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Asor

Asor

The asor (Hebr. for "ten") was a musical instrument "of ten strings" mentioned in the Bible, about which authors are not agreed. The word occurs only three times in the Bible, and has not been traced elsewhere. In Psalm xxxiii. 2 the reference is to "kinnor, nebel and asor"; in Psalm xcii. 3, to "nebel and asor" "; in Psalm cxliv. to " nebel-asor." In the English version asor is translated "an instrument of ten strings," with a marginal note "omit" applied to "instrument." In the Septuagint, the word being derived from a root signifying " ten," the Greek is ???, in the Vulgate in decachordo psalterio. Each time the word asor is used it follows the word nebel, and probably merely indicates a variant of the nebel, having ten strings instead of the customary twelve assigned to it by Josephus (Antiquities, vii. 12. 3).

References

- Mendel and Reissmann, Musikalisches Conversations-Lexikon, vol. i. (Berlin, 1881)
- Sir John Stainer, The Music of the Bible, pp. 35-37
- Forkel, Allgemeine Geschichte der Musik, Bd. i. p. 133 (Leipzig, 1788). Category:Musical instruments

Musical instrument

A musical instrument is a device constructed or modified with the purpose of making music. In principle, anything that produces sound, and can somehow be controlled by a musician, can serve as a musical instrument. The expression, however, is reserved generally to items that have a specific musical purpose. The academic study of musical instruments is called organology.

Types of musical instruments

Instruments are often divided by the way in which they generate sound:
- Wind instruments generate a sound when a column of air is made to vibrate inside them. The frequency of the wave generated is related to the length of the column of air and the shape of the instrument, while the tone quality of the sound generated is affected by the construction of the instrument and method of tone production. The group is typically subdivided into Brass and Woodwind instruments.
- Percussion instruments create sound, with or without pitch, when struck. The shape and material of the part of the instrument to be struck and the shape of the resonating cavity, if any, determine the sound of the instrument.
- String instruments generate a sound when the string is plucked, strummed, slapped, etc. The frequency of the wave generated (and therefore the note produced) usually depends on the length of the vibrating portion of the string, its mass, the tension of each string and the point at which the string is excited; the tone quality varies with the construction of the resonating cavity.
- Voice, that is, the human voice, is an instrument in its own right. A singer generates sounds when airflow from the lungs sets the vocal cords into oscillation. The fundamental frequency is controlled by the tension of the vocal cords and the tone quality by the formation of the vocal tract; a wide range of sounds can be created.
- Electronic instruments generate sound through electronic means. They often mimic other instruments in their design, particularly keyboards.
- Keyboard instruments are any instruments that are played with a musical keyboard. Every key generates one or more sounds; most keyboard instruments have extra means (pedals for a piano, stops for an organ) to manipulate these sounds. They may produce sound by wind (organ), vibrating strings either hammered (piano) or plucked (harpsichord), by electronic means (synthesizer) or in some other way. Sometimes, instruments that do not usually have a keyboard, such as the Glockenspiel, are fitted with one. Many alternate divisions and further subdivisions of instruments exist. To learn about a specific instruments, consult the list of musical instruments or list of archaic musical instruments.

History

All classes of instruments save the electronic are mentioned in ancient sources, such as Egyptian inscriptions and the Bible, and probably predate recorded history. The human body, generating both vocal and percussive sounds, may have been the first instrument, or, perhaps, found percussion instruments such as stones and hollow logs. For instance, nine-thousand-year-old bone flutes or recorders have been found in Chinese archeological sites. The oldest known man made instrument is a mousterian bone flute from the "Divje babe I" cave site (Slovenia), made by neanderthals around 45.000-50.000 years ago from a cave bear bone.

External links

- [http://www.windworld.com/emi/ Experimental Musical Instruments]
- [http://www3.uakron.edu/ssma/instruments/instruments.shtml University of Akron Bierce Library Smith Archives: Invented Instruments]
- [http://geocities.com/kumiko1400/ List of free Musical Instruments software]
- [http://www.nime.org/ New Interfaces for Musical Expression]
- [http://www.prosono.co.za/english/Wood-Musical-Instruments.html Wood for musical instruments] ko:악기 ja:楽器 simple:Musical instrument

Bible

The Bible (sometimes The Book, Good Book, Word of God, The Word, or Scripture), from Greek (τα) βιβλια, (ta) biblia, "(the) books", plural of βιβλιον, biblion, "book", originally a diminutive of βιβλος, biblos, which in turn is derived from βυβλος—byblos, meaning "papyrus", from the ancient Phoenician city of Byblos which exported this writing material), is the classical name for the Hebrew Bible of Judaism or the combination of the Old Testament and New Testament of Christianity ("The Bible" therefore actually refers to at least two different Bibles). It is thus applied to sacred scriptures. Many Christian English speakers refer to the Christian Bible as "the good book" (Gospel means "good news"). For many people, their Bible is the revealed word of God or an authoritative record of the relationship between God, the world, and humankind. Both Bibles have been the most widely distributed of books. It has also been translated more times, and into more languages, than any other book. The complete Bible, or portions of it, have been translated into more than 2,100 languages. It is said that more than 5 billion copies of the Bible have been sold since 1815, making it the best-selling book of all-time. Because of Christian domination of Europe from the late Roman era to the Age of Enlightenment, the Christian Bible has influenced not only religion, but language, law and, until the modern era, the natural philosophy of mainstream Western Civilization. The Age of Enlightenment and the Scientific Revolution in Europe and America brought skepticism regarding the divine origin and historical accuracy of the Bible and Bible prophecy. Scholars such as Professor Peter Stoner and Dr. Hawley O. Taylor have argued that Bible prophecy is of a remarkable nature and did not happen by mere chance. Skeptics counter, however, that there have been notable figures like Porphyry of Tyros and the scholar Gustave Holscher who have made criticisms of Bible prophecy. With that being said, many still view the Bible as a great work of literature, including important reflections on morality, and dramatic love poetry such as the Song of Solomon. Although the term "Bible" is most often used to refer to Jewish and Christian scriptures, "Bible" is sometimes used to describe scriptures of other faiths. Thus the Guru Granth Sahib is often referred to as the "Sikh Bible". In the early years after the publication of the Book of Mormon in 1830, it was sometimes known as the "Golden Bible". The word "bible" (in lower case) is also used to refer to any tome which incorporates comprehensive and/or authoritative coverage of its subject. As the original meaning of the word indicates, the Jewish and Christian Bibles are actually collections of several books, considered to be inspired by God or to record God's relationship with humanity or a particular nation.

