The Bible

THE BIBLE
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CHRISTIANITY
"It is written, `Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.'" Gospel of Matthew 4:4 "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life." Gospel of John 3:16
http://biblescripture.net/Bible.html
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The Bible is a book about God our Creator who reveals his undying love for his creation mankind. The Bible presents salvation history: how God revealed himself and his plan for the redemption of fallen mankind. Promise found in the Old Testament finds fulfillment in the New Testament: God giving his only son Jesus Christ to save humanity, and sending the Holy Spirit to guide us. The Bible provides direction for a happy life on earth, gives prophecy on the end times, and helps us reach heaven in the after-life.
OUR INTERNET SITE Just click on the name you would like to visit: The Holy Trinity God the Father Jesus Christ our Savior The Holy Spirit The Ten Commandments of God The Eight Beatitudes of Jesus The Lord's Prayer The Seven Words of Jesus on the Cross The Alphabet of Biblical Hebrew Readings from the The Book of Genesis Genesis 3:15 - The First Gospel The Canon of the Old Testament The Book of the Prophet Daniel The Greek Alphabet
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St. Paul on Conversion Prologue to the Gospel of John Blessed Virgin Mary Mary in the Bible Angels in the Bible Principles of Medical Ethics Love, Marriage, and Family Life Begins at Conception! Historical Foundations of Christianity Poetry In God We Trust The American Indians The Pilgrims of Plymouth Colony Early American Writings Declaration of Independence The U. S. Constitution U. S. Bill of Rights The Gettysburg Address
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The Bible is the Word of God and is composed of both the Old and New Testaments. The Old Testament relates God's Creation of the world and his Word to Israel. He reveals his undying love for his creation mankind, in spite of man's sin and disobedience, through the promise of a Redeemer. There are over 100 Messianic prophecies in the Old Testament, among them Genesis 3:15, Deuteronomy 18:15-18, 2 Samuel 7:14-16, l Chronicles 17:12-14, Psalm 22, Isaiah 7:14, Isaiah 52:13-53:12, Daniel 7:13-14, Micah 5:2, and Zechariah 9:9. The Old Testament is Hebrew Scripture or Tanakh, and is composed of the Law, the Pentateuch or Torah, the Prophets or Neviim, and the Writings, the Hagiographa or Kethuvim. The threefold division - and original order - of
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Hebrew Scripture was evident at the time of Jesus, who referred to "The Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms (Luke 24:44)." The Old Testament was composed in Hebrew, except for the following written in Aramaic - Genesis 31:47, Jeremiah 10:11, Ezra 4:8-6:18 and 7:12-26, and nearly half of the Book of Daniel (2:4-7:28). The writings of the Old Testament were preserved in three languages - Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek, and have been passed on to us mainly through 4 manuscripts: the Greek Septuagint from Alexandria; the Masoretic Hebrew text; the newly discovered Dead Sea Scrolls of the Essenes; and the Targums, translations of Scripture into Aramaic. The differing traditions have led to the disparity found in the Old Testament canons among Christian religions. See the Canon of the Old Testament for a more complete discussion. The oldest surviving translation of Hebrew Scripture was the Greek Septuagint, which was undertaken in the third century BC in Egypt by Jewish scholars who had migrated there during the Diaspora. The Greek codices arranged the books in a fourfold division, a different way than Hebrew Scripture, by placing the Law of Moses first, then the Historical Books, then the Psalms and Wisdom Literature, and then the Prophets. The three major Christian religions follow the Greek pattern, and will serve as the outline for this discussion. The Law contains the five Books of Moses or the Pentateuch. Genesis describes the creation of the world, our first parents Adam and Eve, Noah and the Flood, and God's Covenants with Noah, Abraham, the Patriarch of Israel, and his son Isaac. The historical pattern of covenant, fall, judgement, and redemption that begins in Genesis remains consistent throughout the Old Testament. Exodus records the history of Moses, the Ten Commandments and the Ark of the Covenant, the first Passover and the Exodus from Egypt. Leviticus relates the laws pertaining to religious observances and conduct, such as to love your neighbor (19:18), and to refrain from tattoos (19:28) or consult
