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"40" (U2 Song)

"40" (U2 song)

"40", the closing track from U2's War album, was the (Germany-only) fourth single release from that album. (Note the song's title uses double quotation marks itself.) Reportedly, this song was recorded right at the end of the recording sessions for War. Bassist Adam Clayton had already left the studio, and the three remaining band members decided they didn't have a good song to end the album, so they frantically recorded "40", with Bono stealing lyrics from The Bible's Psalms 40 and 6 and The Edge playing both electric and bass guitar. Bono would later state before a live performance on 29 April 1987, that "We spent ten minutes writing this song, ten minutes recording it, ten minutes mixing it, ten minutes playing it back, and that's got nothing to do with why it's called '40'." "40" debuted live on 26 February 1983 in Dundee as the final song of the show, and closed almost every single concert on 1983's War Tour. It became very popular as a concert closer, and between its debut and 10 January 1990, roughly only twenty full tour concerts were not closed by "40". During live performances, Adam Clayton and The Edge would swap instruments so that Adam played guitar and Edge played bass, and the band members would progressively leave stage, with Bono the first to depart, then Clayton, then Edge, then drummer Larry Mullen left as the final band member on stage, playing the drum beat as the crowd chanted the refrain of "How long ... To sing this song?" Sometimes, the crowd's reaction would be so powerful that other band members would return to continue the song, and some performances of "40" became extremely long. The longest known performance was nearly seventeen minutes long, roughly six times longer than the studio recording. Other times, clusters of audience members would continue the singing into the stairwells and out onto the streets outside the venue. Between January 1990 and March 2005, full performances of "40" were extremely rare, though on 2001's Elevation Tour, it was regularly snippeted at the end of "Bad" before the song segued into "Where the Streets Have No Name". "40" made a return to the regular setlist in March 2005 on the Vertigo Tour and has closed many shows in 2005. It is one of the fifteen most frequently performed songs by U2.

Track Listing

Version 1

#"40" (Album Version) (2:53) #"Two Hearts Beat As One" (Album Version) (4:02) This is the only known release. Oddly enough, the single was titled "40 (How Long)" for this release.

External link


- [http://www.u2-vertigo-tour.com/song36.html 40's performance history at U2-Vertigo-Tour.com]--Lists all concerts at which "40" is known to have been performed. Category:1983 singles Category:U2 songs Category:U2 singles

U2 (band)

U2 is an Irish rock band featuring Bono (Paul David Hewson) on vocals and guitar, The Edge (David Howell Evans) on guitar and pianos and vocals, Adam Clayton on bass, and Larry Mullen Jr on drums and vocals. U2 has been one of the most popular rock bands in the world since the 1980s. They have sold over 120 million albums worldwide, had six #1 albums in the U.S. and are widely considered as one of the most successful groups of the last 25 years. The band is also very politically active in human rights causes, such as the Make Poverty History campaign.

Formation and breakthrough (1976 – 1980)

The band was formed in Dublin on Saturday September 25th 1976. Fourteen-year-old Larry Mullen, Jr. posted a notice on his secondary school bulletin board (Mount Temple Comprehensive School) seeking musicians for a new band. The response that followed that note resulted in 7 boys attending the initial practice in Larry's Mum's kitchen. Known for about a day as 'The Larry Mullen Band', Larry's group featured Mullen on drums, Adam Clayton on bass guitar, Paul Hewson (Bono) on vocals, Dave Evans (The Edge) on guitar, his brother Dik Evans on guitar, in addition to Mullen's friend Ivan McCormick on guitar as well as another school friend Peter Martin. Soon after, the group settled on the name Feedback. Although known as an Irish band, two members - The Edge and Adam Clayton - are actually British by birth. Both McCormick and Martin were out of the core group within a few weeks. [Killing Bono-I Was Bono's Doppelganger by Neil McCormick, 2004] Hewson was nicknamed Bono Vox (allegedly meaning 'good voice' in Latin, though a more accurate translation would in fact be vox bona), after a hearing aid company's advertising sign on the corner of Dame Street and South Great Georges Street in Dublin's city centre (a different theory says he was nicknamed after a hearing aid shop by his friend Gavin Friday because he sang so loudly he seemed to be singing for the deaf). The sign has since been changed to read "Bonavox". The Edge got his name from Bono, who thought he was always on the edge of things, assessing what was going on it. Bono also thought that it was an accurate description of his head, as it had a straight edge. (Other theories on Edge's nickname: (i) he is called after a hardware shop in Fairview, Dublin, outside of which he used to catch the bus home, (ii) the name is due to the crispness of his playing; the edges it has, (iii) Bono once claimed on Irish radio that the name was derived from the shape Edge made when playing guitar.) After 18 months of rehearsals, Feedback changed their name to The Hype. The band performed with their new name at a talent show in Limerick, Ireland on 17 March 1978. One of the judges for the show happened to be CBS Records' Jackie Hayden; they won the contest, earning a £500 prize. Hayden was impressed enough with the band that he gave them studio time to record their first demo. The Dublin punk rock guru Steve Averill (better known as Steve Rapid of the Radiators from Space) suggested that "The Hype stinks, at least as a name." Someone offered "What about U2? It's the name of a spyplane and a submarine, and it's got an endearing inclusivity about it." [http://www.u2.com] Some suggest the meaning of the name "U2" is based on their philosophy. They believe that the audience is part of their music and the concert and that "you too" (U2) are participating in the music. However, in an interview with Larry King, Bono is quoted as saying "I don't actually like the name U2," and "I honestly never thought of it as 'you too'." Dik Evans announced his departure in March 1978. Ivan had already been dismissed by Adam Clayton with the excuse that he was too young to play at the bars U2 was booked in. The Hype performed a farewell show for Dik at the Community Centre in Howth. Dik walked offstage halfway through the set and later joined the Virgin Prunes, a fellow Dublin band. In May, Paul McGuinness became U2's manager. Now a four-piece with a local fan base in place, U2 released their first single in September of 1979, U2-3. It topped the Irish charts. In December of that year, U2 travelled to London for its first shows outside of Ireland, but failed to get much attention from foreign audiences and critics. U2 made their first appearance on US television on The Tomorrow Show hosted by Tom Snyder. It aired on June 4, 1981. They performed "I Will Follow" and "Twilight" and engaged in an interview.

