrolls were of books in the Hebrew Bible, but some were pseudepigraphal works, such as the Book of Enoch, which has an alternate version of the Flood of Noah. Cave IV at Qumran, West Bank, where 15000 scrolls were discovered “The Rule of the Congregation”; from Cave I

17. What is in the Catholic Bible? Old Testament: • Pentateuch (First 5 books, Genesis through Deuteronomy) • Historical Books (Joshua through Nehemiah, plus Tobit, Judith, Esther, 1 & 2 Maccabees) • Wisdom Books (Job through Sirach, a.k.a. Ecclesiasticus) • Prophets, major (6): Isaiah through Daniel • Prophets, minor (12): Hosea through Malachi 13th century Latin Bible, Library of Congress, Rosenwald MS 3

18. What is in the Catholic Bible? New Testament (the same for all Christians): • 4 Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke as “synoptic gospels,” plus John) • Acts of the Apostles • 13 + 1 Pauline Epistles (1 Thess, Gal., Phil., Philemon, 1-2 Cor., possibly Heb.; plus 2 Thess., Coloss., Ephes., Titus, 1-2 Tim.) • 7 Catholic Epistles (James, 1-2 Pet., 1-3 John, Jude) • Revelation (earlier known as Apocalypse) Beginning of the Gospel of Matthew, Lindisfarne Gospels, British Library MS Cotton Nero D.V, ca. 700

19. How do Catholic and Protestant Bibles differ from one another? The Catholic Bible retains books from Septuagint version of the OT that were removed from the Hebrew OT by Jews in the 1st century and later also removed by from the Catholic OT by Protestants: 1 and 2 Maccabees, 1 and 2 Esdras, Baruch, Tobit, Judith, Wisdom of Solomon, Sirach (Ecclesiasticus), additions to Esther, and the stories of Susanna and Bel and the Dragon (both found in Daniel in Catholic Bibles, ch’s 13 and 14). All Christian Bibles have the same books in the New Testament

20. The Bible as a major influence in Western culture Popular expressions Genesis: “In the beginning”: Gen. 1:1, John 1:1 Garden of Eden: Gen. 2 Adam’s rib = a woman: Gen 2:21 forbidden fruit: Gen. 3:1-6 Adam’s apple: Gen 3:6 mark of Cain / raise Cain: Gen 4:15 fire and brimstone: Gen. 19:24 “the fat of the land”: Gen 45:18 New Testament: Let the one who is without sin cast the first stone: John 8:7 “The wages of sin is death”: Rom. 6:23 Thirty pieces of silver: Matt. 26:15 The poor will always be with you: John 12:8 The tenth leper: Luke 17: 11-19 Prodigal son: Luke 15:11-32 “Salt of the earth”: Matt. 5:13

21. The Bible as a major influence in Western culture People and places that have become proverbial  Babylon = sin city: Isa. 14:4, 21:9; Rev. 17:1-17 David and Goliath = little guy triumphs over powerful enemy: 1 Sam 17 Ishmael = outcast, wanderer: Gen. 16 Job = patient sufferer (“as patient as Job”): Job Leviathan = a huge fish: Job 41:1 Philistine = one who refuses truth and light: 1 Sam. 17:8 Sodom and Gomorrah = sin cities: Gen 19 Tower of Babel = symbol of vanity: Gen. 11

22. Reflection: The Bible as a major influence in Western culture. Where do you see the Bible’s influence in our culture? Pieter Brueghel the Elder, Tower of Babel (ca. 1563-5) Rembrandt, The Return of the Prodigal Son (ca. 1661-9)

23. The Bible in the Mass The Mass is divided into four major sections: • Introductory Rites, Liturgy of the Word, Liturgy of the Eucharist, and Concluding Rites • Each of these sections uses texts mainly drawn from the Bible

24. The Bible in the Mass Example 1: Introductory Rites • Sign of the Cross (Matt 28:19; cf. John 14:13-14, Acts 2:21) • Liturgical Greeting and People’s Response (2 Tim 4:22, Phil 1:2, Eph 1:2, 2 Cor. 13:14) • Penitential Act (cf. Lev 5:5, Neh 1:5-9, Dan 9:3-19, James 5:16) • Gloria (Luke 2:14; cf. Rev 4:11, 5:11-14; cf. Ps 148:13; cf. Ps 2:7, John 1:14; cf. John 1:29) • Prayers Concluded “Amen” (Neh 8:6,  Ps 41:13, Rom 16:27,  Heb 13:20-21, Rev 7:16)

25. The Bible in the Mass Example 2: Liturgy of the Word (Readings): Sunday Mass: • First Reading: Old Testament • Responsorial Psalm • Second Reading: New Testament (Acts, Epistles, or Revelation) • Gospel Acclamations and Gospel Weekday Mass: • First Reading • Responsorial Psalm • Gospel Acclamations and Gospel

26. Reflection: The Bible in the Mass Cycle of Gospel readings from the synoptic Gospels, as determined by Vatican II: • Year A: Matthew • Year B: Mark • Year C: Luke From which of these (A, B, C) did today’s Gospel come?

27. The language of the Bible The original Hebrew and Greek texts of the Bible use a style of language that is familiar to us in translation because it has influenced our styles of speaking for centuries. Even today, many people “speak Bible” because they have memorized some or all of it. Nevertheless, its style of language can seem off-putting to us—sometimes obscure, lofty, and difficult; but sometimes surprisingly conversational, pithy, even crude. Examples: • Rev. (all of it) • 1 Kings 2. Codex Amiatinus: Oldest complete Vulgate Bible (ca. 700, England), opening of John’s Gospel

28. Reflection: The language of the Bible However it strikes us, the language of the Bible is NOT like the language of the two young people in this YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6ezEPk_tIo What would the Bible mean to us if it were written in this kind of everyday, slangy language?

29. Our dilemma as modern readers: the Bible is both literature and a sacred text In what sense is the Bible literature? In what sense is the Bible a sacred text? In what sense is the Bible God’s word(s)? Leiden, University Library, VLQ MS 104, Glossed Bible

30. The Bible as literature When Stephen Langton divided the Bible into chapters in the 13th c., he did it on the basis of verbal cues that indicated the beginnings and endings of stories and sections. Sample passage, prose: Gen. 13. • Envelope structure: Beginning and end echo each other. • Theme: An idea that is highlighted via the events in the passage. • Parataxis: Narrative style from oral cultures in which related clauses are presented as a series of parallel units joined by “and,” but,” “or,” etc.; each unit gets the same emphasis.

31. The Bible as a sacred text To read the Bible as literature is to read it as a sacred text because the only way to understand it as a religious text is to read it according to the literary conventions that it employs. This means: • Do not assume that because it is ancient it is primitive. • Do not expect it to work like modern literature. There will be problems we can’t resolve, passages we can’t understand. • Expect the Bible to ”speak” to us in its own way, listen for that way, and try to appreciate it. Foe example, the Bible uses narrative analogy, through which one part of the text provides oblique commentary on another.

32. The Bible as a sacred text The “Four Traditional Assumptions” of the Bible’s original readers, both Jewish and Christian: • The Bible is a cryptic text, such that often when it says A, it means B. • The Bible is a book of lessons or instructions about moral and religious behavior. • The Bible does not contradict itself. Thus, apparent contradictions must be grappled with. • The Bible is divinely-given, such that God speaks to us in it. Thus, although it was not dictated by God, it represents God’s will and plan for human beings. Source: Kugel, Lames L. How to Read the Bible: A Guide to Scripture, Then and Now. New York: Free Press, 2007.