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Studying the Bible: the Tanakh and Early Christian Writings Kansas State University Libraries New Prairie Press NPP eBooks Monographs 2019 Studying the Bible: The Tanakh and Early Christian Writings Gregory Eiselein Kansas State University Anna Goins Kansas State University Naomi J. Wood Kansas State University Follow this and additional works at: https://newprairiepress.org/ebooks Part of the Biblical Studies Commons This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License Recommended Citation Eiselein, Gregory; Goins, Anna; and Wood, Naomi J., "Studying the Bible: The Tanakh and Early Christian Writings" (2019). NPP eBooks. 29. https://newprairiepress.org/ebooks/29 This Book is brought to you for free and open access by the Monographs at New Prairie Press. It has been accepted for inclusion in NPP eBooks by an authorized administrator of New Prairie Press. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Studying the Bible: The Tanakh and Early Christian Writings Gregory Eiselein, Anna Goins, and Naomi J. Wood Kansas State University Copyright © 2019 Gregory Eiselein, Anna Goins, and Naomi J. Wood New Prairie Press, Kansas State University Libraries Manhattan, Kansas Cover design by Anna Goins Cover image by congerdesign, CC0 https://pixabay.com/photos/book-read-bible-study-notes-write-1156001/ Electronic edition available online at: http://newprairiepress.org/ebooks This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial 4.0 International (CC-BY NC 4.0) License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ Publication of Studying the Bible: The Tanakh and Early Christian Writings was funded in part by the Kansas State University Open/Alternative Textbook Initiative, which is supported through Student Centered Tuition Enhancement Funds and K-State Libraries. ISBN-13: 978-1-944548-24-7 Table of Contents List of Figures List of Abbreviations Section I Introduction Chapter One The Bible and Literature Chapter Two The Composition, Editing, and Transmission of the Bible Section II The Hebrew Bible Chapter Three The Torah Chapter Four The Former Prophets Chapter Five The Latter Prophets Chapter Six The Writings Chapter Seven Apocalypse Chapter Eight The Apocrypha and Post-Exilic Literature Section III The Early Christian Writings Chapter Nine The Gospels Chapter Ten The Acts of the Apostles Chapter Eleven The Pauline Letters Chapter Twelve The General Letters Timeline Author Notes List of Figures Fig. 1. Genres of the Bible. Fig. 2. Canons of Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) or Old Testament. Fig. 3. Qumran in the West Bank, Middle East. Fig. 4. Early New Testament Canons. Fig. 5. The Great Flood. Fig. 6. Chiasmus in the Story of Abraham. Fig. 7. Samson and Delilah. Fig. 8. Literary Styles in the Prophetic Writings. Fig. 9. Stages of Composition for Isaiah. Fig. 10. Great Isaiah Scroll. Fig. 11. Structure of Jeremiah. Fig. 12. Vision of Ezekiel. Fig. 13. Angel of the Revelation. Fig. 14. Man of Matthew. Fig. 15. Transfiguration of Jesus Christ. Fig. 16. Gospel Book of Abbott Wedricus. Fig. 17. The Seven Signs, According to the Gospel of John. Fig. 18. Paul’s Travels. iii Fig. 19. Structure of Pauline Letter. Fig. 20. St. Paul in Prison iv List of Abbreviations Books of the Hebrew Bible or Old Testament Abbreviations Amos Amos 1 Chronicles 1 Chron. 2 Chronicles 2 Chron. Daniel Dan. Deuteronomy Deut. Ecclesiastes Eccles. Esther Esth. Exodus Exod. Ezekiel Ezek. Ezra Ezra Genesis Gen. Habakkuk Hab. Haggai Hag. Hosea Hos. Isaiah Isa. Jeremiah Jer. Job Job Joel Joel Jonah Jon. Joshua Josh. Judges Judg. 1 Kings 1 Kings 2 Kings 2 Kings Lamentations Lam. Leviticus Lev. Malachi Mal. Micah Mic. Nahum Nah. Nehemiah Neh. Numbers Num. Obadiah Obad. Proverbs Prov. Psalms Ps. Ruth Ruth 1 Samuel 1 Sam. 2 Samuel 2 Sam. Song of Solomon (also called Song of Songs) Song of Sol. Song of Songs (also called Song of Solomon) Song of Sg. Zechariah Zech. Zephaniah Zeph. v Deuterocanonical Books or the Apocrypha Abbreviations Baruch Bar. Bel and the Dragon Bel and Dr. Ecclesiasticus (also called Sirach) Ecclus. 1 Esdras 1 Esd. 2 Esdras 2 Esd. Esther (Apocrypha) Esth. (Apocr.) Judith Jth. 1 Maccabees 1 Macc. 2 Maccabees 2 Macc. Prayer of Manasseh Pr. of Man. Song of Three Children Sg. of 3 Childr. Sirach (also called Ecclesiasticus) Sir. Susanna Sus. Tobit Tob. Wisdom (also called Wisdom of Solomon) Wisd. Wisdom of Solomon (also called Wisdom) Wisd. of Sol. vi Books of the New Testament or The Early Abbreviations Christian Writings Acts Acts Apocalypse (also called Revelation) Apoc. Colossians Col. 1 Corinthians 1 Cor. 2 Corinthians 2 Cor. Ephesians Eph. Galatians Gal. Hebrews Heb. James Jas. John John 1 John 1 John 2 John 2 John 3 John 3 John Jude Jude Luke Luke Mark Mark Matthew Matt. 1 Peter 1 Pet. 2 Peter 2 Pet. Philemon Philem. Philippians Phil. Revelation (also called Apocalypse) Rev. Romans Rom. 1 Thessalonians 1 Thess. 