Old Testament
Old Testament Part of the Bible | |
---|---|
Information | |
Religion | Christianity |
Language | Hebrew, Aramaic |
Chapters | 929 |
Verses | 23,145 |
Part of a series on the |
Bible |
---|
Outline of Bible-related topics Bible portal |
Part of a series on |
Christianity |
---|
The Old Testament (OT) is the first division of the
The Old Testament consists of many distinct books
The books that compose the Old Testament canon and their order and names differ between various branches of Christianity. The canons of the Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox Churches comprise up to 49 books; the Catholic canon comprises 46 books; and the most common Protestant canon comprises 39 books.[3]
There are 39 books common to essentially all Christian canons. They correspond to the 24
Content
The Old Testament contains 39 (Protestant), 46 (Catholic), or more (Orthodox and other) books, divided, very broadly, into the Pentateuch (Torah), the historical books, the "wisdom" books and the prophets.[4]
The table below uses the spellings and names present in modern editions of the Christian Bible, such as the Catholic
For the Orthodox canon, Septuagint titles are provided in parentheses when these differ from those editions. For the Catholic canon, the Douaic titles are provided in parentheses when these differ from those editions. Likewise, the King James Version references some of these books by the traditional spelling when referring to them in the New Testament, such as "Esaias" (for Isaiah).
In the spirit of
The
The disputed books, included in most canons but not in others, are often called the
Empty table cells indicate that a book is absent from that canon.
Several of the books in the Eastern Orthodox canon are also found in the appendix to the
Books in the appendix to the Vulgate Bible
| |
Name in Vulgate | Name in Eastern Orthodox use |
---|---|
3 Esdras | 1 Esdras |
4 Esdras | 2 Esdras |
Prayer of Manasseh | Prayer of Manasseh |
Psalm of David when he slew Goliath (Psalm 151) | Psalm 151 |
Historicity
Early scholarship
Some of the stories of the Pentateuch may derive from older sources. American science writer Homer W. Smith points out similarities between the Genesis creation narrative and that of the Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh, such as the inclusion of the creation of the first man (Adam/Enkidu) in the Garden of Eden, a tree of knowledge, a tree of life, and a deceptive serpent.[8] Scholars such as Andrew R. George point out the similarity of the Genesis flood narrative and the Gilgamesh flood myth.[9][u] Similarities between the origin story of Moses and that of Sargon of Akkad were noted by psychoanalyst Otto Rank in 1909[13] and popularized by 20th-century writers, such as H. G. Wells and Joseph Campbell.[14][15] Jacob Bronowski writes that, "the Bible is ... part folklore and part record. History is ... written by the victors, and the Israelis, when they burst through [Jericho (c. 1400 BC)], became the carriers of history."[16]
Recent scholarship
In 2007, a historian of ancient Judaism Lester L. Grabbe explained that earlier biblical scholars such as Julius Wellhausen (1844–1918) could be described as 'maximalist', accepting biblical text unless it has been disproven. Continuing in this tradition, both "the 'substantial historicity' of the patriarchs" and "the unified conquest of the land" were widely accepted in the United States until about the 1970s. Contrarily, Grabbe says that those in his field now "are all minimalists – at least, when it comes to the patriarchal period and the settlement. ... [V]ery few are willing to operate [as maximalists]."[17]
In 2022, archaeologist Avraham Faust wrote that in the 1990s a school known as biblical minimalism rejected the historical value of the Bible for the study of ancient Israel during the Iron Age, "but this extreme approach was rejected by mainstream scholarship."[18]
Composition
The first five books—
The two Books of Chronicles cover much the same material as the Pentateuch and Deuteronomistic history and probably date from the 4th century BC.[21] Chronicles, and Ezra–Nehemiah, was probably finished during the 3rd century BC.[22] Catholic and Orthodox Old Testaments contain two (Catholic Old Testament) to four (Orthodox) Books of the Maccabees, written in the 2nd and 1st centuries BC.
