Bible
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===New Testament=== | ===New Testament=== | ||
| − | The New Testament starts with the four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke (collectively referred to as synoptic gospels) and John, which tell the story of Jesus' time on earth, his crucifixion and return to life, his alleged miracles, and his philosophy and teachings. It then contains many letters to the nascent churches, mostly, written by Saul of Tarsus after his conversion and taking the name of Paul. These are collectively known as the "epistles". The New Testament wraps up with the book of Revelations, a story about | + | The New Testament starts with the four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke (collectively referred to as synoptic gospels) and John, which tell the story of Jesus' time on earth, his crucifixion and return to life, his alleged miracles, and his philosophy and teachings. It then contains many letters to the nascent churches, mostly, written by Saul of Tarsus after his conversion and taking the name of Paul. These are collectively known as the "epistles". The New Testament wraps up with the book of Revelations, a story thought by some to be about the end of the world, or at least the Roman Empire. |
| − | The New Testament is written almost exclusively in [[wp:Koine Greek]], the form of Attic Greek that was the lingua franca of most of the Mediterranean basin under the early Roman Empire. | + | The New Testament is written almost exclusively in [[wp:Koine Greek|koine]], the form of Attic Greek that was the lingua franca of most of the Mediterranean basin under the early Roman Empire. |
| + | |||
| + | ====The Gospels==== | ||
| + | |||
| + | The Gospels are essentially biographies of Jesus. While none of the four agree in every detail, there are enough similarities between the first three (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) to identify them as having come from a common tradition; as a result, they are known as the '''synoptic gospels'''. Essentially, Mark is thought to have been the first written, with Matthew and Luke both drawing in different ways on both Mark and a hypothetical sayings collection called Q (from the German ''quelle'', meaning "source"). As a general rule, Matthew is generally understood to be the most Jewish of the three, while Luke is thought of as a gospel for Gentiles. | ||
| + | |||
| + | The gospel of John is somewhat more problematic, as it presents a much more spiritual view of Jesus and his ministry, as well as several threads of intrigue in the highest levels of the Jewish religious authorities. John is thought to have been written later, sometime in the early 2nd century, in a community with [[Gnostic]] leanings. | ||
| + | |||
| + | The author of the gospel of Luke is also likely responsible for a second collection called the Acts of the Apostles, a history of the early church, first under the original Apostles, then under the guidance of Paul of Tarsus. There are many other gospels, many wildly divergent from the four accepted in the Bible; of the many found, the one considered by Biblical scholars to be most authentic is the [[wp:Gospel of Thomas|gospel of Thomas]], a very early sayings collection similar to the hypothetical Q gospel but with a decidedly Gnostic slant. | ||
| + | |||
| + | ====The book of Revelation==== | ||
| + | |||
| + | A significant ongoing theological dispute revolves around the definition of "we" in the previous sentence; Catholics and some mainline Protestants maintain that the book was about the fall of the Roman Empire, while most conservative Protestants believe it refers to the end of the world as a whole. The canonicity of Revelation has been questioned by many for centuries, with many theologians considering it doctrinally unsound or complete gibberish. | ||
| + | |||
| + | Due to the now-almost-two-millennia delay in the return of Jesus for the final judgement, the Book of Revelation has become a dominant part of much evangelical/fundamentalist theology. | ||
See [[Authorship of the New Testament]]. | See [[Authorship of the New Testament]]. | ||
Revision as of 06:08, 5 September 2007
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The Bible is a book (or, more accurately, collection of books) held by Christians to be holy and the revealed word of God. Depending on what sort of Christian you speak to, the Bible is either a collection of parables, metaphors, and moral imperatives, or a literal reading of the history of the world and of all knowledge to be had therein. It includes a large number of myths which are interpreted either literally or allegorically largely depending on the reader's level of education.
While the Bible — and other works such as the Qur'an and the Egyptian Book of the Dead — may have some merit as literature, their moral authority is negligible to non-Christians, when unsupported by other ethical theories.