Boy and October (1980 – 1981)

Island Records signed the band in March of 1980. U2 released Boy the following October. It was met with critical praise and is considered one of the better debuts in rock history. That album's release was followed by U2's first tour beyond Ireland and the United Kingdom. These live shows helped establish U2 as one of the most exciting live bands in the UK, as critics noted that Bono was a very "charismatic" and "passionate" showman. The band's second album, October, was released in 1981. Fans and music critics quickly made note of the band's spiritual lyrics. Bono, the Edge and Larry were committed Christians and made little effort to hide that fact. The three band members joined a religious group in Dublin called "Shalom", which led all three to question the relationship between the Christian faith and the rock and roll lifestyle. After nearly throwing in the towel on U2, they decided it was possible to reconcile the two by continuing to make music without compromising their personal beliefs. (In recent years a book of sermons based on U2 songs has been published: "Get Up Off Your Knees" ed. Whiteley & Maynard, ISBN 1561012238)

War (1983)

In 1983, U2 returned with apparently a newfound sense of direction and the release of their third album, War. The album included the song "Sunday Bloody Sunday" , which dealt with the troubles in Northern Ireland. The song starts off by expressing the anger felt in Ireland over Bloody Sunday incident of 1972, but in successive stanzas moves through different imagery that disown that anger and place the song in a religious context, using imagery from Matthew 10:35 ("mother's children; brothers, sisters torn apart"), and a twist on 1 Corinthians 15:32 ("we eat and drink while tomorrow they die") before finishing off with a call for Christians to stop fighting each other and "claim the victory Jesus won, on a Sunday bloody Sunday". The ability to use such a range of images, taking a song initially about sectarian anger, and turn it into a call for Christians to unite and claim the victory over death and evil that Christ achieved in the resurrection, showed the depth of the band's songwriting ability. When some Irish-Americans tried to misrepresent the song as a rallying call for the Provisional IRA Bono responded with what became one of his most recognizable phrases in concerts, notably the performance on the live EP Under a Blood Red Sky - "this song is not a rebel song. This song is Sunday Bloody Sunday." Furthermore, as captured in the concert film U2: Rattle and Hum, during the performance of the song on November 9, 1987, the day after the IRA bombing in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland, in which 11 people were killed during a Remembrance Day service, Bono bluntly denounced the violence in Ireland and the Irish expatriates who supported it. His anger and passion were palpable as he shouted: "Fuck the 'revolution'!" The album's first single, "New Year's Day", was U2's first international hit single, reaching the #10 position on the U.K. charts and nearly cracking the Top 50 on the U.S. charts. MTV put the "New Year's Day" video into heavy rotation, which helped introduce U2 to the American audience. For the first time, the band began performing to sold-out concerts in mainland Europe and the U.S. The band recorded the Under a Blood Red Sky EP on this tour and a live video was also released.

The Unforgettable Fire and Live Aid (1984 – 1986)

The band began their fourth studio album with Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois producing. The experimental The Unforgettable Fire (named after a series of paintings made by survivors of the atomic bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki) followed in 1984. The album featured the tribute to civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., "Pride (In the Name of Love)". "Pride" became the first single from the album, cracking the U.K. Top 5 and the US Top 50. The album represented a turning point in the band's career, as Bono's lyrics became more complex, subtle and experimental, the Edge's guitar explored new sonic landscapes, and the rhythm section got looser and funkier. However, the material, although less overtly so, remained political. Songs include "Indian Summer Sky", a social commentary on the prison-like atmosphere of city living in a world of natural forces, and "MLK", a second song honoring Martin Luther King, Jr.. The album's release coincided with a photo exhibit at the Chicago Peace Museum featuring images of the aftermath of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings; Bono would later contribute a poem entitled "Dreams in Box" to the museum's archives. The centrepiece of the album is "Bad", a long, experimental song which, while never released as a single, provided the album's defining moment: a cathartic exploration on the theme of heroin dependency - a problem particularly prevalent in the Dublin of the mid-1980s. During the tour to support the new album, Bono took to wrapping his microphone cable around his arm in imitation of a junkie looking for a vein. The tour itself became the first time U2 extensively played in indoor arenas. Miles Davis is reputed to have asked the album to be played while on his deathbed. The Live Aid concert for Ethiopian famine relief in July 1985 was seen by more than a billion people worldwide. U2 were not expected to be one of the main draws for the event, but the band provided the show with one of its most memorable moments, a relentless 13-minute version of "Bad" in which Bono left the stage and walked down to the Wembley Stadium crowd to dance with a fan. The other band members were upset with Bono for spending the time they had planned for playing "Pride (In the Name of Love)", and Bono was convinced he had squandered a chance for promoting the band to a greater audience. Somewhat ironically, the Live Aid version of "Bad" has become something of a legend in rock circles, and was an indication of the personal connection that Bono could make with audiences. U2 went on to a headlining spot on 1986's Conspiracy of Hope Tour for Amnesty International. This 6-show tour across the U.S. performed to sold-out arenas and stadiums, and helped Amnesty International triple its membership in the process. Rolling Stone magazine called U2 the "Band of the 80s", saying that "for a growing number of rock-and-roll fans, U2 has become the band that matters most, maybe even the only band that matters."

