The Hebrew Bible

1
The Hebrew Bible

• An Introduction to the Canon

2
Some Basic Terminology

• CE (the Common Era)
• Use in the place of AD (Anno Domini or In the
  year of our Lord.
• BCE (Before the Common Era)
• Use in the place of BC (Before Christ)

3
Canon

• From the Greek word kanon
• Hebrew qaneh
• Measuring stick or line

4
TaNaK (Tanakh)

• An acronym for the three parts of the text
• A total of 24 books (39 by the Christian system
  of counting)

5
Torah (also called Books of Moses or Pentateuch)

• Genesis
• Exodus
• Leviticus
• Numbers
• Deuteronomy

6
The Torah as a Collection

• First part of the canon established
• It was pulled together after the fall of
  Jerusalem in 587/86 BCE.
• Regarded as fixed by the 4th century BCE
• Most authoritative

7
Prophets (Nebiim or Neviim)

• Former Prophets
• Joshua
• Judges
• Samuel
• Kings

• Latter Prophets
• Major Prophets
• Isaiah
• Jeremiah
• Ezekiel
• Minor Prophets
• (Book of the 12)
• Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum,
  Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi

8
The Prophets as a Collection

• Prophecy does not mean telling the future it
  is about the action of God in history
• This collection is far more diverse. It was
  closed by the 2nd century BCE. We know that
  because Daniel (c. 164 BCE) was not included.

9
Writings (Kethubim or Kethuvim)

• Psalms
• Proverbs
• Job
• Song of Songs
• Ruth
• Lamentations

• Ecclesiastes
• Esther
• Daniel
• Ezra-Nehemiah
• Chronicles

10
The Writings as a Collection

• Different formulations existed over time (compare
  Mt 712 to Lk 2444)
• Following the destruction of the second temple in
  Jerusalem (70 CE), the pressure rose to close the
  canon
• Some hold the final form was declared at Jamnia
  at 90 CE

11
The Masoretic Text (MT)

• The Tanakh is written primarily in Hebrew
• We do not have any original manuscripts we only
  have copies of copies
• Codex Leningradensis is the oldest complete
  Hebrew manuscript we have. It dates to 1008 CE

12
Who Copied the Texts?

• Sopherim
• From the same root as sepher or book it also
  can mean counters
• Worked from approximately the 5th century BCE to
  the 4th century CE
• Updated script, added headings and titles, made
  some emendations

• Masoretes
• Preservers of tradition (masorah)
• Worked from the 4th century to the creation of
  the printing press
• Added notes to the text for things like
  cross-referencing, clarity added vowels to the
  consonantal text and marks for singing,
  accentuation noted anomalies

13
Dittography

• Repetition of a word or phrase.
  Double-writing. It is easy for the eye to see
  a word twice especially in a sequence like the
  one below.
• Example Ezek 4816 reads and these shall be
  its dimensions the north side four thousand five
  hundred cubits, the south side four thousand five
  hundred cubits, the east side four thousand five
  hundred, and the west side four thousand five
  hundred.
• If, however, you read the MT, when it gets to the
  south it says four thousand, five five
  hundred. The Masoretes new it was wrong and so
  did not add vowels to the second five and made
  a note saying not to read it.

14
Haplography

• In this case, you write only one time what should
  have appeared two times.
• Example Isaiah 263-4 reads Those of
  steadfast mind you keep in peace in peace
  because they trust in you. Trust in the LORD
  forever, for in the LORD God you have an
  everlasting rock.
• When you look at Isaiah in the Dead Sea Scrolls,
  it says something like in peace because in you.
  Trust in the Lord. Trust appears two times in a
  row in the Hebrew, and the scribe only wrote it
  once.

15
Homoioteleuton

• When words or phrases have similar endings, the
  copyist can leave something out because the eye
  skips.
• Example Gen 48 reads Cain said to his
  brother Abel, Let us go out to the field. And
  when they were in the field, Cain rose up against
  his brother Abel and killed him.
• But if you look at the MT, it leaves out let us
  go into the field two words (in Hebrew)
  missing because of the repetition of the field
  but it makes no sense without them.

16
Confusion of Letters

• Many Hebrew letters can look alike especially
  if the copyist is sloppy. And so misreadings can
  result.
• Example Gen 104 Rodanim (a person) should
  read Dodanim.
• See how similar r and d are.

• Other easily confused letters
• b r
• h j
• n b
• z w
• w r
• w n
• t j
• i /
• u x

17
Homophony

• Words often sound alike. And, if the copyist was
  listening to a text being read, you can see how
  errors would creep in.
• Example aO and ol are both pronounced lo.
  But the first means no or not and the second
  means to him.
• Psalm 1003 shows the confusion. In some
  manuscripts (including the MT), it reads with the
  first word. The KJV thus says Know ye that the
  Lord, he is God. It is he that hath made us, and
  not we ourselves.
• The NRSV goes with other manuscripts (that the MT
  notes) and says, Know that the Lord is God. It
  is he that made us, and we are his.

