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A Short History of the Scriptures
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How the Bible Came to Be:
A Quick Overview
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A Long Oral Tradition (many centuries)
Like other ancient literature
e.g., Homer was orally transmitted forcenturies
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Shared story with othercultures of the ANE
Gilgamesh EpicEnuma Elish
Psalms: A sung tradition
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Much (if not most) of our faith is taught
orally and informally.
Think of your own experience.
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Most of our Sacred Scripture consists of the
Hebrew Bible.
This was the only scripture known by Jesusand the apostles, and first century
Christians.
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1800 BCE Oral Traditions Form
(Abraham’s time)
1300 BCE First writing: Poetry, somesayings of Moses
1000 BCE Solomon begins to collectwritings
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 Canonof Hebrew Scriptures)
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45-50 CE First letters of Paul
50-70 CE Gospel of Mark
63-70 Acts
70s Gospels Matthew, Luke
50-80 CE Gospel of John
90-100 CE Last canonical epistles
2nd
Century Church leaders agreed upon 4Gospels
353 CE Council of Laodicea CANON
397 CE Council of Carthage CANON
400 CE Vulgate (official Latin translation)
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Ancient Hebrew---Nearly All of the Hebrew
Testament
22 lettersNo vowels (added later)
Read from right to left
Some words you will recognize:
David, Shalom, Elohim, Yahweh
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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.
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NT written in ‘common’ Greek
Everyday language widely used in the easternpart of the Roman Empire.
No punctuation.
No chapter breaks.
No titles.
No verse numbering.
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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.
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Hebrew Bible
2nd Century Nash Papyrus (4 fragments)
Decalogue & Shema8-10th Century Masoretic Text
12-13th Century Nablus Manuscripts
BUT. . . .
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400 scrolls recovered---parts of 400 more
found (15,000 fragments, 500 manuscripts)
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Discovered by shepherds:1946 to 1952
Caves southeast of Jerusalem (Qumran)
Qumran community, First century Jewishcommunity (ascetics)
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Copies of every one of the OT books
except Esther
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Scrolls hidden away in these remote caves
Copied by the Essenes, 200 BCE to 68 CE
Older by 1,000 years than the oldestprevious fragments found.
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Shrine of the Book, Jerusalem
Complete book of Isaiah, 2000 years old
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New Testament
130 CE Fragment of John’s Gospel
400 CE Codex Sinaiticus, earliest
complete mss of NT
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5,300 known Greek manuscripts of the New
Testament
10,000 Latin Vulgates9,300 other early manuscripts
24,000 manuscript copies of portions of the
New Testament in existence today!
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700 Aldhelm, Bishop of Sherborne
700 Bede (Gospel of John) into Anglo-
Saxon
871-901 King Alfred (Exodus, Psalms, Acts)14th C. Wycliffe: translation into the
English of the people
1525 Tyndale
1611 King James
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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)
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Translation
Or
Paraphrase???
What’s the difference?