Encyclopedia
The
Bible , is the name used by
Jews and
Christians for their differing canons of
sacred texts.
Roman Catholics,
Eastern Orthodox and some others include books which Protestants do not; Judaism accepts the
Tanakh but not the New Testament;
Muslims may accept certain books concerning the prophets. Many people who identify themselves as Christians,
Muslims, or
Jews regard the Bible as inspired by
God yet written by a variety of imperfect men over thousands of years.
More than 14,000 manuscripts and fragments of the
Hebrew Tanakh and exist, as do numerous copies of the Greek
Septuagint, and 5,300 manuscripts of the Greek New Testament, more than any other work of antiquity.
Distribution
The Bible is the most widely distributed book in the world. "The Bible" is noted as the Christian version; however, both
Hebrew Scripture and the Christian Bible have been translated more times and into more languages — more than 2,100 languages in all — than any other book. It is said that more than six billion copies of the Bible have been sold since 1815, making it the best-selling book of all-time.
Because of Christian influence within the late Roman era to the
Age of Enlightenment, the Bible has influenced not only religion but language, law and the natural philosophy of mainstream Near Eastern,
Western, Indian, and North African Civilizations. The further spread of Christianity expanded Biblical influence to South and North American, African, and Asian cultures.
The Hebrew Bible
The Hebrew Bible consists of 39 books. Tanakh is an acronym for the three parts of the Hebrew Bible: the
Torah , Nevi'im , and Ketuvim .
Torah
The
Torah, or "Teaching," is also known as the five books of
Moses, thus
Chumash or Pentateuch .
The Pentateuch is composed of the following five books:
- I Genesis ,
- II Exodus ,
- III Leviticus ,
- IV Numbers , and
- V Deuteronomy
The Hebrew book titles come from the first words in the respective texts. The Hebrew title for Numbers, however, comes from the fifth word of that text.
The Torah focuses on three moments in the changing relationship between God and people.
- The first eleven chapters of Genesis provide accounts of the creation of the world, and the history of God's early relationship with humanity.
- The remaining thirty-nine chapters of Genesis provide an account of God's covenant with the Hebrew patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob , and Jacob's children , especially Joseph. It tells of how God commanded Abraham to leave his family and home in the city of Ur, eventually to settle in the land of Canaan
Canaan is an ancient term for a region approximating present-day Israel [i] and Palestine [i] p...
, and how the Children of Israel later moved to Egypt.
- The remaining four books of the Torah tell the story of Moses, who lived hundreds of years after the patriarchs. His story coincides with the story of the liberation of the Children of Israel from slavery in Egypt, to the renewal of their covenant with God at Mount Sinai, and their wanderings in the desert until a new generation would be ready to enter the land of Canaan. The Torah ends with the death of Moses.
Traditionally, the Torah contains 613 mitzvot, or commandments, of God, revealed during the passage from slavery in the land of Egypt to freedom in the land of Canaan. These commandments provide the basis for Halakha .
The Torah is divided into fifty-four portions which are read in turn in Jewish liturgy, from the beginning of Genesis to the end of Deuteronomy, each
Sabbath. The cycle ends and recommences at the end of
Sukkot, which is called Simchat Torah.
The two Torahs
By the Hellenistic period of Jewish history, Jews were divided over the nature of the Torah. Some believed that the Chumash contained the entire Torah, that is, the entire contents of what God revealed to Moses at Sinai and in the desert. Others, principally the Pharisees, believed that the Chumash represented only that portion of the revelation that had been written down , but that the rest of God's revelation had been passed down orally . Orthodox and
Masorti and Conservative Judaism state that the
Talmud contains some of the Oral Torah.
Reform Judaism also gives credence to the Talmud containing the Oral Torah, but, as with the written Torah, asserts that both were inspired by, but not dictated by, God.
