₦airaland Forum

Many Christians today think the languages in which they possess a copy of the bible is the original languages and that the bible was written in a single book. The bible is a library of seperate books written within a period of over 1,500 years... The total period of bible events is over 6,000 years. In ancient times, before the invention of writing by Sumerians and Babylonians, people passed information orally to their offsprings who in turn told their own offsprings. After writing was invented, people wrote down events which they witnessed or which they were told. Writing was done on clay tablets and cylinders, broken water-pots, scrolls made from parchment of animal skins and scripts made from the papyrus plants.


Bible writing began in the Middle East around 3,000 years ago among wandering Hebrews. Moses was the first bible writer though there is a tradition that believes Enoch was first religious writer and some said Adam's son, Seth wrote a revelation concerning the Great flood on a stone tablet and kept it.

The oldest book of the bible is the book of Job even though the book of Genesis is before it. The books of the bible are not in the order of time in which they were written. If the books of the bible were to be arranged according to the time they were written, Daniel is supposed to come before Ezra, Chronicles, Esther and Nehemiah; Hosea, Joel, Micah, Amos, Obadiah e.t.c. are supposed to come before Daniel and Job is supposed to be the first book. The book of Job was written by Moses in the wilderness to the Israelites while they were still in Egypt. It was meant to be an encouragement to them in their suffering.


The books of the bible were written seperately and at different times by different people. Each book was written either on a scroll or on a papyrus script or sometimes on rock like the Ten commandments. Each books were written seperately before being compiled into a single one.


LANGUAGES USED TO WRITE THE BIBLE


The bible writers used the languages common in their time to write the books of the bible. Three languages were used to write the bible: Hebrew, Aramaic (Chaldaic and Galilean) and Greek (Koine);

Hebrew: This makes up 99% of the Old Testament while 1% is written in Aramaic. This was the language spoken by the Israelites after the bondage in Egypt and was the language used to write most Old Testament books except portions of Daniel and Ezra and Jeremiah 10:11 which were written in Aramaic. Below is Genesis 1:1-2 in Hebrew

Bereshit bara Elohim et hashmayim ve'et haarets. We'haarets hayatah tohu ve'bohu. We'khosheq al peniy tehom. Ve'ruakh Elohim m'rakhpet al peniy hamayim



Aramaic: This a Syrian/Babylonian language that sounds similar to Hebrew and was the language of the Jews after the Babylonian exile even till the time of Jesus Christ. Portions of the Old Testament are written in this language:

Daniel 2:4-7:28, Ezra 4:7-6:12, Ezra 7:11-26, Jeremiah 10:11 were originally written in Aramaic. Aramaic became a language of Jews and completely replaced Hebrew, its twin language during Jesus' time. The language was divided into various dialects during the rule of Persia. The different Aramaic dialects included: Chaldee or Chaldaic, Syriac or Assyrian, Galilean, Judaean, Mandaic e.t.c. Jesus and His disciples spoke the Galilean dialect of the Aramaic. The language is called "Hebrew" in the New Testament.


Greek: This was an international language at the time of Christ. It was used as communication language between Jews and Non-Jews while Aramaic was spoken only by Jews and Latin was spoken by Romans. The New Testament was written entirely in Greek but there are some Aramaic phrases found in the Gospel and Paul's letters. Some of the verses containing Aramaic phrases includes the following:


"And He took the child by the hand and said to her Talitha cumi which means 'Little girl, I say to you, arise." (Mark 5:41). This word is actually the Aramaic word "Telita qum" which means "Damsel arise"


"Then looking to the heavens, He sighed and said to Him Ephphatha which means 'Be opened'" (Mark 7:34). The word is the Aramaic word "Ef'fata" which means "Be loosed" or "Be opened".

"No one can serve two masters; for he either hate one and love the other or be loyal to one and loathe the other. You cannot serve God and mammon" (Matthew 6:24). The Aramaic word is "mammwon" or "mammwun" which means "wealth" or "abundance" or "riches"


"And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice saying, Eli Eli, lama sabachthani? which means "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?" (Matthew 27:46). The Aramaic sentence is "Eliy Eliy lemah shbataniy" which means "My God, My God why have you abandoned me?"


