CHRISTIAN BIBLES

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A Christian Bible is a set of books that a Christian denomination regards as divinely inspired and thus constituting scripture. 


Although the Early Church primarily used the Septuagint or the Targums among Aramaic speakers, the apostles did not leave a defined set of new scriptures; instead the canon of the New Testament developed over time. 


Groups within Christianity include differing books as part of their sacred writings, most prominent among which are the biblical apocrypha or deuterocanonical books.


Significant versions of the English Christian Bible include the: 

  • Douay-Rheims Bible, 
  • Authorized King James Version
  • English Revised Version
  • American Standard Version
  • Revised Standard Version
  • New American Standard Version
  • New King James Version
  • New International Version
  • English Standard Version



OLD TESTAMENT

The books which make up the Christian Old Testament differ between the Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant churches, with the 

  • Protestant movement - accepting only those books contained in the Hebrew Bible
  • Catholics and Orthodox - have wider canons. 

A few groups consider particular translations to be divinely inspired, notably the Greek Septuagint and the Aramaic Peshitta.


Apocryphal or Deuterocanonical Books:

In Eastern Christianity, translations based on the Septuagint still prevail. 

The Septuagint was generally abandoned in favour of the 10th-century Masoretic Text as the basis for translations of the Old Testament into Western languages.


A number of books which are part of the Peshitta or the Greek Septuagint but are not found in the Hebrew (Rabbinic) Bible (i.e., among the protocanonical books) are often referred to as deuterocanonical books by Roman Catholics referring to a later secondary (i.e., deutero) canon, that canon as fixed definitively by the Council of Trent 1545–1563. 

It includes 46 books for the Old Testament (45 if Jeremiah and Lamentations are counted as one) and 27 for the New.


Most Protestants term these books as apocrypha. 


Modern Protestant traditions do not accept the deuterocanonical books as canonical, although Protestant Bibles included them in Apocrypha sections until the 1820s. 

However, Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches include these books as part of their Old Testament.


The Roman Catholic Church recognizes:

  • Tobit
  • Judith
  • 1 Maccabees
  • 2 Maccabees
  • Wisdom
  • Sirach (or Ecclesiasticus)
  • Baruch
  • The Letter of Jeremiah (Baruch Chapter 6)
  • Greek Additions to Esther (Book of Esther, chapters 10:4 – 12:6)
  • The Prayer of Azariah and Song of the Three Holy Children verses 1–68 (Book of Daniel, chapter 3, verses 24–90)
  • Susanna (Book of Daniel, chapter 13)
  • Bel and the Dragon (Book of Daniel, chapter 14)


In addition to those, the Greek and Russian Orthodox Churches recognize the following.

  • 3 Maccabees
  • 1 Esdras
  • Prayer of Manasseh
  • Psalm 151


Russian and Georgian Orthodox Churches include:

  • 2 Esdras i.e., Latin Esdras in the Russian and Georgian Bibles


There is also 4 Maccabees which is only accepted as canonical in the Georgian Church, but was included by St. Jerome in an appendix to the Vulgate, and is an appendix to the Greek Orthodox Bible, and it is therefore sometimes included in collections of the Apocrypha.


The Syriac Orthodox tradition includes:

  • Psalms 151–155
  • The Apocalypse of Baruch
  • The Letter of Baruch


The Ethiopian Biblical canon includes:

  • Jubilees
  • Enoch
  • 1–3 Meqabyan

and some other books.


The Anglican Church uses some of the Apocryphal books liturgically. Therefore, editions of the Bible intended for use in the Anglican Church include the Deuterocanonical books accepted by the Catholic Church, plus 1 Esdras, 2 Esdras and the Prayer of Manasseh, which were in the Vulgate appendix.