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fortune tellers (19:31). Numbers is so named because of the census taken of the Israelites, and their wandering in the Sinai Desert for forty years because of their disobedience to the Lord God. Deuteronomy repeats the Ten Commandments and religious laws, and delineates how the Israelites should live in the Promised Land, and prophesizes the consequences of their behavior. The Historical Books include Joshua, Judges, Ruth, Samuel, Kings, Chronicles, as well as Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther, the Books of the Restoration. Joshua records the entry of the Israelites into the Promised Land and the conquest of Canaan. Judges describes the time when the Lord raised up Judges, such as Samson, to save his people, a time when there was no king in Israel. Ruth traces the ancestry of the Davidic dynasty. The Books of Samuel and Kings were made into two books each. In First Samuel, the prophet Samuel anointed Saul, who failed as the first monarch because of his disobedience; the young shepherd David was faithful to the Lord and defeated Goliath. In Second Samuel, David united all twelve tribes and became King of all Israel; he brought the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem, which became the capital of the United Kingdom of Israel. First Kings begins with David's son King Solomon who built the first Temple of the Lord, which housed the Ark of the Covenant. Disobedience to the Mosaic Law led to the Divided Kingdom of Israel and Judah. Second Kings records the preponderance of Kings who broke covenant with the Lord, and the subsequent capture of the Northern Kingdom by the Assyrians in 722 (or 721) BC, and the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple with the Babylonian Captivity in 587 (or 586) BC. Chronicles records the time from the reign of Saul to the return from the Babylonian Exile. The Historical Books also include the history of the Restoration, the return of the Jewish people from the Babylonian captivity, through the eyes of two leaders: Ezra restored the Mosaic Law, while Nehemiah restored the gates and walls of Jerusalem. The Second Temple in Jerusalem was rebuilt during this time and completed in 516 BC. The (complete) Book of Esther records how God through Esther spared the Jewish people during the period of the Restoration.
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The Wisdom Literature consists of Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Songs. The Prophets include the Major Prophets - Isaiah, the Book of Jeremiah and Lamentations, Ezekiel, and Daniel; and the Prophets of the Book of the Twelve, which include Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi. The Hebrew canon for Judaism developed through the ages, and was refined by the Pharisees at Jamnia, particularly the Writings. They recognized 10 books less than the Greek Septuagint. The Masoretic Text developed from the eighth through tenth century reflected this Hebrew canon. St. Jerome translated both Old and New Testaments into Latin; he completed the translation of the New Testament into Latin in 384, and the Old Testament in 405. St. Jerome translated from both Greek and Hebrew manuscripts of the Old Testament and noted the difference between the larger canon of the Greek Septuagint and the shorter Hebrew canon, and called those books comprising the difference the "hidden or secret books," or the Apocrypha. To support the traditional use of the Greek Septuagint as the source of the Christian Old Testament, St. Augustine and the Synod of Carthage in 397 AD preserved seven books of the Apocrypha in the OT Canon, known as the deuterocanonical books: the Books of Tobias (Tobit), Sirach, Baruch, Wisdom, First and Second Maccabees, and Judith, as well as the Greek portions of Esther, and Daniel which includes the Prayer of the Three Young Men, the story of Susannah, and Bel and the Dragon. St. Jerome included these as well for a total of 46 Books in his Latin Old Testament. The Latin Vulgate Bible served as the standard Bible for Western civilization for over 1000 years. In summary, modern Christianity reflects the lack of uniformity found in the canon of the Old Testament, for Catholics and Eastern Orthodox continue to
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refer to the Greek Septuagint as Old Testament while Protestants chose the Masoretic Hebrew text. See the Canon of the Old Testament for a more complete discussion.
