Today, when we pronounce the word “Bible,” we all imagine approximately the same thing: a huge volume of a book with a large number of pages made of the thinnest paper, in which all the sacred texts of Christianity and Judaism are concentrated. And a lot of people think that it was like this all along, without wondering who wrote the Bible. However, the Book of Books did not immediately acquire its modern appearance. People have argued for centuries about what should be included in the sacred volume. The Bible is a book that has been reread for several millennia, carefully analyzing every sentence, word and every sign; people have accumulated many questions and contradictions that complicate an accurate comprehension of the sacred text.
In what year was the Bible written? The complete list of books included in the Christian Old Testament, in Jewish Tanakh, were created around the 13th century BC. e.
In various lists and variations they were passed on to religious communities. There was no common opinion among Jewish theologians; some of them could consider the text sacred, while others could simply declare it apocryphal. Such disorganization was detrimental to the young religion. Many people could not understand the intricate interpretations and intricacies of the books of the Tanakh, so they decided to return to paganism, which is devoid of such problems.
The Jewish priests were very concerned about this problem. The man who undertook to restore order to the Holy Scriptures of the Jews was the first priest Ezra, who lived in the 5th century BC. e. In fact, he can be dubbed the “father” of Judaism. For the Christian people, he is the “father” of the Old Testament. Having collected the books, Ezra established which of them should be considered correct, and began to introduce the Law sent from above among the Jewish people.
Some editions of the Old Testament were created during the 5th century BC. e. to the 1st century after the Birth of Christ after the death of Ezra, such as the Maccabees books. These books are considered to be the “historical books” of the Bible due to the fact that they tell not so much about the relationship with God as about the traditions of the Jewish people. However, they are recognized as sacred.
Questions from visitors and answers from experts:
The truth is that the same problems began with them as with ancient books. Namely: which of the texts is considered inspired by God, and which is simply thoughts about the history of the priest himself?
With these questions, the Jews decided only towards the end of the 1st century AD. At a meeting of the Sanhedrin, the Jewish canon was officially adopted. The meeting took place in the city of Yavne after the destruction by the Roman army of the main shrine of the Jews - the Temple of Jerusalem. The Tanakh consists of 22 (according to other sources - 24) books:
- the books of the prophets (Neviim) and the writings of the sages of Israel;
- prayer poetry (Ketuvim);
- as well as the Pentateuch of Moses (Torah).
What language is the Bible written in? Obviously in Hebrew.
List of holy books
A new religion arose in the 1st century - Christianity, which inherited problems from Judaism along with the Old Testament. Deciding what deserved to be transferred from the old faith to the new and what did not was very difficult. Christians previously became familiar with a large number of biblical books in Greek, and not in the original Hebrew. This introduced a certain amount of distortion and misunderstanding due to the nature of the translation.
As long as Christians lived in independent, scattered and secret societies, there was no talk of a canon. Each presbyter or deacon independently decided which books to read to his flock. The words of Jesus Christ meant more to them than their Jewish heritage. Christians decided to make a decision about the Old Testament only in the 7th century, after they had resolved the most difficult internal church disputes and defined the most important theological concepts.
In the future, the Eastern churches will be called Orthodox.
In 692, at the Trullo Council of the Eastern Churches, a decision was made to recognize 39 canonical books as sacred (those that were recognized by the Jews) and 11 non-canonical (those that, for various reasons, were rejected by the Sanhedrin). This list of 50 Old Testament books is still read in traditional Orthodox society.
However, the Bishop of Rome (who will become the head of the Catholic Church in the near future) refused to sign the conclusion of the Trullo Council. The thing is that among the decisions of the council there were condemnations of some customs that were accepted by the Western Church, but rejected by the Eastern. By refusing to sign the decisions of the council, the head of the Roman church also refused to approve the books that would be included in the Old Testament. Therefore, Catholics had to live without a canon until the 16th century.
At the Council of Trent only in 1546, a list was approved; it included 46 books. However, among the Eastern churches the agreement did not last long. Later, many of them revised the canon, which was adopted by the Trullo Council. Today, many of them have a very different list of books of the Old Testament. For example, the canon of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church includes 54 books.
In the 16th century, the emerging Protestants also thought about the canon of the Old Testament along with Catholics. Trying to cleanse Christianity of all unnecessary things, the reformers also approached the Jewish heritage very critically. Some followers of Martin Luther decided that those books preserved in the original language should be recognized as canonical. All the rest, which reached them only in Greek translations, can only claim the status of apocrypha. That is why there are only 39 books in the Protestant Old Testament.
Regarding the New Testament, the followers of Jesus Christ agreed in the most organized way. It included 27 books, recognizing almost all Christian denominations, with rare exceptions. Such as the Acts of the Apostles, the four Gospels, the 21 Epistles of the Apostles and the Revelation of John the Theologian.
Thus, it turns out that the Orthodox Bible contains 77 books, the Catholic Bible has 73 books, and the Protestant Bible has 66 books.
Who wrote the Old Testament
Having decided on the composition of the Holy Scriptures, we can return to the question of authorship. This problem is primarily directly related to the Pentateuch (Genesis, Exodus, Numbers, Leviticus, Deuteronomy), which contains the most important postulates of belief in One God. These included the Ten Commandments; Jewish and then Christian morality were based on them.
For a long time, the fact that these books were written personally by the prophet Moses was not questioned. The only deviation from this interpretation, allowed by the rigid early Jewish priests, is that the last 8 verses of Deuteronomy, which tell about the death of Moses, were written by Joshua. Some Pharisees still insisted that these lines were written by Moses himself, to whom a revelation was sent about how he would end his last days.
However, the more carefully and longer the Christian and Jewish scribes read the Pentateuch, the clearer the contradictions that existed in it became. For example, in the list of kings who ruled the people of Judah, those who lived after the death of Moses are also mentioned. This can also be explained by divine providence. However, why certain stories are narrated twice in the Pentateuch, with obvious discrepancies, is more difficult to explain.
Still, the fear of being accused of blasphemy was too strong. Only in the 18th century did the German Johann Eichhorn and the Frenchman Jean Astruc propose the version that the Pentateuch is a mixture of two primary sources together. They proposed to distinguish them by the name of God. In the first case he is called Yahweh, and in others he is called Elohim. In this regard, the sources acquired the names Elohist and Yahwist.
In the 19th century, this theory was developed by other researchers who suggested that the number of primary sources was greater. Current biblical scholarship believes that there are at least 4 sources in the Pentateuch.
A similar story happened with the books of the prophets Ezekiel and Isaiah. Based on the textual analysis of the Song of Solomon, we can conclude that it was most likely written in the 3rd century BC. e. Thus, 700 years later than the times when King Solomon was still alive.
