3. The making of the Bible

2021 ◽  
pp. 25-41
Author(s):  
John Riches
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Old Testament ◽  
Hebrew Bible ◽  
Religious Communities ◽  
Greek Version ◽  
Christian Church ◽  
Christian Community ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Jewish Scriptures ◽  
The Church

‘The making of the Bible’ discusses the process whereby different books came to be included in the various Bibles (a term first used by the Churches) which are now accepted as authoritative (canonical) by various religious communities, Jewish and Christian. This process is often referred to as the canonization of scripture. It is important to look first at the formation of the Hebrew Bible and its Greek version, the Septuagint. While the Septuagint started life as a translation for Jews living in the Diaspora, it was subsequently taken up by the Christian community as the medium through which the Old Testament was known in the Church. The language of the Septuagint also influenced many of the writers of the Christian New Testament. The authoritative writings of the Christian Church were in the first instance largely identical with the Jewish scriptures. It is valuable to consider the process whereby Christian writings, principally letters and gospels, were collected and recognized as authoritative alongside other Jewish writings.

scholarly journals Inklusivisme en eksklusivisme: ‘n Studie van twee tendense

2009 ◽  
Vol 65 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Pieter M. Venter
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Old Testament ◽  
Second Temple ◽  
The Other ◽  
Christian Church ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Unique Character ◽  
The World ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
The Church

Inclusivism and exclusivism: A study of two trendsThe identity of the church can be either inclusivist or exclusivist. Van Ruler’s theocratic theology views the church as being an inclusive community in service of God’s kingdom. It is the vehicle God uses to introduce his kingdom into the world. According to Van Ruler, however, the church also shows a unique character based on its relationship with Jesus Christ. Although the church can take many forms, Van Ruler’s opinion is that the Christian Church could be advised by Old Testament Israel in this regard. This study shows that both inclusivist and exclusivist trends are present in the Old as well as the New Testament. The New Testament inherited the debate between these two opposing stances from the time of the Second Temple. Returning from exile, Sadocitic priests propagated an exclusivist identity for the Judaeans. Their viewpoint was based on the programme of Ezekiel 40–48, as is illustrated in the literature of Ezra–Nehemiah, the Priestly Writing, Chronicles and Jubilees. On the other hand, indeed there was an inclusivist approach as well, as is depicted in the books of Jonah, Ruth, Trito-Isaiah and even Numbers and Joshua. The conclusion drawn from the study is that both exclusivist and inclusivist trends are present in the Bible. Although the church does not have any other option in the present postmodern world but to be primarily an inclusive community, it should also show some form of exclusivism.

The New Testament: A Guide

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald Senior
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Old Testament ◽  
First Century ◽  
Sacred Text ◽  
Christian Community ◽  
Literary Forms ◽  
Complex Process ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Jewish Scriptures ◽  
The Church

This work addresses the question of why the New Testament is considered a sacred text by Christians. While sharing some characteristics of an Introduction to the New Testament, this work has a very different purpose. While for many the New Testament is respected as an interesting and influential ancient first-century text, for believing Christians the New Testament bears perennial normative religious authority. After exploring the content, the historical roots, and the complex process that led to the composition of the varied writings contained in the New Testament, this study turns to the fundamental unifying purpose of the New Testament writings as religious proclamations in various literary forms of the inherently transcendent character of Jesus Christ and the implications of that proclamation for the lives and destiny of both individual Christians and the Christian community itself. It is this defining characteristic that underwrites the sacred character of the New Testament for Christians. A key process was the formation of the New Testament canon during the early centuries of the Christian era which certified the normative nature of the New Testament writings and fused them onto the Jewish Scriptures or Old Testament to form the Christian Bible. The study concludes by sketching the evolution and ongoing diversity of New Testament interpretation both in the academy and in the church.

The Church of the Reigning Lord

1948 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 66-73
Author(s):  
R. Stuart Louden
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Old Testament ◽  
Christian Theology ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Biblical Scholarship ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Pauline Epistles ◽  
History Of ◽  
Four Square ◽  
The Church

We can trace a revival of theology in the Reformed Churches in the last quarter of a century. The new theological interest merits being called a revival of theology, for there has been a fresh and more thorough attention given to certain realities, either ignored or treated with scant notice for a considerable time previously.First among such realities now receiving more of the attention which their relevance and authority deserve, is the Bible, the record of the Word of God. There is an invigorating and convincing quality about theology which is Biblical throughout, being based on the witness of the Scriptures as a whole. The valuable results of careful Biblical scholarship had had an adverse effect on theology in so far as theologians had completely separated the Old Testament from the New in their treatment of Biblical doctrine, or in expanding Christian doctrine, had spoken of the theological teaching of the Synoptic Gospels, the Pauline Epistles, the Johannine writings, and so on, as if there were no such thing as one common New Testament witness. It is being seen anew that the Holy Scriptures contain a complete history of God's saving action. The presence of the complete Bible open at the heart of the Church, recalls each succeeding Christian generation to that one history of God's saving action, to which the Church is the living witness. The New Testament is one, for its Lord is one, and Christian theology must stand four-square on the foundation of its whole teaching.