It was St. Augustine who best explained the relationship of the Old and New Testaments: "The new lies hidden in the old, the old is made manifest in the new."
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The New Testament recorded the oral tradition of the Life and Teachings of Jesus, his Passion, Death and Resurrection, and the formation of the early Christian community, the Church. Jesus and his Apostles spoke Aramaic, as this was the common language at the time in Palestine. Several Aramaic words and expressions were preserved in the writings of the New Testament that is available to us in Greek. Jesus addressed God in prayer, using the Aramaic word Abba, the affectionate term for "Father" (Mark 14:36). Jesus raised the child by calling out Talitha cumi, which means "little girl, arise" in Mark 5:41. He cured the man who was deaf and dumb by speaking Ephphatha, meaning "be opened" in Mark 7:34. Jesus refers to hell as Gehenna in Mark 9:42-50. Jesus cried out from the cross Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani, that is, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Matthew 27:46, Mark 15:34). Jesus used Aramaic words twice in referring to Peter: he used the prefix Bar-, "the son of," (not the Hebrew Ben) when he called Peter Bar-Jonah, the son of Jonah (Matthew 16:17); and he called Peter Cephas, the Aramaic word for rock in John 1:42. The canon of the New Testament is exactly the same for all of Christianity! There are 27 Books in the New Testament. No original manuscript by the author of a biblical book has yet been discovered! Thus we cannot truly say when the books of the New Testament were actually written. An important observation is that not one of the New Testament writers mentions the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD. The earliest available manuscript is the Codex Vaticanus, which dates as late as the mid-fourth century AD, and was written in Greek. The New Testament writers accorded to the Old Testament the value of Divine Revelation. They proclaimed this revelation found its fulfillment in the life, in the teaching, and above all, in the death and resurrection of Christ Jesus, source
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of forgiveness and of everlasting life. They frequently drew upon the Old Testament writings, primarily to confirm Jesus Christ as the Messiah, or to serve as a source for moral instruction, or for the interpretation of events. Typology in Biblical studies finds an Old Testament story serving as a prefigurement or symbol for an event in the New Testament. Referring to Christ, Paul called Adam "a type of the one who is to come" (Romans 5:14). In Hebrews 12:24 the blood of Abel speaks to the "blood of Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant." Peter saw the flood during the times of Noah as a figure of baptism (1 Peter 3:20-21). In a direct quotation, the Gospel writer acknowledged the source, and directly quoted the Old Testament, as Matthew 1:22, after Jesus is born of the virgin Mary, quoted Isaiah 7:14 that prophesized the Messiah will be born of a virgin. An example of moral instruction would be Mark 10:2ff, when Jesus quoted Genesis 1:27 and 2:24 in his instruction on marriage. Paul explained Christ's reception of Gentiles by referring to multiple sources such as Isaiah 11:1 in Romans 15:8-12. An allusion occurs when an obvious Old Testament source is woven in the text without acknowledging the source, such as Paul who refers to Genesis 3:15 in Romans 16:20, and John who refers to that "ancient serpent" of Genesis 3 in Revelation 12:12. And finally the source may be unknown, as Matthew 2:23, when he refers to the prophecy, "He shall be called a Nazarene." In addition, New Testament writings were considered Scripture as well in the beginnings of the Church (1 Timothy 5:18, 2 Peter 3:16). The Tradition of the Church Fathers was important to the early Church, for they were the ones who had an important role in the process of the formation of the canon of the New Testament, as well in the interpretation of Scripture. Irenaeus of Lyons around 180 AD was among the first to propose a canon for the New Testament. Three Fathers of the Church - Athanasius of Alexandria in his Letter of 367, Jerome at Bethlehem in 384, and Augustine at the Council of Hippo in 393 - agreed 27 Books were the inspired Word of God. The Canon of the New Testament was confirmed at the Third Council of Carthage in 397 AD.