The four sources
The
documentary hypothesis posits that the Written Torah has its origins in sources who lived during the time of the monarchy or later, labeled J , E , D , and P . These in turn may go back to oral traditions and/or draw on earlier
ancient Near Eastern mythology. Julius Wellhausen, who in the late
19th century gave this hypothesis a definitive formulation, suggested that these sources were edited together or redacted during the time of Ezra, perhaps by Ezra himself. Since that time Wellhausen's theory has been widely debated by critical scholars . The general opposition to JEDP is as follows: There is no existing proof for a redactor ever having lived. Also, the division of what text fits into any particular division of JEDP is purely arbitrary and based mostly on the particular scholar's speculation.
Scholars who accept the documentary hypothesis differ as to whether these sources were or were not divinely inspired, and also differ over the nature and extent of their obligation to the 613 commandments and to the body of law represented in the Oral Torah. Nonetheless, each branch of Judaism recognizes both the Written and Oral Torahs as central to Jewish tradition, whether it be conceived of as sacred, national, or cultural.
Nevi'im
The Nevi'im, or "Prophets," tells the story of the rise of the Hebrew monarchy, its division into two kingdoms, and the prophets who, in God's name, judged the kings and the Children of Israel. It ends with the conquest of the Kingdom of Israel by the Assyrians and the conquest of the Kingdom of Judah by the Babylonians, and the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem. Portions of the prophetic books are read by Jews on the Sabbath . The
Book of Jonah is read on Yom Kippur.
According to Jewish tradition, Nevi'im is divided into eight books. Contemporary translations subdivide these into seventeen books.
The eight books are:
- I. Joshua or Yehoshua [?????]
- II. Judges or Shoftim [??????]
- III. Samuel or Shmu'el [?????]
- IV. Kings or Melakhim [?????]
- V. Isaiah or Yeshayahu [??????]
- VI. Jeremiah or Yirmiyahu [??????]
- VII. Ezekiel or Yehezq'el [??????]
- VIII. Trei Asar ??? ???
- Hosea or Hoshea [????]
- Joel or Yo'el [????]
- Amos [????]
- Obadiah or Ovadyah [?????]
- Jonah or Yonah [????]
- Micah or Mikhah [????]
- Nahum or Nachum [????]
- Habakkuk or Habaquq [?????]
- Zephaniah or Tsefania [?????]
- Haggai [???]
- Zechariah or Zekharia [?????]
- Malachi or Malakhi [?????]
Ketuvim
The Ketuvim, or "Writings," may have been written during or after the Babylonian Exile but no one can be sure. According to Rabbinic tradition, many of the psalms in the book of Psalms are attributed to
David;
King Solomon is believed to have written Song of Songs in his youth, Proverbs at the prime of his life, and Ecclesiastes at old age; and the prophet
Jeremiah is thought to have written Lamentations. The
Book of Job is the only biblical book that centers entirely on a non-Jew. The book of Ruth tells the story of a non-Jew who married a Jew and, upon his death, followed in the ways of the Jews; according to the Bible, she was the great-grandmother of
King David. Five of the books, called "The Five Scrolls" , are read on Jewish holidays: Song of Songs on
Passover; the
Book of Ruth on
Shavuot; Lamentations on the Ninth of Av; Ecclesiastes on
Sukkot; and the
Book of Esther on
Purim. Collectively, the Ketuvim contain lyrical poetry, philosophical reflections on life, and the stories of the prophets and other Jewish leaders during the Babylonian exile. It ends with the Persian decree allowing Jews to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the Temple.
Ketuvim contains eleven books:
- I. Tehillim ?????
- II. Mishlei ????
- III. 'Iyyov ????
- IV. Shir ha-Shirim ??? ??????
- V. Ruth ???
- VI. Eikhah ???? [Also called Kinnot in Hebrew.]
- VII. Kohelet ????
- VIII. Esther ????
- IX. Daniel ?????
- X. Ezra * XI. Divrei ha-Yamim ????
?????
Translations and editions
The Tanakh was mainly written in Biblical Hebrew, with some portions in
Aramaic.
