What is this Course?
This course seeks to walk you through a quick introduction to the Bible and answer some basic questions: How did we get this library of books? What kinds of books are included and how did we get the English translations of them? How has the Bible been read over time?
These questions orient us to the broadest understanding of the Christian scriptures that then allows us to enter into an Overview of the Bible that looks more specifically at highlights of the books of the Bible and the story that these books tell.
You can engage in this course in a number of ways. First, join us on Sunday mornings from 9:30 am in the Library from September 25 - October 9. Second, follow along with the readings and the recordings of the class sessions on your own. Third, follow along with the readings and the recordings of the class sessions with a small group you gather to walk with you. If you are participating remotely, feel free to contact Pastor Brian with any questions you may have by phone or email.
What is the Bible and how did we get this book?
Before the class session- We encourage you to watch What is the Bible and Literary Styles in the Bible from the Bible Project on YouTube. These will set the background for much of what we will discuss.
Before you begin answer this question:
If someone asked you, “What is the Bible, how would you respond?”
Take some time to think about how you would respond and then share that response with a neighbor or two.
What were some of the responses you have?
Have someone write them down for your group and then discuss the different responses.
Conclusion for this session- The Christian Bible is a library of books from different genres. It was written primarily in Hebrew and Greek and each comes out of longer oral traditions. While no complete copies of these texts exists from their earliest versions- we do have strong documentary evidence of the content of the Christian Bible. Stronger than for some of the other famous ancient texts.
What is the Bible? It is first of all a library of books of different genres.
- The Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) was produced over 1,000 years. It can be divided into three sections- Torah, Prophets (Nevi’im), Writings (Ketuvim).
- The New Testament is a composition of new works (written over 50 – 75 years and collected over the following 400 years) that tell of how the story of the Hebrew Bible continues today.
- The youngest writings in the Bible are over 1,700 years old. Many are over 2,000 years old.
What are the Literary Styles of the Bible- The Bible has many different genres of books. The Bible Project names three main ones. They are: Narrative- Poetry- Discourse.
What does this mean for how we read these texts? Well, would you read a fiction novel the same way you would a newspaper? How about a poem? Would you read and understand a political speech the same way you would an historical text?
Knowing what literary style you are reading can help you figure out how to read it.
How did we get this library of books? The short answer is over time.
Hebrew Bible-
The Hebrew Bible developed over several hundred to 1,000 years and wasn’t finalized until 1st century CE (ish). The Torah (1st five books of the Hebrew Bible) may have been assembled as early as post Babylonian Exile (c. 539 BCE). The Prophets were included by the 2nd century BCE. It is after the fall of Jerusalem in 70 CE that you begin to find references to a fixed number of authoritative books. The Hebrew Bible began as an oral tradition and then got written down and collected. The books are written in Hebrew.
The current version we read is based mostly on texts from the 10th and 11th century CE. The Masoretic Text. The first print Hebrew Bibles show up in the 15th century CE. However, there are other ancient collections of these texts that we have found (all in the Common Era) and while there is often much agreement, there are also differences in the texts between these collections. Sometimes we only have fragments of texts. What this means is that there is no clear understanding of exactly what the most authoritative text says down to the jot and tittle.
New Testament-
The earliest text of the New Testament is probably 1 Thessalonians (51 CE), the earliest Gospel is the Gospel of Mark around 70 CE. Luke and Matthew are around 90 CE and John around 100-110 CE. Everything in the New Testament is written somewhere between 51 and 110 CE. It is all written in Koine Greek with some Aramaic thrown in for good measure.
The earliest collection of these texts was by Marcion around 130-140 CE (no extant copy, but we know about it from other writings). The canon as we know it was basically set by 450 CE. The first complete copies of single New Testament books appear around 200 CE, and the earliest complete copy of the New Testament, the Codex Sinaiticus dates to the 4th century CE.
What does this mean for the texts we have today?