Who wrote the New Testament
New Testament scholars have just as many questions. The more detailed they reread the canon of Gospels, the more often the question arose: how much was actually written by Jesus’ companions - the apostles? None of the gospel texts (the exception is the Gospel of John) contains a description of the author’s personality. So perhaps we only have the retellings that were written down by those who studied with the apostles and would like to preserve and record their stories for posterity?
The peculiarities of the style in which these texts were written pushed a large number of theologians to the idea that they could not have been created earlier than the second half of the 1st century. In the modern world, biblical scholars fully agree that the Gospels were written by anonymous authors who had the stories of the apostles themselves at their disposal, as well as some text that has not survived to this day, scientists nicknamed it “Source 0”. This source was not a gospel story, but rather was a semblance of a collection of Jesus’ words, which were most likely recorded by direct listeners of his sermons.
The general consensus among Bible scholars is that Mark was the first gospel to be written. This was around the 60s and 70s. Next, on its basis, the Gospels of Matthew (70-90s) and Luke (80-100s) were written. Actually, that’s why the texts of all these stories are so close. The Gospel of John was created around 80-95 and was written apart from everyone. In addition, the author of the Gospel of Luke was most likely the author of the Acts of the Apostles. Later, instead of the names of the authors, “holy authors” were added.
Conclusion
Orthodox theologians argue that problems of authorship should not call the very content of the Gospels into question. Today, the Bible is revered as a repository of wisdom and a historical source of religious beliefs and opinions. Therefore, the question about the true personalities of the “co-authors” of the Lord God does not at all diminish this respect. It is unlikely that we will ever know their names. However, we can pay due respect to their great work.
Not all people can answer the question: what is the Bible, although it is the most famous and widespread book on the planet. For some it is a spiritual landmark, for others it is a story that describes several thousand years of the existence and development of mankind.
This article provides answers to frequently asked questions: who invented the Holy Scripture, how many books are in the Bible, how old it is, where it came from, and at the end there will be a link to the text itself.
What is the Bible
The Bible is a collection of writings compiled by different authors. The Holy Scriptures are written in different literary styles, and interpretation comes from these styles. The purpose of the Bible is to bring the words of the Lord to people.
The main topics are:
- creation of the world and man;
- the fall and expulsion of people from paradise;
- life and faith of the ancient Jewish peoples;
- the coming of the Messiah to earth;
- life and suffering of the Son of God Jesus Christ.
Who wrote the Bible
The Word of God was written by different people and at different times. Its creation was carried out by holy people close to God - apostles and prophets.
Through their hands and minds, the Holy Spirit brought the truth and righteousness of God to people.
How many books are in the Bible
The Holy Scriptures of the Russian Orthodox Church include 77 books. The Old Testament is based on 39 canonical writings and 11 non-canonical ones.
The Word of God, written after the Nativity of Christ, contains 27 sacred books.
What language is the Bible written in?
The first chapters were written in the language of the ancient Jews - Hebrew. The texts compiled during the life of Jesus Christ were written in Aramaic.
For the next few centuries, the Word of God was written in Greek. Seventy interpreters were involved in the translation into Greek from Aramaic. Servants of the Orthodox Church use texts translated by interpreters.
The first Slavic Holy Scripture was translated from Greek and is the first book to appear in Rus'. The translation of the sacred meetings was entrusted to the brothers Cyril and Methodius.
During the reign of Alexander I, biblical texts were translated from Slavic into Russian. Then the Synodal translation appeared, which is also popular in the modern Russian Church.
Why is this the Holy Book of Christians
The Bible is not just a holy book. This is a handwritten source of human spirituality. From the pages of Scripture people draw wisdom sent by God. The Word of God is a guide for Christians in their worldly life.
Through Biblical texts the Lord communicates with people. Helps you find answers to the most difficult questions. The books of the Holy Scriptures reveal the meaning of existence, the secrets of the origin of the world and the definition of man's place in this world.
By reading the Word of God, a person comes to know himself and his actions. Becomes closer to God.
Gospel and Bible - what's the difference
The Holy Scriptures are a collection of books divided into the Old and New Testaments. The Old Testament describes the time from the creation of the world until the coming of Jesus Christ.
The Gospel is the part that makes up the Bible texts. Included in the New Testament portion of Scripture. In the Gospel, the description begins from the birth of the Savior to the Revelation, which he gave to His Apostles.
The Gospel consists of several works written by different authors and tells the story of the life of Jesus Christ and His deeds.
What parts does the Bible consist of?
Biblical texts are divided into canonical and non-canonical parts. Non-canonical ones include those that appeared after the creation of the New Testament.
The structure of the canonical part of Scripture includes:
- legislative: Genesis, Exodus, Deuteronomy, Numbers and Leviticus;
- historical content: those that describe the events of holy history;
- poetic content: Psalms, Proverbs, Song of Songs, Ecclesiastes, Job;
- prophetic: writings of great and minor prophets.
Non-canonical texts are also divided into prophetic, historical, poetic and legislative.
Orthodox Bible in Russian - text of the Old and New Testaments
Reading Biblical texts begins with the desire to know God's Word. The clergy advise the laity to begin reading from the pages of the New Testament. After reading the New Testament books, a person will be able to understand the essence of the events described in the Old Testament.
To understand the meaning of what is written, you need to have at hand works that provide a decoding of the Holy Scriptures. An experienced priest or confessor can answer any questions you may have.
The Word of God can provide answers to many questions. Studying Bible texts is an important part of the life of every Christian. Through them, people come to know the grace of the Lord, become better people and move spiritually closer to God.
Bible, a collection of Christian sacred texts, appeared 1600 years ago and has over a thousand pages. It consists of Old and New Testaments. The Church Slavonic word “old” means ancient, old, and covenant is a will, an agreement. Now there are 3 canons of the Old Testament: Jewish, Christian and Protestant.
The Old Testament is written in Hebrew, and the New Testament is written in Greek. There is evidence that the books of the Old Testament were collected together by a scribe Ezra and he lived about 450 years BC. The books of the Old Testament themselves were created from the 13th to the 1st century BC. The New Testament was written from 57 to 96 BC.
In 277 BC. 70 scientists settled on the island of Pharos and spent 72 days translating the Old Testament from ancient Hebrew into Greek. The translation was named Septuagint and meant "70" . Ancient sources were collected and used. This allowed many who did not know Hebrew to learn the Bible.
