Quotes & Sayings


We, and creation itself, actualize the possibilities of the God who sustains the world, towards becoming in the world in a fuller, more deeper way. - R.E. Slater

There is urgency in coming to see the world as a web of interrelated processes of which we are integral parts, so that all of our choices and actions have [consequential effects upon] the world around us. - Process Metaphysician Alfred North Whitehead

Kurt Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem says (i) all closed systems are unprovable within themselves and, that (ii) all open systems are rightly understood as incomplete. - R.E. Slater

The most true thing about you is what God has said to you in Christ, "You are My Beloved." - Tripp Fuller

The God among us is the God who refuses to be God without us, so great is God's Love. - Tripp Fuller

According to some Christian outlooks we were made for another world. Perhaps, rather, we were made for this world to recreate, reclaim, redeem, and renew unto God's future aspiration by the power of His Spirit. - R.E. Slater

Our eschatological ethos is to love. To stand with those who are oppressed. To stand against those who are oppressing. It is that simple. Love is our only calling and Christian Hope. - R.E. Slater

Secularization theory has been massively falsified. We don't live in an age of secularity. We live in an age of explosive, pervasive religiosity... an age of religious pluralism. - Peter L. Berger

Exploring the edge of life and faith in a post-everything world. - Todd Littleton

I don't need another reason to believe, your love is all around for me to see. – Anon

Thou art our need; and in giving us more of thyself thou givest us all. - Khalil Gibran, Prayer XXIII

Be careful what you pretend to be. You become what you pretend to be. - Kurt Vonnegut

Religious beliefs, far from being primary, are often shaped and adjusted by our social goals. - Jim Forest

We become who we are by what we believe and can justify. - R.E. Slater

People, even more than things, need to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed, and redeemed; never throw out anyone. – Anon

Certainly, God's love has made fools of us all. - R.E. Slater

An apocalyptic Christian faith doesn't wait for Jesus to come, but for Jesus to become in our midst. - R.E. Slater

Christian belief in God begins with the cross and resurrection of Jesus, not with rational apologetics. - Eberhard Jüngel, Jürgen Moltmann

Our knowledge of God is through the 'I-Thou' encounter, not in finding God at the end of a syllogism or argument. There is a grave danger in any Christian treatment of God as an object. The God of Jesus Christ and Scripture is irreducibly subject and never made as an object, a force, a power, or a principle that can be manipulated. - Emil Brunner

“Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh” means "I will be that who I have yet to become." - God (Ex 3.14) or, conversely, “I AM who I AM Becoming.”

Our job is to love others without stopping to inquire whether or not they are worthy. - Thomas Merton

The church is God's world-changing social experiment of bringing unlikes and differents to the Eucharist/Communion table to share life with one another as a new kind of family. When this happens, we show to the world what love, justice, peace, reconciliation, and life together is designed by God to be. The church is God's show-and-tell for the world to see how God wants us to live as a blended, global, polypluralistic family united with one will, by one Lord, and baptized by one Spirit. – Anon

The cross that is planted at the heart of the history of the world cannot be uprooted. - Jacques Ellul

The Unity in whose loving presence the universe unfolds is inside each person as a call to welcome the stranger, protect animals and the earth, respect the dignity of each person, think new thoughts, and help bring about ecological civilizations. - John Cobb & Farhan A. Shah

If you board the wrong train it is of no use running along the corridors of the train in the other direction. - Dietrich Bonhoeffer

God's justice is restorative rather than punitive; His discipline is merciful rather than punishing; His power is made perfect in weakness; and His grace is sufficient for all. – Anon

Our little [biblical] systems have their day; they have their day and cease to be. They are but broken lights of Thee, and Thou, O God art more than they. - Alfred Lord Tennyson

We can’t control God; God is uncontrollable. God can’t control us; God’s love is uncontrolling! - Thomas Jay Oord

Life in perspective but always in process... as we are relational beings in process to one another, so life events are in process in relation to each event... as God is to Self, is to world, is to us... like Father, like sons and daughters, like events... life in process yet always in perspective. - R.E. Slater

To promote societal transition to sustainable ways of living and a global society founded on a shared ethical framework which includes respect and care for the community of life, ecological integrity, universal human rights, respect for diversity, economic justice, democracy, and a culture of peace. - The Earth Charter Mission Statement

Christian humanism is the belief that human freedom, individual conscience, and unencumbered rational inquiry are compatible with the practice of Christianity or even intrinsic in its doctrine. It represents a philosophical union of Christian faith and classical humanist principles. - Scott Postma