Some time in the 2nd or 3rd century BC, the Torah was translated into Koine Greek, and over the next century, other books were translated as well. This translation became known as the
Septuagint and was widely used by Greek-speaking Jews, and later by Christians. It differs somewhat from the later standardized Hebrew . This translation was promoted by way of a legend that seventy separate translators all produced identical texts, indicating that the translation was divinely inspired.
From the 800s to the 1400s, Jewish scholars today known as Karaites Masoretes compared the text of all known Biblical manuscripts in an effort to create a unified, standardized text. A series of highly similar texts eventually emerged, and any of these texts are known as Masoretic Texts . The Masoretes also added
vowel points to the text, since the original text only contained letters. This sometimes required the selection of an interpretation, since some words differ only in their vowels— their meaning can vary in accordance with the vowels chosen. In antiquity, variant Hebrew readings existed, some of which have survived in the
Samaritan Pentateuch, the
Dead Sea scrolls, and other ancient fragments, as well as being attested in ancient versions in other languages.
Versions of the Septuagint contain several passages and whole books beyond what was included in the Masoretic texts of the
Tanakh. In some cases these additions were originally composed in Greek, while in other cases they are translations of Hebrew books or variants not present in the Masoretic texts. Recent discoveries have shown that more of the Septuagint additions have a Hebrew origin than was once thought. While there are no complete surviving manuscripts of the Hebrew texts on which the Septuagint was based, many scholars believe that they represent a different textual tradition from the one that became the basis for the Masoretic texts.
Jews also produced non-literal translations or paraphrases known as
targums, primarily in Aramaic. They frequently expanded on the text with additional details taken from Rabbinic oral tradition.
The Christian Bible
The Bible as used by the majority of Christians includes the Hebrew Scripture and the Deuterocanonical books ; and the
New Testament, which relates the life and teachings of
Jesus, the letters of St Paul and other disciples to the early church and the book of Revelation. The Deuterocanonical books are not used by most Protestants.
Theology
While individual books within the Christian Bible present narratives set in certain historical periods, most
Christian denominations teach that the Bible itself has an overarching message.
There are among Christians wide differences of opinion as to how particular incidents as described in the Bible are to be interpreted and as to what meaning should be attached to various prophecies. However, Christians in general are in agreement as to the Bible's basic message. A general outline, as described by
C.S. Lewis, is as follows:
- At some point in the past, mankind learned to depart from God's will and began to sin.
- Because no one is free from sin, humanity cannot deal with God directly, so God revealed Himself in ways people could understand.
- God called Abraham and his progeny to be the means for saving all of mankind.
- To this end, He gave the Law to Moses.
- The resulting nation of Israel went through cycles of sin and repentance, yet the prophets show an increasing understanding of the Law as a moral, not just a ceremonial, force.
- Jesus brought a perfect understanding of the Mosaic Law, that of love and salvation.
- By His death and resurrection, all who believe are saved and reconciled to God.
Many people who identify themselves as Christians,
Muslims, or
Jews regard the Bible as inspired by
God yet written by a variety of imperfect men over thousands of years. Belief in sacred texts is attested to in Jewish antiquity, and this belief can also be seen in the earliest of Christian writings. Various texts of the Bible mention Divine agency in relation to prophetic writings, the most explicit being:
2 Timothy 3:16: "All scripture, inspired of God, is profitable to teach, to reprove, to correct, to instruct in justice." However, the Bible neither gives a list of which texts are inspired and their exact contents, nor a precise theological definition of what inspiration entails. In their book
A General Introduction to the Bible, Norman Geisler and William Nix wrote: "The process of inspiration is a mystery of the providence of God, but the result of this process is a verbal, plenary, inerrant, and authoritative record."
Some Biblical scholars, particularly Evangelicals, associate inspiration with only the original text; for example the 1978 Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy which asserted that inspiration applied only to the
autographic text of Scripture.
The Old Testament
The
Septuagint was generally abandoned in favor of the
Masoretic text as the basis for translations of the Old Testament into
Western languages from
Saint Jerome's Vulgate to the present day. In
Eastern Christianity, translations based on the Septuagint still prevail. Some modern Western translations make use of the Septuagint to clarify passages in the Masoretic text that seem to have suffered corruption in transcription. They also sometimes adopt variants that appear in texts discovered among the
Dead Sea Scrolls.
