What is the meaning of Biblia and inspiration in the Bible?
- What is the meaning of the word Biblia?
- Discuss briefly the definitions of Inspiration as discussed in this unit.
- Give examples of the oracles of the prophets which portray them
- Briefly comment on the process of the Old Testament Canon.
- Discuss the passages that were used by the early church in the pre- canonical era
- Comment on the following views on inspiration: Evangelical, Catholic, Modernist and Neo- orthodox.
- Discuss the Hebrew massoretes that you know.
- Who are Massorates?
- Discuss the works of Massorates.
- Discuss the “Received Text “of 1633 A.D
- Which are the Byzantine texts?
- Explain the following uncials: Claromontanus, Codex Laudianus and Codex Koridethi.
- Discuss the Hebrew parent text.
- Describe the processes used by scholars to arrive at the final stage of the New International Version.
The term Biblia is used to mean a book collection because the word means books in Greek. It is used to refer to the Bible, which is a collection of books about God.
The term inspiration is regarded as influence belonging to the Holy Spirit that was exerted on the writers of the bible. This inspiration was used to affirm that the Bible is God’s word and He inspired its writers with the assistance of the Holy Spirit. The use of this form of inspiration allowed God to reveal things to the writers that were not visible. The use of inspiration was significant because without this revelation to the writers the bible would not exist.
The first example of a prophetic oracle is derived from Isaiah 28:14 and it states “Hear the World of the Lord.” The oracle signifies the how God inspired prophets to communicate His word. The use of this phrase portrays that Isaiah is God’s servant. The second example is from Second Samuel 23:2 which states “The Spirit of the LORD speaks by me His word is upon my tongue.” This oracle shows that Samuel is God’s servant who is willing to be used by God to communicate with His people. The third oracle is from Acts 4: 24-25 which states “Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them, who by the mouth of our father David, thy servant, didst say by the Holy Spirit.” This oracle portrays the role David played in establishing a lineage and being used as a way for God’s promises to be fulfilled for all humanity through his ancestry.
The process of the Old Testament Canon led to the books in the Old Testament being recognized as the authority to govern the people. According to Arnold (2016), the word canon is used to signify authority. The books in the Old Testament were canonized without a council of the church being assembled. Arnold (2006) argues that the books were canonized when they were written because God’s Spirit inspired the authors. Therefore, the process of canonization entailed self- authentication, which indicates that canonicity was inherent. Lastly, the church participated in the selection of the books to include in the Old Testament Canon (Arnold 2006).
Before the canon of the New Testament was established the church taught scriptures orally or used other scriptures (Bernstein 2018). For instance, passages in the Old Testament that explained Jesus’ ancestry were used. For worship, the church used the Hebrew text. Lastly, the church used Apocrypha, which was those books that the church did not include in the scriptures.
What are some examples of prophetic oracle in the Bible?
God inspired the authors mainly characterizes the evangelical view regarding inspiration. God’s inspiration makes the Bible inerrant and infallible (Homes 2014). Despite the different opinions expressed by evangelists, it is agreeable that God’s inspiration enabled His word to be communicated differently without the distortion of its meaning. The Catholic view concerning inspiration focuses on the infallibility of the scripture which is determined after the church establishes that Jesus is God’s son. In the modernist view concerning inspiration, the inerratic and infallible nature of the bible is not believed (Schwertley n.d.). Additionally, the Bible is considered to contain myths that must be understood to identify the deeper meaning. Lastly, the Neo-Orthodox view concerning inspiration suggests that the Bible becomes God’s word to the individual that is reading it. This view reveals that errors in the Bible may occur (The Effect 2016).
The Dead Sea Scrolls contained manuscripts written in Hebrew and modified by massorates. They were discovered after the Second World War and were about the Old Testament (Steyn 2016). According to Steyn (2016), some scholars argue that these texts had few errors.
The massorates were involved in the writing of the scripture. According to Himmelfarb (2007), they existed after the end of the Talmudic. These people aimed to preserve their culture and traditions. Mainly, they were tasked with making improvements on Hebrew text based on the punctuations. They succeeded the Sopherim as custodians of the scripture. An example is Arron Asher.