It is never wise to have a self-appointed religious institution determine a nation's moral code. The opportunities for moral compromise and failure are high; the moral codes and creeds assuredly racist, discriminatory, or subjectively and religiously defined; and the pronouncement of inhumanitarian political objectives quite predictable. - R.E. Slater

God's love must both center and define the Christian faith and all religious or human faiths seeking human and ecological balance in worlds of subtraction, harm, tragedy, and evil. - R.E. Slater

In Whitehead’s process ontology, we can think of the experiential ground of reality as an eternal pulse whereby what is objectively public in one moment becomes subjectively prehended in the next, and whereby the subject that emerges from its feelings then perishes into public expression as an object (or “superject”) aiming for novelty. There is a rhythm of Being between object and subject, not an ontological division. This rhythm powers the creative growth of the universe from one occasion of experience to the next. This is the Whiteheadian mantra: “The many become one and are increased by one.” - Matthew Segall

Without Love there is no Truth. And True Truth is always Loving. There is no dichotomy between these terms but only seamless integration. This is the premier centering focus of a Processual Theology of Love. - R.E. Slater

-----

Note: Generally I do not respond to commentary. I may read the comments but wish to reserve my time to write (or write from the comments I read). Instead, I'd like to see our community help one another and in the helping encourage and exhort each of us towards Christian love in Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior. - re slater

Tuesday, February 4, 2014

The Old Testament

The Old Testament
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Testament

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the Old Testament canon of the Christian Bible.
For the Jewish Tanakh, see Hebrew Bible.

The Old Testament was compiled and edited by various men[3] over a period of centuries, with many scholars concluding that the Hebrew canon was solidified by about the 3rd century BC.[4][5]The Old Testament is the Christian term for the Hebrew Bible, a collection of religious writings by ancient Israelites[1] that form the first section of the Christian Bible, to which were added a second collection of writings referred to as the New Testament. The books included in the Old Testament (the Old Testament canon) varies markedly between Christian denominations; Protestants accept only the books of the official Jewish Hebrew Bible canon as their Old Testament but divide it into 39 books, while Catholics, the Eastern Orthodox, Coptic and Ethiopian churches accept a considerably larger collection of writings in their Old Testament canon.[2]

The books can be broadly divided into several sections: 1) the first five books or Pentateuch (Torah), 2) the history books telling the history of the Israelites, from their conquest of Canaan to their defeat and exile in Babylon; 3) the poetic and "Wisdom" books dealing, in various forms, with questions of good and evil in the world; 4) and the books of the biblical prophets, warning of the consequences of turning away from God.

Content

The Old Testament contains 39 (Protestant) or 46 (Catholic) or more (Orthodox and other) books, divided, very broadly, into the Pentateuch (Torah), the historical books, the "wisdom" books and the prophets.[6]

Table

The table uses the spellings and names present in modern editions of the Bible, such as the New American Bible Revised Edition, Revised Standard Version and English Standard Version. The spelling and names in both the 1609–10 Douay Old Testament (and in the 1582 Rheims New Testament) and the 1749 revision by Bishop Challoner (the edition currently in print used by many Catholics, and the source of traditional Catholic spellings in English) and in the Septuagint differ from those spellings and names used in modern editions which are derived from the Hebrew Masoretic text.[a]

For the Orthodox canon, Septuagint titles are provided in parentheses when these differ from those editions. For the Catholic canon, the Douaic titles are provided in parentheses when these differ from those editions. Likewise, the King James Version references some of these books by the traditional spelling when referring to them in the New Testament, such as "Esaias" (for Isaiah).

In the spirit of ecumenism more recent Catholic translations (e.g. the New American Bible, Jerusalem Bible, and ecumenical translations used by Catholics, such as the Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition) use the same "standardized" (King James Version) spellings and names as Protestant Bibles (e.g. 1 Chronicles as opposed to the Douaic 1 Paralipomenon, 1–2 Samuel and 1–2 Kings instead of 1–4 Kings) in those books which are universally considered canonical, the protocanonicals.

The Talmud (the Jewish commentary on the scriptures) in Bava Batra 14b gives a different order for the books in Nevi'im and Ketuvim. This order is also cited in Mishneh Torah Hilchot Sefer Torah 7:15. The order of the books of the Torah are universal through all denominations of Judaism and Christianity.