"Jesus said to her 'Mary!' She turned and said Rabboni! (meaning, Teacher)" (John 20:16). The word here is actually the Aramaic word "Rabbwon" or "Rabbwun" which means "Our Teacher"

"And He said 'Abba, Father, all things are possible for You. Take this cup away from Me, nevertheless, not what I will, but what You will'" (Mark 16:36). "Abba" is an Aramaic word for "Father." In this verse, the "Father" that follows the word is the Greek word "Patere" or "Pater" which is a translation of the Aramaic "Abba."


The New Testament is written in Greek but there is a tradition held by an ancient church that the Gospels were originally in Aramaic and then were translated into Greek so that foreigners could also read it.

HOW WAS THE BIBLE WRITTEN BY ANCIENT MEN

The bible was written by different people in different situations. The stories in the bible are based on real events, ancient men wrote down events that they witnessed so that future generations could read them. They wrote in their languages and then translated them into other languages such as Coptic, Ethiopic, Latin e.t.c. Some of the books in the bible are historical books, others are prophecies concerning our time, some are poems and others are prayers, proverbs, words of mighty men and rules and regulations and warnings from God. Scribes were responsible for recopying each text and recording historical events. During a war, scribes went on top of a mountain and recorded what they saw below the mountain: They made use of goose feathers as pen and ink made of different substances. They wrote on parchment of scrolls, broken pot or papyrus scripts. These records were then discovered and translated into other languages.

HOW THE BIBLE WAS COMPILED AND TRANSLATED



The ancient scrolls were discovered in a cave near the Dead sea. These scrolls were called Dead Sea Scrolls and included books such as; Genesis, Isaiah, Habakkuk e.t.c.

They were compiled and then translated, I am not accurate on the history of the Dead Sea scrolls, you can google search to find out more.


BIBLICAL MANUSCRIPTS

No original biblical manuscript has been discovered today. The surviving manuscripts are only copies of the original. In ancient times, the scribes recopied each bible text, sometimes in different languages. We have texts such as the Septuagint which is a Greek copy of the Old Testament, the Vulgate which is the Old Testament in Latin, the Targum which is an Aramaic Old Testament. Each text were translated at times when the Israelites spoke different languages apart from Hebrew.

Since the writing materials used in ancient times were perishable and there was no printing press then, it was necessary to recopy each text by hand so as to preserve it and prevent it from getting lost. The ink used then was not permanent and so, it could clean off if left for a very long time, and so, scribes recopied each bible text every 200 years or so... Sometimes they recopied them in other languages....


For 3,000 years the Bible has survived and has been passed from generations to generations and thus, it remains the best book in the world and a book for all time.

[img url="http://new.rejesus.co.uk/images/area_uploads/the_passion/original_story.jpg"][/img]

Below are pictures of biblical manusripts and other artifacts that confirm bible stories...



https://new.rejesus.co.uk/images/area_uploads/the_passion/original_story.jpg

Fragment of the gospel of Mark in Greek



https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1d/Papyrus_37_-_recto.jpg/220px-Papyrus_37_-_recto.jpg


Third century papyrus containing Matthew 26


https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/14/Peshitta464.jpg/220px-Peshitta464.jpg

Exodus 13:14-16 in Syriac Aramaic translated from the Hebrew in the year 464



https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/08/Book_of_Esther_IMG_1826.JPG/235px-Book_of_Esther_IMG_1826.JPG


13th/14th century scroll of the book of Esther in Fez, Morrocco


https://www.historywiz.com/images/neareast/floodtablet-gilgamesh.jpg


Sumerian clay tablet that tells the story of the Great Flood


[img]http://www.biblearchaeology.org/image.axd?picture=Nebo-Sarsekim--tablet-WEB.jpg[/img]


Babylonian clay tablet referring to Sarsechim (Jeremiah 39:3)



https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/15/c7/91/15c79114da68acc6edd12b41ee811578.jpg


Babylonian clay tablet telling how King Nebuchadnezzar captured Jerusalem and took them to Babylon



https://www.womeninthebible.net/isaiah-scroll.jpg




Scroll of prophet Isaiah

Your narrative is incomplete without mentioning the history up to the point of the Council of Nicea and the role of Constantine.

jayriginal:
Your narrative is incomplete without mentioning the history up to the point of the Council of Nicea and the role of Constantine.

