The 24/7 blog that we've called Resources is intended to be a multifaceted exploration of the Christian life. It is a place where we expand the conversation about what God is doing in our lives and in our community, and further reflect on what it looks like to live a life of full devotion to Christ, 24/7. This post is the second of a series of posts about interpreting the Bible. It was composed by Pat Beard, a longtime member of the Southridge community and Bible teacher in a variety of contexts.

Translated from the Greek (tà biblía), the word Bible means the (little) books. So, the Bible is a book composed of many (66) little books. But, did you ever wonder how the Bible came to be the Bible which we see today? Did you know that the Hebrew and Roman Catholic Bibles are not the same as the Protestant Bible? Did you ever wonder who decided what should be included in the Bible and what excluded? Do you think I’m asking too many questions?

In the beginning, there were stories. Before the invention of writing, the way that Israel’s history was passed down from generation to generation was by way of stories painstakingly repeated over and over. Then, when the means to record those stories through the written word became available, the Old Testament writers began to write out those stories. They wrote in Hebrew (with some parts in Aramaic) over centuries, copying by hand on leather scrolls and other materials. Gradually, certain writings were recognized as inspired by God and became accepted as the “canon” of the faith (from the Greek kanon meaning “rule” or “standard”).

Thus, the Old Testament (although it wasn’t called that for some time) began to be formed. Deuteronomy was recognized explicitly around 621 BC and the first five books, the Pentateuch (after the Greek word meaning “five scrolls”) or Torah (from the Hebrew meaning “instruction or “law”) was formally collected around 500 BC when Ezra (a priest and scribe) compiled the first Hebrew Bible (also called the Tanakh). Eventually, 39 books were included (divided into “The Law”, “The Prophets” and “The Writings” (Psalms, Ruth, Chronicles, and the Wisdom Books). Modern Hebrew Bibles preserve the order of the overall categories but change the sequence of the books within the last two.

By 300 BC, with the rise of Greece and the pervasive influence of Hellenic culture, it was recognized that fewer and fewer people were able to read Hebrew; Greek had become the common language, even among the Jewish people. So, from 250-100 BC, the Hebrew Bible was translated into Greek by Jewish scholars. Called the “Septuagint” (the word means seventy and refers to the tradition that 70 or 72 men did the translation), this version became the one recognized as complete and accurate. It re-arranged the order of the OT books.  The Prophets and Writings were interspersed within each other in order to create a past-present-future sequence. When Jesus and others in the New Testament quote scripture, it is the Septuagint that they are quoting –with the exception of the Apocrypha (see below).

[Incidentally, The term "Old Testament,"¹ or more properly "Old Covenant," is a Christian designation, reflecting the belief of the early Christian Church that the "new covenant" mentioned in Jer. 31:31-34 was fulfilled in Jesus and that the Christian scriptures set forth the "new covenant," just as the Jewish scriptures set forth the "old covenant" (II Cor. 3:6-18; Heb. 9:1-4).]

Now, we come to the story of the “hidden” books. Some scholars believe that, around AD 90, a Jewish council at Jamnia (convened to ratify the content of the Hebrew Bible) decreed that the books now known as the Apocrypha (from the Greek meaning “hidden”) should be excluded. To make a long story short, these books (including 1 and 2 Esdras, Tobit, 1 and 2 Maccabees, and Baruch) are now part of the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Bible but not the Protestant Bible. They were added to the Roman Catholic Bible in 1546 by the Council of Trent.

Let us now turn to the New Testament. The first book (Mark) was written around 45 CE and the last (1, 2 and 3 John) around 60 CE. However, it took about 300 years for the New Testament to reach its final form. Early “Church Fathers” accepted the writings of the Gospels (stories of the life of Jesus) and Paul’s letters. Origen (CE 185-254) listed 21 approved books and Eusebius (CE 263-339) listed 22. By the time of Constantine, the Roman emperor who legalized Christianity in 313, the standard 27 New Testament books had been generally recognized and accepted. Final ratification came through the Council of Laodicea in 363 and the publication of an Easter Letter by Athanasius (the Bishop of Alexandria) in 367.

Now, a word about translations is relevant. As with the Septuagint, around 400 CE, there was a felt need to provide a version of the Bible in the language common to most people of the day. So it was that the Latin “Vulgate” (from vulgar meaning common) was written by Jerome (then Secretary to Pope Damasus). This became the main Bible version for the next thousand years (until King James got involved). The Bible was first translated into English by John Wycliffe around 1384 but the biggest news was the invention of the printing press by Gutenberg in 1455. Luther produced a German Bible in 1522-1534 and William Tyndale translated most of the Bible into English about the same time (and got himself executed for heresy). The King James Bible (1611) then became the standard (Protestant) version. More recent English translations have attempted to make God’s word more accessible to God’s people. The New International Version (NIV) was first published in 1973, the New Living Translation (NLT) in 1996 and The Message in 1993-2000.          

Coming in April: “Why Study the Bible?”