The Joshua Tree and Rattle and Hum (1987 – 1989)

In 1987, U2 released The Joshua Tree. The album debuted at #1 in the U.K., quickly reached #1 in the U.S., and would go on to win the Grammy Award for Album on the Year. The singles "With or Without You" and "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" also quickly went to #1 in the U.S., with "Where the Streets Have No Name" being another heavily played track. U2 was the fourth rock band to be featured on the cover of Time magazine (following The Beatles, The Band, and The Who), who declared that U2 was "Rock's Hottest Ticket". The Joshua Tree Tour sold out stadiums around the world, the first time the band had consistently played venues of that size . Bono and U2 were still able to seize the moment. At Wembley Stadium in London, in 1987, U2 sang a haunting version of The Beatles' "Help!" - dedicating it to those in the audience who were dreading another five years of the recently re-elected Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher. The band began to film and record various shows from the tour for the documentary and album Rattle and Hum in 1988 and released on video in 1989. That album became a tribute to American music, when the band recorded at the legendary Sun Studios in Memphis, performed with Bob Dylan and B.B. King, and sang about blues great Billie Holiday. The band also covered The Beatles' "Helter Skelter", declaring "This is a song Charles Manson stole from the Beatles; we're stealin' it back." Live footage from Joshua Tree Tour concerts at Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Arizona and McNichols Arena in Denver, Colorado featured prominently in the film. The McNichols footage, shot in black and white, included performances from the back catalog while color material from Sun Devil mostly comprised (then) current material. Two shows were filmed in Tempe. To ensure a full stadium, tickets were discounted to $5.00 a piece. Despite a positive reception from fans, Rattle and Hum received mixed-to-negative reviews from both film and music critics. U2 went on the Lovetown Tour (with special guest B.B. King), which visited Australia, New Zealand, and Japan, but avoided the US and most of Europe. Perhaps feeling that U2 was somewhat stagnating, Bono announced during a December 30, 1989 concert in Dublin that it was time "to go away and dream it all up again."

Achtung Baby, Zoo TV and Zooropa (1991 – 1994)

After taking some time off, the band met in East Berlin in autumn of 1990 to begin work on their next studio album, again with Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois producing. The original sessions did not go well, but following the inspirational completion of the hit song 'One,' the band eventually emerged from the studio with renewed energy and a new album under its belt. In November of 1991, U2 released the heavily experimental and distorted Achtung Baby. The album was enthusiastically received by fans and critics alike, with Rolling Stone magazine declaring that U2 had "proven that the same penchant for epic musical and verbal gestures that leads many artists to self-parody can, in more inspired hands, fuel the unforgettable fire that defines great rock & roll." In early 1992, U2 began its first American tour in more than four years. The multimedia event known as the Zoo TV Tour masterfully confused audiences with hundreds of video screens, upside-down flying Trabant cars, mock transmission towers, satellite TV links, subliminal text messages, and over-the-top stage characters such as "The Fly", "Mirror-ball Man" and "Mister MacPhisto". The tour was, among other things, U2's attempt at mocking the excesses of rock and roll by appearing to embrace greed and decadence - at times, even away from the stage. Some missed the point of the tour and thought that U2 had "lost it," and that Bono had become an egomaniac. European leg link-ups to war-torn Sarajevo caused further controversy. Following the same theme, U2 went back into the studio to record their next release during a break in the Zoo TV Tour. The album was intended as an additional EP to Achtung Baby, but soon Zooropa expanded into a full-fledged LP and was released in July of 1993. Zooropa was an even greater departure from the style of their earlier recordings, incorporating techno style and other electronic effects. After some time off - and a few side projects (the Batman Forever and Mission: Impossible soundtracks) - the band returned under the radar in 1995 with Brian Eno under the moniker "Passengers", and released an experimental album called Original Soundtracks No. 1. The album, including a collaboration with Luciano Pavarotti, "Miss Sarajevo", was not largely noticed in the industry, and received little attention from the critics and public alike.