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How do we get the most accurate text?

• Compare all of the ancient manuscripts we have
  whether they are in Hebrew or not. (More on that
  later)
• Some important traditions Septuagint, Dead Sea
  Scrolls, Targums, Peshitta, Vulgate.

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Septuagint

• Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible
• Done in Alexandria, Egypt
• 3rd century BCE
• Greek was the lingua franca of the region

• Letter of Aristeas
• Also known as the LXX
• Included the Apocrypha
• 15 hidden books
• Written between 200-100 BCE
• Written in Greek
• Included in the early Christian canon

20
Dead Sea Scrolls

• Discovered in 1947 in caves near Qumran
• Date from the 2nd century BCE to the 1st century
  CE
• Include part of every book of the Tanakh except
  Esther

• 11 caves with 95,000 texts or text fragments

21
Targums

• Aramaic (and other) language translations for the
  people who spoke different languages
• Every book in the Tanakh has one except Ezra,
  Nehemiah, and Daniel. These books already had
  Aramaic sections

• First Targums were from Bablylon. Later were in
  Palestine.
• Targum Onkelos Pentateuch and Targum Jonathon
  prophets were big in the 3rd century CE

22
Peshitta

• Tanak and NT in Syriac a dialect of Aramaic
  used in Syria and much of the east
• Term meaning simple

• All books translated separately between the 1st
  and 3rd centuries CE
• Tanakh translated mostly from Hebrew, but some
  from Targums and LXX.
• Work was done by both Jews and Christians

23
Vulgate

• Jeromes translation of the Tanakh and NT into
  Latin
• Commissioned by Pope Damascus in 382 or 383 CE to
  produce an authoritative Latin version
• Word means common or common translation.

• Jerome knew Greek, but learned Hebrew, Aramaic,
  Syriac, and Arabic to translate from as many
  different manuscripts as possible

24
Words We Do Not Understand

• Sometimes, words occur that we do not understand.
  Often, they are hapax legomenon which means
  words occurring only one time.
• Example Amos 714 rq_at_ob (boqer). It is
  similar to a word for cattle and so people
  often translate herdsman. But that makes no
  sense given the fact that he refers following the
  flock in the next verse. So many texts emend it
  to dq_at_on (noqed) and say shepherd.

25
How We Get The Text We Have

• MT is an eclectic text
• When variations arise, scholars assess them
  according to some basic principles
• Older readings are preferred to newer ones
• More difficult readings are preferred to easier
  ones

• Shorter readings are preferred to longer ones
• The reading that explains the most variants is
  most likely to be the original
• Look for a reading attested widely geographically
• Should conform to the book in style, diction,
  outlook
• No doctrinal or partisan bias from the copyist

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Some Important Things to Consider When Reading
the Tanakh

• The process of canonization took over 600 years
• The texts themselves were written and edited over
  more than 1000 years
• The stories and laws cover a period of more than
  2000 years

• It was written mostly in Hebrew some in Aramaic
• To get to the most original form of the text, you
  should also understand Greek, Syriac, Latin, and
  probably a few other languages
• Translation is always interpretation

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Translation

• Formal Correspondence
• Maintain the vocabulary, grammar, structure of
  the original as closely as possible
• RSV, NRSV, NIV, NKJV, NJPS are all examples
• Dynamic Equivalence
• More emphasis on creating coherence in the
  receptor language
• JB, NJB, NEB, TEV or Good News are all examples

• Compare the NRSV and TEV translations of Ruth
  39b
• NRSV And she answered, I am Ruth,
• your servant spread your cloak over
• your servant, for you are next-of-kin.
• TEV Its Ruth sir, she answered.
• Because you are a close relative, you
• are responsible for taking care of me.
• So please marry me.
• MT la_at_g yK! tma-lu pnk TcrpW
  tma tWr yk!na rmaT)w

28
English Bibles

• First English translation by John Wyclif in the
  14th century

• First English translation from the Hebrew by Wm
  Tyndale in 1526

29
King James Version

• In 1604, King James I of England decided to
  commission an Authorized Version of scripture for
  the Anglican Church (Church of England)
• 54 scholars were to be divided into 6 panels (we
  only have 47 names) 2 groups met at Oxford, 2 at
  Cambridge, and 2 at Westminster
• They were assigned the task of revising the
  Bishops Bible with Tyndale, Coverdale, and
  other bibles used where their wording was good
• The king ran out of money for the project and
  needed help from the church
• It was published in 1611

30
Important Modern Translations

• The Revised Standard Version (1952) was designed
  to update and revise the KJV. It uses formal
  correspondence and translates from the Hebrew and
  Greek for a modern English reader. The NRSV
  (1992) updates it by getting rid of archaic
  language, using new textual data and being gender
  inclusive.
• The New International Version (1978) was done by
  Protestant evangelicals . Also uses formal
  correspondence.