These history books make up around half the total content of the Old Testament. Of the remainder, the books of the various prophets—
Themes
Throughout the Old Testament, God is consistently depicted as the one who created the world. Although the God of the Old Testament is not consistently presented as the only god who exists, he is always depicted as the only God whom Israel is to worship, or the one "true God", that only Yahweh (or YHWH) is Almighty.[25]
The Old Testament stresses the special relationship between God and his
Further themes in the Old Testament include
The
Formation
The process by which scriptures became canons and Bibles was a long one, and its complexities account for the many different Old Testaments which exist today. Timothy H. Lim, a professor of Hebrew Bible and Second Temple Judaism at the University of Edinburgh, identifies the Old Testament as "a collection of authoritative texts of apparently divine origin that went through a human process of writing and editing."[2] He states that it is not a magical book, nor was it literally written by God and passed to mankind. By about the 5th century BC, Jews saw the five books of the Torah (the Old Testament Pentateuch) as having authoritative status; by the 2nd century BC, the Prophets had a similar status, although without quite the same level of respect as the Torah; beyond that, the Jewish scriptures were fluid, with different groups seeing authority in different books.[34]
Greek
Hebrew texts began to be translated into Greek in
It varies in many places from the Masoretic Text and includes numerous books no longer considered canonical in some traditions: 1 and 2
The Septuagint was originally used by
In 331,
Latin
In Western Christianity or Christianity in the Western half of the Roman Empire, Latin had displaced Greek as the common language of the early Christians, and in 382 AD Pope Damasus I commissioned Jerome, the leading scholar of the day, to produce an updated Latin Bible to replace the Vetus Latina, which was a Latin translation of the Septuagint. Jerome's work, called the Vulgate, was a direct translation from Hebrew, since he argued for the superiority of the Hebrew texts in correcting the Septuagint on both philological and theological grounds.[42] His Vulgate Old Testament became the standard Bible used in the Western Church, specifically as the Sixto-Clementine Vulgate, while the Churches in the East continued, and continue, to use the Septuagint.[43]
Jerome, however, in the
Protestant canon
In the 16th century, the Protestant reformers sided with Jerome; yet although most Protestant Bibles now have only those books that appear in the Hebrew Bible, the order is that of the Greek Bible.[48]
Rome then officially adopted a canon, the
Other versions
While the Hebrew, Greek and Latin versions of the Hebrew Bible are the best known Old Testaments, there were others. At much the same time as the Septuagint was being produced, translations were being made into Aramaic, the language of Jews living in Palestine and the Near East and likely the language of Jesus: these are called the Aramaic Targums, from a word meaning "translation", and were used to help Jewish congregations understand their scriptures.[53]
For Aramaic Christians, there was a
Christian theology
Christianity is based on the belief that the
By the time of Jesus, some Jews expected that a flesh-and-blood descendant of
Some[who?] thought the Messiah was already present, but unrecognised due to Israel's sins; some[who?] thought that the Messiah would be announced by a forerunner, probably Elijah (as promised by the prophet Malachi, whose book now ends the Old Testament and precedes Mark's account of John the Baptist). However, no view of the Messiah as based on the Old Testament predicted a Messiah who would suffer and die for the sins of all people.[54] The story of Jesus' death, therefore, involved a profound shift in meaning from the Old Testament tradition.[55]
The name "Old Testament" reflects Christianity's understanding of itself as the
See also
- Abrogation of Old Covenant laws
- Biblical and Quranic narratives
- Book of Job in Byzantine illuminated manuscripts
- Criticism of the Bible
- Expounding of the Law
- Genealogies of Genesis
- Law and Gospel
- List of ancient legal codes
- List of Hebrew Bible manuscripts
- Marcion of Sinope
- New Testament
- Non-canonical books referenced in the Bible
- Quotations from the Hebrew Bible in the New Testament
Explanatory notes
- , etc.
