Introduction to
the Bible
Course
Assumptions (taken from the
introduction of Journey Through the Bible,
published by the Christian Board of Publication)
- The Bible is not just a book, it is the book that records the mighty acts of God in history, witnesses to the unique revelation in Christ Jesus, and calls people to a response to and involvement in the ongoing ministry of Christ in the world.
- The Bible is the Word of God, but it is not the words of God. Within its words is housed the Word, which is changeless and eternal.
- The Bible is a book of history, but it does not claim to be objective history. Rather, it is faith history, with its primary focus on the covenantal relationship of God with people. It therefore views and interprets historical events from within the context of that faith relationship.
- The Bible is more concerned with the why questions of life than the how questions. Thus, it is not a science book. It is written from within the worldview of its writers, a worldview quite different from that of the present day. Nonetheless, it claims that God is God of all creation, that Christ's crucifixion and resurrection have cosmic implications, and that people are an integral part of creation as well as called to be stewards of it.
The Book - short description of the Bible and its books.
The Biblical Story as told in the Hebrew Scriptures.
Interpreting the Bible - how to interpret the Bible.
Versions of the Bible - Early and current versions of the Bible and how they were translated.
The chart above is from "Confirming Our
Faith" by United Church Press
The Bible is compilation of 66 individual
documents.
The name "Bible" comes from a Greek
word meaning "little books." The Bible was written over many
centuries and by many different people; people who didn't always agree with
each other. The Bible is divided into the Hebrew scriptures
which we call the Old Testament and the Christian scriptures which we call the
New Testament. Above is a diagram showing the major divisions and grouping in
the Bible.
One thing to remember is a convention used in
the Bible for designating a passage. For instance Genesis 1:3-12, would refer
to the book of Genesis, chapter one, verses 3-12.
From here please investigate those parts of
the introduction that you are interested in. I would highly recommend your
reading "Interpreting
the Bible." When you're done
here, head of off for the first lesson.
The Biblical Story through the Pentateuch &
Historical Books
Genesis - a pre-historical set of tales & sagas.
Creation Stories
Pre-Israel Sagas
Noah
Abraham
Jacob
Joseph - to
Exodus
Calling of Moses
Exodus from
Journey in Wilderness
Receiving the Law
Leviticus - Levitical Laws - Laws of the Levite Priesthood
Numbers - In the Wilderness - the 40 years of wandering
Deuteronomy - The Second Law - a reinterpretation of the events of the Exodus, the Law, the wilderness and settlement in a way that supported a centralized location of for worship -- the temple.
Joshua - The settlement of
Judges - Stories of tribal heroes and how they held onto their territory.
Ruth - The story of David's ancestry from a Canaanite Grandmother.
I Samuel - the
story of the prophet Samuel and the rise of
II Samuel - the story of David's unification of the 12 tribes and his protection of the nation against invaders.
I & II Kings - the story of
Solomon through the civil war that Divided the Kingdom. It continues with the
history of the destruction of
Chronicles - tells the story
of
Ezra/Nehemiah - tells of the building of Jewish culture around the
temple, following the return of the exiles to
Esther - a tale of Esther who protects the Jews from persecution during the reign of the Persians.
BCE
Pre
-historic stories - Creation, Adam and Eve, Cain and Able, Noah, the
2100 Sarah and Abraham leave Ur of Chaldea (c. 2100)
-
--
-
2000 Stories of Sarah and Abraham in
-
--
-
1900 Isaac and Rebekah
with sons Esau and Jacob (1900-1750)
-
--
-
1800 Jacob and Rachel with sons Joseph and
Benjamin (1800-1700)
-
--
-
1700
- The Joseph Stories
(1750-1650)
--
-
1600
Hebrews in bondage in
-
--
-
1500
-
--
-
1400
-
--
-
1300
Exodus from
-
--
Conquest of
-
1200 Invasion of the Philistines - Entry into the promised land.
-
--
-
Deborah
1100
-
-- Samuel
- Saul founds monarchy
1000
David rules
-
Solomon rules
-- First temple built
- Division of Kingdom (
900 Asa king of
-
Ahab King of
-- Elijah --- Elisha
Jehu's
revolution
-
Jehoash
King of
800
- Jeroboam II king of
Asariah
(Uzziah) king of
-- Amos
Hosea
- Assyrians take
Isaiah I
700 Micah
Hezekiah king of
-
Manasseh king of
--
Zephaniah
-
Josiah's reform -- Nahum
600 Jeremiah
600 Ezekiel
Babylonians sack
- Exile in
-- Isaiah II
Cyrus begins
- Haggai & Zechariah
500
-
--
Nehemiah rebuilds
-
400
The Pentateuch accepted as Scripture
or
550?