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The Books of the New Testament are the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, the Acts of the Apostles, the 14 Letters of the Pauline corpus, the 7 catholic or universal Letters, and the Book of Revelation. The Four Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, proclaim the "Good News" of the coming of Jesus Christ. Matthew, Mark, and Luke, called the Synoptic Gospels as they parallel each other, record Jesus teaching in Parables. Each of the Synoptics is noteworthy on their own, such as the Gospel of Matthew, which contains the Beatitudes and the Lord's Prayer. The Synoptic Gospels also record Jesus' prophecy of the destruction of the Temple (Matthew 24:1, Mark 13:1, Luke 21:5-6), occasioned by the Romans in 70 AD. The Gospel of John is an unique spiritual and theological work. All four Gospels present the Miracles of Christ Jesus, and the Passion, Death, and Resurrection of the Lord. There are three stages in the development of the Gospel narrative: the teachings of Jesus himself; the oral tradition of the Apostles, who handed down the teachings of Jesus to the early Christian community, the Church; and finally, the inspired written Word of Scripture. The Bible was written within the Church. Considering the impact of his life and teaching, it is remarkable the Ministry of Jesus lasted such a short time! The Acts of the Apostles is the second Book written by Luke, and describes the explosive growth of Christianity following the Pentecost, the Descent of the Holy Spirit. Acts describes the growth of the early Christian community, the Church, from Jerusalem and Antioch to Asia Minor and Rome, focusing primarily on the activities of Peter and Paul. The Pauline corpus begins in the New Testament with the Letter to the Romans, which emphasizes God's righteousness that saves all who believe in Jesus Christ. The letter begins and ends with the ideal Christian response to our merciful Saviour, "the obedience of faith" (Romans 1:5, 16:26). First Corinthians gives us an insight into the early Christian community, and includes the beautiful passage on love. Second Corinthians is personal in
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nature and reveals much about Paul's character. We are reminded that God's grace is sufficient for us. The Apostle to the Gentiles emphasizes the way to salvation is through Christ and the Cross in Galatians. Ephesians is the Pauline letter on the Church. Paul's first Christian community were the Philippians, and the letter shows his great love for the Gospel and his converts. Colossians continues the discussion of the relationship of Christ and his Church. The first writings to become part of the New Testament were First and Second Thessalonians, written in 51 AD. First and Second Timothy and Titus are the Pastoral Epistles. He breathes love and equality into the ancient and accepted institution of slavery in the Letter to Philemon. The Letter to the Hebrews is an outstanding treatise on the priesthood of Jesus, who perfected Revelation and redeemed mankind by his one Sacrifice, which established God's New Covenant. Of the 14 letters of the Pauline corpus, all but the Letter to the Hebrews begin with the name of Paul. St. Jerome attributed Hebrews to Paul, when he translated the Greek version of the New Testament into Latin in the Fourth Century. The seven catholic or universal Letters of James (1), Peter (2), John (3), and Jude (1) are so called because they are addressed to all the Churches, unlike the letters of Paul, which are addressed to a particular community (Romans, Corinthians, and so on). They were open letters that concerned themselves with different themes pertinent to Christians. The Letter of James emphasizes that faith without works is dead. First Peter shows us the mission of the early Church in the midst of a hostile society, and provides direction for Christian behavior in the world. Second Peter offers Peter's witness to the Transfiguration of Jesus, commentary on interpretation of Scripture, and speaks of the Parousia. First John expresses God's love and forgiveness in the face of the universality of sin, and asserts the humanity and Divinity of Jesus Christ. Second John also serves as a warning against heresy in the early Church, while Third John is a valuable testimony to the fidelity of the early Christian communities. The Book of Jude gives encouragement to fidelity in the Christian faith and notes the moral implications of the Gospel message. The
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mysterious Book of Jude also describes a phenomenon noted in some anesthetic patients with near-death experiences: "They are like wild waves of the sea, foaming up their shameless deeds, wandering stars for whom the gloom of darkness has been reserved forever" (Jude 1:13 NAB). The Book of Revelation is the final Book of the New Testament, and is apocalyptic in nature. The Book of Revelation is at once frightening, as it speaks of the rise of the antichrist and the end of the age, dramatic as it describes the final battle of good and evil, and, above all, optimistic, as it points to the triumph of Jesus Christ over evil and the dawn of a new creation. Written by John, it has fascinated readers for centuries, as it prophesizes about the End Times, a time which may be drawing near.