Pop and Popmart (1996 – 1998)

In early 1996, U2 began work on their next record. The recording of this album was fraught with difficulty. U2 were once again attempting to change their musical direction, this time the band were experimenting with heavy post production of their music, utilizing tape loops, programming and sampling. This gave the album a techno/disco feel. Pop was released in March of 1997. The album debuted at #1 in 28 countries, and earned U2 mainly positive reviews. Rolling Stone even went so far as claiming U2 had "defied the odds and made some of the greatest music of their lives." However, audiences and fans felt that the music industry had exceeded the limits of tolerance in promoting Pop, and the album was seen as something of a disappointment by many. One of the main problems the band had when the recording the album was the time constraint placed upon them by their impending tour. The band has admitted they were hurried into completing the album and say that a number of tracks on the album were not finished as well they would have liked. It is not surprising that the tracks from Pop picked for U2's second greatest hits album – "Gone", "Discothèque", and "Staring at the Sun" – were all remixed for inclusion on that album. With the Popmart Tour, U2, once again continued the Zoo TV theme of decadence. The show hit the road in April, 1997; the set included a 100-foot tall golden yellow arch, a large 150 foot long video screen, and a 35 foot tall mirrorball lemon. It was to be U2's most colorful show to date. One of the stops was in Sarajevo, where they were the first major group to perform after the war there. The Popmart Tour was the second-highest grossing tour of 1997 (behind the Rolling Stones' Bridges to Babylon Tour) with revenues of just under $80 million, but it cost more than $100 million to produce. The band played a brief concert in Belfast in May of 1998, three days before the public voted in favour of the Northern Ireland Peace Accord. Also that year, U2 performed on an Irish TV fundraiser for victims of the Omagh, Northern Ireland bombing which killed 28 and injured hundreds more earlier in the year. In late 1998, U2 released its first greatest hits compilation, The Best of 1980-1990.

All That You Can't Leave Behind and Elevation (2000 – 2001)

U2 went back into the studio in early 1999, yet again with Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois producing. After the overwhelming extravagance of the Popmart Tour, critics and music industry insiders felt that U2 was trying to return to the days of The Joshua Tree in order to keep its audience of loyal fans. During these sessions, the band collaborated with author Salman Rushdie, who wrote the lyrics to a song called "The Ground Beneath Her Feet", based on his book of the same name. That song, and others, eventually appeared on the soundtrack to The Million Dollar Hotel, a movie based on a story written by Bono. All That You Can't Leave Behind, released in late October, was received widely as U2's return to grace, and was considered by many to be U2's "third masterpiece" (after Achtung Baby and The Joshua Tree, according to Rolling Stone). It debuted at No. 1 in 22 countries and spawned a world-wide hit single, "Beautiful Day", which also earned three Grammy Awards. U2 followed that release with a major tour in the spring of 2001. The subsequent Elevation Tour saw the band performing in a scaled-down setting, on a heart-shaped stage and ramp. The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 nearly led U2 to cancel the balance of the tour, but they decided to continue, starting the second American leg of the tour at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana, home of the "Fighting Irish". The tour was the top concert draw in North America, where the band's 80 shows (out of 113 worldwide) grossed $110 million, the second-highest total behind The Rolling Stones' Voodoo Lounge Tour in 1994. Following such an accomplished album, and a hugely successful tour, many fans felt that U2 had been successful in "re-applying for the job of the biggest band in the world," an application Bono had made a year earlier. After the Elevation Tour ended in late 2001, the culmination of U2's resurrection came when the band performed a well-received three-song set in New Orleans, Louisiana during halftime of Super Bowl XXXVI. The highlight was an emotional performance of "Where the Streets Have No Name" in which the names of the victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks were projected onto a pair of backdrops, scrolling up towards the sky; at the end of the song the backdrops were released, descending to the ground in a gentle revisiting of the Twin Towers' fall. Bono then opened his jacket, which he had worn throughout the Elevation Tour, to reveal the American flag printed on the lining, an image that was widely reproduced in the media. U2 was praised for their performance because they actually performed their music live as opposed to lip syncing like previous artists had done for Super Bowl halftime shows. A few months later, All That You Can't Leave Behind picked up four more Grammy Awards. Bono continued his campaigns for debt and HIV/AIDS relief throughout the summer of 2002. In late 2002, U2 released part two of its greatest hits collection, The Best of 1990-2000. Dance artists LMC sampled "With or Without You" for their track "Take Me To The Clouds Above" which also features lyrics from "How Will I Know" by Whitney Houston. All four members of U2 had to clear the track, which was released under the title of LMC vs U2. Adam Clayton said of the track: "It's a good beat and you can dance to it. I especially like the bassline." The track went to the top of the UK singles charts in February 2004 and also went top 5 in Ireland and top ten in Australia.

How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb and "Vertigo" (2004 – )