scholarly journals From Venice to Aleppo: Early Printing of Scripture in the Orthodox World

Chronos ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 30 ◽  
pp. 33-61
Author(s):  
Hilary Kilpatrick
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Old English ◽  
Old Testament ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
Greek Translation ◽  
The Bible ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Jewish Scriptures

The Bible, as the etymology of the word indicates, refers not to one book but to many. The Christian Bible is made up of the Old Testament, that is, the Jewish Scriptures, and the New Testament; moreover, for some Churches, among them the Orthodox, certain books commonly called the Apocrypha , which were added to the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament, also fonn part of the Bible. The Bible is thus a small library, and as is common in libraries, some books are more popular than others. Long before the introduction of printing, the varying degrees of importance accorded to different books of the Bible led to some of them being translated before others. For instance, in Anglo-Saxon England, interlinear glosses (i.e. crude word-by-word translations) were made of the Gospels and Psalms, and separate portions of the Bible, including the Gospels, were rendered into Old English (Anonymous 1997: 200). Likewise, the earliest known written translations of parts of the Bible into Arabic are of the Gospels and Psalms; they can be dated to the 8th century. Oral translations are older, going back to pre-Islamic times (Graf 1944: 114-115, 138; Griffith 2012: 123-126). By contrast, the first attempt to produce a complete Bible in Arabic occurred only in the l 61h century (Graf 1944: 89-90).

Learning to Pray by Singing

2021 ◽  
Vol 54 (2) ◽  
pp. 113-121
Author(s):  
Stefan Klöckner
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Old Testament ◽  
Church Fathers ◽  
Gregory The Great ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Christian Perspective ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Canonical Order ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Church

Gregorian chants are mostly based on Old Testament texts, predominantly from the Psalms. Decisive for their interpretation in the light of the New Testament are texts of the Church Fathers (Augustine, Gregory the Great, etc.). The texts often do not follow their canonical order in the Bible, but were primarily compiled on the basis of broader associations. Hence, it is not uncommon for new content references to emerge that are committed to a Christian perspective, emotionally and theologically very bold. This article describes an imaginary ‘Gregorian Composition Workshop’: the individual ‘chambers’ include compiling texts, the choice of a suitable mode and melody, as well as the most refined rhythmic differentiations. The final piece, through its unique quality as the ‘sounding word of Holy Scripture’ permits an intensive view of the spirituality of the ninth and tenth centuries, and a realistic understanding of the Psalms as the basis of Christian existence.

scholarly journals Van Christologie tot Jesulogie? Teologiese gesprek met Sakkie Spangenberg na aanleiding van sy boek Jesus van Nasaret (2009)

2012 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan H. Van Wyk
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Old Testament ◽  
Scientific Study ◽  
Historical Jesus ◽  
The Bible ◽  
The Church

Spangenberg het ’n boeiende boek oor Jesus van Nasaret geskryf waarin hy aandag skenk aan onder meer (vermeende) Ou-Testamentiese agtergronde, om daarna veral dieper in te gaan op verskeie Nuwe-Testamentiese perspektiewe op Jesus. Hy het tot die konklusie gekom dat die onderskeie Nuwe-Testamentiese skrywers elk ’n eie perspektief op Jesus ontwikkel het, perspektiewe wat mekaar soms weerspreek. In elk geval was daar ’n groot verskil tussen die historiese Jesus van Nasaret en die dogmatiese Jesus van die kerklike belydenis. In die kerklike dogma is Jesus vergoddelik, iets wat Hy nooit was of wou wees nie. Die ware Jesus was niemand anders nie as ’n Joodse profeet en wysheidsleermeester. Spangenberg kom tot hierdie gevolgtrekking op grond van wat hy noem ‘wetenskaplike studie’ en ’n radikaal-kritiese omgang met die Bybel. In hierdie artikel is sowel die filosofiese vertrekpunte as die teologiese konklusies van Spangenberg krities bespreek en bevraagteken.From Christology to Jesuology? Theological discussion with Sakkie Spangenberg with reference to his book Jesus van Nasareth (2009). Spangenberg wrote a riveting book on Jesus of Nazareth in which he paid attention to inter alia (alleged) Old Testament background and then proceeded to a more in-depth investigation into several New Testament perspectives on Jesus. He came to the conclusion that the different New Testament authors each developed their own perspective on Jesus, perspectives which were sometimes contradictory. He found a huge difference between the historical Jesus of Nazareth and the dogmatic Jesus of the church confessions. In this church tenet Jesus was deified, something He was not, neither wanted to be. The true Jesus was none other than a Jewish prophet and wisdom teacher. Spangenberg reached this conclusion on the basis of what he called ‘scientific’ study and a radically critical way of dealing with the Bible. In this article both the philosophical points of departure and the theological conclusions of Spangenberg were discussed and queried critically.