The Hebrew Bible

God.]] The Hebrew Bible (also known as the Jewish Bible, or תנ"ך, Tanakh in Hebrew) consists of 24 books. Tanakh is an acronym for three parts of the Hebrew Bible: the Torah, Nevi'im, and Ketuvim.

Torah

The Torah, or "teaching" is also known as the five books of Moses, thus Chumash or Pentateuch (Hebrew and Greek for "five," respectively). The five books are:
- I Genesis (Bereishit בראשית),
- II Exodus (Shemot שמות),
- III Leviticus (Vayikra ויקרא),
- IV Numbers (Bemidbar במדבר) and
- V Deuteronomy (Devarim דברים) The Torah focuses on three moments in the changing relationship between God and people.
- The first eleven chapters of Genesis provide accounts of the creation (or ordering) of the world, and the history of God's early relationship with humanity.
- The remaining thirty-nine chapters of Genesis provide an account of God's covenant with the Hebrew patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (also called Israel), and Jacob's children (the "Children of Israel"), especially Joseph. It tells of how God commanded Abraham to leave his family and home in the city of Ur, eventually to settle in the land of Canaan, and how the Children of Israel later moved to Egypt
- The remaining four books of the Torah tell the story of Moses, the greatest Hebrew prophet, who lived hundreds of years after the patriarchs. His story coincides with the story of the liberation of the Children of Israel from slavery in Egypt, to the renewal of their covenant with God at Mount Sinai, and their wanderings in the desert until a new generation would be ready to enter the land of Canaan. The Torah ends with the death of Moses. Traditionally, the Torah contains 613 mitzvot, or commandments, of God, revealed during the passage from slavery in the land of Egypt to freedom in the land of Canaan. These commandments provide the basis for Jewish law Halakha and are elaborated in the Talmud. The Torah is divided into fifty four portions which are read in turn, from the beginning of Genesis to the end of Deuteronomy, each Sabbath. The cycle ends and recommences at the end of Sukkot.

The Two Torahs

By the Hellenistic period of Jewish history, Jews were divided over the nature of the Torah. Some (for example, the Sadducees) believed that the Chumash contained the entire Torah, that is, the entire contents of what God revealed to Moses at Sinai and in the desert. Others, principally the Pharisees, believed that the Chumash represented only that portion of the revelation that had been written down (i.e. the Written Torah or the Written Law), but that the rest of God's revelation had been passed down orally (thus composing the Oral Law or Oral Torah). Orthodox Jews today believe that the Talmud consists of the Oral Torah committed to writing.

The Four Sources

Although Orthodox Jews generally believe that the Torah was given to the Children of Israel at Sinai "Min Hashamayim", from the heavens — that is, that God actually dictated the words of Torah to Moses atop Mount Sinai — most Conservative, Reform and Reconstructionist Jews, as well as many liberal Christian scholars, now accept the Documentary hypothesis. This theory posits that the Written Torah has its origins in earlier sources who lived during the time of the monarchy, labeled J (Yahwists), E (Elohim), D (Deuteronomists), and P (Priests). These in turn may go back to oral traditions and/or drew on (and sometimes parodied) earlier ancient Near Eastern mythology. The documentary hypothesis posits that these four distinct traditions (or sources) are evident in the Torah. Julius Wellhausen, who in the late 1800s gave this hypothesis a definitive formulation, suggested that these sources were edited together or redacted during the time of Ezra, perhaps by Ezra himself. Jewish scholars who accept the documentary hypothesis differ as to whether these sources were or were not divinely inspired, and differ over the nature and extent of their obligation to the 613 commandments and the body of law represented in the Oral Torah, although each branch of Judaism recognizes both the Written and Oral Torahs as central to Jewish tradition, whether it be conceived of as sacred, national, or cultural. The documentary hypothesis has not been without its critics. For example, evangelical Egyptologist Kenneth Kitchen, and Gleason Archer, have sharply criticized and rejected the documentary hypothesis using various lines of argumentation, as has the critical scholar R. N. Whybray.[http://www.equip.org/free/DW035.htm][http://www.leaderu.com/orgs/probe/docs/moses.html][http://www.ankerberg.com/Articles/apologetics/AP0404W3.htm][http://answering-islam.org.uk/Campbell/s3c1.html]

Nevi'im

Nevi'im, or "Prophets," tells the story of the rise of the Hebrew monarchy, its division into two kingdoms, and the prophets who, in God's name, judged the kings and the Children of Israel. It ends with the conquest of the Kingdom of Israel by the Assyrians and the conquest of the Kingdom of Judea by the Babylonians, and the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem. Portions of the prophetic books are read on the Sabbath (Shabbat). The Book of Jonah is read on Yom Kippor. According to Jewish tradition, Nevi'im is divided into eight books. Contemporary translations subdivide these into seventeen books. The eight books are:
- I. Joshua or Yehoshua [יהושע]
- II. Judges or Shoftim [שופטים]
- III. Samuel or Shmu'el [שמואל] (often divided into two books; Samuel may be considered the last of the judges (his sons were named judges, but rejected by the people) or the first of the prophets; it was he who negotiated on behalf of the Children of Israel with God to anoint a King)
- IV. Kings or Melakhim [מלכים] (often divided into two books)
- V. Isaiah or Yeshayahu [ישעיהו]
- VI. Jeremiah or Yirmiyahu [ירמיהו]
- VII. Ezekiel or Yehezq'el [יחזקאל]
- VIII. Trei Asar (The Twelve Minor Prophets) תרי עשר
- 1. Hosea or Hoshea [הושע]
- 2. Joel or Yo'el [יואל]
- 3. Amos [עמוס]
- 4. Obadiah or Ovadyah [עבדיה]
- 5. Jonah or Yonah [יונה]
- 6. Micah or Mikhah [מיכה]
- 7. Nahum or Nachum [נחום]
- 8. Habakkuk or Habaquq [חבקוק]
- 9. Zephaniah or Tsefania [צפניה]
- 10. Haggai or Haggai [חגי]
- 11. Zechariah Zekharia [זכריה]
- 12. Malachi or Malakhi [מלאכי] The Torah and the Nevi'im have an epical quality, although they have no human hero (Moses and David are, in many ways, anti-heros; one may consider the Children of Israel collectively to be the hero of the epic, or, if one must chose a single character, God)