A rough-cut of the band's follow-up album was stolen in Nice, France, in July 2004 [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/music/3897987.stm]. Shortly thereafter, Bono stated that, should the album appear on P2P networks, it would be released immediately via iTunes and be in stores within a month. No such pre-release of the album occurred, however, and the first single from the album, titled "Vertigo", was released for airplay on September 24, 2004. The song received extensive airplay in the first week after its release and became an international hit. The album, titled How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, was released on November 22 in much of the world and November 23 in the United States. The album debuted at #1 in 32 countries, including the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and the band's native Ireland. It sold 840,000 units in the United States in its first week. This was a record for the band, nearly doubling the first-week sales of All That You Can't Leave Behind in the US. U2 promoted How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb heavily. They made appearances on TV shows like CD:UK and Friday Night with Jonathan Ross in Britain and Saturday Night Live in America. The band also made a video for the second North American single, "All Because Of You", while riding on a flatbed truck through the streets of Manhattan on November 22. They then played a free concert at a Brooklyn park, attracting over 3,000 fans who had learned of the show on various U2 fan websites. In another first, the band entered an extensive cross-promotion campaign with Apple Computer: the band allowed the single "Vertigo" to be used in a widely aired television commercial for the iPod music player -- though the band did not receive any royalties for the use of the song, due to the commercial the song was well known even before the release of the album. This move shocked some fans who remember U2's previous staunch refusal to get involved in any product promotion. The band also licensed a special version of the iPod with a U2 design (black faceplate with red click wheel, echoing the color scheme for the new album) and facsimilies of the bandmembers' signatures etched on the back plate. The partnership also led Apple's iTunes Music Store to feature a collection known as The Complete U2. The digital box set features each U2 album in its entirety, as well as every single and B-side ever released, rare live sets, and previously unreleased songs from recording sessions of All That You Can't Leave Behind and How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb. Owners of the U2 Edition iPod were able to purchase this collection at a discount. In Europe, the next single released from the album - "Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own" - once again featured a Bono/Pavarotti performance on the B-side. The performance is a Jacknife Lee remix of "Ave Maria" sung by Bono with Luciano Pavarotti.The B-Side of the single also includes a remix of the hit "Vertigo" and a Jacknife Lee remix of "Fast Cars." Fast Cars is an album track available only on the UK and Japan versions and American deluxe editions of Atomic Bomb. The single will be available on two CD formats and a DVD single. The DVD carries a video of an exclusive live performance of "Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own" from the band's Dublin studio, and a Trent Reznor remix of "Vertigo." In April 2004, Rolling Stone magazine placed U2 in its 50 "greatest rock & roll artists of all time". On March 14, 2005, U2 was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in their first year of eligibility. The first leg of the Vertigo Tour began in the United States, with the band performing 26 sold-out shows. The first leg started off in March in San Diego, California and finished in May in Boston, Massachusetts. The band performed well-known hits, songs from the current album, and early rarities. The second leg was a European stadium tour, which started on June 10 in Brussels and finished on August 14 in Lisbon. The band then returned to the United States and will finish up on December 19 in Portland, Oregon. There are currently rumors of a United States stadium/European arena tour mid-2006. On November 9, u2.com announced that the Vertigo tour will continue into 2006, and the band will appear in Mexico, South America, New Zealand, Australia and Japan. U2 have smashed Irish box office records with ticket sales for their 2005 Croke Park, Dublin concerts, after more than 240,000 tickets were sold in record time. In Belgium, France and Austria the tickets were sold within 60 minutes. The third single from the album, "City of Blinding Lights", entered the UK singles chart at #2 on June 12. They performed alongside Coldplay, Paul McCartney, and Pink Floyd, among others, in the Live 8 concert in London on July 2nd, 2005. The Vertigo Tour European leg climaxed at the Estádio José Alvalade XXI in Lisbon on August 15 after the band received the country's most prestigious honour, the Order of Liberty from Portugal's President Jorge Sampaio regarding the band's hugely influential work for action in Africa and across the world concerning extreme poverty. Commenting on the award, which had never previously been awarded to a foreign music group, Bono said, "It is of course for the four of us a great, great honour... ... if we really believed that an African life was equal to a European life we would not stand by with watering cans while an entire continent was bursting into flames." Before presenting the award, the President said: "Over the last 25 years you have shown that it is possible to combine the pleasure of artistic creation with civic and humanitarian intervention to help build a better world." Action against poverty has been a major feature point of the Vertigo 05 shows, as Bono has used the song "One" as an opportunity to plead with fans in attendance to join the ONE Campaign in the fight against poverty. U2 will be featured on the live DVD "U2// Vertigo // Live from Chicago 2005," filmed over 2 Chicago concerts in May 2005. The DVD will mark their 3rd live film since their 2001 Elevation Tour. On Monday December 5th 2005 U2's Vertigo tour show in Sydney, Australia at the Telstra Stadium sold out in just an hour and during the course of that day the Melbourne and New Zealand shows were also sold out. A second Sydney show was announced and went on sale on the 12th, also selling out in under an hour. December the 8th saw U2 pick up 5 Grammy nominations, including 'Album of the Year' for Bomb, and 'Song of the Year'for Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own.

Next album recordings (2006 – 2007)

In mid-2005, a source ([http://www.antimusic.com/news/05/april/11-01.shtml Anti-Music]) has reported that U2 have plans for new album and are keen to record more. According to Bono there are 24 songs that came out of sessions, of which the band took 11 for their subsequent record. The Vertigo tour kicked off in San Diego on 28 March and is expected to go well into 2006, so there aren't plans to go into the studio to record. Most likely a new record would surface in 2007 but the possibility of a new U2 record in 2006 cannot be ruled out entirely. In the January 2006 edition of Q magazine, Bono said that the band were working on a new album in 2006. In 1993, during a break in the massive Zoo TV Tour, U2 recorded what was to be Zooropa. The album was released only a year and half after their groundbreaking album Achtung Baby. There have also been talks of U2 re-recording their 1997 album, Pop for a tenth anniversary. Considering recent comments from the members of the band, this now seems more likely than them rushing to get the remains of the How to Dismantle... sessions finished. Bono has said that the biggest mistake the band has ever made was letting their manager book the PopMart tour, as it meant they had to rush to finish the Pop album, and so they consider Pop to have failed as an album, despite at least 7 million sales.