The disputed books, included in one canon but not in others, are often called the Biblical apocrypha, a term that is sometimes used specifically to describe the books in the Catholic and Orthodox canons that are absent from the Jewish Masoretic Text and most modern Protestant Bibles. Catholics, following the Canon of Trent (1546), describe these books as deuterocanonical, while Greek Orthodox Christians, following the Synod of Jerusalem (1672), use the traditional name of anagignoskomena, meaning "that which is to be read." They are present in a few historic Protestant versions; the German Luther Bible included such books, as did the English 1611 King James Version.[b]


Empty table cells indicate that a book is absent from that canon.

Tanakh
(Hebrew Bible)
(24 books)[c]
Books in bold are part of the Ketuvim
Protestant
Old Testament
(39 books)
Catholic
Old Testament
(46 books)
Eastern Orthodox
Old Testament
(51 books)
Original language
TorahPentateuch or the Five Books of Moses
BereishitGenesisGenesisGenesisHebrew
ShemotExodusExodusExodusHebrew
VayikraLeviticusLeviticusLeviticusHebrew
BamidbarNumbersNumbersNumbersHebrew
DevarimDeuteronomyDeuteronomyDeuteronomyHebrew
Nevi'im (Prophets)Historical books
YehoshuaJoshuaJoshua (Josue)Joshua (Iesous)Hebrew
ShofetimJudgesJudgesJudgesHebrew
Rut (Ruth)[d]RuthRuthRuthHebrew
Shemuel1 Samuel1 Samuel (1 Kings)[e]1 Samuel (1 Kingdoms)[f]Hebrew
2 Samuel2 Samuel (2 Kings)[e]2 Samuel (2 Kingdoms)[f]Hebrew
Melakhim1 Kings1 Kings (3 Kings)[e]1 Kings (3 Kingdoms)[f]Hebrew
2 Kings2 Kings (4 Kings)[e]2 Kings (4 Kingdoms)[f]Hebrew
Divrei Hayamim (Chronicles)[d]1 Chronicles1 Chronicles (1 Paralipomenon)1 Chronicles (1 Paralipomenon)Hebrew
2 Chronicles2 Chronicles (2 Paralipomenon)2 Chronicles (2 Paralipomenon)Hebrew
1 EsdrasHebrew
Ezra-Nehemiah[d]EzraEzra (1 Esdras)Ezra (2 Esdras)[f][g]Hebrew and Aramaic
NehemiahNehemiah (2 Esdras)Nehemiah (2 Esdras)[f][g]Hebrew
Tobit (Tobias)Tobit (Tobias)Aramaic (and Hebrew?)
JudithJudithHebrew
Esther[d]EstherEsther[h]Esther[h]Hebrew
1 Maccabees (1 Machabees)[i]1 MaccabeesHebrew
2 Maccabees (2 Machabees)[i]2 MaccabeesGreek
3 MaccabeesGreek
4 Maccabees[j]Greek
Ketuvim (Writings)Wisdom books
Iyov (Job)[d]JobJobJobHebrew
Tehillim (Psalms)[d]PsalmsPsalmsPsalms[k]Hebrew
Prayer of ManassehGreek
Mishlei (Proverbs)[d]ProverbsProverbsProverbsHebrew
Qoheleth (Ecclesiastes)[d]EcclesiastesEcclesiastesEcclesiastesHebrew
Shir Hashirim (Song of Songs)[d]Song of SolomonSong of Songs (Canticle of Canticles)Song of Songs (Aisma Aismaton)Hebrew
WisdomWisdomGreek
Sirach (Ecclesiasticus)SirachHebrew
Nevi'im (Latter Prophets)Major prophets
YeshayahuIsaiahIsaiah (Isaias)IsaiahHebrew
YirmeyahuJeremiahJeremiah (Jeremias)JeremiahHebrew and Aramaic
Eikhah (Lamentations)[d]LamentationsLamentationsLamentationsHebrew
Baruch[l]Baruch[l]Hebrew[8]
Letter of Jeremiah[m]Greek (majority view)[n]
YekhezqelEzekielEzekiel (Ezechiel)EzekielHebrew
Daniel[d]DanielDaniel[o]Daniel[o]Hebrew and Aramaic
Twelve Minor Prophets
The Twelve
or
Trei Asar
HoseaHosea (Osee)HoseaHebrew
JoelJoelJoelHebrew
AmosAmosAmosHebrew
ObadiahObadiah (Abdias)ObadiahHebrew
JonahJonah (Jonas)JonahHebrew
MicahMicah (Micheas)MicahHebrew
NahumNahumNahumHebrew
HabakkukHabakkuk (Habacuc)HabakkukHebrew
ZephaniahZephaniah (Sophonias)ZephaniahHebrew
HaggaiHaggai (Aggeus)HaggaiHebrew
ZechariahZechariah (Zacharias)ZechariahHebrew
MalachiMalachi (Malachias)MalachiHebrew
Several of the books in the Eastern Orthodox canon are also found in the appendix to the Latin Vulgate,
formerly the official Bible of the Roman Catholic Church.