Ketuvim

Ketuvim, or "Writings," were, according to critical scholars, mostly written during or after the Babylonian Exile and were among the last books to be canonized. According to Rabbinic tradition, many of the psalms in the book of Psalms are attributed to King David; King Solomon wrote three books: Song of Songs in his youth, Proverbs at the prime of his life, and Ecclesiastes at old age; and the prophet Jeremiah wrote Lamentations. The Book of Job is the only Biblical book that centers entirely on a non-Jew. The book of Ruth tells the story of a non-Jew (specifically, a Moabite) who married a Jew and, upon his death, the ways of the Jews; according to the Bible, she was the great-grandmother of King David. Five of the books, called "The Five Scrolls" (Megilot), are read on Jewish holidays: Song of Songs on Passover; the Book of Ruth on Shavuot; Lamentations on the Ninth of Av; Ecclesiastes on Sukkot; and the Book of Esther on Purim. Collectively, the Ketuvim contain lyrical poetry, philosophical reflections on life, and the stories of the prophets and other Jewish leaders during the Babylonian exile. It ends with the Persian decree allowing Jews to return to Judea to rebuild the Temple. Ketuvim contains eleven books:
- I. Tehillim (Psalms) תהלים
- II. Mishlei (Book of Proverbs) משלי
- III. `Iyyov (Book of Job) איוב
- IV. Shir ha-Shirim (Song of Songs) שיר השירים
- V. Ruth (Book of Ruth) רות
- VI. Eikhah (Lamentations) איכה [Also called Kinnot in Hebrew.]
- VII. Kohelet (Ecclesiastes) קהלת
- VIII. Esther (Book of Esther) אסתר
- IX. Daniel (Book of Daniel) דניאל
- X. Ezra (often divided into two books, Book of Ezra and Book of Nehemiah) עזרא
- XI. Divrei ha-Yamim (Chronicles, often divided into two books) דברי הימים

Translations and editions

The Tanakh was mainly written in Biblical Hebrew, with some portions (notably in Daniel and Ezra) in Aramaic. Some time in the 3rd century BC, the Torah was translated into Koine Greek, and over the next century other books were translated as well. This translation became known as the Septuagint and was widely used by Greek-speaking Jews and, later, by Christians. It differs somewhat from the Hebrew text as standardized later (Masoretic Text). From the 800s to the 1400s, Rabbinic Jewish scholars known as the Masoretes compared the text of all known Biblical manuscripts in an effort to create a unified standardized text; a series of highly similar texts eventually emerged, and any of these texts are known as Masoretic Texts (MT). The Masoretes also added vowel points (called niqqud) to the text, since the original text only contained consonants. This sometimes required the selection of an interpretation, since words can differ only in their vowels, and thus the meaning can vary in accordance with the choice of vowels to insert. In antiquity other variant readings existed, some of which have survived in the Samaritan Pentateuch, the Dead Sea scrolls, and other ancient fragments, as well as being attested in ancient versions in other languages. Versions of the Septuagint contain several passages and whole books additional to what was included in the Masoretic texts of the Tanakh. In some cases these additions were originally composed in Greek, while in other cases they are translations of Hebrew books or variants not present in the Masoretic texts. Recent discoveries have shown that more of the Septuagint additions have a Hebrew origin than was once thought. While there are no complete surviving manuscripts of the Hebrew texts on which the Septuagint was based, many scholars believe that they represent a different textual tradition from the one that eventually became the basis for the Masoretic texts. The Jews also produced non-literal translations or paraphrases known as targums, primarily in Aramaic. They frequently expanded on the text with additional details taken from Rabbinic oral tradition. See below for a partial list of contemporary English translations.

The Christian Bible

targum The Septuagint was generally abandoned in favour of the Masoretic text as the basis for translations into Western languages from Saint Jerome's Vulgate to the present day. In Eastern Christianity, translations based on the Septuagint still prevail. Some modern Western translations make use of the Septuagint to clarify passages in the Masoretic text that seem to have suffered corruption in transcription. They also sometimes adopt variants that appear in texts discovered among the Dead Sea Scrolls. (For more information, see the entry on Bible translations).

The Old Testament

The collection of books that the majority of Christians (including members of the Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Oriental Orthodox Churches) call the Old Testament include not only the 24 books of the Jewish Tanakh, but also certain deuterocanonical books preserved in the Greek of the Septuagint. The Roman Catholic Church recognizes seven such books (Tobit, Judith, 1 Maccabees, 2 Maccabees, Wisdom of Solomon, Sirach (Ecclesiasticus), and Baruch), as well as some passages in Esther and Daniel, that are not included in the Jewish Scriptures. Various Orthodox Churches include a few others, typically 3 Maccabees, Psalm 151, 1 Esdras, Odes, Psalms of Solomon, and occasionally even 4 Maccabees. Protestants in general do not recognize these books as truly part of the Bible, though they may print them along with the books they do recognize.