- Thirty-Nine Articles of Anglicanism, in Article VI, asserts these disputed books are not used "to establish any doctrine", but "read for example of life." Although the Biblical Apocrypha are still used in Anglican Liturgy,[5]the modern trend is to not even print the Old Testament Apocrypha in editions of Anglican-used Bibles
- ^ The 24 books of the Hebrew Bible are the same as the 39 books of the Protestant Old Testament, only divided and ordered differently: the books of the Minor Prophets are in Christian Bibles twelve different books, and in Hebrew Bibles, one book called "The Twelve". Likewise, Christian Bibles divide the Books of Kingdoms into four books, either 1–2 Samuel and 1–2 Kings or 1–4 Kings: Jewish Bibles divide these into two books. The Jews likewise keep 1–2 Chronicles/Paralipomenon as one book. Ezra and Nehemiah are likewise combined in the Jewish Bible, as they are in many Orthodox Bibles, instead of divided into two books, as per the Catholic and Protestant tradition.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k This book is part of the Ketuvim, the third section of the Jewish canon. There is a different order in Jewish canon than in Christian canon.
- ^ a b c d The books of Samuel and Kings are often called First through Fourth Kings in the Catholic tradition, much like the Orthodox.
- ^ a b c d e f Names in parentheses are the Septuagint names and are often used by the Orthodox Christians.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k One of 11 deuterocanonical books in the Russian Synodal Bible.
- ^ 2 Esdras in the Russian Synodal Bible.
- ^ Ezra and Nehemiahas one book.
- ^ 1 Esdras in the Russian Synodal Bible.
- ^ a b The Catholic and Orthodox Book of Esther includes 103 verses not in the Protestant Book of Esther.
- ^ Latin Vulgate, Douay–Rheims, and Revised Standard Version Catholic Editionplace First and Second Maccabees after Malachi; other Catholic translations place them after Esther.
- ^ 1 Maccabees is hypothesized by most scholars to have been originally written in Hebrew; however, if it was, the original Hebrew has been lost. The surviving Septuagint version is in Greek.[6]
- ^ In Greek Bibles, 4 Maccabees is found in the appendix.
- ^ Eastern Orthodox churches include Psalm 151 and the Prayer of Manasseh, not present in all canons.
- ^ Part of 2 Paralipomenon in the Russian Synodal Bible.
- ^ a b In Catholic Bibles, Baruch includes a sixth chapter called the Letter of Jeremiah. Baruch is not in the Protestant Bible or the Tanakh.
- ^ Eastern Orthodox Bibles have the books of Baruch and the Letter of Jeremiah separate.
- ^ Hebrew (minority view); see Letter of Jeremiah for details.
- ^ The Prayer of Azariah and Song of the Three Holy Children are included between Daniel 3:23–24. Susanna is included as Daniel 13. Bel and the Dragonis included as Daniel 14. These are not in the Protestant Old Testament.
- ^ The latter flood myth appears in a Babylonian copy dating to 700 BC,[10] though many scholars believe that this was probably copied from the Akkadian: Atra-Hasis, which dates to the 18th century BC.[11] George points out that the modern version of the Epic of Gilgamesh was compiled by Sîn-lēqi-unninni, who lived sometime between 1300 and 1000 BC.[12]
Citations
- ^ a b Jones 2000, p. 215.
- ^ a b Lim, Timothy H. (2005). The Dead Sea Scrolls: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 41.
- ^ Barton 2001, p. 3.
- ^ Boadt 1984, pp. 11, 15–16.
- Benedictus es and Benedicite, are taken from the Apocrypha. One of the offertory sentences in Holy Communion comes from an apocryphal book (Tob. 4: 8–9). Lessons from the Apocrypha are regularly appointed to be reason Sunday, Sunday, and the special services of Morning and Evening Prayer. There are altogether 111 such lessons in the latest revised American Prayer Book Lectionary [Books used are: II Esdras, Tobit, Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, Baruch, Three Holy Children, and I Maccabees.]
- ISBN 0-385-08533-8.
- ^ Driver, Samuel Rolles (1911). . In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 3 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 849–894, see page 853, third para.
Jeremiah.....were first written down in 604 B.C. by his friend and amanuensis Baruch, and the roll thus formed must have formed the nucleus of the present book. Some of the reports of Jeremiah's prophecies, and especially the biographical narratives, also probably have Baruch for their author. But the chronological disorder of the book, and other indications, show that Baruch could not have been the compiler of the book
- ^ Smith, Homer W. (1952). Man and His Gods. New York: Grosset & Dunlap. p. 117.