The work of massoretes was to aid in writing Hebrew texts. As mentioned earlier, they introduced punctuations and vowels into text containing consonants. While improving the text, they did not interfere with the original text yet made changes by placing them in the page margins. They ensured each word was transmitted correctly, which was done by being cautious. Additionally, they noted down peculiar texts, middle words, and letters. Massorah is the name given to the notes derived. When found placed in the margin they are called Massorah Parva, and when they are listed at the bottom or top of the page, they are called Massorah Magma.
The Received Text of 1633 A.D. is a Greek text of the New Testament that was written by Desiderius Erasmus and published by Elzevirs (Dolo 2012). It is a type of Byzantine text. The translation occurred when the author was translating the same text in Latin, but the Greek text was highly demanded. Since then, the text has been printed more than 500 times and been translated over a-100 times. Later, translators translated the New Testament into Greek for comparison purpose.
How was the Old Testament Canon established?
Byzantine texts are used to describe New Testament manuscripts written in Greek. Majority of the manuscripts available today use this type of text style (Curry 2016). As mentioned earlier, the Received Text of 1633 A.D. is a type of Byzantine text that is mainly used in the translation of the New Testament into vernacular languages. Manuscripts that use this style are identified using the abbreviation BRV (Curry 2016). In addition, the King James Version uses this form of style.
Codex Claromontanus is a manuscript of Paul’s letters. It is written in both Latin and Greek in the fifth century. Its format is similar to the one used in the Codex Bezae manuscript. Codex Bezae is therefore identified using D while Codex Claromontanus uses Dp. It is used in the gospels. Codex Laudianus is a manuscript donated as E, and it was written in the sixth century. It is also written in Greek and Latin. It is mainly used in Acts. Mostly, the text used is Byzantine and some Western and Alexandrian texts. Lastly, Codex Koridethi was written in the ninth century approximately and mainly used in the Gospels. The texts used are Caersarean and some Byzantine in some parts.
The Hebrew Parent Text is the initial text before a manuscript is translated. Examples may be found in the Manuscripts discovered in the Dead Sea Scrolls (Benner 2005).
There were four processes used by scholars to translate the Bible into the New International Version. The translation was necessary because of the changes in the dialect that had occurred over the years. Moreover, the majority of the churches felt the need for the translation. The translation was done by scholars from different countries such as the United States and New Zealand and denominations such as Catholic and Presbyterian. The New York Bible Society financed it. A group of scholars did the translation of each book. The second process involved the first revision done by the Intermediate Editorial Committees based on the Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic texts. The General Editorial Committees did the second revision. The other process entailed another review done by the Committee on Bible Translation and then published.
References
Arnold, J. 2006. The Old Testament Canon. Clear Theology [Online]. Available from: https://cleartheology.com/topic/Bibliology/Bibliology%2006.pdf [Accessed 11 June 2018].
Benner, J. 2005. The Ancient Hebrew Lexicon of the Bible: Hebrew Letters, Words and Roots Defined Within Their Ancient Cultural Context. Virtualbookworm Publishing Inc.
Bernstein, J. 2018. Which Came First: The Church or the New Testament? St. Stephen Antiochian Orthodox Church [Online]. Available from: https://www.protomartyr.org/our-faith/which-came-first-the-church-or-the-new-testament/ [Accessed 11 June 2018].
Curry, P. 2016. Defining the Byzantine Text. Evangelical Textual Criticism [Online]. Available from: https://evangelicaltextualcriticism.blogspot.com/2016/02/defining-byzantine-text.html [Accessed 11 June 2018].
Dolo. B.S. 2012. The Genesis of the Bible. AuthorHouse. Bloomington.
Himmelfarb, L., 2007. The identity of the first Masoretes. Sefarad, 67(1), pp.37-50.
Homes, S. 2014. Evangelicals and the Bible. Evangelical Alliance[Online]. Available from: https://www.eauk.org/church/resources/theological-articles/evangelicals-and-the-bible.cfm [Accessed 11 June 2018].
Schwertley, B. n.d. Modernism and Biblical Inerrancy. Reformed Online [Online]. Available from: https://www.reformedonline.com/uploads/1/5/0/3/15030584/webmodernism_and_biblical_inerrancy.pdf [Accessed 11 June 2018].
Steyn, G.J., 2016. The importance of the Dead Sea Scrolls for the study of the explicit quotations in Ad Hebraeos. HTS Theological Studies, 72(4), pp.1-9.
The Effect. 2016. Inspiration & Inerrancy. Available from: https://theeffect.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Inspiration_Inerrancy.pdf [Accessed 11 June 2018].
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