The council of Nicaea had nothing to do with bible history, they only have business with Christianity and not the history of the bible.

lordnicklaus:
The council of Nicaea had nothing to do with bible history, they only have business with Christianity and not the history of the bible.

Guess again.

jayriginal:
Guess again.

Look I don't know if you are playing games. Nicaea and Constantine had nothing to do with the history of the bible. They only had something to do with the church especially The Roman Catholic church. If you think they had anything to do with the bible, then I would be glad to find out if you would be glad to explain...

lordnicklaus:
Look I don't know if you are playing games. Nicaea and Constantine had nothing to do with the history of the bible. They only had something to do with the church especially The Roman Catholic church. If you think they had anything to do with the bible, then I would be glad to find out if you would be glad to explain...

So far, you've stated that the Bible isn't one book and that it was written by different people over the years.

You've stated that the Bible chapters do not appear in chronological order.

What you've not told us is how the bible appeared in its form. Who took the decisions and how.

Over to you.

jayriginal:
So far, you've stated that the Bible isn't one book and that it was written by different people over the years.

You've stated that the Bible chapters do not appear in chronological order.

What you've not told us is how the bible appeared in its form. Who took the decisions and how.

Over to you.

Not the Bible chapters but the books of the Bible are not in chronological order. Bible translators were responsible for the present form of the Bible: Translators such as Williams Tyndale, Martin Luther, Bishop Anthanasian and so on aided in the translation of the Bible. While translating the Hebrew/Aramaic text and they found a particular text or phrase confusing, they consulted the other ancient translations such as the Septuagint and the Vulgate to verify the translation.


Below is the Complutensian Polyglot bible, the work of Jimenez de Cisneros and Alfonso de Zamora. The first compiled multi-lingual text of the Bible with the original Hebrew/Aramaic text on the left, a Latin translation in the center and a Greek translation on the right and an Aramaic translation below with an accompanying Latin translation. The Complutensian Polyglot is the source manuscript for various bible translations alongside texts such as the Textus Receptus or Received Text, Codex Sinaiticus, Biblia Sturttgartensia, Codex Syriacus, Codex Vaticanus, Erazmus Text, Leningrad Codex and Aramaic Peshitta. All are compiled bible texts.


https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b0/Complutesian_Polyglot_1522.jpg/300px-Complutesian_Polyglot_1522.jpg

lordnicklaus:
Not the Bible chapters but the books of the Bible are not in chronological order. Bible translators were responsible for the present form of the Bible: Translators such as Williams Tyndale, Martin Luther, Bishop Anthanasian and so on aided in the translation of the Bible. While translating the Hebrew/Aramaic text and they found a particular text or phrase confusing, they consulted the other ancient translations such as the Septuagint and the Vulgate to verify the translation.


Below is the Complutensian Polyglot bible, the work of Jimenez de Cisneros and Alfonso de Zamora. The first compiled multi-lingual text of the Bible with the original Hebrew/Aramaic text on the left, a Latin translation in the center and a Greek translation on the right and an Aramaic translation below with an accompanying Latin translation. The Complutensian Polyglot is the source manuscript for various bible translations alongside texts such as the Textus Receptus or Received Text, Codex Sinaiticus, Biblia Sturttgartensia, Codex Syriacus, Codex Vaticanus, Erazmus Text, Leningrad Codex and Aramaic Peshitta. All are compiled bible texts.


https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b0/Complutesian_Polyglot_1522.jpg/300px-Complutesian_Polyglot_1522.jpg

My apologies. I meant books, not chapters


My question is (just in case it wasn't clear), out of the many books and scripts written, who decided what book would make the final compilation, the Bible as it is today.

Who decided what was the inspired word, what was apocryphal,what was heresy and what was not.