THE BIBLE

AN INTRODUCTION

WORLD LITERATURE I

BY

RALPH MONDAY

The BibleThat most ofUs areFamiliar with:

The KingJamesVersion,Translated in1611.

QUESTIONS READERS ASK ABOUT THE BIBLE

• AGE• AUTHORSHIP• ORIGINAL

LANGUAGES

• PERTINENT QUESTIONS

• SINCE• INDIVIDUALS ARE

ALWAYS CURIOUS• ABOUT THE

ORIGIN OF THEIR FAITH.

1. What is the Bible?

• Known as the Good Book, as though it were a single volume, the Bible is a collection or library

• Of many small books written over a period of more than a thousand years.

• The Hebrew Bible, known to Christians as the Old Testament, is primarily a record of

• The Hebrew god’s dealings with his chosen people, Israel.

                   

Moses withTheCommandments.

The word ofGod comeDown fromThe sky.

RevealedReligion.

• The Old Testament is made up of 24 books, divided into 39 in the Christian Bible,

• Of narrative, poetry, and prophecy.

• It is a book that many millions of people have based their life upon.

• Christians add to the original Hebrew the New Testament, consisting of

• The Gospel--four narratives of Jesus’ life, a theological account of the early Church (Acts), 21 letters, and an apocalypse (revelation of future history).

2. WHAT DOES THE WORD BIBLE MEAN?

Bible means “little books.” The word is derived from the Greek term biblion,

The diminutive form of Byblos, which means “papyrus” or “book.”

This concept originated in the ancient Phoenician

• City of Byblos, where the papyrus plant was cut and dried in strips

• For use as writing paper.

• Thus, the manuscript material produced was named after the place of its manufacture.

                          

                                                       

                

Ruins of theAncient city ofByblos.

BYBLOS (JBEIL)

           

        

Byblos, one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, its history reaches into antiquity. It is one of the richest archeological sites in the Middle East. It was the religious and commercial capital of the Phoenician coast and it was here

where the first linear alphabet was invented. Byblos has given its name to the Bible.

The city of Byblos is one of the oldest cities in the world, having been inhabited continuously since Neolithic times more

than 7000 years ago.  It is located in today's Lebanon, about 35 km north of Beirut.  In ancient times it was an important

sea port from which the famous cedar trees of Lebanon were exported to Egypt in exchange for papyrus, ivory, ebony and

gold.  Trade goods from as early as Egypt's 2nd dynasty have been found there.  Byblos is also noteworthy as the place

where the linear alphabet was invented.  This became the basis for the modern alphabet that we use today.

                                       

                            The Temple of Baalat Gebal, the "Lady of Byblos"

The local goddess of Byblos was Astarte, whose spheres of influence included war, protection, love and fertility. She was known as the Baalat Gebal, the "Lady of Byblos."

This is Inanna or Ishtar—the same archetype.

3. Who Wrote the Bible?

• No one knows.• The Old Testament

authors were not concerned with personal recognition– they were interested in

• Their sense of Israel’s god and his purpose for the world.

• Thus, Old Testament authorship is typically anonymous,

• Although later traditions assigned important books to eminent figures of the past.

In the last several centuries B.C.E., Moses was regardedAs the author of the first five books of the Bible—The Pentateuch.

However, most modern scholars believe that these booksAssumed their present form long after Moses’ time.

The majority of the narrative works—Joshua, Judges,Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles—are the work of namelessPriests, scribes, and archivists.

Scholars believe that the great prophets—Amos, Isaiah, Micah, and others—delivered their messages orally andThat their words were collected and written down by laterDisciples whose names are unknown.

4. When Was The Bible Written?

• The Bible is dated by most scholars from the creation to

• Israel’s conquest of Palestine—

• About the tenth century B.C.E.

• This document forms the oldest

• Narrative strand in the Pentateuch, and is characterized by its consistent use of

• The personal name Yahweh for the Hebrew god, and is

• Usually called J, for Jahveh, the German form of the divine name.