The books of the Bible are divided into chapters and it was done by the bishop Stefan in 1214. Then, around 1500 Santes Panino numbered poetry. Now there are 3 oldest manuscripts of the Bible: Vatican in Rome (4th century AD), Sinai in Oxford (4th century AD), Alexandrian in the British Museum (5th century AD).
The Old Testament consists of 39 books, but in the Jewish tradition they are considered to be 22 according to the number of letters of the Hebrew alphabet. The Greeks believe that there are 24 of them according to the number of the Greek alphabet. That is, several books are combined into one - the result is the desired number.
All 39 books of the Old Testament are divided into 3 sections in Judaism: "Law"(Torah), "Prophets" and "Scriptures". In Russia, in the Russian Orthodox Church, we use Church Slavonic the text of the Bible, although 1876 The Bible was published in Russian.
In the New Testament 27
canonical books and they are grouped by content:
1. Historical-from Matthew to the Acts of the Apostles
2. Didactic(instructive) - The Epistles of James, Peter, John, Jude and Paul.>
3. Prophetic- Revelations of John the Theologian.
The language of the Bible is simple, accessible and profound. 23 people participated in writing the books of the Old Testament: Moses, Joshua, Samuel, Jeremiah, Ezra, David, Solomon, etc. The Bible was written by kings - David and Solomon, and the shepherd Amos, and the learned doctor Luke, the Apostle Paul, simple fishermen Matthew, Peter, John, who later became disciples Christ. Unity is maintained throughout the entire scripture, some parts complement and confirm others. The content of the Bible is as rich as life itself.
The famous historian Belhausen said: The Bible has withstood the most cruel, the most captious, the most malicious criticism and has remained forever a monument worthy of complete trust. Pushkin said: This is the only Book in the world: it contains everything.
Outstanding scientists, politicians, writers about the Bible.
Galileo (1564-1642) great Italian physicist and astronomer: “Holy Scripture can never lie or make mistakes; His sayings are absolute and immutable.”
Byron (1788-1824)- 19th century poet. “In this most holy Book is the secret of all secrets. Happy are those who are able to open the doors of the Bible and walk resolutely in its paths.
Taylor - (1784-1850)- President of America: “The Bible must be given into the hands of young people especially. It is the best school book in the world.
Lincoln - (1809-1865)- President of America: “The Bible is the best gift God has given to man. Through this book the Savior of the world communicated all good things. Without it, we would not be able to discern truth from lies.
Kant- philosopher - in 1796, in the 72nd year of his life, he wrote: The Bible is the most valuable treasure, without which I would be in a miserable position. All the books I have read have not given me the comfort that the Word of God in the Bible has given me.
Walter Scott - (1771-1832)- the English writer, when he was lying on his deathbed, said to his son: “Give me the Book!” - “Which one, father?” - He said: “My child, there is only one book - this is the Bible!” - that was his last word.
V.G. Belinsky - (1811-1848)- Russian critic. “There is a book,” he said, “in which everything is said, everything is decided, after which there is no doubt about anything, an immortal book, a holy book, a book of eternal truth, eternal life - the Gospel.
Napoleon Bonaparte - (1758-1821)- The military genius read the Bible very often during his imprisonment on the island of St. Helena. He said: “The Gospel has some mysterious power... a warmth that affects the mind and enchants the heart...
F.M. Dostoevsky - (1821-1881)- Russian writer. In The Brothers Karamazov he says: What a miracle and what power given to man with it!
Goethe - (1710-1782)- German poet: The measure for assessing the strength of a people will always be its attitude towards the Bible.”
“It has served us well, this myth of Christ...” Pope Leo X, 16th century.
“Everything will be fine!” said God and created the Earth. Then he created the sky and all kinds of creatures in pairs, he also did not forget about vegetation, so that the creatures had something to eat, and, of course, he created man in his own image and likeness, so that there would be someone to dominate and make fun of at his mistakes and violations of the commandments of the Lord ...
Almost each of us is sure that this is what actually happened. What does the supposedly holy book, which is so ingenuously called, assure? "Book", only in Greek. But it was its Greek name that caught on, "Bible", from which in turn came the name of the book repositories - LIBRARIES.
But even here there is a deception, which few or no one pays attention to. Believers are well aware that this Book consists of 77 smaller books and two parts of the Old and. Does any of us know that hundreds other small books were not included in this big Book only because the church “bosses” - the high priests - the intermediate link, the so-called intermediaries between people and God, decided so among themselves. Wherein changed several times not only the composition of the books included in the largest Book itself, but also the contents of these smallest books.
I am not going to analyze the Bible once again; before me, many wonderful people read it with feeling, sense and understanding several times, who thought about what was written in the “holy scripture” and presented what they saw in their works, such as “Biblical Truth” "David Naidis, "Funny Bible" and "Funny Gospel" by Leo Texil, "Bible Pictures..." by Dmitry Baida and Elena Lyubimova, "Crusade" by Igor Melnik. Read these books and you will learn about the Bible from a different perspective. Yes, and I am more than sure that believers do not read the Bible, because if they read it, it would be impossible not to notice so many contradictions, inconsistencies, substitution of concepts, deception and lies, not to mention calls for extermination of all the peoples of the Earth, God's chosen people. And these people themselves were destroyed several times at the root during the selection process, until their god selected a group of perfect zombies who very well assimilated all his commandments and instructions, and, most importantly, strictly followed them, for which they were pardoned with life and continuation sort of, and... new.
In this work, I want to draw your attention to what is not included in the above canonical books, or what hundreds of other sources say, no less interesting than the “holy” scripture. So, let's look at the biblical facts and more.
The first skeptic, who pointed out the impossibility of calling Moses the author of the Pentateuch (and this is what Christian and Jewish authorities assure us of), was a certain Persian Jew Khivi Gabalki, who lived in the 9th century. He noticed that in some books he talks about himself in the third person. Moreover, sometimes Moses allows himself extremely immodest things: for example, he can characterize himself as the meekest man of all people on earth (book of Numbers) or say: “...Israel never again had a prophet like Moses.”(Deuteronomy).
Further developed the topic Dutch materialist philosopher Benedict Spinoza, who wrote his famous “Theological-Political Treatise” in the 17th century. Spinoza “dug up” so many inconsistencies and outright blunders in the Bible - for example, Moses describes his own funeral - that no amount of inquisition could stop the growing doubts.
At the beginning of the 18th century, first the German Lutheran pastor Witter, and then the French physician Jean Astruc made the discovery that it consists of two texts with different primary sources. That is, some events in the Bible are told twice, and in the first version the name of God sounds like Elohim, and in the second - Yahweh. It turned out that virtually all the so-called books of Moses were compiled during the period of the Babylonian captivity of the Jews, i.e. much later, than the rabbis and priests claim, and clearly could not have been written by Moses.