Pseudepigraphal Books


The term Pseudepigrapha commonly describes numerous works of Jewish religious literature written from about 300 BCE to 300 CE. Not all of these works are actually pseudepigraphical. It also refers to books of the New Testament canon whose authorship is misrepresented. The "Old Testament" Pseudepigraphal works include the following: 

  • 3 Maccabees
  • 4 Maccabees
  • Assumption of Moses
  • Ethiopic Book of Enoch (1 Enoch)
  • Slavonic Book of Enoch (2 Enoch)
  • Hebrew Book of Enoch (3 Enoch) (also known as "The Revelation of Metatron" or "The Book of Rabbi Ishmael the High Priest")
  • Book of Jubilees
  • Syriac Apocalypse of Baruch (2 Baruch)
  • Letter of Aristeas (Letter to Philocrates regarding the translating of the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek)
  • Life of Adam and Eve
  • Martyrdom and Ascension of Isaiah
  • Psalms of Solomon
  • Sibylline Oracles
  • Greek Apocalypse of Baruch (3 Baruch)
  • Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs


Denominational Views of Pseudepigrapha

There arose in some Protestant biblical scholarship an extended use of the term pseudepigrapha for works that appeared as though they ought to be part of the biblical canon, because of the authorship ascribed to them, but which stood outside both the biblical canons recognized by Protestants and Catholics. 

These works were also outside the particular set of books that Roman Catholics called deuterocanonical and to which Protestants had generally applied the term Apocryphal. 


Accordingly, the term pseudepigraphical, as now used often among both Protestants and Roman Catholics (allegedly for the clarity it brings to the discussion), may make it difficult to discuss questions of pseudepigraphical authorship of canonical books dispassionately with a lay audience. 


To confuse the matter even more, Eastern Orthodox Christians accept books as canonical that Roman Catholics and most Protestant denominations consider pseudepigraphical or at best of much less authority. 

There exist also churches that reject some of the books that Roman Catholics, Orthodox and Protestants accept. 

The same is true of some Jewish sects. Many works that are "apocryphal" are otherwise considered genuine.


Role of the Old Testament in Christian theology


The Old Testament has always been central to the life of the Christian church. Bible scholar N.T. Wright says "Jesus himself was profoundly shaped by the scriptures.  He adds that the earliest Christians also searched those same Hebrew scriptures in their effort to understand the earthly life of Jesus. They regarded the "holy writings" of the Israelites as necessary and instructive for the Christian, as seen from Paul's words to Timothy (2 Timothy 3:15), and as pointing to the Messiah, and as having reached a climactic fulfillment in Jesus himself, generating the "new covenant" prophesied by Jeremiah.



NEW TESTAMENT


The New Testament is the name given to the second and final portion of the Christian Bible. Jesus is its central figure.

The term "New Testament" came into use in the second century during a controversy among Christians over whether or not the Hebrew Bible should be included with the Christian writings as sacred scripture. 

The New Testament presupposes the inspiration of the Old Testament. Some other works which were widely read by early churches were excluded from the New Testament and relegated to the collections known as the Apostolic Fathers (generally considered orthodox) and the New Testament Apocrypha (including both orthodox and heretical works). 


Most Christians consider the New Testament to be an infallible source of doctrine, while others go even farther to affirm that it is also inerrant, or completely correct in historical and factual details as well as theologically. 

In recent times, however, the authority of the New Testament books has been challenged. The school of historical criticism has exposed various apparent contradictions within the texts, as well as questions of authorship and dating.


The New Testament is a collection of 27 books of 4 different genres of Christian literature (Gospels, one account of the Acts of the Apostles, Epistles and an Apocalypse). These books can be grouped into:


1. The Gospels
  • Synoptic Gospels
    • Matthew
    • Mark
    • Luke
  • John

2. Narrative literature, History

  • Acts of the Apostles

3. Pauline Epistles

  • Romans
  • First Epistle to the Corinthians
  • Second Epistle to the Corinthians
  • Galatians
  • Ephesians
  • Philippians
  • Colossians
  • First Epistle to the Thessalonians
  • Second Epistle to the Thessalonians

4. Pastoral epistles

  • First Epistle to Timothy
  • Second Epistle to Timothy
  • Titus
  • Philemon
  • Hebrews

5. General epistles

  • James
  • First Epistle of Peter
  • Second Epistle of Peter
  • First Epistle of John
  • Second Epistle of John
  • Third Epistle of John
  • Jude

6. Apocalyptic literature, also called Prophetical

  • Revelation, or the Apocalypse

The New Testament books are ordered differently in the Catholic/Orthodox/Protestant tradition, the Slavonic tradition, the Syriac tradition and the Ethiopian tradition.