Books in the Appendix to the Vulgate Bible
Name in VulgateName in Eastern Orthodox use
3 Esdras1 Esdras
4 Esdras
Prayer of ManassehPrayer of Manasseh
Psalm of David when he slew Goliath (Psalm 151)Psalm 151

Composition

The first five books – Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, book of Numbers and Deuteronomy – comprise the Torah, the story of Israel from the Genesis creation narrative to the death of Moses. Few scholars today doubt that it reached its present form in the Persian period (538–332 BC), and that its authors were the elite of exilic returnees who controlled the Temple at that time.[9]

The books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings follow, forming a history of Israel from the Conquest of Canaan to the Siege of Jerusalem c. 587 BC. There is a broad consensus among scholars that these originated as a single work (the so-called "Deuteronomistic history") during the Babylonian exile of the 6th century BC.[10] The two Books of Chronicles cover much the same material as the Pentateuch and Deuteronomistic history and probably date from the 4th century BC.[11]

Chronicles links with the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, which were probably finished during the 3rd century BC.[12] Catholic and Orthodox Old Testaments contain two (Catholic Old Testament) to four (Orthodox) Books of Maccabees, written in the 2nd and 1st centuries BC.

The history books make up around half the total content of the Old Testament. Of the remainder, the books of the various prophets – Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel and the twelve "minor prophets" – were written between the 8th and 6th centuries BC, with the exceptions of Jonah and Daniel, which were written much later.[13] The "wisdom" and other books – Job, Proverbs and so on – date from between the 5th century BC and the 2nd or 1st BC, with the exception of some of the Psalms.[14]

Themes

God is consistently depicted as the one who created or put into order[15] the world and guides its history. Although he is not consistently presented as the only god who exists, he is always depicted as the only god whom Israel is to worship, and both Jews and Christians have always interpreted the bible as an affirmation of the oneness of God.[16]

The Old Testament stresses the special relationship between God and his chosen people, Israel, but includes instructions for proselytes as well. This relationship is expressed in the biblical covenant (contract) between the two, received by Moses. The law codes in books such as Exodus and especially Deuteronomy are the terms of the contract: Israel swears faithfulness to Yahweh, and God swears to be Israel's special protector and supporter.[16]

Further themes in the Old Testament include salvation, redemption, divine judgment, obedience and disobedience, faith and faithfulness, among others. Throughout there is a strong emphasis on ethics and ritual purity, both of which God demands, although some of the prophets and wisdom writers seem to question this, arguing that God demands social justice above purity, and perhaps does not even care about purity at all. The Old Testament's moral code enjoins fairness, intervention on behalf of the vulnerable, and the duty of those in power to administer justice righteously. It forbids murder, bribery and corruption, deceitful trading, and many sexual misdemeanors. All morality is traced back to God, who is the source of all goodness.[17]

The problem of evil plays a large part in the Old Testament. The problem the Old Testament authors faced was that a good God must have had just reason for bringing disaster (meaning notably, but not only, the Babylonian exile) upon his people. The theme is played out, with many variations, in books as different as the histories of Kings and Chronicles, the prophets like Ezekiel and Jeremiah, and in the wisdom books like Job and Ecclesiastes.[17]

From scripture to canon: formation of the Old Testament

The interrelationship between various significant ancient manuscripts of the Old Testament, according to
the 
Encyclopaedia Biblica (1903) Some manuscripts are identified by their siglum. LXX here denotes
the original Septuagint.