A number of deuterocanonical books which are part of the Greek Septuagint but are not found in the Hebrew Bible are often referred to as the Apocrypha. Most modern Protestant traditions do not accept the Apocrypha as canonical, although Protestant Bibles included them until around the 1820s. However, most other Christians include the Apocrypha as part of the Old Testament. The Roman Catholic Church recognizes seven such books , as well as some passages in
Esther and Daniel. Various Orthodox Churches include a few others, typically 3 Maccabees, Psalm 151, 1 Esdras, Odes, Psalms of Solomon, and occasionally 4 Maccabees.
The New Testament
The
New Testament is a Christian collection of 27 books with
Jesus as its central figure, written primarily in Koine Greek in the early Christian period. Nearly all Christians recognize the New Testament as canonical
scripture. These books can be grouped into:
- Acts of the Apostles
- Pauline Epistles
- Epistle to the Romans
- First Epistle to the Corinthians
- Second Epistle to the Corinthians
- Epistle to the Galatians
- Epistle to the Philippians
- Epistle to Philemon
- First Epistle to the Thessalonians
- Second Epistle to the Thessalonians
- Epistle to the Ephesians
- Epistle to the Colossians
| Pastoral Epistles- First Epistle to Timothy
- Second Epistle to Timothy
- Epistle to Titus
Epistle to the HebrewsGeneral Epistles- Epistle of James
- First Epistle of Peter
- Second Epistle of Peter
- First Epistle of John
- Second Epistle of John
- Third Epistle of John
- Epistle of Jude
Revelation |
Original language
The
New Testament was probably completely composed in Greek, the language of the earliest manuscripts. Some scholars believe that parts of the Greek New Testament are actually a translation of an Aramaic original. Of these, a small number accept the Syriac Peshitta as representative of the original. See further
Aramaic primacy.
Historic editions
Concerning ancient manuscripts, the three main textual traditions are sometimes called the Western text-type, the Alexandrian text-type, and Byzantine text-type. Together they compose the majority of New Testament manuscripts. There are also several ancient versions in other languages, most important of which are the
Syriac ,
Ge'ez and the
Latin .
The earliest surviving complete manuscript of the entire Bible is the
Codex Amiatinus, a Latin Vulgate edition produced in eighth century England at the double monastery of Wearmouth-Jarrow.
The earliest printed edition of the New Testament in Greek appeared in 1516 from the Froben press. It was compiled by
Desiderius Erasmus on the basis of the few recent Greek manuscripts, all of
Byzantine tradition, at his disposal, which he completed by translating from the Vulgate parts for which he did not have a Greek text. He produced four later editions of the text.
Erasmus was a Roman Catholic, but his preference for the textual tradition represented in Byzantine Greek text of the time rather than that in the Latin Vulgate led to him being viewed with suspicion by some authorities of his church.
The first edition with critical apparatus was produced by the printer
Robert Estienne of Paris in 1550. The type of text printed in this edition and in those of Erasmus became known as the
Textus Receptus , a name given to it in the
Elzevier edition of 1633, which termed it the text
nunc ab omnibus receptum . Upon it, the churches of the
Protestant Reformation based their translations into vernacular languages, such as the
King James Version.
The discovery of older manuscripts, such as the
Codex Sinaiticus and the
Codex Vaticanus, led scholars to revise their opinion of this text.
Karl Lachmann’s critical edition of 1831, based on manuscripts dating from the fourth century and earlier, was intended primarily to demonstrate that the Textus Receptus must finally be corrected by the earlier texts. Later critical texts are based on further scholarly research and the finding of papyrus fragments, which date in some cases from within a few decades of the composition of the New Testament writings. It is on the basis of these that nearly all modern translations or revisions of older translations have been made, though some still prefer the Textus Receptus or the similar "Byzantine Majority Text".