Contents |
Basic structure
The modern Bible is first divided into two main sections: The Old Testament, and the New Testament. Each of these consists of many indiviual "books", which are then marked into chapters and verses for easy reference.
Old Testament
The Old Testament (known in Jewish tradition as the Tanakh), which was all written prior to the time of Jesus Christ, are basically the Jewish holy books, starting with the Pentateuch, or Mosaic books. They tell a story of the creation of the universe, our planet, and life on it; contain many laws both religious and secular in nature; and have many books of prophecy. It exists in several different canons.
The Old Testament can roughly be divided up into three sections, although textual analysis appears to show that editors have moved across sections:
Pentateuch
The Pentateuch, literally 'Πεντετεύχως', or 'five rolls', contains the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. While many fundamentalists claim that the Bible is the direct word of God (a pretty-much necessary claim, with their wish to return ad fontes), the 'Documentary Hypothesis' of Julius Wellhausen identifies four main separate authors (J or "Yahwist", E or "Elohist", P or "Priestly", D or "Deuteronomical"), who each edited one anothers' work.
Nevi'im (prophets)
- See:Isaiah
The Prophets are the attributed authors of a series of books that claim to foretell the future of the Israelite and Judahite nations. The actual contents of the books vary widely from first-person accounts (Isaiah, Jeremiah) to allegorical tales (Ezekiel, Hosea) to apocalyptic writings (Daniel) to novellas (Jonah), and while it is generally agreed by those of Abrahamic faiths that these record then-future events and judgements meted out by YHWH, exactly which events are widely disagreed upon between Jews and Christians. For the most part, most Christian thought holds that messianic prophecies in the Nevi'im are direct references to Jesus, while Jews hold that they refer to a messiah who has not yet arrived.
Prophets such as Samuel, Elijah, and Elisha have no writings attributed to them, and theeir stories are largely covered in the Ketuvim.
Ketuvim (writings)
The Writings are those books in the Old Testament which are not part of either the Torah or the Prophesies. They are the most diverse group of texts in the Tanakh, including chronicles such as the Books of Judges and Kings, poetic writings such as the Song of Solomon and the Psalms, or apocalyptic literature such as the Book of Daniel.
In some Christian canons, the Ketuvim are further divided into historical books (Joshua, Judges, Kings, Chronicles-Ezra-Nehemiah) and wisdom books (Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon). The books of Esther and Job, much like the book of Jonah, generally take the form of novellas, and Job in particular is considered historical fiction (based on an old Middle Eastern legend) by all but the most literalist Bible experts.
Apocrypha
A subject of many canonical debates over the years, the Apocrypha, broadly, are books in the Old Testament that were not written in Hebrew and are not universally considered inspired Scripture. Significant books known in the West (i.e. those considered canonical by the Roman Catholic Church) include additions to Esther and Daniel, as well as the Wisdom of Sirach, the book of Tobit, and the books of Maccabees (the post-exile history of Judaism leading into the Hellenistic period, including the story of Hanukkah); others still are part of the canon of many Eastern churches, including the Eastern Orthodox communion and the east African churches such as the Coptic and Ethiopian Orthodox churches.
Though not part of most Protestant canons, the King James Bible included the Catholic apocrypha in its original editions as supplemental material, not considered canon by the Church of England.
New Testament
The New Testament starts with the four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke (collectively referred to as synoptic gospels) and John, which tell the story of Jesus' time on earth, his crucifixion and return to life, his alleged miracles, and his philosophy and teachings. It then contains many letters to the nascent churches, mostly, written by Saul of Tarsus after his conversion and taking the name of Paul. These are collectively known as the "epistles". The New Testament wraps up with the book of Revelations, a story thought by some to be about the end of the world, or at least the Roman Empire.
The New Testament is written almost exclusively in koine, the form of Attic Greek that was the lingua franca of most of the Mediterranean basin under the early Roman Empire.