Greek, Latin and Protestant Old Testaments

The process by which scriptures became canons and Bibles was a long one, and its complexities account for the many different Old Testaments which exist today. Timothy H. Lim, a professor of Hebrew Bible and Second Temple Judaism at the University of Edinburgh, states that, "The Old Testament (OT) or Tanak was written in Hebrew and Aramaic. This collection of books was not written by one man, nor did it drop down from heaven as assumed by fundamentalists. It is not a magical book, but a collection of authoritative texts of apparently divine origin that went through a human process of writing and editing.”[18] By about the 5th century BC Jews saw the five books of the Torah (the Old Testament Pentateuch) as having authoritative status; by the 2nd century BC the Prophets had a similar status, although without quite the same level of respect as the Torah; beyond that, the Jewish scriptures were fluid, with different groups seeing authority in different books.[19]

Greek Bible

The scriptures were first translated into Greek in Alexandria between about 280–130 BC.[20] These early Greek translations – supposedly commissioned by Ptolemy Philadelphus – were called the Septuagint (Latin: "Seventy") from the supposed number of translators involved (hence its abbreviation "LXX"). This Septuagint remains the basis of the Old Testament in the Eastern Orthodox Church.[21]

It varies in many places from the Masoretic Text and includes numerous books no longer considered canonical in other traditions: 1st & 2nd Esdras, Judith, Tobit, 3rd & 4th Maccabees, the Book of Wisdom, Sirach, and Baruch.[22] Early modern Biblical criticism typically explained these variations as intentional or ignorant corruptions by the Alexandrian scholars, but most recent scholarship holds it is simply based on early source texts differing from those later used by the Masoretes in their work.

The Septuagint was originally used by Jews so thoroughly Hellenized that their knowledge of Greek was better than their Hebrew. The ever-increasing number of gentile converts to Christianity created a growing need for translations of the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek and Latin. The three most acclaimed early interpreters were Aquila of Sinope, Symmachus the Ebionite, and Theodotion; in his Hexapla, Origen placed his edition of the Hebrew text beside its transcription in Greek letters and four parallel translations: Aquila's, Symmachus's, the Septuagint's, and Theodotion's. The so-called "fifth" and "sixth editions" were two other Greek translations supposedly miraculously discovered by students outside the towns of Jericho and Nicopolis: these were added to Origen's Octapla.[23]

In 331, Constantine I commissioned Eusebius to deliver fifty Bibles for the Church of Constantinople. Athanasius[24] recorded Alexandrian scribes around 340 preparing Bibles for Constans. Little else is known, though there is plenty of speculation. For example, it is speculated that this may have provided motivation for canon lists, and that Codex Vaticanus and Codex Sinaiticus are examples of these Bibles. Together with the Peshitta and Codex Alexandrinus, these are the earliest extant Christian Bibles.[25] There is no evidence among the canons of the First Council of Nicaea of any determination on the canon, however, Jerome (347–420), in his Prologue to Judith, makes the claim that the Book of Judith was "found by the Nicene Council to have been counted among the number of the Sacred Scriptures".[26]

Latin Bible

In Western Christianity or Christianity in the Western half of the Roman Empire, Latin had displaced Greek as the common language of the early Christians, and about 400 AD Pope Damasus I commissioned Jerome, the leading scholar of the day, to produce an updated Latin bible to replace the Vetus Latina. Sometime in the centuries after the Septuagint (exactly when is disputed) the Rabbis (Jewish religious scholars and teachers) defined the Jewish canon, which is a much shorter canon of only 24 books, and Jerome used it (commonly called the Hebrew Bible) instead of the Greek Old Testament as the basis for his translation, citing "Hebraica Veritas" (Latin: Truth of the Hebrew). His Vulgate (i.e. common language) Old Testament became the standard bible used in the Western Church, specifically as the Sixto-Clementine Vulgate, while the Churches in the East continued, and still continue, to use the Septuagint.[27]

Jerome had wanted to drop all the books that did not appear in the Hebrew Bible, but St Augustine, a bishop and another great scholar of the day, opposed him and won the argument, notably at the Council of Carthage on 28 August 397. In the 16th century the Protestant reformers reopened the debate, and sided with Jerome, but only for their own congregations[citation needed]: yet although Protestant Bibles now have only those books that appear in the Jewish Bible, they have them in the order of the Greek Bible.[28]

Rome, largely in reaction to this attack on tradition, officially adopted a canon, the Canon of Trent, which can be seen as following Augustine's Carthaginian Councils or the Council of Rome,[p] and includes most, but not all, of the Septuagint (3 Ezra and 3 and 4 Maccabees are excluded);[29] the Anglicans after the English Civil War adopted a compromise position, restoring the 39 Articles and keeping the extra books that were excluded by the Westminster Confession of Faith, but only for private study and for reading in churches, while Lutherans kept them for private study, gathered in an appendix as Biblical Apocrypha.[28]

Other versions

While the Hebrew, Greek and Latin versions of the Hebrew Bible are the best known Old Testaments, there were others. At much the same time as the Septuagint was being produced, translations were being made into Aramaic, the language of Jews living in Palestine and the Near East and likely the language of Jesus: these are called the Aramaic Targums, from a word meaning "translation", and were used to help Jewish congregations understand their scriptures.[30]

