Teacher: Richard de Canio
Office 26505
This two-hour class meets Tuesday mornings at 8:10, with a 10 minute break.
The word "bible" means "books."
The Jewish Bible was divided into the Law (Torah), the Prophets (those who spoke of justice in the name of God), and the Writings (teaching common wisdom, with less focus on God).
When some Jews followed Jesus (around 30 C.E.) they still read the Jewish Bible. When they quoted "scripture" (another word for Bible) they meant the Jewish Bible.
Later, Jews began to write of Jesus. These writings (mostly letters) were collected hundreds of years later.
These writings spoke of the "old testament" between God and the Jews. ("Testament" means "covenant" or "contract.") they claimed that since Jesus came, he made a "new covenant" or "new testament" of faith, no longer based on the Jewish law, but open to all people.
These Christian writings became known as the "New" Testament."
Some people don't like to use these words today, because they seem to offend Jews by calling their Jewish Bible "Old." So scholars sometimes refer to the Hebrew (Jewish) Bible and the Christian Bible or Christian Testament. But Old and New Testaments are sill common.
A word about dates. Dating used to be made before and after Jesus (or the Christian era). B.C. meant "before Christ," while "A.D." meant (in Latin) "anno Domini" or "Year of Our Lord"). Today scholars prefer to write "B.C.E" ("before the Common era" or "before the Christian era") and C.E. ("common era" or "Christian Era") instead of A.D. The reason is not to offend people who don't want to be Christians. Try to remember these 4 simple forms, because they appear all over, in millions of pages of history, literature, etc.
Themes: There are certain main themes that are in the Bible from the very beginning. Some of these words (like "faith") are really in the Bible; other words can be used to talk about certain behavior.
1. Faith. One of the key words of the Bible. You must believe in God before God will believe in you. God reaches out to the person, but the person must accept much of the promise on faith.
2. Promise. Appears especially in the idea of a "Promised Land." This idea has had world-wide influence and was the reason people went to America. Even today, countries use the idea of a promised land.
3. Covenant. Sometimes called "testament" (so "Old Testament" and "New Testament"). That means "contract." God has a contract (a bargain, if you will) with the Jewish people. Have faith in me and I will build you a great nation and all nations will follow you. But you must give me something too. You must keep justice, feed the people, follow my laws, and so on.The role of the prophets was to remind the Jewish people of the "covenant" with God, which included justice.
A prophet was not like prophets are today. Today a prophet is someone who tells the future. A Bible prophet was someone who told what would happen if people disobeyed God, offended the poor, the weak, the sick, or the stranger. This kind of "prophecy" (what a prophet says) continues today, in songs by Bob Dylan: "The answer is blowing in the wind." The wind here is God's anger. (The Bible speaks of a "whirlwind" from God.)
4. Obedience. This follows from God's covenant and the Ten Commandments.
5. Rebellion. What makes the Bible SO interesting is it shows people more likely to disobey (rebel) than obey! That's why God made a covenant with Abraham. But the prophets show that even that covenant was disobeyed over and over again. So the Bible shows us normal human beings who kill, lust, and care more about themselves than God or their society.
6. Justice. A main theme of the prophets, like the prophet Amos: "Let Justice roll on like a river, rightesousness like a never-ending stream!" The Bible is more "social" than "religious" in many ways. Social justice is a main theme. For this reason, the Bible has inspired human rights down to our own time (Martin Luther King used the Bible a lot).
The influence of the Bible is past measure. It's hard to walk through a museum, listen to Mozart or Beethoven or other classical music, or pop or folk or Reggae without hearing the Bible's influence.
The Bible is best read in little bits, like we'll read it. Luckily, this is easy to do. Today's Bibles have clear chapter headings. In addition, checking Bible quotes is easy. Each book has a name, followed by a chapter, then verse or verses (usually a line is a verse). Remember, the Bible was of LARGE importance in people's lives. They had to be able to refer to it very easily, so they used this way. If you someone refers you to Genesis 1.27, it's easy to find. Open the Bible. Look for Genesis (the first book), find Chapter 1, look for number 27 and you'll find the following: "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them."
Note first the language. It repeats itself a lot. The Bible was intended to be spoken and heard. Poetry, like music, repeats itself a lot. Not all parts of the Bible does this, but many parts.
Now go to the following webpage:http://bible.gospelcom.net/ Here you'll find complete online Bibles. I advise you look at TWO translations. One translation should always be the King James Version (KJV) because that is what we'll listen to in class. There are 19 translations in that site! One is the New King James Version, a little more modern (NKJV). I really don't care which version, but at least bring the KJV to class so you can listen to it spoken. Use a version that is easy for you (most are fairly modern anyway).
Only a few more things need to be said. One is that the Old Testament was more likely "edited" than "written." What this means is that many writers wrote and changed what others wrote. So you get many points of view. These are called "redactions," or editings. Most parts of the Old Testament are redactions.
For example, it is believed that the first chapter of Creation was written later than the second chapter. The first chapter may have been added by a priestly writer, who wanted to show the importance of the Sabbath (day of rest).
No comments:
Post a Comment