-
--
Alexander conquers East
-
300
-
--
The Prophets accepted as
Scripture
-
200
-
Maccabees
-- Hasmonean
rulers (the Herods)
-
100
-
Romans conquer
--
Herod the Great
-
C.E.
- Jesus' ministry
Jewish Christianity
& beginnings of
-- Paul's ministry, letters
- Romans destroy
Gospel of Mark (70) Luke
(80) Matthew (90)
100 The Writings close the Hebrew (CS) Canon
Last Christian books
written
In this section we will
consider briefly the history of the English Bible and outline the
characteristics of the four main types of Bible translations that are used in
current versions.
A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH
BIBLE
From the early Middle Ages until the
Reformation of the sixteenth century, the Latin Vulgate was the official Bible
of the Church. Only a few educated people could read Latin. Thus the Bible was
a closed book to the majority of people.
The later Medieval period, however, saw the
production of several partial translations into Old English (Anglo-Saxon).
Prior to the 16th Century, translations of the Bible into English
were made from the Latin Vulgate instead of from the Hebrew or Greek. The first
full translation of the Bible in our language was such a translation. It was a
Middle English translation by John Wycliffe in 1382 which he translated into
English from the Latin Vulgate.
Still, it was not until the time of William Tyndale in the Reformation that the Bible was translated
into English from the original languages of Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek. Tyndale was bitterly opposed. He was accused of perverting
the meaning of the Scriptures to fit Martin Luther's purposes. Tyndale and his Bibles were later burned.
From Tyndale's
translation work at the beginning of the sixteenth century to the translation
of the King James Version early in the seventeenth century, several English
versions were produced:
1525
Tyndale's New Testament
1535
The Coverdale Bible
1539
The Great Bible
1560
The Geneva Bible
1568
The Bishop's Bible
1611
The King James Version
1901
The American Standard Version
1952
The Revised Standard Version
1989
The New Revised Standard Version - this is the most accurate and up
to date version. It is the preferred version for study. You can access is on
line at Bible Gateway, or purchase it at Cokesbury On-Line.
Another
good version of the Gospels is the Scholars Translation found in The Five
Gospels, not available on line, but it can be purchased at Cokesbury. It includes the Gospel of Thomas.
The
current English versions of the Bible can all be accessed on-line at Bible Gateway.
THE FOUR MAIN TYPES OF BIBLE
TRANSLATION
- The Word-For- Word translation takes the original
language texts and translates them as literally as possible. This gives
the most literal and accurate translation, but not always the easiest to
read. In this type of translation a Hebrew or Greek word is given it's
closest English meaning.
- The Meaning-for-Meaning translation takes a phrase from the
original language and translates it literally, but the phrase is then
given a contemporary phrasing that better communicates the meaning of the
passage.
- Blend
- This type blends the word-for-word and the meaning-for meaning
methods to try to give a text that is understandable, yet accurate as
possible.
- Paraphrase
- This is the least accurate form of translation. In fact, it is not a
translation at all, but rather a paraphrasing of and existing translation.
It often includes the editorial of the person paraphrasing, as well as,
translations that reflect the theology of the person paraphrasing the
text. This is the least desired type for study and because of the
editorial and theological influences it is not very good for getting an
accurate understanding of the scriptures.