The Old Testament took approximately 1000 years toAssume its present form. The New Testament took about100 years. 1100 years comprise the Bible’s creation.

5. Is the Bible the World’s Oldest Book?

• No. At one time scholars believed that the Bible was the only significant literary production of the ancient near east.

• In the 19th century, in the library of the Assyrian Emperor

• Ashurbanipal IV (668-627 B.C.E.), in the ruins of his palace at Nineveh, capital of the Assyrian empire,

• Hundreds of clay tablets were discovered written in cuneiform.

The most important find were eleven tabletsRecounting the legendary adventures ofGilgamesh, King of Uruk.A startlingly find was the story of UtnapishtimWho survived a great flood by building an arkAccording to the directions of Ea, the god ofWisdom.

The story is remarkably similar to the flood storyIn Genesis, and the story is believed to go backTo a single source, although the GilgameshVersion is much older.

NoahHavingAProblemWith aWoodpecker.

6. In What Languages Was the Bible Originally Written?

Most of the Old Testament was written in classicalHebrew, the Semitic tongue spoken by theIsraelites.

Later, certain books were composed in Aramaic,An Aramean (Syrian) dialect closely related toHebrew.This is the language probably spoken by Jesus.All of the New Testament is in Koine, the internationalLanguage of the first-century workaday world, aBlend of classical Greek with the commercialVernacular of Near Eastern peoples conquered byAlexander the Great.

7. When Was The Bible First Translated?

• The first translation of the Hebrew Bible was begun in Alexandria, Egypt.

• This occurred in the mid-third century before Christ because the younger generation

• Of Jews no longer understood classical Hebrew.

• This is called the Septuagint after the 70 elders who supposedly produced it.

• It took more than two centuries to produce the translation.

The Pentateuch (Genesis through Deuteronomy)Was translated first, followed by the propheticBooks and the Writings (poetic and wisdomLiterature), and eventually by works that becameKnown as the Apocrypha.

The Septuagint was the Bible adopted by the earlyGreek-speaking Christians.

The next translation was St. Jerome’s production ofThe Latin Vulgate. This was commissioned by theBishop of Rome to render the Scriptures into theCommon tongue for the Latin-speaking WesternChurch. Jerome, between 385 and 405 C.E.Produced the official Bible of Roman Catholicism.

8. How Did Our Modern English Translations Come About?

Two historical events ensured that the Bible wouldHave a larger English reading public.The first was Johann Gutenberg’s invention ofMoveable type in 1455.The second was the Protestant Reformation,Started in 1517 by Martin Luther.

Luther completed a German translation in 1522-34—The first version in a modern European languageBased not on the official Latin Vulgate Bible butOn the original Hebrew and Greek.

William Tyndale first translated the Bible into English(the New Testament) in 1525. He had to flee toGermany to do this, because he was under threatOf persecution.

He never entirely completed his translation of theOld Testament, because in 1535-36 he was betrayed,Tried for heresy, and burned at the stake.

The first freely distributed English Bible—the CoverdaleBible—(1535) relied heavily on Tyndale’s work.

By far, the most popular version of all time is the KingJames English version, produced by scholars in 1611.

9. What Is Meant By Canon?

The term canon refers to the standard orMeasurement by which books were included orExcluded from the final list of authoritativeScripture.

In Greek, canon means a straight stick by whichSomething is ruled or measured.

The Hebrew word qaneh also referred to measurement or the norm by which somethingWas judged.

10. Which Parts Of The Bible Were First Accepted As Canonical?

At about 400 B.C.E. the Jews decided that theFirst five books of the Bible—Genesis, Exodus,Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy—wereAuthoritative and binding.

These five scrolls are called the Pentateuch, andMake up the Torah, meaning “law” or “instruction.”

These are the words that Yahweh gave to IsraelThrough Moses, and remains, for Jews, the core nucleus to which all other parts of scripture accrue.