BACK TO BASICS: THE BIBLE, THE WORD

 Rabbi Rifat Sonsino, Ph.D

The English word “Bible” comes from the Greek, biblion, meaning “scroll,” because, in the past, most written material had the form of a parchment that could be rolled.

 Writing originated in Sumer during the 4^th millennium BCE. In antiquity,  Sumerian or Akkadian was written on soft clay tablets, going back to Mesopotamia in the 3^rd millennium BCE. In ancient Egypt, papyrus reed was used to write documents (about 2400 BCE). The first printing of books started in China in the 9^th cent. BCE. using woodblocks. Between the 2^nd and 4^th centuries CE, the scroll was replaced by the codex, which was a collection of sheets attached at the back. The earliest most complete Hebrew Bible is called Codex Sassoon (c.900).  The printing press was invented by Johannes Gutenberg of Mainz, Germany, around 1440 CE.

                                    The Hebrew Bible

       

The Hebrew Bible, originally written on prepared skin of an animal, contains 3 sections: a. The Pentateuch (called Torah in Hebrew), the Five Books attributed to Moses; b. The Prophets (Neviim), which include some quasi-historical books, like Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings, as well as a number of prophetic texts, like Hosea, Amos and Isaiah, and finally, c. The Writings (Ketuvim), a collection of books, like Psalms, Proverbs, Job etc. The Hebrew canon, called TANAKH (short for Torah, Neviim and Ketuvim)  has 24 books.

                                 Authorship

 a.     Pentateuch (Torah) : Jewish tradition claims that Moses wrote the Five Books: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy (BB 14b). In fact, according to the ancient Rabbis, “even the questions that students were to ask of their teachers,” were revealed to Moses by God on Mt Sinai. (Midrash Rabba, 47/1). In reality, biblical scholars tell us that the Pentateuch was made of four different sources: J (using the name of God “Yahweh” by those living in the southern kingdom of Judah, c. 850 BCE), E (using  Elohim as the name of God  by those who lived in the Northern kingdom of Israel, c.750 BCE), D (for Deuteronomy, c.621 BCE) and P (for Priestly, mostly dealing with temple rituals, c.450 BCE). It is estimated that these 4 sources were at some point combined around 400 BCE to form the Pentateuch.

b.    The Prophets (Neviim), both Early and Late: these books were most likely finalized c. 200 BCE.

c.     The Writings (Ketuvim): this collection was completed around the 1 cent. CE.

          The earliest Hebrew compositions in the Hebrew Bible are The Song of    the Sea (Ex.15) and The Song of Deborah (Jud.5), both probably     coming from the early monarchic period, c.11-10 cent. BCE. Most of    the material included in the Tanakh was transmitted orally for many           generations until they were written down at different times.     The entire           Hebrew Bible was finalized toward the end of the 1^st cent. CE. 

The Jewish Bible versus Christian Bible (“The New Testament”)

 Even though there are a number of Bible translations in English, like The New American Bible, the New Oxford Annotated Bible  or The Jerusalem Bible, which use the term “Bible” in their title, these are NOT Jewish scriptures, because they include  the New Testament, considered sacred by Christians,  not by Jews. Most Jews use Tanakh, an English translation published by the Jewish Publication Society or The Soncino Bible. 

 Furthermore, the New Testament contains a number of late Jewish books, like Tobit, Judith and the Book of Maccabees, that were not included in the Hebrew Scriptures. Also, Jews do not use the term “Old Testament” (which implies the existence of a New Testament), because they do not accept the Christian assertion of the sacred nature of the New Testament.

 Next blog: The First Bible translation.

 SONSINO’S BLOG, rsonsino.blogspot.com