The New Testament

The New Testament is a collection of 27 books with Jesus as its central figure, written in Koine Greek in the early Christian period, that almost all Christians recognize as Scripture. These can be grouped into:
- The Synoptic Gospels
- The Gospel of John
- The Acts of the Apostles
- The Pauline Epistles
- The General Epistles
- Revelation - John "the divine", traditionally identified as John the Apostle.

Original language

Most scholars believe that all of the New Testament was originally composed in Greek. The three main textual traditions are sometimes called the Western text-type, the Alexandrian text-type, and Byzantine text-type. Together they comprise the majority of New Testament manuscripts. There are also several ancient versions in other languages, most important of which are the Syriac (including the Peshitta and the Diatessaron gospel harmony) and the Latin (both the Vetus Latina and the Vulgate). A few scholars believe in Aramaic primacy - that parts of the Greek New Testament are actually a translation of an Aramaic original, in particular the Gospel of Matthew. Of these, a small number accept the Syriac Peshitta as representing the original, while most take a more critical approach to reconstructing the original text.

Historic editions

The earliest printed edition of the New Testament in Greek appeared in 1516 from the Froben press. It was compiled by Desiderius Erasmus on the basis of the few recent Greek manuscripts, all of Byzantine tradition, at his disposal, which he completed by translating from the Vulgate parts for which he did not have a Greek text. He produced four later editions of the text. Erasmus was a deeply religious Roman Catholic, but his preference for the textual tradition represented in Byzantine Greek text of the time rather than that in the Latin Vulgate led to him being viewed with suspicion by some authorities of his Church. The first edition with critical apparatus (variant readings in manuscripts) was produced by the printer Robert Estienne of Paris in 1550. The type of text printed in this edition and in those of Erasmus became known as the Textus Receptus (Latin for "received text"), a name given to it in the Elzevier edition of 1633, which termed it the text "nunc ab omnibus receptum" ("now received by all"). On it the Churches of the Protestant Reformation based their translations into vernacular languages, such as the King James Version. The discovery of older manuscripts, such as the Codex Sinaiticus and the Codex Vaticanus, led scholars to revise their opinion of this text. Karl Lachmann’s critical edition of 1831, based on manuscripts dating from the fourth century and earlier, was intended primarily to demonstrate that the Textus Receptus must finally be rejected. Later critical texts are based on further scholarly research and the finding of papyrus fragments dating in some cases from within a few decades of the composition of the New Testament writings. It is on the basis of these that nearly all modern translations or revisions of older translations have, for more than a century, been made, though some still prefer the Textus Receptus or the similar "Byzantine Majority Text".

The canonization of Scripture

For Judaism, it is commonly thought that the canonical status of some books was discussed between 200 BC and around 100 AD, though it is unclear at what point during this period the Jewish canon was decided. To the books accepted by Judaism as Scripture, Christianity subsequently added those of the New Testament, the 27-book canon of which was finally fixed in the 4th century. As indicated above, Christianity also mostly considers certain deuterocanonical books to be part of the Old Testament, though Protestantism in general accepts as part of the Old Testament only the books in the canon of Judaism and uses the term Apocrypha for the deuterocanonical books. The Protestant Old Testament has a 39-book canon– the number varies from that of the books in the Tanakh because of a different way of dividing them – while the Roman Catholic Church recognizes 46 books as part of the Old Testament. For details, see Books of the Bible. Canonicity is distinct from questions of human authorship and the formation of the books of the Bible, questions discussed in the entries on higher criticism and textual criticism.

Biblical versions and translations

In scholarly writing, ancient translations are frequently referred to as 'versions', with the term 'translation' being reserved for medieval or modern translations. Information about Bible versions is given below, while Bible translations can be found on a separate page. The original texts of the Tanakh were in Hebrew, although some portions were in Aramaic. In addition to the authoritative Masoretic Text, Jews still refer to the Septuagint, the translation of much of the Bible into Greek, and the Targum Onkelos, an Aramaic version of the Bible. Early Christians produced translations of the Hebrew Bible into several languages; their primary Biblical text was the Septuagint. Translations were made into Syriac, Coptic and Latin, among other languages. The Latin translations were historically the most important for the Church in the West, while the Greek-speaking East continued to use the Septuagint translation of the Old Testament and had no need to translate the New Testament. The earliest Latin translation was the Old Latin text, or Vetus Latina, which, from internal evidence, seems to have been made by several authors over a period of time. It was based on the Septuagint, and thus included books not in the Hebrew Bible. The ever-increasing number of variants in Latin manuscripts induced Pope Damasus, in 382, to commission his secretary, Saint Jerome, to produce a reliable and consistent text. Jerome later took it on himself to make a completely new translation directly from the Hebrew of the Tanakh. This translation became the basis of the Vulgate Latin translation. Though he also translated Psalms from Hebrew, the earlier Septuagint-based version, slightly revised by him, is the text that was actually used in Church and is included in editions of the Vulgate. This includes the deuterocanonical books, also revised by Jerome, and became the official translation of the Roman Catholic Church. See Origin and Growth of the English Bible for a chart on how the English Bible came to be.

