Religion: Understanding The Bible

1169 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Canonization of the bible

The first chapter of the Understanding The Bible breaks down the Bible and explains it’s components. The Bible is the sacred text of two religions, Judaism and Christianity. According to Slick (n.d.), The Bible is a collection of 66 books written by about 40 authors, in three different languages, on three different continents, over approximately 1600 years. The Bible contains many different styles of writing such as narration, fiction, poetry, history, law, and many others. It must be understood in the framework of those styles. This makes the Bible very difficult to read cover to cover. The Bible is split up into two main sections, The Old Testament and The New Testament.
According to Harris (2011), the Old Testament, the larger, older section was written by and for the Jewish community of faith and contains material composed between about the twelfth and second centuries. There are a total of 39 books in the Old Testament. Moses authored the first five books of the Old Testament. it is believed that the earliest Biblical Books were written on papyrus and paper like sheets made from papyrus plant. The sheets were rolled into small wooden sticks, and then it would form into a scroll. At the very beginning the Bible was only an accumulation of manuscripts. Not one biblical original composition survived so this makes it very hard to know how the bible was formed and transmitted. Unlike other religious writings, the Bible reads as a factual collection of authentic events, places, people, and conversation. Historians and archaeologists have repeatedly verified its genuineness.

Chapter 2- The Process of Formation

Chapter 2 of the textbook walks us through how the Bible was transmitted, canonized and translated. According to Ha...

... middle of paper ...

...le (8th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.
Judaism. (2009, September 8). BBC News. Retrieved May 22, 2014, from http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/judaism/texts/torah.shtml
Pielaia, A. (n.d.). All About the Torah, Judaism's Most Important Text. About.com Judaism. Retrieved May 20, 2014, from http://judaism.about.com/od/judaismbasics/a/What-Is-The-Torah-Chumash.htm
Slick, M. (n.d.). Bible Study. CARM. Retrieved May 21, 2014, from http://carm.org/matt-slick-bible-study
Tanach. (n.d.). Tanach - the Jewish Bible. Retrieved May 22, 2014, from http://www.bje.org.au/learning/texts/tanach.html
The Ancient Near East. (n.d.). EAWC: The Ancient Near East. Retrieved May 22, 2014, from http://eawc.evansville.edu/nepage.htm
White, M. (2007, March 27). Flood Legends. Answers in Genesis. Retrieved May 21, 2014, from https://answersingenesis.org/the-flood/flood-legends/flood-legends/

Show More
Related

  • Gudea statues

    1847 Words  | 4 Pages

    Hallo, William W. and Simpson, William Kelly. The Ancient Near East: A History. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Inc., 1971. Hansen, Donald P. “New Votive Plaques from Nippur,'; in the Journal of Near Eastern Studies, Vol.

    Read More

  • Beowulf and Grettir's Saga

    3717 Words  | 8 Pages

    Isaak, Mark. "Flood Stories from Around the World." The Talk. Origins Archive. 4 July 2004. <http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/flood-myths.html>

    Read More

  • Death and Afterlife in Ancient Egyptian Society and the Mesopotamian Society

    738 Words  | 2 Pages

    Hause, S., & Maltby, W. (2001). The Ancient Near East: Mesopotamia, Egypt, Phoenicia and Israel. Essentials of Western Civilization (pp.7-15). California: Wadsworth.

    Read More

  • Christian Scriptures Essay

    492 Words  | 1 Pages

    The Christian Scriptures is the entire Christian Bible. It is composed of both the Hebrew Scriptures and the Christian Testament. The Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament) is composed of several books all containing stories about Jesus, and the Christian Testament (New Testament) which contains the stories of Jesus and the earliest Christian Communities. Although these stories cannot confidently prove to us that they are true there are several distinct similarities, which are contained in nearly all of the books. These similarities are so frequent that their constant occurrence seems more than coincidence. Although these similarities occur often in the books of the Hebrew Scriptures, there are four short books included in the Christian Testament, which we must rely on to understand Jesus’ ministry and life.

    Read More

  • Prophet Exegesis: Habakkuk

    1421 Words  | 3 Pages

    Harris, Stephen. Understanding The Bible. 6 ed. New York City: McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages, 2002. Print.

    Read More

  • Flood of Epic of Gilgamesh and Book of Genesis of the Holy Bible

    724 Words  | 2 Pages

    He believes that Moses did not write Genesis but rather translated it from ancient stone tablets written in Cuneiform script. The tablets each would have been originally written by eye-witnesses of the particular events, or those who received their information from eye-witnesses.

