The+Old+Testament 1

7/31/2019 The+Old+Testament 1

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Introduction to the Bible

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Latin “Testamentum”

and Gk. “Diatheke”which means

covenant, tipanan,

love relationship



OLD

-doesn’t meanantiquated, displaced

or irrelevant. It

means ancient or preceding







OT Judaism – official

version is Masoretic Text

(MT)

Masoretic – scribes who

preserved, edited and

even invented the vowel

signs, accents and

punctuations to theHebrew alphabet



SEPTUAGINT

- The Greek translation,

for the Greek-speaking

Jews of Alexandria

(Egypt)

- The earliest extanttranslation



VULGATE

- “common” - In 382, Pope Damasus I

commissioned Jerome to

prepare a reliable Latintranslation of the Bible in

order to correct the

obscurities andinaccuracies of the

existing old Latin

versions.





Today:

• THE REVISED STANDARDVERSION/NEW REVISEDSTANDARD VERSION

(1946/1990)- a protestant-sponsored Bibleand an offshoot of the KJV

- one of the best modern English

translations- combines fidelity to the textwith good English style.



Today:

• THE NEW ENGLISH VERSION(1961/1970)

- produced under theauspices of a team of

British Protestant Bible

scholars.- genuinely British in it sidiom



Today:

• THE GOOD NEWSBIBLE OR TODAY’SENGLISH VERSION(1966/1976)

- a translation by theUnited Bible Societies

intended for usethroughout the world.



Today:

• THE NEW JERUSALEMBIBLE (1985)

-a Catholic Bible incontemporary idiom firstpublished in 1966

- the readings of theCatholic liturgy are basedon this Bible.





Today:

• THE NEWINTERNATIONALVERSION (1972&1979)

-by international groupof Protestant scholarswhose primary concernwas the accuracy of thetranslation and itsfidelity to the thoughtof the NT writers.





TORAH – 5 Books of Moses

- the core and most authoritative

part of the Scriptures

1. Genesis – “Bereshit” (In the beginning); Creation andmankind

2. Exodus – “Weelleh Shemot” (and these are the names)narrates the departure of the Israelites from Egypt

3. Leviticus – “Wayyiqra” (and he called) contains laws forthe priestly tribe of Levi

4. Numbers – “Bammidbar” (In the wilderness) containscensus lists and number of names

5. Deuteronomy – “Elleh Haddebarim” (these are thewords) provides a summary of the laws of Moses







THE WRITINGS

• Contain the rest of the books

• Books of poetry and wisdom; show the important placeof temple worship

1. Psalms

2. Proverbs3. Job

4. Megilloth or Scrolls: Song of Songs, Ruth,Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther

5. Daniel6. Ezra-Nehemiah



CANON AND DIVISION

CANON – the officialwritings “measured”and recognized to

contain divinerevelation

- at Council of Jamnia, held in

Palestine about90-100 CE (Canon of the Hebrew bible)



2 Reasons for the Canon

• Emergence of Christianity among the

Jewish world

• Weakening of a central religiousauthority following the dispersion of

Jesus from Palestine in 70 CE



PSEUDEPIGRAPHA – False Writings

APOCRYPHA – Secret or Hidden

writings

- All other

writings not

included in

the Canon



• DEUTEROCANONICAL

BOOKS – second or

wider canon

• PROTOCANONICAL –

books whose place in

the canon was never

questioned





BIBLICAL INTERPRETATION

STUDY AIDS AND TOOLS FOR BIBLICA INTERPRETATION

- We need the proper tools to understand the word of

God, we need God’s light and His presence to directour way, and to derive different insights as we look

through a prism in our search and for meaning; each

insight is colored by our background, orientation

and situation in life.



FUNDAMENTALISM

- the literal interpretation of the

Bible. It claims that the Bible isauthoritative and infallible since

it is inspired by God.



MYTHOLOGICAL APPROACH

- Reduces the bible to a collection of fairy tales. As such, it has little or no

significance to educated people

DIACHRONIC

- Gk. “through time”, concerned with

the historical development of texts and

traditions across the passage of time.





Gk. Exegeisthai, to “draw

out”, is a method orprocess of drawing out

the meaning of a given

text, i.e. the originalintention of the writer,

and the meaning of the

passage would have heldfor the readers it was first

intended.



