Origin of the Bible
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Where did the Bible come from?
The word Bible is an English word that comes from an identically spelled word in Old French. The Latin antecedent is biblia from the Greek word meaning books. [1]
There are many different versions of the Bible and many translations of it into into many various languages produced over the last few thousand years. Excluding the creation story and other accounts in the Book of Genesis before the the narratives about the patriarchs, The Old and New Testaments together cover a vast period of time from approximately 2,000 B.C. to the last half of the first century A.D. Due to the fact that the Bible does not give dates that can be matched precisely to modern systems , it is difficult to determine the years in which events occurred. Much chronology of biblical events has therefore been developed from reading from contemporary sources and through archaeology. Excluding the creation story and other accounts in the Book of Genesis before the narratives about the patriarchs, the Old and New Testaments together cover a vast time period from approximately 2,000 A.D. to the last half of the first century. These include, but are not limited to, the following events
In the New Testament, The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John record events in the life of Jesus covering the first three decades A.D.. The Book of Acts and the Epistles of Paul deal with the foundations of Christianity to about A.D. 60, while the other New Testament writings stories.
Many sections of the Bible were
passed down to further generations through oral tradition which means
that sections of the Bible were told and retold - by mothers and fathers as well
as tribal elders and professional story tellers - long before they were written
down. It is said that the five books of Moses were originally written in stone
by Moses according to what God told him to write.
The art of writing probably began in the Near East
during the fourth millennium B.C. among the Sumerians, who had invaded
Mesopotamia: but the Jews apparently did not use written records to any great
extent until the era of the united kingdom, which began under Saul in the
11th century B.C. and continued under David and Solomon. As the kingdom grew in
power and influence, trade and industry prospered, and the demand for
written records and information increased. Then as writing and reading
became widespread, literature began to emerge out of the narrations of the
story tellers.
When was the Bible written?
- Many sections of the Old Testament are believed to have been passed down
through oral tradition. This means that mothers, fathers, tribal elders and
professional story tellers told these stories to one generation down to another
until they were finally recorded in writing. The art of writing probably began
in the Near East during the fourth millennium B.C. among the Sumerians. Hebrews
apparently didn't use written records until the era of the united kingdom, which
began under Saul in the 11th century B.C. and continued under David and Solomon.
As the united kingdom grew in power and influence, trade and industry prospered
and the demands for written records and information increased. Then as writing
and reading became wide spread, a literature began to emerge out of the
narratives of story tellers.
Probably during the reign of Solomon in the 10th century
B.C., some of the ancient Israelite traditions, until then predominantly oral,
began to be written down. This process of turning the spoken word into the
written text continued for hundreds of years.
After the initial writing down of Scripture, which was on a
scroll made of perishable material, scribes started to painstakingly make exact
copies. This process continued through the centuries. Even the oldest surviving
copies of biblical passages were made centuries after they were originally
composed.
Are there errors in the Bible?
The Bible has been copied from previous Bibles over the last
1500 years. It seems to me that this process is ripe for unintentionally
introducing errors. But due to the strong faith of the people transcribing the
Bible it seems reasonable to assume that the errors are few. Portions of the Bible were handed down
through generations through oral tradition. Eventually they were put in writing.
Moses is said to have written the Pentateuch. Later, when the various factions
of Christianity started to appear so too did different cannons. The books which
found themselves in a Bible were the ones which were acceptable through
canonical law. For this reason there are many versions of the Bible. What is
considered canonical to one Christian faith is not considered canonical to
another Christian faith. Hence there are different Bibles which have different
books in them but are considered Christian Bibles. Errors sometimes got into the
various Bibles through mistake in copying. There are some odd editions of the
Bible though for this reason. One such Bible is called the "Wicked
Bible" or the "Adulterers" Bible. By forgetting and all to
important "not" the printer produced a commandment which said
"Thou shall commit adultery." "The Bug Bible" tells its
readers not to be afraid of "bugs by night" as a peculiar translation
of the line in Psalm 91:5 which reads "You will not fear the terror of the
night. In the "Placemakers" Bible Jesus is quoted as saying
"Blessed are the placemakers" instead of peacemakers [Mark 5:9].
The most common of Biblical errors are found in the Old
Testament and were made regarding large numbers. A noteworthy example includes 1
Chronicles 19:18 which speaks of 7,000 chariots whereas the same number is
supposed to be in 2 Samuel 10:18 but reads 700 chariots instead. More can be
found on the subject of large numbers and the reasons for their existence (e.g.
copying errors) can be found in the book Hard Sayings of the Bible on
page 53.
So the answer is yes. There are errors in the Bibles. However that does not imply that there were errors in the original Scriptures.
The
noteworthy bibles today are listed below
King James Version (KJV), 1952.
New American Standard Bible (NASB), 1963.
Jerusalem Bible, 1966.
New American Bible, 1970.
The Living Bible, 1971.
New International Version (NIV), 1973.
Today's Bible, 1976.
New King James Version, 1982.
New Revised Standard Version (NRSV), 1990.
[1] The ABC's of the Bible, Reader's Digest Association, Inc. (1991), Chapter The Bible Through the Ages which starts on page 268.
[2] Hard Sayings of the Bible, Kaiser, Davids, Bruce, Brauch, Intervarsity Press (1984)