2 Thessalonians 2 Thess. 1 Timothy 1 Tim. 2 Timothy 2 Tim. Titus Tit. Source: Adapted from MLA Handbook, 8th ed., 2016, pp. 97-100 [section 1.6.4]. vii Section I Introduction Eiselein, Goins, Wood / Studying the Bible Chapter One The Bible and Literature Introduction This textbook is a companion to Bible courses taught in the English Department at Kansas State University, in particular ENGL 470 The Bible. The course and the textbook examine the Hebrew Bible and the early Christian writings of the New Testament. Both the course and the textbook are introductions to the analysis of biblical texts, their histories, and their interpretations. The emphasis throughout this textbook is on the literary qualities of these texts as well as their cultural and historical contexts. Such a textbook raises, at the start, perhaps two important questions. (1) What exactly is the Bible? The answer to this question is perhaps more complicated than it might seem. And (2) Why would it be taught in a university department devoted to the study of literature, the study of writing and language, and the study of rhetoric and culture? The answer to this question is, from our perspective, more obvious than it might seem at first. The Bible The Bible is not a book, although it is sometimes known as “the good book” and lays claim to being the most famous and best-selling book of all time. Instead, it is really a book of books or an anthology of books. In fact, the word “Bible” derives from the Greek word biblia, which means “little books.” It is a diverse library of reading. The specific books or exact contents of the Bible varies by tradition, as we explain in more detail in chapter two. The books of the Hebrew Bible, also known as the Tanakh, and their order and arrangement are not the same as Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox, or Protestant Bibles. The Christian traditions divide the Bible into the Old and New Testaments. The Old Testament is similar many respects to the Hebrew Bible, though there are some significant differences. The Protestant Old Testament includes the same books as the Hebrew Bible but arranges and sometimes titles them differently. The Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox include additional books or parts of books (about fourteen) in their Old Testament line-up that are not part of the Jewish or Protestant “canon.” (The canon is the group of books that a specific religious tradition has determined to be authoritative scripture, and canons vary by tradition.) The early Christian writings within the New Testament are a part of the Christian Bibles but not, of 2 Eiselein, Goins, Wood / Studying the Bible course, the Hebrew Bible. Some narratives have been divided into two books, even though they are actually one continuous book (1 and 2 Samuel, for example). Some narratives are a single book in some traditions but divided in others: for example, Ezra- Nehemiah is a single book in the Jewish, Roman Catholic, and Greek Orthodox Bible (though it is known as 2 Esdras in the Orthodox canon), but two separate books in the Protestant Bible. The books of the Hebrew Bible were written mostly in Ancient or Classical Hebrew, though there are some sections in Aramaic. The early Christian writings were composed in Koine Greek, the Greek dialect common to the Hellenistic world from Alexander the Great’s conquests (335–323 BCE) through Jesus’s life and ministry and the development of the early Christian church and on to the early part of the Byzantine Empire, as a separate from the West part of the Roman Empire, which collapsed in the 400s CE. (Throughout this text, following current scholarly practice, we will use CE to denote the Common Era, also known as AD or anno domini, which means “the year of our Lord” in Latin. We use BCE to refer to the time Before the Common Era, also known as BC or “before Christ.”) The books of the Old Testament were written over a long period of time from about the 12th century BCE until about the 2nd century BCE, while most scholars believe that New Testament texts were composed between about 41 BCE (1 Thessalonians, the oldest existing Christian text, was probably composed about 49-51 BCE, though some scholars date it to as early as 41-44 CE) and 150 CE (2 Peter, generally thought to be the last New Testament book to be written, may have been composed as early as the end of the first century or as late as 140-150 CE). Although students and scholars still study these texts in their original Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek languages, the Bibles most often read in the twenty-first-century United States are, of course, translations. The King James Version (KJV) of the Bible, first authorized by King James of England in the early 1600s CE, is one of the oldest and widely admired English translations of the Bible, and it is still often used, studied, and read.
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