HIV and AIDS, Stigma and Liberation in the Old Testament

Exchange ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 184-197 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ezra Chitando ◽  
Masiiwa Gunda
Keyword(s):  
Old Testament ◽  
Hebrew Bible ◽  
Hiv And Aids ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
People Living With Hiv ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Aids Stigma ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Living With Hiv ◽  
The Church

AbstractAs the HIV and AIDS pandemic continues to affect most parts of Sub-Saharan Africa, the church has attempted to mitigate its effects. Unfortunately, stigma has emerged as a major challenge. The church has been implicated in stigmatizing people living with HIV and AIDS. Some Christians have used the Bible to justify the exclusion of people living with HIV and AIDS. This article examines HIV and AIDS stigma. It highlights the various forms of stigma, alongside exploring the occurrence of stigma in the Hebrew Bible. The study calls for a re-reading of the Hebrew Bible in the context of HIV and AIDS stigma and discrimination. It argues that the theme of liberation that underpins the Hebrew Bible implies that stigma has no place in human relations. The paper draws attention to the need to bring liberation to the heart of mission in the light of HIV and AIDS in Africa.

scholarly journals ‘n Prakties-teologiese model vir die verhouding Ou Testament/Nuwe Testament

2000 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 335-352
Author(s):  
W. G. Thirion
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Old Testament ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
Word Of God ◽  
Christian Community ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Communicative Praxis ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Practical Theological ◽  
The Relationship

A practical theological model for the relationship Old Testament/New TestamentFor all Christians the Bible consists of the Old and New Testament. The relationship, however, between these two parts is a hermeneutic-theological problem which confronts the communicative praxis of the Christian faith. Therefore it is necessary to develop a hermeneutic-theological theory for Christians which can serve as a paradigm within which the texts of the Old as well as that of the New Testament may regard as equal authoritative Word of God. As far as this study is concerned, there is but one approach only which can achieve this and that is a theocentric approach to both Testaments. A theocentric approach to the relationship Old Testament/New Testament, a) is capable of treating both Testaments as equal authoritative Word of God, b) prevents the practice of "two-sermons-in-one-sermon" in an attempt to make the message of the Old Testament more Christian like, c) is especially capable of communicating the message of the Old Testament in the communicative praxis of the Christian community and the modern society without reading by force Christ into the Old Testament.

The Bible and the Sermonic Tradition

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dawn Coleman
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
New Testament ◽  
Old Testament ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Faith Community ◽  
Great Awakening ◽  
Sermon On The Mount ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Church

This chapter assesses the Bible in American preaching from the seventeenth century to the present by analyzing dominant uses of scripture in two types of Protestant sermons: the cultic, or those addressed to the faith community, and the civic, or those directed to a public beyond the church. Primary strands of cultic preaching have been the salvation of the soul, associated with John 3:3 and evangelicalism from the Great Awakening forward, and spiritual improvement and well-being, which draws on a wide range of mainly New Testament passages, notably the Sermon on the Mount, and historically has been more pronounced in liberal churches and among Methodists. In recent decades, American civic preaching has been linked to the jeremiad, a form derived from Old Testament prophetic rhetoric, yet it should also be recognized as featuring prominent motifs of freedom and of love, for which the central texts include, respectively, Exodus and the injunction to love thy neighbor as thyself.

scholarly journals The use and origin of the (Old and) New Testament as Christianity’s canon

2012 ◽  
Vol 68 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Andries G. Van Aarde
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Old Testament ◽  
The Bible ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
The Church

This article explained the valuation of Christian believers with regard to the Christian Bible a ‘Holy Scripture’. In the article the notion ‘Scriptural authority’ was connected with an understanding of both the origin and use of the Christian canon. The article described the origin of the Bible in light of the supposition that the Bible functions as (1) book of theology, as well as (2) book of believers and as (3) book of the church. The article consisted of references to the role of the Old Testament and the New Testament canonical collections and the role of ecclesial synodal decisions. It also obtained a graphical overview of the history and dates of the New Testament writings as a canonical list. The article concluded with a reflection on the relevance for the use and authority of the Bible, seen from the perspective of the use and origin of the Bible as Christianity’s canon.

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