History of the Bible

Old Testament

Snap shot of ‘Biblical’ history

Old testament

United kingdom

Temple in Jerusalem under Solomon

Divided kingdom

Northern Kingdom of Israel

Conquered by Assyria 722

Southern Kingdom of Judea

Conquered by Babylon 586

Exile in Babylon

70 years

Return and building of the 2nd temple and the wall

Persian emperor 516 BC

Intertestamental period

Maccabees

Alexander the Great

Born 356 BC

Ascends to throne after his father King Phillip II at the age of 20 (336 BC)

Massive military campaign

Concurs Canaan around 333 BC

He also conquers Egypt in his conquest

Sudden death 10 years after concurring Canaan in 323 BC

Hellenization

Hellenization is the Greek influence on Jewish people

Hellenization was very strong and fast

Hebrew was being replaced in Canaan by Greek, which was used by government, upper class trickling down to all of society

Eventually the Jews needed the OT in Greek b/c they couldn’t read Hebrew

Alexandria: The birth of the Septuagint

Pharoah of Egypt in the mid 3rd century BC requests that the Hebrew Torah be translated into Greek for the Jews in Egypt as they were dealing with rapid hellenization

per legend: 6 scholars from each of the 12 tribes were gathered = 72 (LXX)

Translated the Hebrew Torah in to Greek in Alexandria in 72 days

Considered by the Jews of the time to be an ‘inspired’ text

The books translated, give insight into ancient Jewish thought of the day as to what books were considered sacred

The Septuagint is synonomous with the ‘Greek OT’ or ‘Alexandrian Canon’

The use of the Septuagint

Given the hellenization and persistent Roman presence in the area Greek was the primary language of the time

Aramaic was in use but to a lesser degree

As the church began in the 1st century after Pentecost, the Septuagint was the OT text used by the Christians of the day in the following ways

NT authors, while writing in Greek, were naturally using the LXX as a reference, since it was considered ‘inspired’ by the believers

St. Paul was using the OT LXX to defend the Messiahship and divinity of Christ

Encouragement to with stand oppressive regimes

Maccabees speaks of the persecution faced by Jews from the Romans

The song of the three Youths in Daniel (incorporated into Midnight praises)

Susanna

Wisdom of Sirach addressed many common issues Christians were facing

Tobit: Love story of a father, tobit, who sends his son into the world to marry a girl and saver her from the darkness of the world. The struggles to live righteously in a foreign land, while your brethren are falling.

The books were also used in the services of the church

Many of the books included in the Septuagint were seen as informative and formational to ones faith.

There weren’t high lighted for their theological content, though they did not go against any theological concepts.

The Vulgate

The Latin translation of the ancient Hebrew Scriptures by St. Jerome

Very similar to the list of books in the Septuagint

Translation took place in the 5th century

This would become the official ‘Bible’ for the catholic church

The Hebrew Bible (Jewish Bible)

Hebrew as a language had two forms

Pre-Masoretic: Hebrew without vowels (3rd Century BC)

Masorectic: Hebrew with vowels (8th Century)

Example: Pre-Masorectic

Kng Dvd klld tht wckd prsn, th Phlstn Glth

Kng Dvd klld th mn

Kng Dvd Lvd

Man or Men | Loved or Lived

The process of adding the vowels was a process overseen by the Jews, specifically the scribes

When we review the earliest copies of the Hebrew books written with vowels (Masoretic text), we see there are differences in the number of books. (Hebrew Bible having fewer books)

The reasons for differences is not fully understood and multilayered

Council of Jamnia ~100 AD: Official break between Jews and Christians.

debated 7 books of the OT

one thing it points to is that the books of the OT were more fluid in antiquity

the safe guard to the fluidity was found in the strength of Holy tradition, teachings of the fathers

Books with different theological beliefs were identified and taken out of the mix.

Long before the 8th c. when the Masoretic (with vowels) text were transcribed, the NT books had been widely agreed upon.

By identifying the 27 books of the NT they were also saying that other letters in circulation were not divinely inspired nor consistent with the faith of the church.

The accuracy and historicity of these books were questionable

The counterfeit books of the NT had been labeled by the church as apocryphal books

Apocrypha: ‘Hidden away’

gospel of Thomas

gospel of Peter

gospel of Mary Magdoline

Protestant Reformation: Martin Luther

Martin Luther rejection of books of the OT largely based on over reaction to the Catholic church and the Vulgate as well as concerns that the books did not fully support his theological view points.

Catholics would later call these 7 books ‘Deutrocanonical’

He also struggled with the idea that there was never a final decision on these books.

He couldn’t hold the tension between Holy\Oral Tradition as the safeguard to the open canon of scripture

He and other reformers would push for closed canon

66 books (27 NT and 39 OT)

Hebrew/Masoretic text of the OT