The canonization of the Bible
The Old Testament canon entered into Christian use in the Greek Septuagint translation, and its list of texts. The Jewish canon itself, it has been theorized, was yet to reach definitive form, as it was still being discussed between 200 BC and AD 100. It is unclear at what point during this period the Jewish canon was decided, though the Jewish canon which did eventually form excluded some books found in the Septuagint. This occurred independently from Christianity, which continued to employ the Septuagint canon.
In addition to the Septuagint, Christianity subsequently added various writings that would become the New Testament. Somewhat different lists of accepted works continued to develop in antiquity. In the fourth century a series of synods produced a list of texts equal to the 27-book canon of the New Testament that would be subsequently used to today. Also
c. 400, Jerome produced a definitive Latin edition of the Bible , the canon of which, at the insistence of the Pope, was in accord with the earlier Synods. With the benefit of hindsight it can be said that this process effectively set the New Testament canon, although there are examples of other canonical lists in use after this time. A definitive list did not come from an Ecumenical Council until the
Council of Trent .
During the
Protestant Reformation, certain reformers proposed different canonical lists than what was currently in use. Though not without debate, the list of New Testament books would come to remain the same; however, the Old Testament texts present in the Septuagint, but not included in the Jewish canon, fell out of favour. In time they would come to be removed from most Protestant canons. Hence, in a Catholic context these texts are referred to as deuterocanonical books, whereas in a Protestant context they are referred to as Apocrypha, the label applied to all texts excluded from the Biblical canon. .
Thus, the Protestant Old Testament of today has a 39-book canon—the number varies from that of the books in the Tanakh because of a different method of division—while the Roman Catholic Church recognizes 46 books as part of the canonical Old Testament. The term “Hebrew Scriptures” is only synonymous with the Protestant Old Testament, not the Catholic, which contains the Hebrew Scriptures and additional texts. Both Catholics and Protestants have the same 27-book New Testament Canon.
Canonicity, which involves the discernment of which texts are divinely inspired, is distinct from questions of human authorship and the formation of the books of the Bible.
Bible versions and translations
In scholarly writing, ancient translations are frequently referred to as "versions", with the term "translation" being reserved for medieval or modern translations. Bible versions are discussed below, while Bible translations can be found on a separate page.
The original texts of the Tanakh were in Hebrew, although some portions were in Aramaic. In addition to the authoritative Masoretic Text, Jews still refer to the Septuagint, the translation of the Hebrew Bible into Greek, and the
Targum Onkelos, an Aramaic version of the Bible.
The primary Biblical text for early Christians was the
Septuagint or . In addition they translated the Hebrew Bible into several other languages. Translations were made into Syriac,
Coptic,
Ge'ez and Latin, among other languages. The Latin translations were historically the most important for the Church in the West, while the Greek-speaking East continued to use the Septuagint translation of the Old Testament and had no need to translate the New Testament.
The earliest Latin translation was the Old Latin text, or Vetus Latina, which, from internal evidence, seems to have been made by several authors over a period of time. It was based on the Septuagint, and thus included books not in the Hebrew Bible.
Pope Damasus I assembled the first list of books of the Bible at the Council of Rome in 382 A.D. He commissioned Saint
Jerome to produce a reliable and consistent text by translating the original Greek and Hebrew texts into Latin. This translation became known as the
Latin Vulgate Bible and was declared by the Church to be the only authentic and official Bible.
Bible translations for many languages have been made through the various influences of Catholicism, Orthodox, Protestant, etc especially since the
Protestant Reformation. The Bible has seen a notably large number of English language translations.
The work of Bible translation continues, including by Christian organisations such as Wycliffe Bible Translators , New Tribes Missions and the Bible Societies . Of the world's 6,900
languages, 2,400 have some or all of the Bible, 1,600 have translation underway, and some 2,500 are judged as needing translation to begin .
Differences in Bible Translations
- See also: .