Series of archaeological expeditions including the expedition of the Hebrew University, found no traces of such an epoch-making biblical event as the exodus of the Jewish people from this country in the 14th century BC. Not a single ancient source, be it papyrus or an Assyro-Babylonian cuneiform tablet, ever mentions the presence of Jews in Egyptian captivity at this time. There are references to the later Jesus, but not to Moses!
And Professor Zeev Herzog in the Haaretz newspaper summed up many years of scientific research on the Egyptian issue: “It may be unpleasant for some to hear and difficult to accept, but it is absolutely clear to researchers today that the Jewish people were not enslaved in Egypt and did not wander in the desert...” But the Jewish people were enslaved in Babylonia (modern) and adopted many legends and traditions from there, later including them in a revised form in the Old Testament. Among them was the legend of the global flood.
Josephus Flavius Vespasian, the famous Jewish historian and military leader who supposedly lived in the 1st century AD, in his book “On the Antiquity of the Jewish People,” which was first published only in 1544, moreover, in Greek, establishes the number books of the so-called Old Testament in the amount of 22 units and says which books are not disputed, because they have been handed down from ancient times. He speaks of them in the following words:
“We don’t have a thousand books that disagree with each other and don’t refute one another; there are only twenty-two books that cover the entire past and are rightly considered Divine. Of these, five belong to Moses. They contain laws and legends about the generations of people who lived before his death - this is a period of almost three thousand years. The events from the death of Moses to the death of Artaxerxes, who reigned after Xerxes, were described in thirteen books by the prophets who lived after Moses, contemporaries of what was happening. The remaining books contain hymns to God and instructions to people on how to live. Everything that happened from Artaxerxes to our time is described, but these books do not deserve the same faith as the above-mentioned ones, because their authors were not in strict succession with the prophets. How we treat our books is evident in practice: so many centuries have passed, and no one dared to add anything to them, or take anything away, or rearrange anything; Jews have an innate belief in this teaching as Divine: it should be held firmly, and if necessary, then die for it with joy ... "
How the Bible Was Written
The oldest writing material was stone, and the writing tool was a chisel. The first mention of writing in the Bible is related to the story of the Ten Commandments, carved in stone.
Writing tablets were made of wood or ivory and covered with a layer of wax. They were used by the Assyrians, Greeks and Romans. Sometimes two planks were connected using hinges. The writing instrument was a pointed stick.
The Babylonians used thin rectangular clay plates for writing. The words were stamped onto the surface of soft clay with a triangular stylus, and then the tablet was dried in the sun. Archaeologists have found entire “libraries” of such clay tablets. Often they used fragments of broken dishes, “shards”, on which they made notes for memory, made bills and even lists of necessary purchases. The ink was prepared from soot diluted in vegetable oil or gum.
Even before the era of the pyramids, the Egyptians learned to make papyrus from the core of Nile reeds that grew in swampy areas. The wet, thick stems were laid in rows, one on top of the other, and beaten with a mallet until a thin sheet was obtained. The sheet was then dried and could be written on. Papyrus was expensive, but they learned to use it more than once, washing away or scraping off previous records. The Egyptians wrote with reed brushes, and the ink was obtained from plant juice infused with certain types of insects.
The skins of sheep, goats, calves and antelopes were dried, scraped and cleaned, then stretched and beaten to create a smooth, even writing surface. This is how a material called parchment was made. Writing instruments were made from reeds by sharpening and splitting one end of a reed stick.
Languages of the Bible
Alphabet
Around 1500 BC. In Canaan, someone came up with the wonderful idea of inventing a symbol - a letter - for every sound in the language. It only took about 25 letters. Now there was no need to memorize hundreds of different symbols to convey hundreds of different words. Any word could be written simply by listening to its sounds and selecting the corresponding letters. This brilliant idea was quickly adopted by speakers of other languages.
Hebrew
Most of the Old Testament is written in Hebrew. The Hebrew alphabet has 22 letters for consonants (the reader had to substitute the vowels himself). The text is read from right to left, so the book is flipped from left to right and the beginning ends up where we are used to seeing the last page.
Aramaic
Aramaic was widely spoken in the Persian Monarchy, the leading power in the Near and Middle East, for two hundred years (beginning around 550 BC). Aramaic became the language of traders throughout this region. Some parts of the Old Testament books of Daniel, Ezra and Jeremiah were written in Aramaic.
However, Hebrew remained the language of prayer and worship. Educated people still understood Hebrew, although when the Hebrew Bible was read aloud in synagogues, the translator often explained the meaning in Aramaic. Manuscripts of parts of the Old Testament written in Aramaic have survived; they are called “targums”.
Greek language
In 331 BC. Alexander the Great conquered Persia. He ruled almost the entire known ancient world, and “everyday” Greek became the language that most people understood. Jesus' followers wanted the whole world to hear the Good News; therefore, from the Aramaic that Jesus spoke, they translated it into Greek. Only a few places preserve the original Aramaic words (for example, the word “Abba” meaning “father”). Addressing the daughter of Jairus, Jesus said: “Talitha cumi,” was the Aramaic phrase spoken by Him. The authors of the Gospel also gave us the Greek translation: “maiden, I say to you, arise” (Mark 5:41). The Greek alphabet has 24 letters and was the first to include letters for vowel sounds. They wrote Greek from left to right. In the Revelation of John the Theologian (Rev 1:8), God says: “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end...” (Alpha and Omega are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet).