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REFERENCES AND FURTHER READING 1 Minto AL. Introduction to Scripture, 1998, to Discipleship and Mission in Luke-Acts, 2005. Course Lectures and Texts, Franciscan University, Steubenville, Ohio. 2 Revised Standard Version of the Holy Bible. Ignatius Press, San Francisco, 1965. 3 The 1611 Authorized King James Version of the Holy Bible. Hendrickson Publishers, Peabody, Massachusetts, 2010. 4 RSV Navarre Bible Series. Four Courts Press, Dublin, Ireland, 1999-2005.
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5 The Douay-Rheims Holy Bible. Old Testament, English College of Douai, 1609; New Testament, English College of Rheims, France, 1582. Revision, Bishop Challoner, 1749-1752, England. John Murphy, Baltimore, Maryland, 1914. 6 Pontifical Biblical Commission. The Interpretation of the Bible in the Church. Pauline Books & Media, Boston, Mass, 1993. 7 Fitzmyer JA. A Wandering Aramean. Scholars Press, Missoula, Montana, 1979. 8 The Second Vatican Council. Dei Verbum - On Divine Revelation, November 1965. Vatican Council II, Austin Flannery (ed); Dominican Publications, Dublin, Ireland, 1998. 9 Brown RE, Fitzmeyer JA, Murphy RE (eds): The New Jerome Biblical Commentary, especially Chapters on Pentateuch, Canonicity, Texts and Versions. Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1990. 10 Johnson LT. The Writings of the New Testament. Augsburg Fortress Press, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 1999. 11 Jensen J. God's Word to Israel. Liturgical Press, Collegeville, Minnesota, 1988. 12 Oden TC, Editor. Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture. InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, Illinois, 2001. 13 Young FM. Biblical Exegesis and the Formation of Christian Culture. Cambridge University Press, 1997. 14 Ratzinger JC. Introduction to Christianity. Ignatius Press, San Francisco, 2004. 15 Tannehill RC. The Narrative Unity of Luke-Acts: A Literary Interpretation, in 2 Volumes. Fortress Press, Minneapolis, 1990. 16 Wall RW. The Acts of the Apostles, in The New Interpreter's Bible, Volume 10. Abingdon Press, Nashville, pages 344-368, 2002. 17 Montague GT. The Apocalypse. Servant Publications, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1992 and 1998. 18 Lienhard JT. The Bible, The Church, and Authority - The Canon of the Christian Bible. Liturgical Press, Collegeville, Minnesota, 1995.
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19 VanderKam JC. The Dead Sea Scrolls Today. WB Eerdmanns, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1994 and 2010. 20 Evans CA. The Dead Sea Scrolls. Holman QuickSource Guides, B&H Publishing Group, Nashville, Tennessee, 2010. 21 Mansoor M. Biblical Hebrew - Step by Step, Volume One. Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1980, 24th Printing, 2007. 22 Mounce, WD. Basics of Biblical Greek Grammar, Third Edition. Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 2009. 23 Brisco, Thomas. Holman Bible Atlas. Holman Reference, Nashville Tennessee, 1998. 24 Rendsburg GA. A New Look at Pentateuchal HW'. Biblica 63:351-369, 1982. 25 Nodet E. On Jesus' Last Supper. Biblica 91:348-369, 2010.
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