As Hebrew and Greek, the original languages of the Bible, have idioms and concepts not easily translated, there is an on going critical tension about whether it is better to give a word for word translation or to give a translation that gives a parallel idiom in the target language. For instance in the English language Protestant translations of the Christian Bible, translations like the New Revised Standard Version and the New American Standard Version are seen as more "word for word" translations, whereas translations like the New International Version and
New Living Version attempt to give relevant parallel idioms. The Living Bible and The Message are two paraphrases of the Bible that try to convey the original meaning in contemporary language. The further away one gets from word to word translation, the text becomes more readable while relying more on the theological understanding of the translator.
Inclusive Language
Further, both Hebrew and Greek, like some of the Latin-origin languages, use the male gender of nouns and pronouns to refer to groups that contain both sexes. This creates some difficulty in determining whether a noun should be translated using terms that refer to men only, or men and women inclusively. Some translations avoid the issue by directly translating the word using male only terminology, whereas others try to use inclusive language where the translators believe it to be appropriate. One translation that attempts to use inclusive language is the
New Revised Standard Version and the latest edition of the New International Version.
The introduction of chapters and verses
- Main article: Chapters and verses of the Bible; see Tanakh for the Jewish textual tradition.
The
Hebrew Masoretic text contains verse endings as an important feature. According to the
Talmudic tradition, the verse endings are of ancient origin. The Masoretic textual tradition also contains section endings called
parashiyot, which are indicated by a space within a line or a new line beginning . The division of the text reflected in the
parashiyot is usually thematic. The
parashiyot are not numbered.
In early manuscripts an "open" section may also be represented by a blank line, and a "closed" section by a new line that is slightly indented . These latter conventions are no longer used in Torah scrolls and printed
Hebrew Bibles. In this system the one rule differentiating "open" and "closed" sections is that "open" sections must
always begin at the beginning of a new line, while "closed" sections
never start at the beginning of a new line.
Another related feature of the Masoretic text is the division of the
sedarim. This division is not thematic, but is almost entirely based upon the
quantity of text.
The Byzantines also introduced a chapter division of sorts, called
Kephalaia. It is not identical to the present chapters.
The current division of the Bible into chapters and the verse numbers within the chapters have no basis in any ancient textual tradition. Rather, they are medieval Christian inventions. They were later adopted by many Jews as well, as technical references within the Hebrew text. Such technical references became crucial to medieval rabbis in the historical context of forced debates with Christian clergy , especially in late medieval Spain. Chapter divisions were first used by Jews in a 1330 manuscript, and for a printed edition in 1516. However, for the past generation, most Jewish editions of the complete
Hebrew Bible have made a systematic effort to relegate chapter and verse numbers to the margins of the text.
The division of the Bible into chapters and verses has often elicited severe criticism from traditionalists and modern scholars alike. Critics charge that the text is often divided into chapters in an incoherent way, or at inappropriate rhetorical points, and that it encourages citing passages out of context, in effect turning the Bible into a kind of textual quarry for clerical citations. Nevertheless, the chapter divisions and verse numbers have become indispensable as technical references for Bible study.
Stephen Langton is reputed to have been the first to put the chapter divisions into a Vulgate edition of the Bible, in 1205. They were then inserted into Greek manuscripts of the New Testament in the 1400s.
Robert Estienne was the first to number the verses within each chapter, his verse numbers entering printed editions in 1565 and 1571 .
Advocacy of the Bible
Main articles: Advocacy of the Bible and Christian apologetics
Christian apologists advocate a high view of the Bible and sometimes advocate the doctrine of Biblical inerrancy.
Christian scholar Bernard Ramm is often quoted by conservative Christians for writing the following in his work
Protestant Christian Evidences:
"Jews preserved it as no other manuscript has ever been preserved. With their massora they kept tabs on every letter, syllable, word and paragraph. They had special classes of men within their culture whose sole duty was to preserve and transmit these documents with practically perfect fidelity – scribes, lawyers, massorettes.
In regard to the New Testament, there are about 13,000 manuscripts, complete and incomplete, in Greek and other languages, that have survived from antiquity.
