01-23-24 #3 Bible & Canon answers

.docx

School

Mount St. Mary's University *

*We aren’t endorsed by this school

Course

220

Subject

Religion

Date

Apr 3, 2024

Type

docx

Pages

Uploaded by dyanacastro03

Week 2 Topic Reading Assignment Jan 23 The Bible, the Canon and the Church Portier, “The Bible and the Church,” pp. 97-119; Dei Verbum #14-20 WS #3 Introduction The Bible Recognizing that not everyone has the same experience of reading the Bible, this material will serve as an introduction to Christian’s record of God’s revelation. It bears witness to God’s revelation (self-disclosure or self-communication) in the history of Israel and Jesus, but also speaks to Christians today as they proclaim it, read it, meditate on it, and pray with it. In this class, we will be introduced to a general view of the Old Testament and the New Testament. 1) What are the two separate processes that we must distinguish when we speak about the Bible’s origin from an historical perspective? (98) a) The actual composition of the individual books, the production of the text (Genesis, Psalms, Gospels, Paul’s letters, etc.) b) The process of gathering these books into a sacred collection of scriptures, the formation of the canon (usually some catalyst for engaging in this process) 2) What is the difference between the Hebrew canon, used by Jews and Protestants, and the Catholic canon? What accounts for the difference? (98) Simple answer: Hebrew (Old Testament) canon, used by Jews and Protestants (39 books) is based upon the decisions at the Council of Jamnia in 90 AD. The Hebrew (Old Testament) canon, used by Catholics and Orthodox (46 books) is based upon the Septuagint in 3 rd - 2 nd century BC. More detailed answer: -both Protestant and Catholic/Orthodox Bibles are the same in the NT (27 books) -Catholic and Orthodox Christians have 46 OT books and Protestant and Jewish Bibles have 39 OT books. Why? -the original Jewish Scriptures (OT) are written in Hebrew (the people are Jewish and this is their language!)

-Alexander the Great Hellenizes the world…Greek language becomes common place -in 3 rd C.-2 nd C. B.C. Jewish people had migrated to Egypt (which had been Hellenized) and needed their scriptures (OT) translated into Greek (they no longer spoke or read Hebrew…just like when people immigrated to USA generations ago and no longer spoke Italian, or French, or German, etc.) -the Greek translation of the Jewish scriptures (OT) into Greek is called the Septuagint. They translated 46 books…these were the number of books that people were using in prayer and worship at the time that they were translated -the earliest Christians were, of course, Jewish, but quickly the majority were Gentiles and they spoke Greek. In fact, the whole NT is written in Greek. The version of the OT that early Christians used was the Greek one…the Septuagint (with its 46 books) -after the Temple was destroyed in 70 AD by the Romans, the whole Jewish people were in upheaval. At the Council of Jamnia in 90 AD, they settled on 39 books as the official number, as these were the number of books they were using in prayer and worship at that time (the official number of books is called the canon…note one “n!”; canon not cannon! ) -the Greek-speaking Christians continued to use the Septuagint with its 46 books -at the time of the Reformation, the Reformers thought that the “Catholics” had added 7 books, and they decided to go back to the “original” number of 39 (this was an erroneous assumption…nothing was added, it is just that Christians were using the number of books based upon the Septuagint and the Jewish people were using the number of books based on the decision at the Council of Jamnia.) -the 7 disputed books are recognized by Protestant and Jews as holy books, but they are not seen as part of the official number (the canon). They are usually included in Protestant Bibles as the “Apocrypha.” These books: Sirach, Wisdom, Baruch, Tobit, Judith, 1 and 2 Maccabees (as well as some additions to the books of Esther and Daniel). 3) Why does Portier think it is better to refer to the first part of the Bible as the Old Testament, rather than the Hebrew Scriptures? (99) First, the version of the Catholic Old Testament comes from the Septuagint, which is a Greek translation of the Hebrew texts…so calling it the Hebrew scriptures does not entirely capture this. Second, and more importantly, this Old Testament collection of books is

embraced by Christians. The early Christian church rejected proposals to abandon, along with its God, what came to be called the Old Testament. Marcion, a second-century Christian from Asia Minor was the chief advocate to reject the Old Testament. Portier notes that there is a difference in how a Jew or a Christian might read the Old Testament. For the Jew, various texts might refer to God’s promises unfulfilled, while a Christian might see in these same texts references to fulfillment in Jesus Christ. 4) How does Portier divide the books of the Old Testament and the New Testament? (100- 106) Old Testament : The Law (Torah = teaching or instruction) = The Pentateuch (five books) The Prophets The Writings Historical Books Wisdom Books New Testament Gospels Pauline Collection Catholic Epistles Apocalypse (Book of Revelation) 5) What is the work of a textual critic? Do you have any experience of textual criticism in your field of study right now? (107) Textual critics use all the existing copies of a text and compare them to produce the most accurate text. We usually call this the “critical text” or the “critical edition.” This is used for historical documents, literary texts, and in any circumstance where you are comparing copies. You might think of even simple examples of comparing copies of someone’s will after they die. Only 2% of the New Testament texts are disputed because we have so many copies of manuscripts: over 5,800 complete or fragmented Greek manuscripts catalogued, 10,000 Latin manuscripts and 9,300 manuscripts in various other ancient languages including Syriac, Slavic, Gothic, Ethiopic, Coptic, and Armenian.

Your preview ends here

Eager to read complete document? Join bartleby learn and gain access to the full version

Access to all documents
Unlimited textbook solutions
24/7 expert homework help