Other projects

Beside their band-project, U2 and its members also worked with other musicians, such as the Irish band Clannad with which Bono recorded the song "In A Lifetime." Together with The Edge, Bono wrote the song "GoldenEye" for the James Bond movie of the same name, which was performed by Tina Turner. They also wrote the song "She's A Mystery To Me" for Roy Orbison, which was released on his album Mystery Girl, while Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr. did a rework of the title track of the movie Mission: Impossible in 1996. While working under the pseudonym "Passengers," U2 gave producer Brian Eno quite a bit more creative control and cranked out the album Original Soundtracks No. 1. The work is a compilation of film music for nonexistent movies, and a bit of a step back from the usual style of the band, thus the pseudonym "Passengers". Two of the tracks, Miss Sarajevo (that got world airplay after its live duet between Bono and Pavarotti was included in the album "Pavarotti And Friends") and Your Blue Room (a fan favorite, including a vocal track by the band's bassist, Adam Clayton), even made it to their best of album for 1990-2000. U2 also worked together with other artists, like the U.S. author William S. Burroughs who had a guest appearance in their video of Last Night on Earth shortly before he died. His poem 'A Thanksgiving Prayer' was used as video footage during the bands Zoo TV Tour in the early 1990's. Also many other musicians were influenced by the work of U2 - there are several cover versions of U2 songs by bands including Pet Shop Boys, Pearl Jam, Aslan, and The Chimes and musicians such as Cassandra Wilson, Mica Paris and Johnny Cash. U2 has enjoyed reciprocal influential relationships with artists including REM and Anton Corbijn, as well as exerting influences on others, including the Austrian painter [http://www.kave.at Kave Atefie] who dedicated successfully two art-series ('Like a promise in the year of election' and 'Outside it's America') to the work of the Irish band. Since 1982, Anton Corbijn has been photographing U2. He "invented" U2’s public image and he is still shaping it. Since their first encounter in February 1982 in New Orleans to their April 2004 Lisbon shooting for "How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb", their longstanding friendship, mutual inspiration, and shared experience of rock history is part of the history of photography.

Discography

For a complete discography, see U2 discography.

Studio albums

#1980 - Boy (total sales 3M) #1981 - October (2M) #1983 - War (8M) #1984 - The Unforgettable Fire (8M) #1987 - The Joshua Tree (26M) #1991 - Achtung Baby (18M) #1993 - Zooropa (7M) #1997 - Pop (6M) #2000 - All That You Can't Leave Behind (12M) #2004 - How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb (10M)

Live albums

#1983 - Under a Blood Red Sky #1988 - Rattle and Hum (half-live/half-studio album)

Other projects

#1985 - Wide Awake in America #1995 - Original Soundtracks No. 1 (with Brian Eno, band went under the name The Passengers). #2000 - Million Dollar Hotel Soundtrack #2004 - The Complete U2 (available for download from the iTunes Music Store) which includes all studio albums, singles and officially released live tracks, as well as some previously unreleased content.

Campaigning

U2 is almost as well known for its humanitarian nature as it is for its music. Bono is perhaps the best-known advocate for finding a cure for AIDS and helping the impoverished in Africa. Some human rights causes helped by U2 include:
- Amnesty International
- Greenpeace
- African Well Fund
- Support for Burma's Aung San Suu Kyi
- DATA (Debt, AIDS, Trade in Africa)
- Chernobyl Children's Project
- Jubilee Debt Campaign
- The ONE Campaign
- Live 8
- Make Poverty History

Sound samples


- Download sample of a live performance of Bob Marley's "Redemption Song"
- Download sample of "Pride (In the Name of Love)" from the album, The Unforgettable Fire.

See also


- U2's record label sues the band Negativland over claimed copyright infringement
- Best selling music artists - World's top-selling music artists chart.
- List of number-one hits (United States)
- List of artists who reached number one on the Hot 100 (US)
- List of number-one dance hits (United States)
- List of artists who reached number one on the US Dance chart

External links


- [http://www.u2.com/ U2.com] - official site U2 U2 U2 U2 U2 U2

Other links


- [http://www.u2log.com/ U2 webblog] ko:U2 (밴드) ja:U2 simple:U2 (band)



Adam Clayton

Adam Charles Clayton (born March 13, 1960 in Chinnor, Oxford, England), is the British bass player for the Irish rock band, U2. Often refered by Bono as the poshest member of the band, Clayton is well known for his bass playing on songs like "Where the Streets Have No Name", "New Year's Day", and "With or Without You".