1.WORD-FOR-WORD (LITERAL)
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1611 The King James or Authorized Version (KJV or AV) |
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1881-5 The Revised Version (RV) |
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1901 The American Standard Version (ASV) |
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1946-52 The Revised Standard Version (RSV) |
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1971 The New American Standard Bible (NASB) |
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1982 The New King James Version (NKJV) |
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1989 The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) |
2.MEANING-FOR-MEANING
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The Good News Bible / Today's English Version (GNB or TEV) |
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The New The New English Bible (NEB) |
3.WORD-FOR-WORD AND MEANING - FOR
- MEANING BLENDS
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The New International Version (NIV) |
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The |
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The Revised English Bible (REB) |
4. PARAPHRASE
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J.B. Phillips |
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The Living Bible |
How one reads the Bible, the way one interprets the texts is a key issue.
"Some will say we should take the Bible as it reads and not "interpret" it. But "interpretation" simply means getting the meaning out of a text. In this sense, there is no reading the Bible or anything else without interpreting....Understanding the words, determining the meaning of the text, is interpretation." [Helmeniak, p21]
If you read a newspaper article about abortion, depending on your view you may interpret it as good news or bad news. The word abortion itself means different things to different people. To some it refers only to a fetus in its third trimester and to others it means the life that exists immediately after the sperm enters the egg. In the Bible a words like "virgin" or "resurrection" have such multiple meanings.
In the same fashion, words don't always mean what they say. Many words have
changed there meaning since they were first written centuries ago in many
ancient texts such as the Bible. For instance if you read that
"the mouse was not behaving correctly" you may presume that you have
a strange rodent or a broken instrument for directing the cursor on the computer
screen. Other examples of contemporary language, "cool" means good,
as also "bad" means good. These oddities of language are not new to
the world and they give Bible translators horrible headaches. Another great
example would be to refer to a nice handsome gentleman as a "ladykiller" but the literal interpretation would be to
think that some man murders women.
A biblical example Jesus is saying that "it is easier for a camel to
pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the Empire of
God." If we just use our understanding of these words we try to picture a
camel trying to get through the eye of a sowing needle. This of course is
totally impossible. But what Jesus had in mind was something totally different.
In Jesus time "in
For these reason and more that will be discussed I prefer to use what is
called a "Historical-Critical" method of interpreting of the
scriptures. I will return to explaining this method shortly.
I find that what some call a "literal interpretation" to be very
non-literal, very subjective and very misleading. Those who interpret the Bible
in such a manner often find themselves serving their own interests in how they
pick and choose to read and how they choose to interpret the words. They also
find themselves in many contradictions and having to believe in a world-view
that is very different than what the sciences have to offer today. The so
called "literal" reading "claims to take the text simply for
what it says. This is the approach of Fundamentalism. It claims not to be
interpreting the text but merely to be reading it as it stands. Clearly,
however, even Fundamentalism follows a rule of interpretation, a simple and
easy rule. The rule is that a text means whatever it means to somebody reading
it today." [H 25] For instance, in reading a saying of Jesus, this method
totally ignores what Jesus may have meant by it. It also ignores how the gospel
writer may have interpreted Jesus saying, and it only focuses on what the
meaning of the words might mean to us today. An example of this is Jesus saying
in Matthew 23: 9 "And call no one your father on earth, for you have one
Father-- the one in heaven." Jesus was trying to restructure the lines of
authority and have all authority lie in God and not in an earthly father, but
to the later church and the gospel writers it was seen as a indictment of some
of the early church hierarchies, while to the later Protestant church it took
on an anti-Catholic sentiment. And for today's "literalists" is must
mean that they can call no one father accept God. Although none of them do
that.
"Compare the other approach, the historical-critical reading. The rule here is that a text means whatever it meant to the people who wrote it long ago. To say what a biblical text teaches us today, you first have to understand the text in its original situation and then apply the meaning to the present situation." [H. 25] The historical-critical method is the method taught in a mainline Protestant and Catholic seminaries and universities. This method is not new, it has been used and improved over the past couple centuries. "In fact, it was on the scene before Fundamentalism, which arose partially in opposition to this method." [H, p.26] "This approach is called "historical" because it requires that you put the text back into its original historical and cultural context before you decide what it means." [H,p.26] This approach is called "critical", not because it is criticizing the Bible but "because it requires careful thought an detailed analysis of the Bible." [H, p 26]
to the first lesson