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ORIGIN

God is The AuthorWhat does this Mean?Inspired men were moved by the Spirit“Authentic” – authority of an ApostleMark – Peter’s CompanionLuke – St. Paul’s authority

ORIGIN OF THE BIBLE

The word Bible comes from the Greek “biblion” – means book

Refers to all of the books of both Testaments

Interpretation of the Bible – Who is responsible?

The Church (guided by the Holy Spirit) is the official guardian and interpreter.

CANON OF THE BIBLE

Our Bible * has 73 books

Vary in length from a few hundred to many thousands of words

46 (some have 45) books of the Old Testament

27 books of the New Testament

Testament means pact, agreement, or “covenant”

DETERMINATION OF BIBLICAL CANON

Confusion about which books were inspired

Council of Hippo in 393 A.D. first determined the books that were part of the canon

Council of Trent in 1546 formally canonized the books of the Bible

Books rejected by the Council of Hippo called the APOCRYPHA

BIBLICAL CANON CONTINUED

Protestant Apocrypha different from Catholic definition.

Protestants call 7 books found in Catholic Bible the Apocrypha (not found in Protestant Bible)

The 7 books are: Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach,

Baruch, 1 and 2 Maccabees, parts of Esther, and Daniel

LANGUAGE AND DIVISION OF THE BIBLE

Catholic and Protestant New Testament books are identical.

Original 3 languages of the Bible: Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek

Aramaic- language that Jesus spoke

Most of the OT written in Hebrew

Most of the NT written in Greek

TEXTUAL DIVISION OF THE BIBLE

Bible not originally divided into chapter and verse

Stephen Langton, Archbishop of Canterbury,

13th century divided Bible into Chapters

Santes Pagninus divided OT chapters into verses in 1528

Robert Etienne, 1551, Paris, verses for NT

OLD TESTAMENT DIVISIONS (SEE HANDOUT)Torah (Hebrew)- Pentateuch (Greek)-

first 5 Books

Prophetical Books (Former and Latter)

Historical Books

The Wisdom Books- the “Writings”

Septuagint- Greek version of the Hebrew Bible

NEW TESTAMENT DIVISIONS

Four Gospels- Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John (4)

Acts of the Apostles (1)

Twenty one “Epistles” or letters (21)

Book of Revelations or the “Apocalypse” (1)

INSPIRATION OF THE BIBLE

Holy Spirit inspired human authors to write the Scriptures in their own words.

The Spirit guided or influenced them to write faithfully what they were taught

Pope Leo XIII defined inspiration (page 7)

Tradition confirms inspiration

Council of Trent (1546) and Vatican Council (1870) confirm sacredness of canon

HISTORY OF THE BIBLE

We have no original manuscripts

Some Ancient manuscripts exist- Hebrew copy of Isaiah 2nd century and Greek text from 2nd century AD

Important Translations- the Septuagint (Greek translation of the OT- 250 BC to 100 BC)

The Vulgate (St. Jerome NT into Latin 384 AD)

Church approved the Vulgate at Council of Trent

HISTORY CONTINUED

The Guttenberg bible printed in 1450, Latin Vulgate version- 200 copies

Eventually numerous translations in many languages

First English translation in 14th century

Famous translations- Wyclif, Douay-Rheims, King James (1611)

PRESENT HISTORY OF BIBLICAL SCHOLARSHIPMany Modern and Contemporary

translations

Pius XII ordered a direct translation from original languages in 1943

Our New American Bible (NAB) is the culmination of their efforts

The NAB is a Roman Catholic translation