Biography

Adam was born the eldest child of Brian, an RAF pilot, and Jo Clayton in Oxfordshire, England on 13 March 1960. At the age of five, the family moved to Yellow Walls Road in Malahide near Dublin, where sister Sarah and brother Sebastian were born. Adam attended private boarding school St. Columba's in Rathfarnham, but hated it. Being a bit of a hippy, Adam's freewheeling personality was at odds with the structured environment. He later switched to Mount Temple High School (Ireland's first ecumenical school), where he was to meet U2 bandmates Paul "Bono" Hewson, Dave "The Edge" Evans and Larry Mullen Jr. Mullen had posted an advertisement for musicians. Adam ignored it at first, believing it was a school-sponsored event. When he discovered that it wasn't, he showed up at the first practice, which also included Dik Evans, Dave's older brother. When Dik Evans left, the fledgling band that would become U2 was created. They were known first as Feedback, then The Hype. He also served as the band's first manager before Paul McGuinness, a more experienced manager, was hired. Adam's ambiguous religious beliefs caused a rift with his three outspoken Christian bandmates which peaked between the time of their second album, October (1982) and their third album, War (1983). Reportedly, Adam Clayton was being treated as a bit of an outsider until manager Paul McGuinness came to his aid. To smooth over the rift, Adam was asked to be Bono's best man at his wedding. In 1986, U2 recorded what is considered by many to be their first masterpiece: 1987's The Joshua Tree album, at Danesmoate House. Adam later bought the home for approximately E380,000. It is hidden away behind Taylors Pub on Kellystown Road, Rathfarnham. Adam's name made world headlines in August 1989 when he was arrested in Dublin and charged with possession of a small amount of cannabis. He avoided a conviction by making a sizable donation to charity.

Style

U2's sound is essentially built around The Edge's effects-laden guitar work and Larry Mullen's militaristic drumming. While Adam Clayton will probably never be confused with Cream's Jack Bruce or The Who's John Entwistle, Clayton's often uncomplicated bass playing serves as a solid foundation for U2's songs. But even on songs where the basslines are busier and more up front in the mix (as it is on "Gloria", "The Three Sunrises", and "Bullet the Blue Sky"), Adam Clayton's playing is a study in tasteful restraint and how to play for the song. Clayton switches between finger-style and pick-style with ease, and occasionally throws in some funk-style slapping and popping. Lead vocalist Bono describes Adam as the "jazz man" of the band in an interview with 60 minutes (Nov 2005). Elaborating on the unpredictability of Adam's nature, Bono says "(You) never know what he's going to say, but more importantly, you never know what he's going to play". Bono proceeds to cite the band's hit song, Bullet the Blue Sky, as a song with a weird sounding bassline. The reason? Adam is playing in a different key from the rest of the band! Clayton's stage style was a major, positive surprise during the Vertigo tour (2004-2006). The bassist would walk along the catwalk during at least one song per concert, generally "Where The Streets Have No Name," and his excursions away from the stage would be warmly cheered by the crowd. Female fans on U2 websites also have reported receiving smiles and winks and even talking to the bassist during the show. As noted by many a U2 concert-goer, this is a 180 degree turnabout from the Adam Clayton of the Elevation tour era (2000-2001). Fellow band member and guitar genius The Edge observes: Adam's coming into his own as a performer on this tour," he notes. "It's great to see him out there on the ramps, like really giving it loads. That hasn't been his interest for a few tours now. So it's nice to see that spirit back with Adam." It looks like Adam Clayton has finally resumed his rockstar status and stepped up to soak up his rightful spotlight as a performer, instead of hiding behind the massive cover of the band name U2.

Music

In 1983 Adam made a rare singing appearance on "Endless Deep", a b-side to U2's "Sunday Bloody Sunday" single. Adam and Bono, lead singer of U2, contributed to the 1984 African famine charity single "Do They Know It's Christmas?." Adam played bass. On the 1995 album Original Soundtracks No. 1, Adam can be heard speaking the last verse on the song "Your Blue Room". In 1996 Adam co-arranged, and spoke on, "Tomorrow ('96 Version)", a rerecording of a U2 song originally featured on the "October" album. Adam was winner of the Best Bassist award in the Orville H. Gibson Guitar Award in both 2001 and 2002. Though he is the bass player for one of the biggest bands in the world, Clayton did not have any formal music training until 1996.

Solo projects

Adam played bass on Robbie Robertson's 1987 self-titled album. Adam has also contributed to albums by Maria McKee. Adam Clayton played bass on "Still Water" and "Jolie Louise" on Daniel Lanois 1989 album "Acadie" In 1994 Adam contributed to Nanci Griffiths 1994 album "Flyer" on the following songs - "These Days in an Open Book", "Don't Forget About Me", "On Grafton Street" and "This Heart". Larry Mullen Jr also contributed to these songs. Adam and Larry Mullen Jr recorded soundtrack, including the theme song, for the 1996 remake of the movie Mission: Impossible. In 1997 The "Theme From Mission: Impossible" was nominated for a Grammy Award in the Best Pop Instrumental Performance category.

References

Flanagan, Bill (1995) U2 At The End of The World. Delta ISBN 0-385-31157-5

External links


- [http://www.u2.com/ U2.com] - official U2 website
- [http://www.u2star.com/ U2Star]
- [http://www.u2-site.com/ U2 Fan Site]
- [http://www.atu2.com/ @U2]
- [http://www.interference.com/ Interference] Clayton, Adam Clayton, Adam Clayton, Adam Clayton, Adam Clayton, Adam Category:Rathfarnham Clayton, Adam Clayton, Adam simple:Adam Clayton

The 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]

See also


- Islamic view of the Bible
- Adam and Eve
- List of alleged inconsistencies in the Bible
- The Bible and history
- Bible translations
- Bible chronology
- Biblical archaeology
- Biblical canon
- Biblical inerrancy
- Books of the Bible
- Dating the Bible
- Gutenberg Bible
- History of the English Bible
- Jewish Biblical exegesis
- Letters from the Earth, by Mark Twain
- Metanarrative
- New Testament view on Jesus' life
- Origin and Growth of the English Bible
- Study Bible
- Tanakh
- Ten Commandments (ethical)
- Ten Commandments (ritual)
- Jesus