Original Language


The mainstream consensus is that the New Testament was written in a form of Koine Greek,  which was the common language of the Eastern Mediterranean from the Conquests of Alexander the Great (335–323 BCE) until the evolution of Byzantine Greek (c. 600).


HISTORICAL EDITIONS


The original autographs, that is, the original Greek writings and manuscripts written by the original authors of the New Testament, have not survived. 

But historically copies exist of those original autographs, transmitted and preserved in a number of manuscript traditions. 

There have been some minor variations, additions or omissions, in some of the texts. When ancient scribes copied earlier books, they sometimes wrote notes on the margins of the page (marginal glosses) to correct their text—especially if a scribe accidentally omitted a word or line—and to comment about the text. When later scribes were copying the copy, they were sometimes uncertain if a note was intended to be included as part of the text. Over time, different regions evolved different versions, each with its own assemblage of omissions and additions.


The three main textual traditions of the Greek New Testament are sometimes called 

  • Alexandrian text-type (generally minimalist), 
  • Byzantine text-type (generally maximalist), and 
  • Western text-type (occasionally wild). Together they comprise most of the ancient manuscripts.

DEVELOPMENT OF THE CHRISTIAN CANONS

The Old Testament canon entered into Christian use in the Greek Septuagint translations and original books, and their differing lists of texts. 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 4th century a series of synods produced a list of texts equal to the 39, 46/51, 54, or 57-book canon of the Old Testament and to the 27-book canon of the New Testament that would be subsequently used to today.


Most notably the Synod of Hippo in 393 CE. Also c. 400, Jerome produced a definitive Latin edition of the Bible (see Vulgate), 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.


The Protestant Old Testament of today has a 39-book canon—the number of books (though not the content) varies from the Jewish Tanakh only because of a different method of division.


While the Roman Catholic Church recognizes 46 books (51 books with some books combined into 46 books) as the canonical Old Testament. 


The Eastern Orthodox Churches recognize 3 Maccabees, 1 Esdras, Prayer of Manasseh and Psalm 151 in addition to the Catholic canon. 


Some include 2 Esdras. The Anglican Church also recognizes a longer canon.


The term "Hebrew Scriptures" is often used as being synonymous with the Protestant Old Testament, since the surviving scriptures in Hebrew include only those books.


While Catholics and Orthodox include additional texts that have not survived in Hebrew. Both Catholics and Protestants (as well as Greek Orthodox) have the same 27-book New Testament Canon. 



Ethiopian Orthodox Canon


The Canon of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church is wider than the canons used by most other Christian churches. 


There are 81 books in the Ethiopian Orthodox Bible. The Ethiopian Old Testament Canon includes the books found in the Septuagint accepted by other Orthodox Christians, in addition to Enoch and Jubilees which are ancient Jewish books that only survived in Ge'ez but are quoted in the New Testament,  also Greek Ezra First and the Apocalypse of Ezra, 3 books of Meqabyan, and Psalm 151 at the end of the Psalter. The three books of Meqabyan are not to be confused with the books of Maccabees. The order of the other books is somewhat different from other groups', as well. The Old Testament follows the Septuagint order for the Minor Prophets rather than the Jewish order.