Biblical Criticism

AUTHOR(Sender)

HistoricalCriticism

Author, historicalsituations,theological

concerns, etc.

TEXT (Messagesent)

Literary Criticism

Analysis of thetext as it stands

READER(Receiver)

AudienceCriticism

Receiver of thetext and/orprocess of

reading





Diachronic Method

1. Historical – Critical

2. Redaction – Critical

(to determine the matrix of the text –

the culture of time, socio-political

situation, background and intentions of

the author)



Historical - Critical

1. Textual Criticism

2. Source Criticism

3. Form Criticism

(the world of the text intersects with the

world of the author)



Synchronic Approach

1. Narrative Criticism

2. Feminist Criticism

(the world of the reader intersects with

the world of the text)



HERMENEUTICS

- Gk. Hermeneuein – “to explain” - the theory of reading, interpretation and

understanding of a text written or serving as

documents of life

- covers the entire process of Biblical

interpretation which takes 3 forms:

1. Speaking

2. Translating

3. Explaining (most important accdg. To

Schneiders)





Real Interpretation

- leads to application and appropriation

- demands from the reader a spirit of

openness and good will

“To understand, it is necessary to believe; to

believe, it is necessary to understand.” - St. Anselm-



Gadamer’s

1. THE WORLD BEHIND THE TEXT (World

of the author)

- views the text as a window, a source of

info about the author, the addresses and

the world in which they lived, everything

that gave rise to the text.



Gadamer’s

2. THE WORLD OF THE TEXT

- serves as mirror which reflects theinterrelationship of the elements that

make up the text





HISTORICAL-CRITICAL METHOD

- VIEWS THE Bible as an ancient recordwritten by many authors over a longperiod of time

- focuses on the background and purposeof the author

- to discover the historical meaning of the

text-the meaning the text had for thecommunity to whom it was addressed



Textual Criticism

- aims to reconstruct what presumably is

the “original text” on the basis of many

divergent copies

- to decide from a mass of conflicting

readings which variants deserve to be

included in the text.





3 Categories of Historical Criticism

1. SOURCE CRITICISM

2. FORM CRITICISM3. REDACTION (EDITORIAL) CRITICISM



SOURCE CRITICISM

- to establish the sources which a given

Biblical writer may have used in compilinghis work in order to resolve existing

discrepancies and incosistencies



FORM CRITICISM

- what literary type or genre, the social

milieu that gave rise to it, its features andhistory of its development and use

- to determine the intention or meaning of

the text



REDACTION CRITICISM

- enables us to know the nature and extent

of an editor’s own contribution to the work

and to uncover the theological tendencies

and the compositional habits of the

writers

- the study of how the text was edited and

how it developed according to the final

editor’s point of view



LITERARY CRITICISM

- original languages (Heb and Aramaic for OTand Gk for the NT)

- examines the vocabulary and grammatical

style of the text- compare the use of a word in a passage and

see how the same word is used in other

books of the Bible and other writings of thesame period

- necessary in determining the meaning of apassage



NARRATIVE CRITICISM

- views Biblical narratives as literary texts

which can be subjected to literary analysis,

both ancient and modern, and

communicates the biblical message in theform of story and personal testimony which

can reshape or influence the world of the

reader

historical – “window”

narrative – “mirror”





4 versions of the English

Bible today adopted gender inclusivenenss in

their translation

• Man – humankind

• Father – ancestor

• Brethren – brothersand sisters

• My son – my child

• A humble man – the

humble• The thoughts of man –

our thoughts

- NJB

- NABNT

- REB

- NRSV



4 Factors in Interpreting the bible

according to CFC







E d f H b f E ti b d t



• Exodus of Hebrews from Egyptian bondage tothe promised land of Canaan (Ex. 12:40-41;Joshua 1:1-9

• The Northern Kingdom of Israel was carriedaway into the exile to Assyria in 722 BCE (2Kgs. 18: 9-12)

• The Southern Kingdom of Judah was takencaptive to Babylon in 587 BCE (2 Kgs. 25:1-12)

• Two separate, large groups of Israelites

returned from Babylon to their homeland ledby Zerubbabel in 536 BCE and Ezra in 458 BCE(Exra 1-2; 7:1-10; 8:1-21)







