Hebrew Bible
 Torah (law – teaching, instruction)
 Nabiim (prophets)
 Kethuvim (writings)
Hebrew Bible
Torah
a
Nabiim
a
Kethuvim
= Tanak
Hebrew Script
Most Hebrew words consist of 3 consonants, written
from Right to Left, with vowels signs underneath to
indicate whether noun, verb, singular, plural etc.
MLK = Rule or Reign
MeLeK = King
MaLaK = To rule
Genesis 1:1
Hebrew Text:
Unpointed
(without
vowels)
‫בראשית ברא אלהים את‬
:‫השמים ואת הארמץ‬
Hebrew text:
Pointed (with
vowels)
‫ֹלהים ֵאת‬
ִׁ ֱ‫אשית בָּ ָּרא א‬
ִׁ ‫בְּ ֵר‬
‫הַ שָּ מַ יִׁם וְּ ֵאת הָּ ָּ ָֽא ֶרץ׃‬
‘God formed man from the dust of the ground’
Heb:
adam
adamah
‘God formed the earth creature from the dust of the
earth’
When the male is differentiated from the female, he is
called Adam as a proper noun.
Torah
Genesis
Exodus
Leviticus
Numbers
Deuteronomy
Hebrew names consist of first word of the book.
So Genesis is bereshith (‘in the beginning’)
Prophets
Former prophets
Joshua
Judges
1 Samuel
2 Samuel
1 Kings
2 Kings
Prophets
Latter prophets
Isaiah
Jeremiah
Ezekiel
The Twelve
(Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum,
Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi)
Writings
Psalms
Proverbs
Job
Song of songs
Ruth
Lamentations
Ecclesiastes
Esther
Daniel
Ezra
Nehemiah
1 Chronicles
2 Chronicles
Luke 24:44
‘These are my words that I spoke to you while I
was still with you - that everything written about
me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the
psalms must be fulfilled’.
Question:
Is Psalms given as a summary of
the third section or is the third
section still incomplete?
The Septuagint
c. 3rd Century BCE
 Jews in Alexandria spoke Greek and could not
understand Hebrew
 Translation was ordered – tradition speaks of 70
scribes (hence Septuagint or LXX)
 Probably just the Torah at first
 Tradition claims the translation was inspired as God
caused the scribes to agree down to the very letter
 We know this is not true – there are sometimes major
discrepancies (see Bible footnotes)
Genesis 1:1
Hebrew text:
Pointed (with
vowels)
Greek Text
(LXX)
‫ֹלהים ֵאת‬
ִׁ ֱ‫אשית בָּ ָּרא א‬
ִׁ ‫בְּ ֵר‬
‫הַ שָּ מַ יִׁם וְּ ֵאת הָּ ָּ ָֽא ֶרץ׃‬
ἐν ἀρχῇ ἐποίησεν ὁ θεὸς τὸν
οὐρανὸν καὶ τὴν γῆν
The Septuagint
Genesis
Exodus
Leviticus
Numbers
Deuteronomy
The Septuagint
Joshua
Judges
Ruth
1-4 Kings
1 Esdra
2 Esdra = Ezra/Nehemiah
Esther
Judith
Tobit
1-4 Maccabees
The Septuagint
Psalms
Odes
Proverbs
Ecclesiastes
Song of songs
Job
Wisdom
Sirach
Psalms of Solomon
The Septuagint
Twelve (Hosea – Malachi)
Isaiah
Jeremiah
Baruch
Lamentations
Epistle of Jeremiah
Ezekiel
Susanna
Daniel
Bel and the dragon
New Testament
Christians wrote in Greek and thus quoted the Old
Testament in Greek (Septuagint)
Isa 52:5:
(Heb)
‘continually, all day long, my name is
despised’
LXX
‘because of you, continually, my name is
blasphemed among the Gentiles’
Rom 2:24
 You that abhor idols, do you rob temples? You that
boast in the law, do you dishonour God by breaking
the law? For, as it is written,
‘The name of God is blasphemed among the gentiles
because of you’.
Hebrew text:
Pointed (with
vowels)
Genesis 1:1?
‫ֹלהים ֵאת‬
ִׁ ֱ‫אשית בָּ ָּרא א‬
ִׁ ‫בְּ ֵר‬
‫הַ שָּ מַ יִׁם וְּ ֵאת הָּ ָּ ָֽא ֶרץ׃‬
Greek Text
(LXX)
ἐν ἀρχῇ ἐποίησεν ὁ θεὸς τὸν
οὐρανὸν καὶ τὴν γῆν
John 1:1
New Testament
ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ λόγος καὶ ὁ
λόγος ἦν πρὸς τὸν θεόν καὶ
θεὸς ἦν ὁ λόγος
Bible manuscripts: Hebrew
 The Masoretic Text: Pointed 10th Century AD
 The Dead Sea Scrolls: texts of Psalms and Isaiah and
commentaries on Joel, Habakkuk and other books
 A tradition of accurate transmission
Bible Manuscripts: Papyri
• Over 120 exist and are the earliest NT
texts
• P52, P90 and P104 (P.Oxy 66) are the
earliest (150 AD) showing parts of John
and Matthew’s Gospels
• Some NT books have more papyri than
others: John (30), Matthew (23), Acts
(14), Luke (10), Romans (10), Hebrews
(8), 1 Timothy (0).
• Over 1000 ‘miniscules’: later texts on
parchment written in normal
handwriting.
Bible Manuscripts: Uncials
 Official texts, written to be used in liturgy or
scholarship from the 3rd to the 7th Centuries
 Codex Sinaiticus (4th Century), contains half the
‘Septuagint’, the whole NT, the Letter of Barnabas and
the Shepherd of Hermas. In the British Library(!)
 Codex Vaticanus (4th Century), contains most of the
‘Septuagint’ and most of the NT.
 Codex Bezae (5th Century), contains most of the four
Gospels and 3 John in Greek and Latin. Bezae
represents the Western Text tradition.
The Vulgate
By the 4th c. AD the language of the Church was Latin.
Jerome was commissioned to make a translation which
became known as the Vulgate.
It made a fresh translation of the Hebrew books but
also translated the additional books of the LXX.
This remained the Church Bible until the Reformation
Erasmus and the Greek NT
 Erasmus believed that proper study (and devotion)
should depend on the best manuscripts – and for the
NT these were Greek.
 This showed that some of the Vulgate was in error (eg.
Greek metanoia means ‘repentance’ not ‘penance’).
 Luther used Erasmus to translate Bible into German
Principles of Translation: Ps 1:1
 Word for word replication: ESV, NRSV
‘Blessed is the man
who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the seat of scoffers’
 Dynamic equivalence: GNB, the Message
‘How well God must like you—
you don’t hang out at Sin Saloon,
you don’t slink along Dead-End Road,
you don’t go to Smart-Mouth College.’
The English Bible
1384 Wycliffe (hand written)
1526 Tyndale (first printed edition)
1535 Coverdale
1609 Douay/Rheims (Catholic – trans of Vulgate)
1611
King James Bible (AV)
1885 Revised Version (RV)
1946/52 Revised Standard Version (RSV)
The English Bible
1966 Jerusalem Bible (JB) – Catholic with apocrypha
1970 New English Bible (NEB)
1973 New International Version (NIV)
1976 Good News Bible (GNB)
1985
New Jerusalem Bible (NJB)
1989
Revised English Bible (REB)
1989
New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
2001 English Standard Version (ESV)
2011 New International Version (revision)