None of the original documents of the Bible are known to scholars to be extant and there are some differences in existing manuscripts that we do know about. Textual scholar Bart D. Ehrman writes: "It is true, of course, that the New Testament is abundantly attested in the manuscripts produced through the ages, but most of these manuscripts are many centuries removed from the originals, and none of them perfectly accurate. They all contain mistakes – altogether many thousands of mistakes. It is not an easy task to reconstruct the original words of the New Testament...."[31]
In reference to the textual evidence for the New Testament, Bruce M. Metzger wrote,
“In evaluating the significance of these statistics...one should consider, by way of contrast, the number of manuscripts which preserve the text of the ancient classics. Homer's Iliad...is preserved by 457 papyri, 2 uncial manuscripts, and 188 minuscule manuscripts. Among the tragedians the witnesses to Euripides are the most abundant; his extant works are preserved in 54 papyri and 276 parchment manuscripts, almost all of the later dating from the Byzantine period...the time between the composition of the books of the New Testament and the earliest extant copies is relatively brief. Instead of the lapse of a millennium or more, as is the case of not a few classical authors, several papyrus manuscripts of portions of the New Testament are extant which were copies within a century or so after the composition of the original documents.[32][b] “
Biblical scholar Gary Habermas adds, “What is usually meant is that the New Testament has far more manuscript evidence from a far earlier period than other classical works. There are just under 6000 NT manuscripts, with copies of most of the NT dating from just 100 years or so after its writing. Classical sources almost always have fewer than 20 copies each and usually date from 700-1400 years after the composition of the work. In this regard, the classics are not as well attested. While this doesn't guarantee truthfulness, it means that it is much easier to reconstruct the New Testament text.”
Development of the Canon, Reading Scripture.
Before the class session- We encourage you to watch this short video does a good job describing how both the Hebrew Bible and New Testament were formed.
Before you begin what questions do you have about the Bible?
Write them down or have someone write them down for your group and then discuss the different responses.
The Canon is the name given to the scriptures that make up the Christian Bible. Canon literally means "rule" or "measuring stick". It is what everything else is measured against. Everything in the Canon is scripture (a sacred writing), but not all scripture is Canon (the rule and norm of the faith).
Conclusion for this session- As we read scripture, we do so with a few basic assumptions-
- While Jesus is the Word of God, the Bible contains the Word of God to us as human beings. It is authoritative for our individual and communal life.
- The Bible is a collection of documents written by human authors for specific human communities struggling to understand and express their own identity in relationship with each other and God. They are historically and culturally relative. BUT they also have ongoing meaning. Otherwise we wouldn’t have them.
- Our perspectives as readers is historically and culturally placed. We are limited in our understanding by our distance in time and culture from the original authors. In other words, context matters- A story is told in its original context, but it is interpreted in the hearer’s context. It has meaning for the hearer based on the hearer’s reality.
- No reading has special privilege and does not function in isolation for other people and communities. Reading scripture is a group project.
- The text should both answer and raise questions.
How did some scripture get into the Bible and some didn't?
Ultimately, decisions were made- usually corporate, although not universal. But you can easily say the church made those decisions, but how? What criteria are used for that determination?
The main ones are: Apostolicity, Oral Tradition, Rule of Faith (Creed and Orthodoxy) and Worship practice of the church.
Apostolicity- 1) Was it authored (as best we can tell) by one of the apostles. 2) Does it deriving from the time of or 3) Agree with the apostles. Probably none of the texts were really authored by the apostles (except some of the letter attributed to Paul). So, agreeing with apostle’s doctrine (as preserved in the history of the church) was the big thing. Some of this was determined by how much agreement there was with multiple churches that were of apostolic origin. There is a focus on this “unbroken line” back to the apostles.
Oral Tradition- Do they conform to that which we have received orally- going back to the apostles with Jesus. Is there consistency here with what has come before? This is closely related to the next criteria.
Rule of Faith- Does it match that which is considered orthodox? Within the bounds of what the church as a whole finds acceptable? This can be found expressed in the Creeds and in theology as it gets developed to answer the most important questions of the church.
Consensus among the churches- Which sort of comes out of the previous ones. This is perhaps the most influential criteria. Were they used by the churches within their worship life as well as for teaching? Were these texts found to be useful beyond the occasion of their writing?
How has scripture been read and understood through the ages? Even Jesus in Luke 10 acknowledges that there is some space between what scripture says and what someone understands that to mean. So, how have people of faith read and understood these texts over the centuries?
There have always been boundaries for interpretation. Irenaeus in 150 CE said if it contradicts the Apostles’ Creed don’t go there. Augustine (354-420) said if it doesn’t bring forth love of God or neighbor something is wrong.
The Rev. Dr. Ritva Williams- The Bible’s Importance for Today does a survey of how our scriptures have been read over time.
Hebrew Bible-
It is Social Memory- The text is not meant to be history as we understand it in the 21st Century, but to provoke theological and ethical discussion on a number of issues. It orients us to the past and frames how we understand ourselves and our present.
It is a Living Document- The text is an ongoing conversation with God where the Israelites would go back and add their insights from today into what they discovered in conversation with the text.
In general, Jewish interpretation assumes 4 things:
- The texts are cryptic- so you need to go beyond a superficial reading. They can be difficult to understand.
- The texts have eternally relevant instruction- They tell us now and always how to live in right relationship with God and the world. The task is to discern how the past info connects with today.