ECONOMY



ECONOMY

• Food Production:

- wheat and barley, grapes, figs, pomegranates,olives and honey (Dt. 8:8)

- resin, honey, spices, pistachio nuts andalmonds (Gen. 43:11)

- sheep and goats were raised for milk andmeat

- sheep provided wool for clothing

- iron and copper were mined in the mountainsof Palestine (Dt. 8:9)

- agriculture and pastoralism werecomplementary occupation

LIFESTYLE



LIFESTYLE

• The Israelites lived in tents and led a semi-nomadic way of life, frequently relocating

their settlements

• After the Exodus, they were nomads for forty years

• A patriarch could have more than one wife

if his first wife could provide him children



LANGUAGE



LANGUAGE

• Semite or Semitic are often used to refer tothe Jewish people.

• In the modern world, the semitic familyincludes the people of Turkey, Lebanon,

Syria, Iraq, Jordan, Israel, Arabia, and North Africa

• Mlk – melek (King), malka (Queen), malkut(rulership), malak (he ruled), mamlaka

(Kingdom)• Aramaic – the second tongue of the peoplesof the near East from Egypt to Persia

DRESS



DRESS

• Both men and women wore an inner garmentcalled tunic with a girdle.

• Mantle-outer garment as shelter from wind,rain, cold, heat and as a blanket at night

• Turbans-for head• Sandals-for feet

• Women had longer tunics and larger mantles,veil which covered the head in public and

elaborate ornamentations (bracelet andearrings)





WOMEN’S TASKS



WOMEN’S TASKS

• Women were always subservient to men

• Their place was confined to a household

• Their qualities, indicated by passivity andsubordination

• They kept out of sight when visitors were present

• They first served the men in the family during meals

• They ground the grain, wove, made clothes, fetched

water, cooked, cleaned the house, and walked whilemen rode

• Children, especially girls helped in the daily chores.



Women’stasks





Passover



Passover



Passover

CELEBRATIONS AND FEASTS




PENTECOST OR WEEKS

• This fell fifty days after the Passover

celebration and marked the early wheat

harvest with a one-day feast that honored the

covenant-giving at Mount Sinai. Numbers

28:26 calls it the feast of first fruits from the

command to bring the best of the first harvestto God as an offering







BOOTHS OR TABERNACLES

• The fall feast cycle of eight days marked the fruit,olive, wine and late grain harvest. It fell in late

September or early October just before theautumn rains began to fall which would makepossible the planting of seed for another year.The booths and tabernacles recalled the period of

wandering in the wilderness, and it was a time orrejoicing and thanksgiving for Israel’s blessing of the land.







ROSH HASHANA (New Year’s)

• This marked the beginning of the year, and

stressed the need for God to forgive and

restore Israel from any sins or faults for the

year ahead. This was followed ten days later

by the solemn day of atonement or Yom

Kippur.







YOM KIPPUR

• The high priest did formal penance for the

people’s sins and then laid them on a

scapegoat which was driven out in to the

desert to die. Probably the Israelites believed

that evil spirits lived in that wilderness and

that the goat brought the evil and sin they hadcaused back upon them.







NEW MOON• A special commemoration

was to be made on the

first day of each month inhonor of Yahweh. This is

mentioned often in the

Old Testament but we

know little about it (Num

28: 11-15, Sir 43:6-8





SABBATH• The custom of celebrating the seventh day

of the week as special may go back long

before Israel. But only in Israel do we findsuch stress on the sacred rest that must

mark the Sabbath. It is mentioned in the

story of creation, in the giving of manna in

the desert, and in all the law codes.





PURIM• This is a feast established after the exile. It

commemorates the day of deliverance

that God gave to the Jews in Persia underQueen Esther. It takes place on the

fourteenth day of the last month of the

year. The only biblical mention of this

popular feast is Esther 9

Purim



Purim





HANUKKAH• In 165 BC Judas Maccabeus rededicated

the temple in Jerusalem that had beendesecrated with pagan idols by the GreekKings of Syria (1 Mc 4:52-59). This“dedication” was celebrated by lightingthe lampstands in the temple, and to this

day is a “Feast of Lights” in the samemonth as the Christian celebration of Christmas-a time of Jewish rejoicing.







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The+Old+Testament 1