For Aramaic Christians there was a Syriac translation of the Hebrew Bible called the Peshitta, as well as versions in Coptic (the everyday language of Egypt in the first Christian centuries, descended from ancient Egyptian), Ethiopic (for use in the Ethiopian church, one of the oldest Christian churches), Armenian (Armenia was the first to adopt Christianity as its official religion), and Arabic.[30]

Christian theology and the Old Testament

Christianity is based on the claim that the historical Jesus is also the Christ, as in the Confession of Peter. This claim is in turn based on Jewish understandings of the meaning of the Hebrew term messiah, which, like the Greek "Christ", means "anointed". In the Hebrew Scriptures it describes a king anointed with oil on his accession to the throne: he becomes "The LORD's anointed" or Yahweh's Anointed. By the time of Jesus, some Jews expected that a flesh and blood descendant of David (the "Son of David") would come to establish a real Jewish kingdom in Jerusalem, instead of the Roman province.[31]

Others stressed the Son of Man, a distinctly other-worldly figure who would appear as a judge at the end of time; and some harmonised the two by expecting a this-worldly messianic kingdom which would last for a set period and be followed by the other-worldly age or World to Come. Some thought the Messiah was already present, but unrecognised due to Israel's sins; some thought that the Messiah would be announced by a fore-runner, probably Elijah (as promised by the prophet Malachi, whose book now ends the Old Testament and precedes Mark's account of John the Baptist). None predicted a Messiah who suffers and dies for the sins of all the people.[31] The story of Jesus' death therefore involved a profound shift in meaning from the tradition of the Old Testament.[32]

The name "Old Testament" reflects Christianity's understanding of itself as the fulfillment of Jeremiah's prophesy of a New Covenant (which is similar to "testament" and often conflated) to replace the existing covenant between God and Israel (Jeremiah 31:31).[1] The emphasis, however, has shifted from Judaism's understanding of the covenant as an eternal contract between God and Israel to one between God and those who are "in Christ".[33]

See also

Notes
  1. Jump up ^ Generally due to derivation from transliterations of names used in the Latin Vulgate in the case of Catholicism, and from transliterations of the Greek Septuagint in the case of the Orthodox (as opposed to derivation of translations, instead of transliterations, of Hebrew titles) such Ecclesiasticus (DRC) instead of Sirach (LXX) or Ben Sira (Hebrew), Paralipomenon (Greek, meaning "things omitted") instead of Chronicles, Sophonias instead of Zephaniah, Noe instead of Noah, Henoch instead of Enoch, Messias instead of Messiah, Sion instead of Zion, etc.
  2. Jump up ^ The foundational Thirty-Nine Articles of Anglicanism, in Article VI, asserts these disputed books are not used "to establish any doctrine," but "read for example of life." Although the Biblical apocrypha are still used in Anglican Liturgy,[7] the modern trend is to not even print the Old Testament apocrypha in editions of Anglican-used Bibles.
  3. Jump up ^ The 24 books of the Hebrew Bible are the same as the 39 books of the Protestant Old Testament, only divided and ordered differently: the books of the Minor Prophets are in Christian Bibles twelve different books, and in Hebrew Bibles, one book called "The Twelve". Likewise, Christian Bibles divide the Books of Kingdoms into four books, either 1–2 Samuel and 1–2 Kings or 1–4 Kings: Jewish Bibles divide these into two books. The Jews likewise keep 1–2 Chronicles/Paralipomenon as one book. Ezra and Nehemiah are likewise combined in the Jewish Bible, as they are in many Orthodox Bibles, instead of divided into two books, as per the Catholic and Protestant tradition.
  4. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h i j k This book is part of the Ketuvim, the third section of the Jewish canon. They have a different order in Jewish canon than in Christian canon.
  5. ^ Jump up to: a b c d The books of Samuel and Kings are often called First through Fourth Kings in the Catholic tradition, much like the Orthodox.
  6. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f Names in parentheses are the Septuagint names and are often used by the Orthodox Christians.
  7. ^ Jump up to: a b Some Eastern Orthodox churches follow the Septuagint and the Hebrew bibles by considering the books of Ezra and Nehemiah as one book.
  8. ^ Jump up to: a b The Catholic and Orthodox Book of Esther includes 103 verses not in the Protestant Book of Esther.
  9. ^ Jump up to: a b The Latin Vulgate, Douay-Rheims, and Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition place First and Second Maccabees after Malachi; other Catholic translations place them after Esther.
  10. Jump up ^ In Greek Bibles, 4 Maccabees is found in the appendix.
  11. Jump up ^ Eastern Orthodox churches include Psalm 151 and the Prayer of Manasseh, not present in all canons.
  12. ^ Jump up to: a b In Catholic Bibles, Baruch includes a sixth chapter called the Letter of Jeremiah. Baruch is not in the Protestant Bible or the Tanakh.
  13. Jump up ^ Eastern Orthodox Bibles have the books of Baruch and the Letter of Jeremiah separate.
  14. Jump up ^ Hebrew (minority view); see Letter of Jeremiah for details.
  15. ^ Jump up to: a b In Catholic and Orthodox Bibles, Daniel includes three sections not included in Protestant Bibles. The Prayer of Azariah and Song of the Three Holy Children are included between Daniel 3:23–24. Susanna is included as Daniel 13. Bel and the Dragon is included as Daniel 14. These are not in the Protestant Old Testament.
  16. Jump up ^ Augustine's "2 of Esdras" could be 1 Esdras and Ezra-Nehemiah as in the Septuagint and Orthodox canon or Ezra and Nehemiah as in the Vulgate and Catholic canon.