- ISBN 978-0-19-927841-1.
- ISBN 978-1-4262-0084-7.
- ISBN 9780865165465.
- ISBN 0-14-044919-1.
- ^ Otto Rank (1914). The myth of the birth of the hero: a psychological interpretation of mythology. English translation by F. Robbins and Smith Ely Jelliffe. New York: The Journal of nervous and mental disease publishing company.
- ^ Wells, H. G. (1961) [1937]. The Outline of History: Volume 1. Doubleday. pp. 206, 208, 210, 212.
- ^ Campbell, Joseph (1964). The Masks of God, Vol. 3: Occidental Mythology. p. 127.
- ISBN 978-0-563-20900-3.
- ISBN 978-0-19-726401-0.
- ISBN 978-1-000-77324-8.
- ^ Blenkinsopp 1998, p. 184.
- ^ Rogerson 2003, pp. 153–54.
- ^ Coggins 2003, p. 282.
- ^ Grabbe 2003, pp. 213–14.
- ^ Miller 1987, pp. 10–11.
- ^ Crenshaw 2010, p. 5.
- ^ a b Barton 2001, p. 9: "4. Covenant and Redemption. It is a central point in many OT texts that the creator God YHWH is also in some sense Israel's special god, who at some point in history entered into a relationship with his people that had something of the nature of a contract. Classically this contract or covenant was entered into at Sinai, and Moses was its mediator."
- ^ Coogan 2008, p. 106.
- ^ Ferguson 1996, p. 2.
- ^ Ska 2009, p. 213.
- ^ Berman 2006, p. unpaginated: "At this juncture, however, God is entering into a "treaty" with the Israelites, and hence the formal need within the written contract for the grace of the sovereign to be documented.30 30. Mendenhall and Herion, "Covenant," p. 1183."
- ^ Levine 2001, p. 46.
- ^ Hayes 2006.
- ^ Berlin & Brettler 2014, p. PT194: 6.17–22: Further introduction and a pledge. 18: This v. records the first mention of the covenant ("brit") in the Tanakh. In the ancient Near East, a covenant was an agreement that the parties swore before the gods, and expected the gods to enforce. In this case, God is Himself a party to the covenant, which is more like a pledge than an agreement or contract (this was sometimes the case in the ancient Near East as well). The covenant with Noah will receive longer treatment in 9.1–17.
- ^ a b Barton 2001, p. 10.
- ^ Brettler 2005, p. 274.
- ^ Gentry 2008, p. 302.
- ^ Würthwein 1995.
- ^ Jones 2000, p. 216.
- ^ Cave, William. A complete history of the lives, acts, and martyrdoms of the holy apostles, and the two evangelists, St. Mark and Luke, Vol. II. Wiatt (Philadelphia), 1810. Retrieved 2013-02-06.
- ^ Apol. Const. 4
- ^ The Canon Debate, pp. 414–15, for the entire paragraph
- ^ Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Canonicity: "..." the Synod of Nicaea is said to have accounted it as Sacred Scripture" (Praef. in Lib.). No such declaration indeed is to be found in the Canons of Nicaea, and it is uncertain whether St. Jerome is referring to the use made of the book in the discussions of the council, or whether he was misled by some spurious canons attributed to that council". .
- ISBN 9781134638444
- ^ Würthwein 1995, pp. 91–99.
- ^ "The Bible". www.thelatinlibrary.com.
- ^ Kevin P. Edgecomb, Jerome's Prologue to Jeremiah, archived from the original on 2013-12-31, retrieved 2015-11-30
- ^ McDonald & Sanders, editors of The Canon Debate, 2002, chapter 5: The Septuagint: The Bible of Hellenistic Judaism by Albert C. Sundberg Jr., page 72, Appendix D-2, note 19.
- ^ Everett Ferguson, "Factors leading to the Selection and Closure of the New Testament Canon", in The Canon Debate. eds. L. M. McDonald & J. A. Sanders (Hendrickson, 2002) p. 320; F. F. Bruce, The Canon of Scripture (Intervarsity Press, 1988) p. 230; cf. Augustine, De Civitate Dei 22.8
- ^ a b Barton 1997, pp. 80–81.
