A Short History Of The Scriptures

A Short History of the Scriptures

The Septuagint And the Talmud Talmud

The Jewish Diaspora

In Judaism, the nation and the religion were one of a piece.

586  Judah conquered by Babylonia; Jerusalem and First Temple destroyed; Jews exiled to Babylonia. 536-142  PERSIAN AND HELLENISTIC PERIODS 538-515 Jews return from Babylonia; Temple rebuilt 332 Land conquered by Alexander the Great; Hellenistic rule. 166-160 Maccabean (Hasmonean) revolt against restrictions on practice of Judaism and desecration of the Temple 142-129 Jewish autonomy under Hasmoneans. 63 Jerusalem captured by Roman general, Pompey

63 BCE-313 CE ROMAN RULE 37BCE - 4CE Herod, Roman rules Israel; Temple in Jerusalem refurbished 20-23 Ministry of Jesus 66 Jewish revolt against the Romans 70 Destruction of Jerusalem and Second Temple. 132-135 Bar Kokhba uprising against Rome. 210 Codification of Jewish oral law (Mishnah) completed.

Keeping the Language of Faith “When you lose the language, you lose the faith!” A need to translate Torah into a common language A need to respond to curious Greek speaking Gentiles

The Septuagint LXX “The Seventy”

Koine Greek translated in stages 3rd and 1st centuries BCE Alexandria

Problems with the Septuagint  Cannot

translate Hebrew into Greek word for

word.  Translation difficulties become apparent in key interpretive passages:  “the

young woman is with child and about to give birth to a son” (Hebrew)  “the virgin (parthenos) is with child” (Greek)

Septuagint became a part of world literature early on.

Contrast to Qu’ran Judaism became a world religion.

Christian Significance  Septuagint

became THE Hebrew Bible for Christian scholars  Very few Christian scholars knew ancient Hebrew  Not until about 1200 did Christianity begin to look at the Hebrew text of the Hebrew Bible  Even today, LXX helps scholars translate the New Testament  LXX is a separate Hebrew text tradition from the Masoretic text (used mostly today)

Many of the oldest Biblical verses among the Dead Sea Scrolls, particularly those in Aramaic, correspond more closely with the LXX than with the Masoretic text (most of these variations are extremely minor)

The Talmud

Continuing Revelation

Scripture

Tradition

Reason

Experience

Judaism Torah beyond Torah

Apocrypha Gemara Haggadah Halakhah Kabbalah Midrash Mishnah Talmud Targum Tosefta

(several Hebrew books) (narrative interpretation) (interpretation of the Law) (mystical systems) (comment with addition) (sayings of the fathers) (detailed commentary) (Aramaic translation) (narrative texts)

Apocrypha  Greek

Name  Books in Tanakh  See Appendix I  See where Protestant and Catholic canon diverges

Talmud 35 volumes (in English)

This is a picture of the Hebrew Talmud!

Obedience and Intellectual Activity

Jesus says, “Do your homework!” And that includes reading my Word!

Christ and the New Testament For next week: Read Pelikan 5 & 6