Who wrote the Bible
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The modern Bible is usually a very thick book with over a thousand pages. The different parts of the Bible were written by different people over a long period of time, probably up to 1500 – 2000 years. Only later were these numerous parts collected into one book. Famous stories of ancient Jewish characters - Moses and the Ten Commandments, Joseph and the Coat of Many Colors, David and Goliath - happened about 3,500 years ago and were written down around the same time. Oral tradition The first stories in the Bible go back to prehistoric times, long before writing was invented. Scientists cannot say exactly when the books of the Old Testament appeared: their recording continued for several centuries. By the 3rd century. BC, the Jews recognized some of their books as “sacred,” written under the direct inspiration of God. They were formally recognized as such by the Council of Yavne (Jamnia) in 90 A.D. and became the books of the Old Testament as we know it now; however, we arrange them in a slightly different order. New Testament Jesus of Nazareth was born much later than the writing of the Old Testament books, exactly two thousand years ago. But stories about him were also transmitted orally at first. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John wrote the four Gospels based on eyewitness accounts of Jesus' life. All the stories about the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem, about His life and the miracles He performed, which we learn from the Gospels, were written down before 100 A.D. The books of Matthew, Mark and Luke are usually called the Synoptic Gospels; they appear to be based on the same oral traditions about the life of Jesus and His teachings. |
Dead Sea Scrolls In 1947, a Bedouin shepherd boy, looking after a flock of sheep in the desert hills west of the Dead Sea, noticed the entrance to a cave on one of the steep cliffs. He threw a stone there and suddenly heard the sound of breaking pottery. Interested in this, he climbed into the cave and found many clay vessels there. Continuing his research, he discovered inside the vessels scrolls of parchment covered with ancient Hebrew writing. His discovery aroused no one's interest, but when archaeologists saw these scrolls, a real stir began. Over time, about 400 scrolls were discovered in caves around a place called Qumran, which turned out to be the library of the Jewish religious sect of the Essenes. The scrolls contained parts of all the books of the Hebrew Old Testament, with the exception of the Book of Esther. At the time of Christ, an ascetic community of Essenes lived near this place, founded a settlement, which was excavated by scientists. A watchtower, a refectory, a scriptorium, where the Dead Sea Scrolls were probably copied, as well as ritual pools, a pottery workshop and a cemetery were discovered here. Qumran Radiocarbon dating has shown that the Dead Sea Scrolls were written between 200 BC and 70 AD. The Book of Isaiah is almost completely preserved; it is 1000 years older than the next oldest copy, Isaiah, but the two texts are almost identical. This shows how accurate the scribes were and how seriously they took their work.
When the Bible was written, the books with pages we are familiar with had not yet been invented. People wrote on scrolls. They were made from sheets of papyrus, parchment, or even thin sheets of copper, stitched or glued together to form a long ribbon, up to ten meters long and thirty centimeters wide. The ends of the tape were wound onto wooden rods: the reader unrolled the scroll with one hand, and with the other he wound it onto the second rod. Having finished reading, the scrolls were wrapped in cloth and placed in tall vessels for safekeeping.
Birth of a book
Carrying scrolls from place to place was inconvenient; It also took a lot of time to find any short biblical passage in a long scroll. In the II century. Christians collected together the books of the New Testament. They were probably the first to abandon the scrolls. Instead, they came up with the idea of combining several sheets of papyrus or parchment into a notebook, folding them in half and stitching along the fold, and then further adding similar notebooks. This early type of book is called a "codex"
The earliest known complete copy of the New Testament was written shortly after 300 A.D. It is called the Codex Sinaiticus because it was found at the foot of Mount Sinai, in the monastery of St. Catherine. In 1844, the German scholar Constantin Tischendorf, while visiting this secluded monastery, discovered several parchments with early Greek texts. It turned out that the manuscripts contained part of the Old Testament and dated back to the 4th century. according to R.H. Excited by his discovery, Tischendorf revisited the monastery and eventually found so many pages in it that an almost complete Bible was collected. The Codex Sinaiticus is currently kept in the British Museum in London. Other important early manuscripts of the Bible in Greek include the Codex Vaticanus, now in the Vatican Library, and the Codex Alexandrinus, in the British Museum.
How the Bible came to us
Jewish scribes
In ancient times, scribes were especially respected because they were often the only ones who could read, write wills, and keep accounts. When new Old Testament scrolls were needed, every word had to be carefully copied, and scribes had a sacred duty to preserve the text and explain it. To ensure that scribes were aware of the importance of their work and did not make mistakes, strict rules were developed. For example:
Every day the scribe had to begin his work with prayer;
- instead of the name of God, a gap was left, which was filled by a person who wrote with “purer” ink;
- having finished copying a particular section, the scribe counted the number of lines, words and letters in the original and compared it with what he got in the copy. He found and checked the central word in each section.
Mistakes still happened. But it is estimated that on average there was one error per 1580 letters.
Septuagint
The Old Testament was first translated from Hebrew into Greek in the 3rd – 2nd centuries. BC This translation is known as the Septuagint (from the Latin numeral “seventy”, according to legend, the translation was carried out by seventy scholars). The Jews had by this time spread throughout the Mediterranean and often spoke Greek rather than Hebrew. The translation in question was made in Alexandria in Egypt for the fabulously huge Alexandrian library.
Monks
"Monk" in Greek means "a person who lives alone." The first Christian monk was Anthony, who lived in the deserts of Egypt from about 270 to 290 AD. according to R.H. Others followed his example. More often, however, men (and some women) lived in groups in monasteries, spending their days in prayer, studying the Bible and working - farming or caring for the sick.
Census takers
During the Dark Ages that followed the collapse of the Roman Empire, the texts of the Holy Scriptures were kept and protected by monks. Each codex was copied by hand. This was a long and laborious task. Sometimes mistakes occurred, perhaps due to the monk's fatigue, or from the poor lighting in which they worked at the time. Sometimes the scribe even deliberately made changes, wanting to put the Scripture in his own words or bring the text into line with his own understanding. Often the monks worked in the scriptorium, i.e. a room where everyone sat at their table in complete silence. There were no stoves or lighting in such rooms due to the risk of fire. The work of a copyist was tedious. There was a saying: “Two fingers hold the pen, but the whole body works.”
Bible Translation
By 300 AD, the New Testament had been translated into several languages, including Latin, Coptic, and Syriac. The Syriac Bible was called the Peshitta, or "simple" version. Syrian preachers brought the Gospel and the entire Bible to China, India, Armenia and Georgia.
The Armenian and Georgian alphabets were probably created specifically to translate the Bible into these languages. The Bible was also translated into Coptic (a late form of ancient Egyptian), the language of North African Christians.
Bible for goths
Until the 4th century. No one recorded the language of the Germanic Ostrogothic people. But ok. 350 Bishop Ulfilas translated the Bible into the Ostrogothic language and thus fixed it. The best surviving copy of this translation is the Codex Argenteus (Silver Codex), now kept in Uppsala (Sweden), written in gold and silver on purple parchment.
A scientist named Jerome, born in Northern Italy c. 345 A.D., were very concerned about the mistakes made by the Bible scribes. He traveled widely, learned many languages, and copied many parts of the Bible. OK. 382 AD Pope Damasus asked Jerome to prepare a new complete translation of the Gospels, as well as the Psalms and other Old Testament books, in order to try to get rid of the errors that had crept in.
Vulgate
At that time, most Christians in the West spoke Latin and had difficulty understanding the Greek New Testament, but the many translations into Latin seemed clumsy and inaccurate. Jerome, who settled in a secluded monastery in Bethlehem in 386, began translating the original Hebrew and Greek texts of the entire Bible into Latin. A Jewish rabbi helped him learn Hebrew and translate the Old Testament from the original. This work took twenty-three years. Jerome's completed translation became increasingly widespread over time. Known as the Vulgate, the "folk" version, it dates from the 8th century. until 1609 it was the only Bible used by the Roman Catholic Church.