The Gospels
The Gospels are essentially biographies of Jesus. While none of the four agree in every detail, there are enough similarities between the first three (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) to identify them as having come from a common tradition; as a result, they are known as the synoptic gospels. Essentially, Mark is thought to have been the first written, with Matthew and Luke both drawing in different ways on both Mark and a hypothetical sayings collection called Q (from the German quelle, meaning "source"). As a general rule, Matthew is generally understood to be the most Jewish of the three, while Luke is thought of as a gospel for Gentiles.
The gospel of John is somewhat more problematic, as it presents a much more spiritual view of Jesus and his ministry, as well as several threads of intrigue in the highest levels of the Jewish religious authorities. John is thought to have been written later, sometime in the early 2nd century, in a community with Gnostic leanings.
The author of the gospel of Luke is also likely responsible for a second collection called the Acts of the Apostles, a history of the early church, first under the original Apostles, then under the guidance of Paul of Tarsus. There are many other gospels, many wildly divergent from the four accepted in the Bible; of the many found, the one considered by Biblical scholars to be most authentic is the gospel of Thomas, a very early sayings collection similar to the hypothetical Q gospel but with a decidedly Gnostic slant.
The book of Revelation
A significant ongoing theological dispute revolves around the definition of "we" in the previous sentence; Catholics and some mainline Protestants maintain that the book was about the fall of the Roman Empire, while most conservative Protestants believe it refers to the end of the world as a whole. The canonicity of Revelation has been questioned by many for centuries, with many theologians considering it doctrinally unsound or complete gibberish.
Due to the now-almost-two-millennia delay in the return of Jesus for the final judgement, the Book of Revelation has become a dominant part of much evangelical/fundamentalist theology.
See Authorship of the New Testament.
The Issue of "Canon"
There are many books that one way or another could be considered to be part of "The Bible", however, various denominations (sects, to unbelievers) pick and choose which ones they consider to be canonical, in other words, to be part of what they call the Bible. At the extreme, some only consider the New Testament (and their chosen books for it) to be canonical.
Translations
The original works that form the Bible were all written in ancient Hebrew or Greek, and have been translated many times into and between many languages. The most famous of these is the King James Version, which was commissioned by King James I of England in 1604, and was finally published in 1611. It is considered by many to be one of the most significant works ever written in the English language, not just for content but for beauty and style, and many fundamentalist Christians accept the KJV and only the KJV (sometimes even to the exclusion of the original Greek and Hebrew texts) as the inspired word of God in English. Other popular translations include:
- The New International Version (used widely by many Protestant denominations)
- The New American Bible (the standard translation of the American Catholic church)
- The New Revised Standard Version (used by numerous denominations in English-speaking countries, including some Jewish and Canadian Catholic congregations)
- The New English Translation (the "NET Bible") (A freely available, wholly-online translation)
- The Reina-Valera translation into Spanish (the most widely available Protestant translation for Spanish speakers).
Supremacy of the Bible in Christian thought
While it is acceptable to question God or His motives, questioning the Bible is frowned upon. The Protestant dogma of sola scriptura holds that everything necessary for Salvation is contained in the Bible; the Bible is venerated, not only for its history and the major themes of Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour, but in its own right as "The Word of God". The Bible has become an idol for some in modern Christianity.
Except in that bastion of free thought and skepticism, Conservapedia, where they've discovered that some parts of the Bible are, in fact Liberal Forgeries.
See also
- Actions which demand the death penalty in the Old Testament
- Biblical Sexism
- Ecclesiastes
- Examples of God personally killing people
- Exegesis
- Failed biblical prophecies
- First Great Awakening
- Global flood chronology
- Goliath
- Insects during the global flood
- Judeo-Christian
- Numeric biblical contradictions
- Reparative Therapy of Fundamentalism
- Slavery in the Bible
- Bible version userboxen