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

Psalms

Psalms (Tehilim תהילים, in Hebrew) is a book of the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh, and of the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. Because of its original meaning as a song or chant, the word psalm can be used to mean any religious chant or poem of praise. This article, however, deals specifically with the Psalms (with upper-case P) as the book of Scripture. The Islamic redaction of the book of Psalms is called the Zabur, and is believed to be one of the holy books revealed by Allah prior to the Qur'an, the others being Tawrat (Torah) and Injil (Gospels). In the Hebrew Bible, the Psalms are counted among the "Writings" or Ketuvim (one of the three main sections into which the books are grouped). In Luke 24:44 the word "psalms" refers the Writings as a whole. The Book of Psalms, especially if printed separately and set for singing or chanting, is also called the Psalter.

Composition of the Book of Psalms

The Book of Psalms is divided into 150 Psalms, each of which constitutes a religious song or chant, though one or two are long and may constitute a set of related chants. It is incorrect to speak of these as chapters, since their individuality antedates by at least 1500 years the division of the other books of the Bible into chapters. The organization and numbering of the Psalms differs slightly between the (Masoretic) Hebrew and the (Septuagint) Greek manuscripts:

- Psalms 9 and 10 in the Hebrew are together as Psalm 9 in the Greek
- Psalms 114 and 115 in the Hebrew are Psalm 113 in the Greek
- Psalms 114 and 115 in the Greek appear as Psalm 116 in the Hebrew
- Psalms 146 and 147 in the Greek form Psalm 147 in the Hebrew

Christian traditions vary:
- Protestant translations are based on the Hebrew numbering;
- Eastern Orthodox translations are based on the Greek numbering;
- Roman Catholic official liturgical texts follow the Greek numbering, but modern Catholic translations often use the Hebrew numbering, sometimes adding, in parenthesis, the Greek numbering as well. Most manuscripts of the Septuagint also include a Psalm 151, present in Eastern Orthodox translations; a Hebrew version of this poem was found amongst the Dead Sea Scrolls. For the remainder of this article, the Hebrew Psalm numbers will be used unless otherwise noted.

Authorship and ascriptions

Traditionally the Psalms were thought to be the work of David, but many modern scholars see them as the product of several authors or groups of authors, many unknown. Most Psalms are prefixed with introductory words (very different in the Masoretic and Septuagint traditions) ascribing them to a particular author or saying something about the circumstances of their composition; only 73 of these introductions claim David as author. Since the Psalms were written down around the 6th century BC, nearly half a millennium after David's reign (about 1000 BC), they doubtless depended on oral tradition for transmission of any Davidic material. Psalms 39, 62, and 77 are linked with Jeduthun, to be sung after his manner or in his choir. Psalms 50 and 73-83 are associated with Asaph, as the master of his choir, to be sung in the worship of God. The ascriptions of Psalms 42, 44-49, 84, 85, 87, and 88 assert that the "sons of Korah" were entrusted with arranging and singing them; 2 Chronicles 20:19 suggests that this group formed a leading part of the Korathite singers.

Sections of the book

In Jewish usage, the Psalter is divided, after the analogy of the Pentateuch, into five books, each closing with a doxology or benediction (For the Orthodox Christian division into twenty kathismata, see Eastern Orthodox usage, below): # The first book comprises the first 41 Psalms. All of these are ascribed to David except Psalms 1, 2, 10, and 33, which, though untitled in the Hebrew, were also traditionally ascribed to David. While Davidic authorship cannot be confirmed, this probably is the oldest section of the Psalms. # The second book consists of the next 31 Psalms (42-72). Eighteen of these are ascribed to David and one to Solomon (Psalm 72). The rest are anonymous. # The third book contains seventeen Psalms (73-89), of which Psalm 86 is ascribed to David, Psalm 88 to Heman the Ezrahite, and Psalm 89 to Ethan the Ezrahite. # The fourth book also contains seventeen Psalms (90-106), of which Psalm 90 is ascribed to Moses, and Psalms 101 and 103 to David. # The fifth book contains the remaining Psalms, 44 in number. Of these, 15 are ascribed to David, and one (Psalm 127) to Solomon. Psalm 136 is generally called "the great Hallel." But the Talmud includes also Psalms 120-135. Psalms 113-118, inclusive, constitute the "Hallel" recited at the three great feasts (Passover, Weeks, and Tabernacles), at the new moon, and on the eight days of Chanukah. Psalms 120-134 are referred to as Songs of Degrees, and are thought to have been used as hymns of approach by pilgrims. Psalm 119 is the longest Psalm. It is composed of 176 verses, in sets of eight verses, each set beginning with one of the 22 Hebrew letters. Several other Psalms too have alphabetical arrangements. Psalm 117 is the shortest Psalm, containing but two verses.

Use of the Psalms in Jewish ritual

The Mosaic ritual set out in the books of the Pentateuch or Torah makes no provision for the service of song in the worship of God. The earliest references to the use of singing in Jewish worship are in relation to David, and to this extent the ascription of the Psalms to him may express a general if not a specific truth. Some of the titles given to the Psalms in their ascriptions suggest their use in worship:
- Some bear the Hebrew designation shir (Greek ode, a song