The Introduction of chapters and verses

; see Tanakh for the Jewish textual tradition. The Hebrew Masoretic text contains verse endings as an important feature. According to the Talmudic tradition, the verse endings are of ancient origin. The Masoretic textual tradition also contains section endings called parashiyot, which are indicated by a space within a line (a "closed" section") or a new line beginning (an "open" section). The division of the text reflected in the parashiyot is usually thematic. The parashiyot are not numbered. In early manuscripts (most importantly in Tiberian Masoretic manuscripts, such as the Aleppo codex) an "open" section may also be represented by a blank line, and a "closed" section by a new line that is slightly indented (the preceding line may also not be full). These latter conventions are no longer used in Torah scrolls and printed Hebrew Bibles. In this system, the one rule differentiating "open" and "closed" sections is that "open" sections must always begin at the beginning of a new line, while "closed" sections never start at the beginning of a new line. Another related feature of the Masoretic text is the division of the sedarim. This division is not thematic, but is almost entirely based upon the quantity of text. The Byzantines also introduced a chapter division of sorts, called Kephalaia. It is not identical to the present chapters. The current division of the Bible into chapters and the verse numbers within the chapters have no basis in any ancient textual tradition. Rather, they are medieval Christian inventions. They were later adopted by many Jews as well, as technical references within the Hebrew text. Such technical references became crucial to medieval rabbis in the historical context of forced debates with Christian clergy (who used the chapter and verse numbers), especially in late medieval Spain. Chapter divisions were first used by Jews in a 1330 manuscript, and for a printed edition in 1516. However, for the past generation most Jewish editions of the complete Hebrew Bible have made a systematic effort to relegate chapter and verse numbers to the margins of the text. The division of the Bible into chapters and verses has often elicited severe criticism from traditionalists and modern scholars alike. Critics charge that the text is often divided into chapters in an incoherent way, or at inappropriate points within the narrative, and that it encourages citing passages out of context, in effect turning the Bible into a kind of textual quarry for clerical citations. Nevertheless, even the critics admit that the chapter divisions and verse numbers have become indispensable as technical references for Bible study. Stephen Langton is reputed to have been the first to put the chapter divisions into a Vulgate edition of the Bible, in 1205. They were then inserted into Greek manuscripts of the New Testament in the 1400s. Robert Estienne (Robert Stephanus) was the first to number the verses within each chapter, his verse numbers entering printed editions in 1565 (New Testament) and 1571 (Hebrew Bible).[http://www.fuller.edu/ministry/berean/chs_vss.htm][http://www.theexaminer.org/history/chap6.htm]

References

- Anderson, Bernhard W. Understanding the Old Testament (ISBN 0139483993)
- Dever, William B. Who Were the Early Israelites and Where Did they Come from? Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2003. ISBN 0802809758.
- Head, Tom. The Absolute Beginner's Guide to the Bible. Indianapolis, IN: Que Publishing, 2005. ISBN 0789734192.
- Miller, John W. The Origins of the Bible: Rethinking Canon History Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 1994. ISBN 0809135221.
- Silberman, Neil A. and colleagues. The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2001. ISBN 0684869136.
- [http://www.geocities.com/stonerdon/science_speaks.html Peter, Stoner Science Speaks, Chapter 2: Prophetic Accuracy, Chicago, Moody Press, 1963 (online version available)]
- Taylor, Hawley O., "Mathematics and Prophecy," Modern Science and Christian Faith, Wheaton,: Van Kampen, 1948, pp.175-183.
- Wycliffe Bible Encyclopedia, subject: prophecy, page 1410, Moody Bible Press, Chicago, 1986
- Wycliffe Bible Encyclopedia, subject: Book of Ezekiel, page 580, Moody Bible Press, Chicago, 1986
- Heline, Corinne, New Age Bible Interpretation, 1954, New Age Bible & Philosophy Center, Santa Monica (CA), [http://www.campusi.com/ta_New_Age_Bible_Interpretation_by_Heline.htm 7 volumes]

External links

- [http://www.BibleGateway.com/ BibleGateway.com] (NIV, ESV, etc.)
- [http://biblestudytools.net/ BibleStudyTools.net] (NRSV, NKJV, etc.)
- [http://www.sacredbible.org/ SacredBible.org] Latin Vulgate
- [http://www.unboundbible.org/ UnboundBible.org] Languages other than English
- [http://bible.tmtm.com/ Bible Wiki] The Bible as a Wiki
- [http://www.skepticsannotatedbible.com/ Skeptic's Annotated Bible] A critical view of the Bible, using the unedited text of the King James version Category:Holy scripture Category:Metanarratives Category:Religious texts zh-min-nan:Sèng-keng ko:성서 ms:Bible ja:聖書 simple:Bible

Vulgate

- For the Arthurian Vulgate Cycle, see Lancelot-Grail Cycle. The Vulgate Bible is the first Bible. (Early 5th century). This first version of the Bible into Latin, Translated by St. Jerome, was done on the orders of Pope Damasus I. The Original table of context, which the Vulgate Bible and used by the modern day Catholic Bible, with 77 books in all, was first put together by the early Catholic Church. Three Councils meet to discuss which Gospels, letter and books would be in the Bible. These Councils were… 1.) The Council of Rome 382 A.D. (Canon approved by Pope and St. Jerome used this approved table of context when he translated all of the approved texts in to the Latin language.), 2.) The Council of Hippo 393 A.D. (The Canon of Scripture was ratified.) 3.) The Council of Carthage 397 A.D. (The Canon of Scripture was ratified.) The Vulgate Bible takes its name from the phrase versio vulgata, "the common (i.e., popular) version" (cf. Vulgar Latin), and was written in an everyday Latin used in conscious distinction to the elegant Ciceronian Latin of which Jerome was a master. The Vulgate was designed to be both more accurate and easier to understand than its predecessors. It was the first, and for many centuries the only, Christian Bible translation that translated the Old Testament directly from the Hebrew original rather than indirectly from the Greek Septuagint.

Different versions

Jerome was responsible for at least three slightly different versions of the Vulgate. The Romana Vulgate was the first, but it was soon replaced by later versions except in Britain, where it continued to be used until the Norman Conquest in 1066. Next was the Gallicana Vulgate, which Jerome produced a few years later. It had some minor improvements, especially in the Old Testament. This became the standard Bible of the Roman Catholic Church a few decades after it was produced. The Hispana Vulgate is largely identical to the Romana except for the Book of Psalms, which Jerome re-translated from the Hebrew for this version. (In the other Vulgates the Psalms were mostly translated from Greek, but were checked against Hebrew and Aramaic sources; this was done since they were already very familiar to the worshippers in this form and a completely new translation of the Psalms was felt to be too radical a change.)