Precious books
| Irish tradition In the V – VI centuries. Irish monks went to Scotland and Northern England, where, while traveling, they spoke about the Christian faith and founded monasteries. These monks brought with them the art of Celtic designs. Superbly decorated books were made in distant monasteries located on bleak cliffs and islands. A monk could work on one book all his life, thereby showing his love for God. How books were decorated At that time, books were made from the finest calfskin, or from the skin of sheep and goats. Copying a Page of Holy Scripture After the monk had completed copying the Latin text in beautiful, elegant handwriting, his work was checked. Over time, the monks began not only to copy texts, but also to decorate the pages. Such books, colored with drawings, are called illuminated manuscripts. Sometimes scribes placed a painted border with complex patterns on the page. The initial letter of the first word of a chapter or paragraph could be enlarged so that it took up almost the entire page, and then decorated with patterns, flowers and even small figures. The monks created complex, intertwining compositions of curved lines, spirals, curls, shields, which included tiny but carefully detailed images of animals and birds. They used homemade watercolor paints, and sometimes added thin gold leaf for greater effect. The tools used were pointed bird feathers and simple brushes, but even with them the scribes achieved amazing results. Gospels from Kelce In the Book of Kels there is one small drawing (1.6 cm2) which is made up of 158 tiny intertwined elements. This manuscript, decorated with colored drawings, is the greatest masterpiece of Celtic and Anglo-Saxon art. Work on the manuscript began in the 7th century. in a monastery located on the island of Iona in Western Scotland. After the Viking raid, the book was taken to Kelsky Monastery in Ireland, where it was completed. The book contains 339 sheets measuring 33x25 cm and each of them is richly decorated. The book is now kept at Trinity College (Dublin, Ireland). Lindisfarne Gospels In 635 a monastery was founded on Lindisfarne, an islet off the northeast coast of England. The Lindisfarne Gospels, outstanding examples of illuminated manuscripts, were copied and decorated in this monastery ca. 700 About 300 years later, the priest Aldred wrote a translation into Anglo-Saxon (Old English) between the lines of the Latin text. Golden Gospels The Golden Gospels are a series of stunning illuminated handwritten Gospels created in 8th century France under the supervision of Alcuin, who arrived from York in England. The inscriptions in them are made mainly in gold, and the decorations are made in silver and gold, and all this is done on the finest calfskin dyed purple. From the 6th century a copy of the Bible translated into Gothic by Ulfila arrived; it is also written in gold and silver on purple-dyed parchment. Bibles in chains Most Bibles were much more modestly decorated than the Book of Kels or the Golden Gospels. But even simple rewriting of books took years. Bibles were very expensive, and when a completed book was displayed in a monastery chapel or cathedral, it often had to be chained to a lectern or pulpit to prevent theft. | |
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In the Middle Ages, most Bibles were written in Latin, that is, in a language incomprehensible to ordinary people. Some brave souls decided to change this state of affairs - to translate the Bible into the vernacular. Translations of Waldo Around 1175, Peter Waldo, a wealthy merchant who lived in Lyon, France, decided to devote his life to God. Taking Jesus' words literally, he gave away all his possessions. Waldo's followers, the Waldensians, translated the Bible into Provençal and probably also into Italian, German, Piedmontese (northern Italian) and Catalan (spoken in northeastern Spain). Alphabet for the Slavs In the 9th century, two brothers, Christians Cyril and Methodius from Thessalonica in Greece, went to preach to the Slavs of Eastern Europe. For their own purposes, they translated the Bible into Old Church Slavonic. To record the translation, they invented an alphabet that became the prototype of the Cyrillic alphabet (from the name of one of the brothers), which is still used today in southeastern Europe and Russia. Here the titles of the Gospels are written in Church Slavonic Cyrillic. Jan Hus In the 15th century In Prague, the capital of Bohemia (now part of the Czech Republic), the rector of Charles University, Jan Hus (1374–1415), began his speeches against the greed, licentiousness and ambition of priests. He was greatly influenced by the teachings of Wycliffe. For openly expressing his views, Hus was accused of heresy, imprisoned and eventually burned at the stake. However, Hus's followers began to translate the Bible into Czech, and the New Testament in Czech was printed in 1475. The very first biblical book translated into Anglo-Saxon was the Psalter; this translation was made around 700 by Bishop Aldhelm of Sherborne. Later, Bede the Venerable, abbot of the monastery at Jarrow (northeast England), translated part of the Gospel of John shortly before his death in 735. John Wycliffe John Wycliffe (1329 –1384) dreamed of translating the Bible into English so that the Holy Scriptures would become accessible to ordinary people. He was irritated that only the priests could decide which parts of the Bible were read and how they should be interpreted. Wycliffe taught at Oxford University until he was expelled from there for criticizing these and other shortcomings of the church. Wycliffe was later tried as a heretic, and some of his valuable books were publicly burned at the stake. Wycliffe's followers, Nicholas of Hereford and John Purvey, translated the entire Bible into English; the work was completed in 1384. In 1408, the Wycliffe Bible was banned, but it was produced in hundreds of copies and sold secretly. Since ordinary people then rarely knew how to read, Wycliffe's followers - poor priests, or "lollards" - walked around the villages reading and interpreting the Bible. Some of them died at the stake as heretics; During the execution, their Bibles were hung around their necks. Nevertheless, about 170 copies of this translation have survived to this day. |
TypographyOne of the earliest printed Bibles In 1450, an event occurred that could not but have a decisive impact on the history of the distribution of the Bible: printing was invented (it would be better to say that printing was rediscovered, because the Chinese began printing their books in 868 AD. X.). Johannes Gutenberg of Mainz, Germany, figured out that text could be imprinted on parchment paper using wooden letters smeared with paint. This method could easily produce hundreds of printed books instead of copying each one by hand. Gutenberg then began experiments with metal type. The first book Gutenberg printed in its entirety was the Latin Bible (1458).
In 1978, one of the few surviving Gutenberg Bibles was purchased for £1,265,000. Although Johann Gutenberg and the people of Mainz tried to keep their invention a secret, their secret soon became known throughout Europe, from Rome and Paris to Krakow and London. In England, the first printing press was opened by William Caxton (London, 1476). Soon Bibles were being printed everywhere. The Old Testament in Hebrew was first published in 1488 in Italy by the Soncino brothers.