- ^ Philip Schaff, "Chapter IX. Theological Controversies, and Development of the Ecumenical Orthodoxy", History of the Christian Church, CCEL
- ^ Lindberg (2006). A Brief History of Christianity. Blackwell Publishing. p. 15.
- ^ F.L. Cross, E.A. Livingstone, ed. (1983), The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (2nd ed.), Oxford University Press, p. 232
- ^ Soggin 1987, p. 19.
- ^ a b Würthwein 1995, pp. 79–90, 100–4.
- ^ a b Farmer 1991, pp. 570–71.
- ^ Juel 2000, pp. 236–39.
- ^ Jeremiah 31:31
- ^ Herion 2000, pp. 291–92.
General and cited references
- Bandstra, Barry L (2004), Reading the Old Testament: an introduction to the Hebrew Bible, Wadsworth, ISBN 978-0-495-39105-0
- Barton, John (1997), How the Bible Came to Be, Westminster John Knox Press, ISBN 978-0-664-25785-9
- ——— (2001), "Introduction to the Old Testament", in Muddiman, John; Barton, John (eds.), Bible Commentary, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-875500-5
- Berlin, Adele; Brettler, Marc Zvi, eds. (2014-10-17). The Jewish Study Bible: Second Edition. Oxford University Press. p. PT194. ISBN 978-0-19-939387-9.
- Berman, Joshua A. (Summer 2006). "God's Alliance with Man". Azure: Ideas for the Jewish Nation (25). ISSN 0793-6664. Retrieved 2019-10-31.
- ISBN 978-0-521-48593-7
- ISBN 978-0-8091-2631-6
- ISBN 978-0-8276-1001-9
- Bultman, Christoph (2001), "Deuteronomy", in Barton, John; Muddiman, John (eds.), Oxford Bible Commentary, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-875500-5
- ISBN 978-0-8028-3711-0
- Coogan, Michael David (2008-11-01). A Brief Introduction to the Old Testament: The Hebrew Bible in Its Context. Oxford University Press. p. 106. ISBN 978-0-19-533272-8..
- ISBN 978-0-664-23459-1
- Davies, GI (1998), "Introduction to the Pentateuch", in Barton, John (ed.), Oxford Bible Commentary, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-875500-5
- Dines, Jennifer M (2004), "The Septuagint", Continuum, ISBN 978-0-567-08464-4
- Farmer, Ron (1991), "Messiah/Christ", in Mills, Watson E; Bullard, Roger Aubrey (eds.), Mercer dictionary of the Bible, Mercer University Press, ISBN 978-0-86554-373-7
- Ferguson, Everett (1996). The Church of Christ: A Biblical Ecclesiology for Today. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. p. 2. ISBN 978-0-8028-4189-6.
- Gentry, Peter R (2008), "Old Greek and Later Revisors", in Sollamo, Raija; Voitila, Anssi; Jokiranta, Jutta (eds.), Scripture in transition, Brill, ISBN 978-90-04-16582-3
- ISBN 978-0-8028-3711-0
- ISBN 978-0-8028-0537-9
- Hayes, Christine (2006). "Introduction to the Old Testament (Hebrew Bible): Lecture 6 Transcript". Open Yale Courses. Retrieved 2019-10-31.
- Herion, Gary A (2000), "Covenant", in Freedman, David Noel (ed.), Dictionary of the Bible, Eerdmans, ISBN 978-90-5356-503-2
- Jobes, Karen H; Silva, Moises (2005), Invitation to the Septuagint, Baker Academic
- Jones, Barry A (2000), "Canon of the Old Testament", in Freedman, David Noel (ed.), Dictionary of the Bible, William B Eerdmans, ISBN 978-90-5356-503-2
- ISBN 978-90-5356-503-2
- Levine, Amy-Jill (2001). "Covenant and Law, Part I (Exodus 19–40, Leviticus, Deuteronomy). Lecture 10" (PDF). The Old Testament. Course Guidebook. The Great Courses. p. 46.