Relation with the Old Latin Bible

The Latin Bible used before the Vulgate is usually referred to as the Vetus Latina, or "Old Latin Bible", or occasionally the "Old Latin Vulgate". This text was not translated by a single person or institution, nor even uniformly edited. The individual books varied in quality of translation and style -- modern scholars often refer to the Old Latin as being in "translationese" rather than standard Latin. Its Old Testament books were most likely translated from the Greek Septuagint, not from the Hebrew. Jerome did not completely re-translate the original Greek and Hebrew and exactly how much revision he did is unclear. He certainly translated the Old Testament from the Hebrew and the Gospels from the Greek. Whether he translated other parts of the New Testament or just revised them from Old Latin translations is not known with certainty. At first, Jerome did not want to include the Deuterocanonical books. However, Augustine of Hippo argued for their inclusion, and Pope Damasus insisted on it, so these books were included and the Old Testament canon of the Vulgate was mostly the same as that of the Septuagint, which was at that time the translation most widely used by Greek-speaking Christians. However, since Jerome regarded the Deuterocanonical books of secondary importance to the books found in the Hebrew canon, he left most (except for Tobit and parts of Judith) unrevised and untranslated from the Septuagint. After Jerome's death, however, these less than polished Old Latin renderings of the deuterocanonical books crept back into the officially sanctioned Vulgate, where their style can still be markedly distinguished from Jerome's. The Old Latin version remained in use in some circles even after Jerome's Vulgate became the accepted standard throughout the Western Church. Some Gauls (Celts) continued to prefer the Old Latin version for centuries. It has been asserted that heretical groups such as the Waldensians and Albigensians preferred this version as well, as they associated the Vulgate with the Catholic Church.

The Clementine Vulgate

This edition of the Vulgate is the one most familiar to Catholics who have lived prior to the reforms of Vatican II (which greatly reduced the role of Latin in liturgy). Over the course of the Middle Ages, the original Vulgate of Jerome had succumbed to the inevitable changes wrought by human error in the countless copying of the text in monasteries across Europe. No one copy was the same as the other as scribes added, removed, misspelled, or erroneously "corrected" verses in the Latin Bible. There were efforts to purify the corrupted text, notably by Alcuin of York in the early 9th century during the reign of Charlemagne. This correction was the basis for the Paris edition that was widely disseminated among the clergy in northwestern Europe. Though the advent of printing greatly reduced the potential of human error and increased the consistency and uniformity of the text, even the Vulgate as produced by Gutenberg was not entirely without mistakes as the several editions of the first printed work varied one from the other. After the Reformation, when the Church of Rome strove to counter the attacks and refute the doctrines of Protestantism, the Vulgate was reaffirmed in the Council of Trent as the sole, authorized text of the Bible. To reinforce this declaration, attempt was made to standardize the spelling and overall text of the Vulgate out of the countless editions, written and printed, produced during the Middle Ages. The actual first manifestation of this authorized text was sponsored by Pope Sixtus V (1585-90), known as the Sistine Vulgate, but was soon repudiated with the advent of the next pope, Clement VIII (1592-1605) who immediately ordered a new edition. This "Clementine" Vulgate of 1592 became the standard Bible text of the Catholic Church until the 1960s, when worship in vernacular languages was permitted.

Nova Vulgata

The Nova Vulgata (Nova Vulgata Bibliorum Sacrorum editio) is currently the official Latin version, published and approved by the Roman Catholic Church. In 1965, towards the close of the Second Vatican Council, Pope Paul VI appointed a commission to do for the entire Vulgate what had recently been done for the Psalter, to revise the existing Vulgate in accord with modern textual and linguistic studies, while preserving or refining its Christian Latin style. The critical text on which the Nova Vulgata was to be founded was the critical edition of Jerome's Vulgate done by the monks of the Benedictine Abbey of St. Jerome in Rome, under a commission from Pope Pius X in 1907. The Commission published its work in eight annotated sections, inviting criticism from Catholic scholars as the sections were published. The Latin Psalter was published in 1969 and the entire Nova Vulgata in 1979 [http://cba.cua.edu/clifnv.cfm]. The main difference between the Nova Vulgata and the Vulgata Clementina is that it takes account of the modern textual criticism of recent years and in places reflects the changes in such texts as the United Bible Society's critical text. There are also a number of changes where the modern scholars felt that Jerome had failed to grasp the meaning of the original languages. The Nova Vulgata does not contain those books, found in some editions of the Vulgate, that are considered apocryphal by the Roman Catholic Church, for example the 3rd and 4th Book of Ezra. Its spelling also reflects a preference for classical Latin rather than the Renaissance spelling of the Clementine edition. The Nova Vulgata has not been widely embraced by conservative Catholics, as it sounds unfamiliar compared to the Clementine, a fact common in the history of the Bible as new translations attempt to supplant older, more familiar ones. In 1979, after decades of preparation, the Nova Vulgata was published and declared the Catholic Church´s current official Latin version in the Apostolic Constitution Scripturarum Thesaurus, promulgated by the late Pope John Paul II.

The Stuttgart Vulgate

A final mention must also be made of an edition of the Vulgate published by the German Bible Society (Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft), based in Stuttgart. This edition, Biblia Sacra Vulgata ( ISBN 3438053039 ), seeks to reproduce the original, pure Vulgate text that Jerome himself would have produced 1,600 years ago. The Stuttgart Vulgate is mainly a scholarly work, as it provides variant readings from the diverse manuscripts and printed editions of the Vulgate and comparison of different wordings in its footnotes. It attempts, through critical comparison of important, historical editions of the Vulgate, to achieve the original text, cleansed of the errors of a millennium and a half's time. The main critical source for the Stuttgart Vulgate is Codex Amiatinus, the highly-esteemed 8th century, one-volume manuscript of the whole Latin Bible produced in England, regarded as the best medieval witness to Jerome's original text. An important feature in the Stuttgart edition for those studying the Vulgate is the inclusion of all of Jerome's prologues to the Bible, the Testaments, and the major books and sections (Pentateuch, Gospels, Minor Prophets, etc.) of the Bible. This again mimics the style of medieval editions of the Vulgate, which were never without Jerome's prologues (revered as much a part of the Bible as the sacred text itself). In its spelling, the Stuttgart also retains a more medieval Latin orthography than the Clementine, using oe rather than ae, and having more proper nouns beginning with H (i.e., Helimelech instead of Elimelech). Though closer than the New Vulgate to the Clementine edition, the Stuttgart Vulgate still has enough divergence from the Clementine text to render it unfamiliar to accustomed Catholics. In addition, its sparse, unpunctuated text can be difficult to read, especially in verses with multiple clauses. Still, this edition's importance rests in the fact that it is the one most disseminated on the Internet, usually presented with Jerome's third version of the Psalms translated from the Hebrew, and often containing only the first three chapters of Daniel (stopping at the point where the deuterocanonical Song of the Three Holy Children would begin.)