A thousand times over, the death knell of the Bible has been sounded, the funeral procession formed, the inscription cut on the tombstone, and committal read. But somehow the corpse never stays put. No other book has been so chopped, knifed, sifted, scrutinized, and vilified. What book on philosophy or religion or psychology or belles lettres of classical or modern times has been subject to such a mass attack as the Bible? With such venom and skepticism? With such thoroughness and erudition? Upon every chapter, line and tenet?
The Bible is still loved by millions, read by millions, and studied by millions."
Criticism of the Bible
- Main articles: Biblical criticism and Criticism of the Bible
Theologians and clerics, most notably
Abraham Ibn Ezra, have long noticed apparent contradictions within the Biblical text.
Benedict Spinoza concluded from a study of such contradictions that the
Torah could not have had a single author, and thus, neither God nor Moses could be the authors of the Torah. By the 19th century, critical scholars, such as Hermann Gunkel and Julius Wellhausen argued that the various books of the Bible were written not by the presumed authors but by a heterogeneous set of authors over a long period. Although Biblical archeology has confirmed the existence of some of the people, places, and events mentioned in the Bible, many critical scholars have argued that the Bible be read not as an accurate historical document, but rather as a work of literature and theology that often draws on historical events — and often draws on non-Hebrew mythology — as primary source material. For these critics the Bible reveals much about the lives and times of its authors. Whether the ideas of these authors have any relevance to contemporary society is left to clerics and adherents of contemporary religions to decide.
Other critics argue that the Bible should be accepted as the literal revealed word of God or not at all. For example, the scientist
Richard Dawkins has dismissed the Bible as a dangerous mish-mash of dubious mythology supported by no evidence at all. According to the author Sam Harris: "The Bible, it seems certain, was the work of sand-strewn men and women who thought the earth was flat and for whom a
wheelbarrow would have been a breathtaking example of emerging technology. To rely on such a document as the basis for our worldview is to repudiate two thousand years of civilizing insights that the human mind has only just begun to inscribe upon itself through secular politics and scientific culture."
Notes and references
- Berlin, Adele, Marc Zvi Brettler and Michael Fishbane. . Oxford University Press, 2003. ISBN 0-19-529751-2
- Anderson, Bernhard W.
Understanding the Old Testament
Asimov, Isaac Asimov's Guide to the Bible
, New York, NY: Avenel Books, 1981 Dever, William G. Who Were the Early Israelites and Where Did they Come from?
Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2003. ISBN 0-8028-0975-8. Ehrman, Bart D. Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why
New York, NY: HarperSanFrancisco, 2005. ISBN 0-06-073817-0. Geisler, Norman , Inerrancy
, Sponsored by the International Council on Biblical Inerrancy, Zondervan Publishing House, 1980, ISBN 0310392810. Head, Tom. The Absolute Beginner's Guide to the Bible
. Indianapolis, IN: Que Publishing, 2005. ISBN 0-7897-3419-2. Hoffman, Joel M. . New York University Press. 2004. ISBN 0-8147-3690-4. Lindsell, Harold, The Battle for the Bible
, Zondervan Publishing House, 1978, ISBN 0310276810. Lienhard, Joseph T. "The Bible, The Church, and Authority." Liturgical Press, Collegeville, Minnesota, 1995. Miller, John W. The Origins of the Bible: Rethinking Canon History
Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 1994. ISBN 0-8091-3522-1. Riches, John. The Bible: A Very Short Introduction
, Oxford University Press, 2000. ISBN 0-19-285343-0 Finkelstein, Israel and Silberman, Neil A. The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts
. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2001. ISBN 0-684-86913-6. Taylor, Hawley O., "Mathematics and Prophecy," Modern Science and Christian Faith
, Wheaton,: Van Kampen, 1948, pp.175-183.Wycliffe Bible Encyclopedia
, subject: prophecy, page 1410, Moody Bible Press, Chicago, 1986Wycliffe Bible Encyclopedia, subject: Book of Ezekiel, page 580, Moody Bible Press, Chicago, 1986
On gender neutrality. .
See also
Biblical an