Divine Inspiration

The Second Epistle to Timothy says that "all scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness". (2 Timothy 3:16). Various related but distinguishable views on divine inspiration include:

  • the view of the Bible as the inspired word of God: the belief that God, through the Holy Spirit, intervened and influenced the words, message, and collation of the Bible.
  • the view that the Bible is also infallible, and incapable of error in matters of faith and practice, but not necessarily in historic or scientific matters
  • the view that the Bible represents the inerrant word of God, without error in any aspect, spoken by God and written down in its perfect form by humans

Within these broad beliefs many schools of hermeneutics operate. "Bible scholars claim that discussions about the Bible must be put into its context within church history and then into the context of contemporary culture.

Fundamentalist Christians are associated with the doctrine of biblical literalism, where the Bible is not only inerrant, but the meaning of the text is clear to the average reader. 



Versions and Translations


The original texts of the Tanakh were mainly in Hebrew, with some portions 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. 


There are several different ancient versions of the Tanakh in Hebrew, mostly differing by spelling, and the traditional Jewish version is based on the version known as Aleppo Codex. Even in this version there are words which are traditionally read differently from written, because the oral tradition is considered more fundamental than the written one, and presumably mistakes had been made in copying the text over the generations.


The primary biblical text for early Christians was the Septuagint. 


In addition, they translated the Hebrew Bible into several other languages. Translations were made into Syriac, Coptic, Ethiopic, 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 translations 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.

According to the the Latin Decretum Gelasianum (also known as the Gelasian Decree), thought to be of a 6th century document of uncertain authorship and of pseudepigraphal papal authority (variously ascribed to Pope Gelasius I, Pope Damasus I, or Pope Hormisdas) but reflecting the views of the Roman Church by that period, the Council of Rome in 382 AD under Pope Damasus I (366-383) assembled a list of books of the Bible. Damasus 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, in the fourth century AD (although Jerome expressed in his prologues to most deuterocanonical books that they were non-canonical). And in 1546, at the Council of Trent, Jerome's Vulgate translation was declared by the Roman Catholic Church to be the only authentic and official Bible in the Latin Church.


Since the Protestant Reformation, Bible translations for many languages have been made. The Bible continues to be translated to new languages, largely by Christian organizations such as Wycliffe Bible Translators, New Tribes Mission and Bible societies.


Other Religions

In Islam, the Bible is held to reflect true unfolding revelation from God; but revelation which had been corrupted or distorted (in Arabic: tahrif); which necessitated the giving of the Qur'an to the Islamic prophet, Muhammad, to correct this deviation.

Members of other religions may also seek inspiration from the Bible. For example, Rastafaris view the Bible as essential to their religion and Unitarian Universalists view it as "one of many important religious texts"


ILLUSTRATIONS

Most old Bibles were illuminated, they were manuscripts in which the text is supplemented by the addition of decoration, such as decorated initials, borders (marginalia) and miniature illustrations. 

Up to the twelfth century, most manuscripts were produced in monasteries in order to add to the library or after receiving a commission from a wealthy patron. 

Larger monasteries often contained separate areas for the monks who specialized in the production of manuscripts called a scriptorium, where “separate little rooms were assigned to book copying; they were situated in such a way that each scribe had to himself a window open to the cloister walk. 


By the fourteenth century, the cloisters of monks writing in the scriptorium started to employ laybrothers from the urban scriptoria, especially in Paris, Rome and the Netherlands.

Demand for manuscripts grew to an extent that the Monastic libraries were unable to meet with the demand, and began employing secular scribes and illuminators. These individuals often lived close to the monastery and, in certain instances, dressed as monks whenever they entered the monastery, but were allowed to leave at the end of the day.


The manuscript was “sent to the rubricator, who added (in red or other colours) the titles, headlines, the initials of chapters and sections, the notes and so on; and then – if the book was to be illustrated – it was sent to the illuminator. In the case of manuscripts that were sold commercially, the writing would “undoubtedly have been discussed initially between the patron and the scribe (or the scribe’s agent,) but by the time that the written gathering were sent off to the illuminator there was no longer any scope for innovation. 


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