Issues of translation

Jerome had a Greek model for both the Old and the New Testaments: the New Testament was written in Greek and the Old Testament, originally written in Hebrew and Aramaic, was used by Christians, as noted above, in a Greek translation called the Septuagint made by Jews during the three centuries before Christ. The linguistic separation between Hebrew and Latin is nearly as vast as the linguistic separation between Latin and Greek is narrow, and the Vulgate New Testament, in particular, sometimes follows the Greek model word for word. Latin and Greek are both highly inflected languages with very flexible word-order, but the attempt to render such things as the richer array of Greek participles sometimes resulted in clumsy Latin that was preserved in the English of the King James Bible. We can see this in Luke 2:15, for example: :Greek: Και εγενετο ως απηλθον απ' αυτων εις τον ουρανον οι αγγελοι και οι ανθρωποι οι ποιμενες ειπον προς αλληλους: Διελυωμεν δη εως Βηθλεεμ και ιδωμεν το ρημα τουτο το γεγονος ο ο κυριος εγνωρισεν ημιν. ::(Literal translation: And it-happened that they-withdrew from them into the heaven the angels and the men the shepherds said to each-other: let-us-go-over then to Bethlehem and see the thing that [demonstrative pronoun] the happened which the Lord has-declared to-us.) :Latin: Et factum est ut discesserunt ab eis angeli in caelum, pastores loquebantur ad invicem: transeamus usque Bethleem et videamus hoc verbum, quod factum est, quod fecit Dominus et ostendit nobis. ::(Literal translation: And it-happened has as they-withdrew from them angels into heaven, shepherds said to each-other: let-us-go-over to Bethlehem and let-us-see this thing which happened has which has-done Lord and has-declared to-us.) :English: And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us.

Influence on Western Culture

In terms of its importance to the culture, art, and life of the Middle Ages, the Vulgate stands supreme. Through the "Dark Ages" and onto the Renaissance and Reformation, St. Jerome's monumental work stood as a last pillar of Roman glory and the bedrock of the Western church as it strove to unite a fractured Europe through the Catholic faith. As the version of the Bible familiar to and read by the faithful for over a thousand years (c. AD 400–1530), the Vulgate exerted a powerful influence, especially in art and music as it served as inspiration for countless paintings and hymns. Early attempts to render translations into vernacular tongues were invariably made from the Vulgate, as it was highly regarded as an infallible, divinely inspired text. Even the translations produced by Protestants, that sought to replace the Vulgate for good with vernacular versions translated from the original languages, could not avoid the enormous influence of Jerome's translation in its dignified style and flowing prose. The closest equivalent in English, the King James Version, or Authorised Version, shows a marked influence from the Vulgate in the homely, vigorous rhythm of its prose and poetry.

Text

(from Wikisource)
- Old Testament, Stuttgart Vulgate
- New Testament, Stuttgart Vulgate

External links

- [http://vulsearch.sourceforge.net/html/index.html The Clementine Vulgate, searchable]
- [http://www.LatinVulgate.com Biblia Vulgata Stuttgart edition, flanked by Douay-Rheims and King James Versions]
- [http://www.drbo.org/lvb/ Stuttgart Vulgate, with Douay-Rheims Version, Gallican Psalter and complete Daniel]
- [http://www.vatican.va/archive/bible/nova_vulgata/documents/nova-vulgata_index_lt.html Nova Vulgata, from the Vatican] Category:Bible versions and translations Category:Latin language Category:Roman Catholic Church history ja:ヴルガータ

Josephus

Josephus (c. 37 – c. 100 AD (or CE)), who introduced himself as "Joseph, son of Matthias, [a Jew by ethnicity], a priest from Jerusalem" (cf. War I.3), giving the Greek form Iōsēpos Matthiou pais of his name in Hebrew Yosef Ben-Matityahu (יוסף בן מתתיהו), is also known as Flavius Josephus. He was a 1st century Jewish historian and apologist of priestly and royal ancestry who survived and recorded the Destruction of Jerusalem in 70 and later settled in Rome.

