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 | The Law: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy |
| History: Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 & 2 Samuel, 1 & 2 Kings, 1 & 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther |
| Stories, Poetry and Wisdom: Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon |
| Major Prophets: Isiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel |
| Minor Prophets: Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Michah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi |
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How Were the Books Chosen?
 | The Hebrew Scriptures: Following the Roman-Jewish war circa 65 CE, Jews were expelled from Palestine and were scattered throughout the Roman Empire. The focal point of their religion, the temple at Jerusalem, was destroyed. Their religious leaders felt a need to precisely define the Hebrew Scriptures so that they would form a new "anchor" for Judaism. About 20 years after the destruction of the temple in 70 CE, Jewish scholars assembled in Jamnia, a Judean town west of Jerusalem. Their task was to decide which books should form part of the Hebrew Scriptures. The Pentateuch, the first 5 books, formed the core. To this, they added 34 other books. However, they rejected most of the commonly used religious texts which had been written after about 150 BCE. Later, the mainline Christian church made the Jewish Bible part of their own sacred texts. They rearranged the order of the books slightly. |
| The Apocrypha: This consist of many books that were used for spiritual guidance by the Jews. The collection was included in the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures that was in general use during Jesus' lifetime. But some 60 years after Christ's death, they were rejected by Jewish scholars as scripture. The books of the Apocrypha were incorporated into the Roman Catholic Latin Vulgate translation, but were later rejected or demoted to the status of an appendix in most Protestant translations. |
Original Languages of the Hebrew Scriptures and Apocrypha
| Hebrew Scriptures: The text was originally written in Hebrew, except for a few verses which were composed in Aramaic (Ezra 4:8 to 6:18; Ezra 7:12-26; Jeremiah 10:11; Daniel 2:4b to 7:28). While exiled in Babylon, the people of Israel learned to speak Aramaic, a language related to Hebrew. They eventually adopted it as their native tongue. By the time of the birth of Jesus, Hebrew had been abandoned by the Jews except for use in religious services, and in literary and scholarly usage. Many people also spoke Greek. |
| The books of the Apocrypha appear to have been originally written in Hebrew and Aramaic. However, the original texts have not survived. Today, we only have translations in Greek and a few other languages, including Latin. |
Translations of the Hebrew Scriptures and Apocrypha
Relatively few Christians have actually read the Bible in its original form. Essentially all base their Biblical knowledge upon one or more translations of the Bible. There have been dozens of such translations, of varying degree of accuracy:
The traditional belief is that during the 3rd century BCE, 72 translators were locked up in separate rooms on the island of Pharos. Each spent precisely 72 days to translate the Hebrew text into "koine dialektos" a popular version of Greek. When the translations were compared, they were found to be identical. Few people believe this story today. Most theologians believe that the translation was completed in many stages between the 3rd century BCE and 1st century CE. By this time, few Jews were able to read Hebrew. There was concern that they would stray from the faith because they could no longer read the Torah.
The number 72 was rounded off to 70, which in Latin is Septuagint, and in Roman numerals is LXX. This translation has since been referred to both as the Septuagint and as LXX. It was the most commonly used translation among Jews at the time of Christ, and generally used by the writers of the New Testament. LXX contained many translation errors. Because of this, although Jerome (342-420 CE) and two women assistants started to use the Septuagint as a source for the Latin Vulgate, they quickly changed to the Hebrew texts. The Vulgate was used for many centuries by the Roman Catholic Church. (Later writers substituted the phrase "venerable brothers" for his helpers' names in order to suppress the knowledge that Jerome was aided by women.) 3
References
- G.SA. Mather & L.A. Nichols, Dictionary of Cults, Sects, Religions and the Occult, Zondervan, Grand Rapids, MI, (1993), P. 38
- The Revised English Bible, with the Apocrypha, Oxford University Press (1989), P. iii
- E. Boulding, "The Underside of History", Westview Press, Boulder CO, (1976), P. 356 & 372
Copyright © 1996 to 2008 by Ontario Consultants on Religious
Tolerance
Latest update: 2008-MAY-31
Author: B.A. Robinson
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