Two great translators
Great Reformer Martin Luther
In the XV–XVI centuries. Huge changes are taking place in Europe. There are more and more educated people who are able to independently judge religion and society. There is disorder in church affairs: many priests are dishonest or lazy, preaching their own ideas without reference to the Bible. One of those who rebelled against the existing order was the German priest Martin Luther, born in 1483. In those days, church doors were often used as notice boards. And so in October 1517, Martin Luther nailed to the door of the church in Wittenberg a sheet with 95 theses of religious reforms. Luther's activities led to huge changes in the church, which we call the Reformation, and he himself went down in history as a reformer of the church.
Luther was declared an outlaw and had to take refuge in Wartburg Castle. There, Luther began translating Scripture into German so that others could experience the joy he himself found in reading the Bible. Luther believed that a good translation could only be made directly from the original language and should be created on the basis of everyday spoken language.
The complete Luther Bible, one of the first Bibles written in the language of the common people, was published in 1532. Today, Luther's translation, which had a significant influence on the formation of the modern German language, remains the most beloved German Bible.
Bible for Teamsters
Wycliffe's Bible contained many errors during translation and rewriting. Even after the invention of the printing press, the British did not have a working printed Bible that they could read in their own language. The authorities considered it dangerous to allow ordinary people to read the Bible and decide for themselves how and what to believe. It was forbidden to translate or print any parts from the Bible. But one Englishman named William Tyndale once told a priest: “If God spares my life... I will make sure that the peasant boy driving the horses harnessed to the plow will know more about the Bible than you know.”
Bible smuggling
William Tyndale (1494-1536) is the greatest English translator of the Bible. While living in exile in Germany, he translated the New Testament from Greek. In 1526, printed copies were smuggled into England in sacks of grain and baskets of fish. King Henry VIII ordered them to be burned. Tyndale did not have time to complete the translation of the Old Testament: he was betrayed, captured and burned at the stake in Belgium. Dying, he prayed: “Lord, open the eyes of the English king.”
The Bible can't be stopped
Bible in Dutch
Many Bible translations were based on Luther's Bible. A Protestant translation of the Bible into Dutch was made by Jacob Liesfeldt and published in 1526. The Roman Catholic Church produced a Dutch translation by Nicholas van Winge in 1548.
The Geneva Bible of 1560 was translated by English Protestants living in exile in Geneva. This was the most accurate English translation at that time; It is sometimes called the "Pants Bible" because Genesis 3:7 is translated as saying that Adam and Eve "made themselves pants." The translation was immediately used in the churches of Scotland.
King James Version
When King James I ascended the English throne in 1603, two translations were in use: the Genevan Bible and the Bishop's Bible (a revised version of Miles Coverdale's Bible, issued in 1568). With the assistance of King James, it was decided to prepare a new edition based on these translations, as well as the original Greek and Hebrew texts. Fifty scholars were divided into six groups, each of which translated its part of the Bible, and the resulting text was checked by a commission that included two scholars from each group. This "Authentic Version", first printed in 1611, is still very popular for its accuracy and beauty of language.
Portuguese Bible
The New Testament in Portuguese (originally by Joao Ferreira d'Almeida) was published in Amsterdam in 1681. The complete Portuguese Bible appeared only in 1748-1773.
Bible in Spanish
A complete Spanish Bible, translated by Valencian Catalan, appeared in 1417, but all copies were destroyed by the Inquisition. The translation of the monk Cassiodorus de Rhine, who lived in exile, was published in 1569 in Basel (Switzerland). Reina's translation, refined by Friar Cyprian de Valera, was reprinted in 1602 and became the generally accepted Protestant Bible in Spanish (Reina-Valera translation).
Bible in French
The priest of the Roman Catholic Church, Jacques Lefebvre d'Etaples, published a French translation of the New Testament in Paris in 1523. Church authorities, however, were suspicious of this enterprise, since Lefebvre sympathized with the Reformation. Therefore, his complete translation of the Bible, which included non-canonical books of the Old Testament , Lefebvre had to print it in Antwerp (modern Belgium), where the edition could not be confiscated. Translated from the Vulgate, this version became known as the Antwerp Bible. The first Protestant French Bible was printed in Neuchâtel (Switzerland) in a translation by Pierre Robert Olivetan, a cousin of John Calvin The 1650 edition, often called the French Geneva Bible, became the recognized French Protestant Bible.Meanwhile, the French Roman Catholic Bible was produced by the University of Louvain in 1550 and is called the Louvain Bible.
Bible for Italy
The very first Italian Bible was printed in Venice in 1471. The Catholic Bible by Antonio Bruccoli was published in 1530, and the first Protestant Bible - 1562. The most famous Protestant Bible, translated by Giovanni Diodati, was published in 1607 in Geneva.
Bible in Russian
The Bible was published in Russia in 1518 in the Slavic language; it was based on a translation made in 863 by the preacher brothers Cyril and Methodius. The New Testament first appeared in Russian in 1821, and the Old Testament only in 1875.
Swedish Bible
In 1541 Sweden received the Uppsala Bible; the translation was made by Laurentis Petri, Archbishop of Uppsala.
Bible for the Danes
Denmark became a predominantly Protestant country during the early period of the Reformation. The first Danish translation of the New Testament was published in 1524. The accepted Danish Version, printed in Copenhagen in 1550, is called the Bible of King Christian III, after the monarch who then ruled Denmark.