Life

Josephus fought in the First Jewish-Roman War of 66-73, acting as a military leader in Galilee. However, in circumstances that are somewhat unclear (see also Josephus problem), Josephus surrendered to the Roman forces invading Galilee in July, 67; and he became a prisoner and provided the Romans with intelligence on the ongoing revolt. The Roman forces were led by Flavius Vespasian and his son Titus (both subsequently Roman emperors). In 69 Josephus was released in a ceremony that, some modern scholars have argued, may have been intended to symbolise a reinstatement of his previous state as a free man (cf. War IV.622-629). In around 70 Josephus divorced his first wife and married a Jewish woman of Alexandria, Egypt. By this marriage he had two children, a son named Flavius Hyrcanus and a second child about whom nothing is known. In 71 he arrived in Rome in the entourage of Titus, becoming a Roman citizen and Flavian client. Although he only ever calls himself "Josephus", he appears to have taken the Roman nomen Flavius and praenomen Titus; for not only was it standard for a new citizen to take the first two names of his patron, but the nomen Flavius is attested for Josephus in a text by the third century Church theologian Origen (Comm. Matt. 10.17). In addition to Roman citizenship he was granted accommodation in Vespasian’s former home, land in conquered Judea, and a decent, if not extravagant, pension (Life 423: chrēmata, literally: anything useful, wealth, monies, but not necessarily "retirement pension"). It was while in Rome, and under Flavian patronage, that Josephus wrote all of his known works. Around 75 he divorced his second wife and married a third, by whom he had two sons, Flavius Justus and Simonides Agrippa, Josephus's life is beset with ambiguity. For his critics, he never satisfactorily explained his actions during the Jewish war — why he failed to commit suicide in Galilee in 67 with some of his compatriots, and why, after his capture, he cooperated with the Roman invaders. Hence, many have viewed Josephus as a traitor and informer and questioned his credibility as a historian — dismissing his works as Roman propaganda or as a personal apologetic, aimed at rehabilitating his reputation in history. Nevertheless, he was unquestionably an important apologist in the Roman world for the Jewish people and culture, particularly at a time of conflict and tension. He always remained, in his own eyes, a loyal and law-observant Jew. He went out of his way both to commend Judaism to educated gentiles, and to insist on its compatibility with cultured Graeco-Roman thought. He constantly contended for the antiquity of Jewish culture, presenting its people as civilised, devout and philosophical.

Significance to scholarship

The works of Josephus provide crucial information about the First Jewish-Roman War. They are also important literary source for understanding the context of the Dead Sea Scrolls and post-Second Temple Judaism. Josephus offers information about individuals, groups, customs and geographical places. He makes references to the Sadducees, Jewish High Priests of the time, Pharisees and Essenes, the Herodian Temple, Quirinius's census, and to such figures as Pontius Pilate, Herod the Great, Agrippa I and II, John the Baptist, James (the brother of Jesus) and a brief and highly disputed reference to Jesus himself. Along with Philo of Alexandria, he is an important source for studies of immediate post-Temple Judaism and early Christianity. See also the "Testimonium Flavianum"

Works

The Jewish War

His first work in Rome was an account of the Jewish war addressed to certain "upper barbarians" – usually thought to be the Jewish community in Mesopotamia – in his "paternal tongue" (War I.3), arguably the Western Aramaic language. He then wrote a seven-volume account in Greek known to us as the Jewish War (Bellum Iudaicum). It starts with the period of the Maccabees and concludes with accounts of the fall of Jerusalem, the Roman victory celebrations in Rome, the mopping-up operations, Roman military operations elsewhere in the Empire and the uprising in Cyrene. Together with the account in his Life of some of the same events it also provides the reader with an overview of Josephus’s own part in the events since his return to Jerusalem from a brief visit to Rome in the early 60s (Life 13-17). Rome cannot have been an easy place for a Jew in the wake of the suppression of the Jewish revolt. Josephus would have witnessed the marches of Titus’s triumphant legions leading their Jewish captives, and experienced the popular presentation of the Jews as a bellicose and misanthropic people. It was against this background that Josephus wrote his War, and although often dismissed as pro-Roman propaganda (perhaps hardly surprising given where his patronage was coming from) he claims to be writing to counter anti-Judean accounts. He disputes the claim that the Jews serve a defeated god and are naturally hostile to Roman civilization. Rather, he blames the Jewish War on unrepresentative and over-zealous fanatics among the Jews, who led the masses away from their natural aristocratic leaders (like him), with disastrous results. He also blames some of the governors of Judea, but these he presents as atypical Romans: corrupt and incompetent administrators. Thus, according to Josephus, the traditional Jew was, should be, and can be, a loyal and peace-loving citizen. Jews can, and historically have, accepted Rome’s hegemony precisely because of their faith that God himself gives empires their power.

Jewish Antiquities

Josephus is next encountered in his twenty-one volume Antiquities of the Jews, completed in the last year of Flavius Domitian (93). He claims that interested persons have pressed him to give a fuller account of the Jewish culture and constitution. Here, in expounding Jewish history, law and custom, he is entering into many philosophical debates current in Rome at that time. Again he offers an apologia for the antiquity and universal significance of the Jewish people. Beginning with the story of Creation he outlines Jewish history. Abraham taught science to the Egyptians, who in turn taught the Greeks. Moses set up a senatorial priestly aristocracy, which like that of Rome resisted monarchy. The great figures of the biblical stories are presented as ideal philosopher leaders. There is again an autobiographical appendix defending Josephus's own conduct at the end of the war when he cooperated with the Roman forces.

Against Apion

Josephus' Against Apion is a final two-volume defence of Judaism as classical religion and philosophy, stressing its antiquity against what Josephus claimed was the relatively more recent traditions of the Greeks. Some anti-Judean allegations by the Greek writer Apion, and myths accredited to Manetho are also exposed.

List of works

- (ca. 75 CE/AD) War of the Jews, or Jewish War, or Jewish Wars, or History of the Jewish War (commonly abbreviated JW, BJ or War)
- (ca. 75) Josephus's Discourse to the Greeks concerning Hades
- (ca. 94) Antiquities of the Jews, or Jewish Antiquities, or Antiquities of the Jews/Jewish Archeology (frequently abbreviated AJ, AotJ or Ant. or Antiq.)
- (ca. 97) Flavius Josephus Against Apion, or Against Apion, or Contra Apionem, or Against the Greeks, on the antiquity of the Jewish people (usually abbreviated CA)
- (ca. 99) The Life of Flavius Josephus, or Autobiography of Flavius Josephus (abbreviated Life or Vita)

External links

- [http://www.ccel.org/j/josephus/works/JOSEPHUS.HTM The Works of Flavius Josephus Translated by William Whiston]
-
- [http://www.adath-shalom.ca/josep-ds.htm Flavius Josephus, Judaea and Rome: A Question of Context]
- [http://josephus.yorku.ca/ Scholarship on Josephus] Category:37 births Category:100 deaths Category:Roman era historians Category:Ancient Jewish Roman history ko:요셉푸스 플라비우스 ja:フラウィウス・ヨセフス

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