    Read More

  • The Bible: The Tanakh, And The Hebrew Bible

    1471 Words  | 3 Pages

    Modern scholars believe that the Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh, was composed by four or five writers between 1000 to 400 BCE based on much older traditions. The New Testament was composed by a variety of writers between 60 to 110 CE. The contents of the New Testament were formalized by Athanasius of Alexandria in 367 CE, and finally canonized in 382 CE (Geisler and

    Read More

  • Contextualism: How The Bible Is The Inspired Word Of God

    524 Words  | 2 Pages

    To begin with, what does it mean when someone says that the Bible is the inspired word of God? It means quite a few things. While god did not directly write the Bible, he certainly had a hand in its creation. To be blunt, God divinely influences the human authors of the Scriptures in a way that they wrote the very Word of God. The Bible is written by people who are inspired by God to write the scriptures. He does not directly control what they write, but he nudges them in the correct direction with his divine influence. He is not controlling them, but inspiring. God inspired people to write the very words of himself.

    Read More

  • Textual Analysis of Epic of Gilgamesh and Book of Genesis of the Holy Bible

    1051 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Old Testament of the Bible, which includes the Book of Genesis, was also passed down through oral tradition before the Hebrews wrote it down from 1000-300 B.C. Both of these documents express the religious attitudes of these people as their story of the creation of the world and of humankind unfolds.

    Read More

  • The Bible: The Story Of God In The Bible

    1032 Words  | 3 Pages

    The biblical narrative is one that is still going on to this day. The biblical narrative tells the story of God and how he reveals himself to us. Rhodes points out that “God comes to each through a historical event or series of events” (2). It is in this way that God reveals himself to us and this maintains the relevance of the biblical narrative in our lives. God reveals himself through formative stories in the bible such as Creation, Adam and Eve, the Fall of Man, The Flood, God’s Covenant with Noah, and the Tower of Babel. From the very beginning of the biblical narrative we see that God relates to us on a personal level. He created us, he formed us, he created the world in which we live, and he has been an active participant in the narrative since before it began.

    Read More

  • Exegesis Of Matthew

    2222 Words  | 5 Pages

    The Bible contains two parts, which are the Old Testament, the so-called the Jewish Bible, and the New Testament. Though many different writers involved in writing the Bible, the two Testaments are not independent; they are cross-referenced to each other. Christians often treat the Old Testament not only as the historical documents or literatures of the Israelites, but also as an important element of the foundation of the New Testament, because the writers of the New Testament lay strong emphasis on the relationship of Jesus with the prophecies of the Old Testament, which includes "the birth of Jesus, the place of His birth, the flight into Egypt, the return to Nazareth, the role of John the Baptist in preparing Jesus for His public ministry," the crucifixion of Jesus, and the resurrection of Jesus.

    Read More

  • Infancy Gospel Essay

    1264 Words  | 3 Pages

    Centuries ago, shortly after the death of Jesus Christ, Christian leaders gathered together to formulate what we now call the New Testament. Thousands of books and scriptures from countless different countries, and time periods were gathered, examined, and carefully selected into groups of what these religious leaders found the most valuable in telling the story of Jesus Christ and his Ministry. Each gospel, letter, or scripture selected confirmed and testified the life of Jesus as the Messiah and were considered divinely inspired by the church . Roughly 60 years and 27 canons later, and the New Testament was founded and distributed to the Christian community.

    Read More

  • The Book of Nahum

    1622 Words  | 4 Pages

    Watts, John D.W. Nahum. Vol. 34, in World Biblical Commentary, edited by David A. Hubbard and Glenn W. Barker, 61-90. Waco, TX: Word Books, 1984.

    Read More

  • The Exodus: Analysis Of The Book Of Exodus

    834 Words  | 2 Pages

    The book of Exodus is seen as, the “Second Book of Moses”, as well as the second book in the Pentateuch . The Pentateuch is the first five books of the Old Testament, and is also known as the Torah, or “Law” in Hebrew, which is just one section that makes up the whole Hebrew Bible or Tanak. The Torah consists of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers, and is the beginning sections of the Bible. The other two sections are known as Nevi’im, “Prophets”, and Ketuvim, “Writings”. Upon analysis of the book of Exodus, it is expressively important to consider the historical aspects, literary issues, and theological themes that make up such a book.

    Read More

  • King James Bible Analysis

    754 Words  | 2 Pages

    The King James Bible is known as the Bible and in the Bible there is more than 1,200 years of books and different stories in 2 main parts. The Old Testament was written by the Hebrews and New Testament was written by the Greeks. It was completed in 1611 and was a main corner stone to European culture. Back in the day it was in Egyptian which meant that the priests had to learn how to read the Egyptian language. The parable called “The Prodigal Son” is in the King James Bible and when you read this there are some good lessons that you can get out of it and some bad things that you can get out of it.

    Read More

More about Religion: Understanding The Bible

Open Document