Bibles, Holy Books and Myths
The word bible comes from Greek bibila
meaning 'little books'
The Bible is a particular, but sometimes
variable, collection of books
Jewish (Old Testament)
Christian (New Testament)
Need to be acquainted with some of the stories, some of
the language
Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, Abraham and Isaac,
Noah's flood...
phrases, 'let there be light...' 'in the beginning was...',
plus style and basic oppositions
Authorised King James version – Church of England from
1604-1611
light/dark, good/evil
many other holy books and oral traditions
Greek, Roman, Celtic, Germanic, Hindu, Muslim,
Buddhist, African , Aboriginal...
Qur'an, 4 Vedas, Post-Vedic Samhitas, Brāhmaṇas,
'The Bible' is not one but many languages, literatures and cultures
(biblia-books)
Old Testament, written in Hebrew
range of genres representing the historic mission of the Jews
mythic and epic narratives: Genesis to Exodus
chronicles: Kings
laws, moral codes and proverbs: Leviticus, Ecclesiastics,
Proverbs
prayers and love songs, sacred and erotic: Psalms, Song of
Solomon
lives of heroes and prophets: Job, Jonah, Ruth
New Testament, written in Greek
many narratives of the life of Christ: four gospels
extended letters: epistles of St Paul to the early churches
Song of Solomon
Chapter 4:
5. Thy two breasts are like two young roes
that are twins, which feed among the lilies.
6. Until the day break, and the shadows flee
away, I will get me to the mountain of
myrrh, and to the hill of frankincense.
7. Thou art all fair, my love; there is no spot
in thee.
Plus other books have been seen as 'apocryphal'
by different sects at different times
counted in and out of various canons of holy
books
Gospel of Nicodemus
Christ's harrowing of hell in Middle
Ages, later dropped
Roman Catholics accept more books
than Protestants
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints
has Book of Mormon (1830)
In the middle of the book (Deuteronomy 11:1ff) the
author is exhorted by an angel to take a “reed” and
measure the temple of God. The source for this is
Ezekiel 40:3 (see also Zechariah 2:1), where the
word for reed is qaneh, from which our word
“canon” is ultimately derived. Remembering that in
Christian typology the antitypical temple is the
body of Christ or the Word of God, one wonders
whether the figure of measuring the temple does
not have something to do with establishing a
canon of writings. (199-200)
...even a century ago many people were rather
scandalized to hear that Moses could not have
written any part of the Pentareuch, that David and
Solomon did not write the Psalms and the Wisdom
literature, that “the book of Isiah” is not a book by
Isaiah but a collection of oracles extending over
several centuries; that the Book of Daniel turns
into Aramaic halfway through, and could no more
be written by a contemporary of Nebuchadnezzar
than a book that turned from Latin into Italian could
be Julius Caesar’s; that it is unlikely that any of the
twelve disciples mention in the Gospels wrote any
part of the New Testament; and that some of
Paul’s most typical and personal letters may not be
wholly his.
Noah
Genesis 7:7-9
7 And Noah and his SONS and his wife and
his SONS' wives entered the ark to escape
the waters of the flood. 8 PAIRS of clean
and unclean animals, of birds and of all
creatures that move along the ground, 9
male and female, came to Noah and entered
the ark, as GOD had commanded Noah.
Genesis 7:1-6
7:1 The LORD then said to Noah, Go into the ark, you and
your whole family, because I have found you righteous in
this generation. 2 Take with you SEVEN of every kind of
clean animal, a male and its mate, and two of every kind of
unclean animal, a male and its mate, 3 and also SEVEN of
every kind of bird, male and female, to keep their various
kinds alive throughout the earth. 4 SEVEN days from now I
will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights,
and I will wipe from the face of the earth every living
creature I have made. 5 And Noah did all that the LORD
commanded him. 6 Noah was SIX HUNDRED years old
when the floodwaters came on the earth.
Genisis Book 2
7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the
ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and
man became a living soul. 8 And the LORD God planted a
garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom
he had formed.
...
15 And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the
garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. 16 And the LORD
God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the
garden thou mayest freely eat: 17 but of the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in
the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
18 And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man
should be alone; I will make him a help meet for him. 19
And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast
of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them
unto Adam to see what he would call them: and
whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the
name thereof.
20 And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of
the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there
was not found a help meet for him. 21 And the LORD God
caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept; and
he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead
thereof. 22 And the rib, which the LORD God had taken
from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the
man. 23 And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones,
and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because
she was taken out of Man. 24 Therefore shall a man leave
his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife:
and they shall be one flesh. 25 And they were both naked,
the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.
Ram: http://www.indianchild.com/images/hindu_god_ram.jpg
Thoth-Lunos: http://karenswhimsy.com/ancient-egyptian-gods.shtm
Christian God: http://alicebot.org/images/god2.jpg