- Lim, Timothy H. (2005). The Dead Sea Scrolls: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- McLay, Tim (2003), The use of the Septuagint in New Testament research, Eerdmans, ISBN 978-0-8028-6091-0
- Miller, John W (2004), How the Bible came to be, Paulist Press, ISBN 978-0-8091-4183-8
- Miller, John W (1987), Meet the prophets: a beginner's guide to the books of the biblical prophets, Paulist Press, ISBN 978-0-8091-2899-0
- Miller, Stephen R. (1994), Daniel, B&H Publishing Group, ISBN 978-0-8054-0118-9
- Rogerson, John W (2003), "Deuteronomy", in Dunn, James DG; Rogerson, John William (eds.), Commentary on the Bible, Eerdmans, ISBN 978-0-8028-3711-0
- Sailhamer, John H. (1992), The Pentateuch As Narrative, Zondervan, ISBN 978-0-310-57421-7
- ISBN 978-0-521-53622-6
- Ska, Jean Louis (2009). The Exegesis of the Pentateuch: Exegetical Studies and Basic Questions. Mohr Siebeck. p. 213. ISBN 978-3-16-149905-0.
- ISBN 978-0-664-22156-0
- Stuart, Douglas (1987), Hosea-Jonah, Thomas Nelson, ISBN 978-0-8499-0230-7
- Würthwein, Ernst (1995), The text of the Old Testament: an introduction to the Biblia Hebraica, William B Eerdmans, ISBN 978-0-8028-0788-5
Further reading
- ISBN 0-13-948399-3
- Bahnsen, Greg, et al., Five Views on Law and Gospel (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1993).
- Berkowitz, Ariel; Berkowitz, D'vorah (2004), Torah Rediscovered (4th ed.), Shoreshim, ISBN 978-0-9752914-0-5.
- ISBN 978-0-8028-0975-9.
- Driver, Samuel Rolles (1911). . In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 3 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 849–894.
- Hill, Andrew; Walton, John (2000), A Survey of the Old Testament (2nd ed.), Grand Rapids: Zondervan, ISBN 978-0-310-22903-2.
- Kuntz, John Kenneth (1974), The People of Ancient Israel: an introduction to Old Testament Literature, History, and Thought, Harper & Row, ISBN 978-0-06-043822-7.
- Lancaster, D Thomas (2005), Restoration: Returning the Torah of God to the Disciples of Jesus, Littleton \: First Fruits of Zion.
- Papadaki-Oekland, Stella (2009), Byzantine Illuminated Manuscripts of the Book of Job, Brepols, ISBN 978-2-503-53232-5.
- von Rad, Gerhard (1982–1984), Theologie des Alten Testaments [Theology of the Old Testament] (in German), vol. Band 1–2, Munich: Auflage.
- Rouvière, Jean-Marc (2006), Brèves méditations sur la Création du monde [Brief meditations on the creation of the World] (in French), Paris: L'Harmattan.
- ISBN 978-0-224-02830-1.
- Schmid, Konrad (2012), The Old Testament: A Literary History, Minneapolis: Fortress, ISBN 978-0-8006-9775-4.
- ISBN 0-684-86913-6(paperback).
- Sprinkle, Joseph 'Joe' M (2006), Biblical Law and Its Relevance: A Christian Understanding and Ethical Application for Today of the Mosaic Regulations, Lanham, Maryland: University Press of America, ISBN 0-7618-3372-2(paperback).
External links
- Bible gateway. Full texts of the Old (and New) Testaments including the full Roman and Orthodox Catholic canons
- Early Jewish Writings, archived from the original on 2018-09-24, retrieved 2018-09-29 – Tanakh
- "Old Testament", Écritures, La feuille d'Olivier, archived from the original on 2010-12-07 Protestant Old Testament on a single page
- "Old Testament", Reading Room, Canada: Tyndale Seminary. Extensive online Old Testament resources (including commentaries)
- Introduction to the Old Testament (Hebrew Bible), Yale University
- "Old Testament". Encyclopedia.com. The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.
- Bible, X10 host: Old Testament stories and commentary
- Tanakh ML (parallel Bible) – Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia and the King James Version