References
  1. Jump up to: a b Jones 2001, p. 215.
  2. Jump up ^ Barton 2001, p. 3.
  3. Jump up ^ Lim, Timothy H. (2005). The Dead Sea Scrolls: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 41. 
  4. Jump up ^ Riches, John (2000). The Bible: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 37. ISBN 978-0-19-285343-1. 
  5. Jump up ^ Philip R. Davies in The Canon Debate, page 50: "With many other scholars, I conclude that the fixing of a canonical list was almost certainly the achievement of the Hasmonean dynasty."
  6. Jump up ^ Boadt 1984, pp. 11, 15–16.
  7. Jump up ^ The Apocrypha, Bridge of the Testaments (PDF), Orthodox Anglican, "Two of the hymns used in the American Prayer Book office of Morning Prayer, the Benedictus es and Benedicite, are taken from the Apocrypha. One of the offertory sentences in Holy Communion comes from an apocryphal book (Tob. 4: 8–9). Lessons from the Apocrypha are regularly appointed to be read in the daily, Sunday, and special services of Morning and Evening Prayer. There are altogether 111 such lessons in the latest revised American Prayer Book Lectionary [Books used are: II Esdras, Tobit, Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, Baruch, Three Holy Children, and I Maccabees.]" 
  8. Jump up ^ Britannica, 1911 
  9. Jump up ^ Blenkinsopp 1998, p. 184.
  10. Jump up ^ Rogerson 2003, pp. 153–54.
  11. Jump up ^ Coggins 2003, p. 282.
  12. Jump up ^ Grabbe 2003, pp. 213–14.
  13. Jump up ^ Miller 1987, pp. 10–11.
  14. Jump up ^ Crenshaw 2010, p. 5.
  15. Jump up ^ There is a major discussion in the field of theology about the meaning of the word "bara", the secod word of Genesis. Some interpret it as "created" (out of nothing), but others argue it was "remodelled/ordered" (something existing before)
  16. ^ Jump up to: a b Barton 2001, p. 9.
  17. ^ Jump up to: a b Barton 2001, p. 10.
  18. Jump up ^ Lim, Timothy H. (2005). The Dead Sea Scrolls: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 41. 
  19. Jump up ^ Brettler 2005, p. 274.
  20. Jump up ^ Gentry 2008, p. 302.
  21. Jump up ^ Würthwein 1995.
  22. Jump up ^ Jones 2001, p. 216.
  23. Jump up ^ Cave, William. A complete history of the lives, acts, and martyrdoms of the holy apostles, and the two evangelists, St. Mark and Luke, Vol. II. Wiatt (Philadelphia), 1810. Accessed 6 Feb 2013.
  24. Jump up ^ Apol. Const. 4
  25. Jump up ^ The Canon Debate, pp. 414–15, for the entire paragraph
  26. Jump up ^ "Book of Judith". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. 1913.  Canonicity: "..."the Synod of Nicaea is said to have accounted it as Sacred Scripture" (Praef. in Lib.). It is true that no such declaration is to be found in the Canons of Nicaea, and it is uncertain whether St. Jerome is referring to the use made of the book in the discussions of the council, or whether he was misled by some spurious canons attributed to that council".
  27. Jump up ^ Würthwein 1995, pp. 91–99.
  28. ^ Jump up to: a b Barton 1997, pp. 80–81.
  29. Jump up ^ Soggin 1987, p. 19.
  30. ^ Jump up to: a b Würthwein 1995, pp. 79–90, 100–4.
  31. ^ Jump up to: a b Farmer 1991, pp. 570–71.
  32. Jump up ^ Juel 2000, pp. 236–39.
  33. Jump up ^ Herion 2000, pp. 291–92.