Bible in the New World
| Having translated the Bible into most European languages, European Christians turned their attention to other parts of the world. Bible for Native Americans In the 17th century, some English Christians, called "Puritans", felt that the established Church no longer adhered to the teachings of the Bible. A group of Puritans known as the Pilgrim Fathers set sail for North America in 1620 to start a new life there. Eleven years later, the English priest John Eliot (1604-1690) arrives in the New World with another group of colonists. Having learned the language of the local Massachusetts Indians, Eliot began preaching the Gospel to them. By 1663 he had translated the entire Bible into the language of the Massachusetts Indians. This translation into a Native American language was the first Bible produced in North America. South America The first printed Bible book for the indigenous people of South America was the Gospel of Luke in the Aymara language, published in 1829. The translation was done by Dr. Vincente Pazos-Canki, a Peruvian living in London. First Indian Bible At the beginning of the 18th century. representatives of the Danish Pietist mission went to the East Indies. The German missionary Bartholomew Siegenbalg (1628-1719) translated the New Testament into Tamil; This is the very first translation of part of the Bible into any Indian language. He also managed to translate the Old Testament up to the Book of Ruth. Ziegenbalg's translation was completed by another German Pietist missionary, Christian Friedrich Schwarz (1726-1760). By 1800, the Bible had been translated into at least 70 languages. By 1900, at least one book of the Bible had been translated into more than 500 languages. How can we explain such rapid changes? During this period, explorers began to travel around the world; entrepreneurs established offices of their companies in distant countries. They often invited priests to accompany their sales agents; William Carey's example inspired Christians with enthusiasm for preaching and translating the Bible. Africa Explorers and missionaries like David Livingstone began visiting Africa in the 19th century. Scotsman Robert Moffat translated the Bible into the Bechuan language. The translation of the Bible into Yoruba was overseen by Ajay Crowther, a freed slave from Nigeria who became the first African bishop. The translation was completed in 1884. The Shoemaker Who Translated the Bible When the young Englishman William Carey (1761-1834) left school, he was apprenticed to a shoemaker. Having become a Baptist, he began to study the New Testament and became a Baptist preacher. He independently mastered Latin, ancient Greek, Hebrew, French and Dutch. Carey believed that the words of Jesus: “Go and teach all nations” were addressed not only to the apostles, but also to Christians of all ages. Carey urged his listeners: “Expect great things from God... Dare to do great things for God’s sake.” Thanks to his zeal, the Baptist Missionary Society was formed in 1792. Carey in India In 1793, William Carey traveled to India with his wife and four children. There he made his living as a foreman at an indigo dye factory, and in his free time he studied several Indian languages. Soon he began translating the Bible into Bengali. Ultimately, under his supervision, translations of the complete Bible were completed into six vernacular languages, and selected Bible books were translated into an additional 29 languages, including Sanskrit, Bengali, Marathi and Sinhalese. Carey's colleague, Joshua Marshman, began translating the Bible into Chinese, which was already being done by another Englishman, Robert Morrison. The complete Bible in Chinese was published in 1823. | |  |
Bible and history
Data obtained from excavations can often have multiple interpretations, and their reliability remains relative. Absolute accuracy is very rarely achieved. When did man appear? How old is the earth? When did Abraham live? When did the Exodus happen? How did the conquest of Canaan happen, through an external invasion or as a result of an internal social upheaval? Was Moses the author of the Pentateuch? Neither biblical criticism nor archaeological excavations can provide convincing answers to these questions. Sometimes archeology and biblical studies seem to contradict each other. The problem is partly a failure to adequately understand the biblical text and partly a misinterpretation of archaeological evidence. Some sites may have been misidentified, others may have been unprofessionally excavated, or the excavation data may have been misjudged. Archeology can often help us understand things better, but it rarely brings clarity to difficult passages in the Bible. To demand too much from her is to misunderstand her essence.
Acts of God
The Bible is a collection of books written over the centuries from the perspective of Judaic monotheism. The biblical authors never intended to write history in the modern sense; their purpose was to demonstrate the actions of God in Jewish history. The main contribution of archeology to the study of the Bible is that it can help us to clarify and visualize the history in which biblical faith arose. The Bible was not written in a vacuum, and the events it describes did not occur in a vacuum either. The ancient Hebrews were influenced by the cultures of other peoples with whom they came into contact, and the Bible notes these influences, both good and bad. Biblical archeology goes deep into the area of ancient history that gave birth to the Bible.
What is the significance of these stones?
What value do archaeological discoveries have for the reader of the Bible? Archeology's main contribution is not apologetics. Undoubtedly, the results of archaeological work have clarified some difficulties. For example, in the Greek city of Thessaloniki, an inscription was found on a stone containing the word polytarch, a term Luke uses in Acts 17:6 in relation to the Roman authorities. Bible critics considered this an error because there was no evidence of the term being used before this discovery. On the other hand, all attempts to find the Jericho of Joshua or the Jerusalem of Solomon have so far brought mostly disappointments.
Exciting discoveries
However, many exciting discoveries have been made that beautifully illustrate the Bible: the clay prism of Sennacherib (Sennacherib) mentioning King Hezekiah of Judah; the black obelisk of Shalmaneser with the image of the Jewish king Jehu bowing to him; the Babylonian chronicle, which gives grounds to date the destruction of Jerusalem to 587 BC; cylinder of Cyrus, showing that the Persian monarch encouraged subject peoples, among whom were Jews, to return to their native lands and rebuild their cities and temples.
An inscription on the stone floor of the theater court at Corinth containing the name of Erastus, the city treasurer, perhaps the same one mentioned in Rom. 16:23; the winter palace of Herod the Great in Jericho and his burial place in Herodion. However, the famous archaeologist, the late Roland de Vaux, cautioned: “Archaeology cannot “prove” the Bible. The truth of the Bible is of a religious nature... This spiritual truth can neither be proven nor disproved, it cannot be confirmed or discredited by the material finds of archaeologists. However, the Bible is written, to a large extent, as a historical narrative... it is the confirmation of this “historical” truth of the Bible that is expected from archeology.”
The value of archeology
The greatest value of archeology for the student of the Bible is its ability to place our biblical faith in its historical context and demonstrate the cultural context in which biblical events occurred. For those who love the Bible, there is nothing more wonderful than standing on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem and viewing the results of archaeological excavations in the Holy City: here are part of the walls restored by Nehemiah; these are the steps that in the time of Jesus led up to the Temple; Excavations in Masada, near the Dead Sea (Israel) here is the Hezekiah tunnel leading to the Pool of Siloam, where Jesus opened the eyes of the blind man; These are the beautiful stones of the Temple that the disciples pointed out to Jesus. And what a thrill it is to stroll through the chariot city of Solomon and Ahab at Megiddo; wander among the ruins of Caesarea Maritime, a magnificent city on the Mediterranean Sea, or among the pools built by the Essenes at Qumran, where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found. The aqueducts of Caesarea, the baths of Masada and Jericho, the synagogues of Galilee, the water tunnels of Megiddo, Hazor, Gezer and Jerusalem, the fortifications of Lachish, the altars of Bethlehem and Mount Ebal, the forums and temples of Samaria and Gerasa, the theaters of Amman and Ephesus - all this creates an indelible impression of civilization, once existed in these places. In our imagination we can reconstruct these cities as they were in the times of Abraham, Solomon, Jesus and Paul.
Historical context
The story of Jesus begins not with “Once upon a time in a certain distant country...”, but with “When Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of King Herod...” (Matthew 2:1). How wonderful it is to cross the hills of Judea, walk the streets of Bethlehem, wander through Nazareth, ride a boat on the Sea of Galilee or stroll through Jerusalem's Old City. What a thrill it is to follow every movement of the archaeologist's shovel, knowing that it was here, in these very places, in historical and geographical reality, that the most precious heritage in history was handed down to humanity. This is the value of biblical archeology - that it allows us to place faith in the reality of ancient history.