- The texts are wholly significant- They contain nothing that is unintended, accidental, or superfluous. The problem texts are mysteries to be explored.
- The texts are divinely given and oriented. God speaks through these texts. So, study of these texts was a way of fostering relationship with God.
New Testament-
It is Social Memory- Again, arising from an oral tradition. Again, not meant to tell us precisely what was said and done. For example, the Last Supper as recorded is not meant to give us a newspaper account of what happened. But rather to point to the centrality of the Lord’s Supper and the range of theological meaning attached to that by the early church.
Typology- Early Christians through the late Middle Ages (1500’s) said- the Hebrew Bible foreshadowed Jesus. He is the promised Messiah. So, they read ancient persons and events as type patterns or models for persons or events in their present. For example- Jonah and the big fish is Jesus in the tomb. Both in there for three days. In this way, one could see events of one’s own time and contexts as types in the Scriptures. One looked for analogies between then and now.
Allegorical- This way of reading comes from the Greco-Roman world. It takes concrete details of the text (people, places, events) and explains them as abstract ideas, virtues, doctrines, etc. Paul in Galatians saying the sons of Hagar and Sarah are representative of the two rivals for the allegiance of the Galatians. It assumes that the Bible has levels of meaning and tends to focus on the spiritual one.
Literal/Plain Sense- For Aquinas this was to be the straightforward historical meaning. This is what Luther refers to as the “plain meaning” of the text. It is always the first way to understand the text. This is not to imply that every passage of Scripture should be interpreted literally, but rather the plain meaning be accepted as truth. For instance, when Jesus said the Christians are the light of the world, we don’t believe we are literally a 100-watt light bulb.
What are modern changes to how we read scripture? As we have learned more about the original languages and history we have begun to discern a difference between the author's historically intended meaning and other ways of reading. There are a number of ways of reading- lenses that we look through to see the text in new ways- that have developed. Some include...
Literary Criticism- Endeavours to establish the literary genres (types or categories) of the various biblical documents and to reach conclusions about their structure, date, and authorship. Using techniques from secular studies it looks at the Bible as it would any other text.
Sociological- a way of reading which attempts to explore the original social and cultural setting of a text through clues in the text’s content and rhetoric and through the analysis of other ancient evidence. The reader assumes that the world in which these texts were written is very different from our contemporary world; therefore, a modern reader cannot simply make claims about the text’s meaning without first understanding the social conventions and assumptions of the author’s world.
Historical-critical- Related to Sociological it is an attempt at reading scripture that tries to get us out of our own doctrinal and cultural context. One thing it does is look at each text and read it as a unique text, not across texts.
Translations and reading the Bible!
Before Class- Watch these short videos from the Bible Project to lean some more about choosing a Bible Translation and the History of Bible Translations.
Take a look at the Bible you have with you. What version do you have? (NIV, NRSV, CEV). What does that tell us about what we are reading?
Do you have a favorite translation of the Bible? If so, what is it? Talk with those who are with you about your favorite translation.
Conclusion for this class- You want a bible translation that is both accurate and readable. When you find one, stick with it! However, it is worth reading difficult of important texts using different versions. These can give you a better sense of what the original language might be saying.
An easy way to do this is use the parallel translations function on biblegateway.com. You can also relatively easily get back to the original language using something like biblehub.com.
However you do it, read the Bible! It is God’s Word spoken to us and is the “rule and norm” of our faith. It is worth knowing intimately.
Why do we have all these Bible translations?
The original languages of the Bible are Hebrew (for the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament) and Greek for the New Testament. As anyone who understands a foreign language knows, there is very little that can be directly translated into English. There will always be nuances to a word or colloquial phrases that just don’t translate well literally into English.
This means that any time you translate the scriptures into English, the translator(s) are making decisions about what some things mean. The variety of English translations arises from these differences in understanding how to translate some words or phrases.
Word-for-Word or Thought-for Thought?
In general, translators take one of two approaches. They try and translate the text word-for-word. As noted above this is next to impossible due to differences in the language and even in things like word order. At its most strict interpretation, what you tend to get is something that is very difficult to read in English. A direct translation of John 1:1 might read “In beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and God was the Word.”
A thought-for-thought translation is less concerned with exact wording and more focused on conveying the meaning of the text. At its most strict interpretation the text is really more of a commentary than it is a translation into English. The Message is a paraphrase- the most extreme form of thought-for-thought. This translation of John 1:1reads, “ The Word was first, the Word present to God, God present to the Word.”
Most translations have one of these types as their guiding principle but fall somewhere in between them. The New International Version (NIV) and New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) tend to be in the middle of that spectrum with NIV being a bit more Thought-for-Thought and NRSV being a bit more Word-for-Word.