A Short History Of The Scriptures

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 for centuries

Shared story with other cultures of the ANE Gilgamesh Epic Enuma 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 Jesus and the apostles, and first century Christians.

1800 BCE

Oral Traditions Form (Abraham’s time) 1300 BCE First writing: Poetry, some sayings of Moses 1000 BCE Solomon begins to collect writings 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 Canon of Hebrew Scriptures)

45-50 CE 50-70 CE 63-70 70s 50-80 CE 90-100 CE 2nd Century 353 CE 397 CE 400 CE

First letters of Paul Gospel of Mark Acts Gospels Matthew, Luke Gospel of John Last canonical epistles Church leaders agreed upon 4 Gospels Council of Laodicea CANON Council of Carthage CANON Vulgate (official Latin translation)

Ancient Hebrew---Nearly All of the Hebrew Testament 22 letters No vowels (added later) Read from right to left Some words you will recognize: David, Shalom, Elohim, Yahweh

Biblical vocabulary only about 1,000 words 500 words comprised about 80% of text No punctuation No chapter breaks, titles, headings, or verse breaks Very primitive and simplistic by today’s linguistic standards.

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 eastern part of the Roman Empire. No No No No

punctuation. chapter breaks. titles. 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 8-10th Century 12-13th Century BUT. . . .

Nash Papyrus (4 fragments) Decalogue & Shema Masoretic Text Nablus Manuscripts

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 Jewish community (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 oldest previous 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

B (Vaticanus) Sin. (Sinaiticus) A (Alexandrinus)

300 CE* 350 CE 450 CE*

These are the earliest NT documents. *Nearly complete manuscripts.

5,300 known Greek manuscripts of the New Testament 10,000 Latin Vulgates 9,300 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 AngloSaxon  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?