Bibliography

Further reading
  • Anderson, Bernhard. Understanding the Old Testament. ISBN 0-13-948399-3
  • Bahnsen, Greg, et al., Five Views on Law and Gospel (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1993).
  • Berkowitz, Ariel; Berkowitz, D'vorah (2004), Torah Rediscovered (4th ed.), Shoreshim, ISBN 0-9752914-0-8 .
  • Dever, William G (2003), Who Were the Early Israelites?, Grand Rapids, MI: William B Eerdmans, ISBN 0-8028-0975-8 .
  • von Rad, Gerhard (1982/1984), Theologie des Alten Testaments [Theology of the Old Testament] (in German), Band 1–2, München: Auflage  .
  • Hill, Andrew; Walton, John (2000), A Survey of the Old Testament (2nd ed.), Grand Rapids: Zondervan, ISBN 0-310-22903-0 .
  • Kuntz, John Kenneth (1974), The People of Ancient Israel: an introduction to Old Testament Literature, History, and Thought, Harper & Row, ISBN 0-06-043822-3 .
  • Lancaster, D Thomas (2005), Restoration: Returning the Torah of God to the Disciples of Jesus, Littleton \ publisher = First Fruits of Zion .
  • Papadaki-Oekland, Stella, Byzantine Illuminated Manuscripts of the Book of Job, ISBN 978-2-503-53232-5 .
  • Rouvière, Jean-Marc (2006), Brèves méditations sur la Création du monde [Brief meditations on the creation of the World] (in French), Paris: L'Harmattan .
  • Salibi, Kamal (1985), The Bible Came from Arabia, London: Jonathan Cape, ISBN 0-224-02830-8 .
  • Schmid, Konrad (2012), The Old Testament: A Literary History, Minneapolis: Fortress, ISBN 978-0-8006-9775-4 .
  • Silberman, Neil A; et al (2003), The Bible Unearthed (hardback), New York: Simon & Schuster, ISBN 0-684-86912-8  , ISBN 0-684-86913-6 (paperback).
  • Sprinkle, Joseph ‘Joe’ M (2006), Biblical Law and Its Relevance: A Christian Understanding and Ethical Application for Today of the Mosaic Regulations (clothbound), Lanham, MD: University Press of America, ISBN 0-7618-3371-4  and ISBN 0-7618-3372-2 (paperback).


Paul’s Missionary Journeys, Maps, and Charts


St. Paul Preaching in Athens - Raffaello Raphael Sanzio



Paul’s Missionary Tube Map




Paul's Missionary Journeys
click on any map to enlarge




http://www.foundationsforfreedom.net/References/NT/Acts/Acts_Map_1-2_Journey.html


http://www.foundationsforfreedom.net/References/NT/Acts/Acts_Map_3-Rome_Journeys.html











Paul’s First Missionary Journey through Perga and Pisidian Antioch

After sailing from Cyprus to the Turkish coast, Paul and Barnabas visit the city of Perga before traveling to Pisidian Antioch and other cities on the Anatolian interior. When they head back to the coast, the travelers followed the same route. Why did they choose such a treacherous route for Paul’s first missionary journey? Mark R. Fairchild explores unexcavated sites along the Kestros River Valley, exposing evidence of Jewish populations en route. Acts indicates that Paul deliberately traveled to cities with Jewish populations. Perga was a major city, and the presence of a Jewish community there made it an ideal base for Paul’s first missionary journey through Anatolia. Fairchild argues that Paul and Barnabas could have taken an easy, but roundabout, path along established Roman roads, but opted to travel along the rugged Kestros Valley because of the hospitality of local Jewish communities (see Perga Maps 1 and 2 below):


Paul and Barnabas would have sailed from Cyprus to one of
these ports on the Turkish coast before traveling to Perga. BAS

Mark R. Fairchild suggests that Paul traveled from Perga up the Kestros
River Valley to Pisidian Antioch, the route indicated in green.
BAS



SAMPLE CHRONOLOGIES AND CHARTS
click on any chart to enlarge