The Bible

"We must not read our own meaning into scripture, but must make the sentence of scripture ours."

Hugh of St. Victor

The following is based on information found in Karen Armstrong's book "The Bible". The book is very well written and is highly informative. I have read about religion and the Bible many times and I feel this book would be good for anyone interested in how the Bible became THE Bible.

The Israelites began as a tribal nation. These tribes kept their legends and histories alive through an active oral tradition. Most tribes would focus on local events and heroes, which tended to be part of or similar to the broader Israelite history. In 1000BCE the tribes united into two monarchies: Judah and Israel.

Durring the 18th century BCE the area underwent a literary revolution. In Greece Homer's poetry was recorded and in Israel and Judah the oral traditions were recorded. These records morphed the old tribes' tradions into national sagas. These sagas were subject to the needs of the time, and adapted throughout history to fit the contemporary situation. The sagas were constantly changing until the time of Ezra, who used these teachings as the foundation for his work, legitimizing and formalizing them into the Torah.

In the Third century BCE Jewis scriptures began to be translated into Greek. Myth surrounds the first translation of the Torah. Ptolemy Philadelphus, Greek King of Egypt, wanted a Greek copy of the scriptures and gathered seventy priests to write a translation. It was agreed that the translation was perfect and named the Septuagint. Another variation of the myth had the seventy priest write seperate translations, but when they brought them together they found that the had all written the same translation, word for word. It was the allegorical treatment of this translation by Greek readers that produced the idea that scripture could have more than its literal meaning. Scripture had a deeper meaning.Paul developed this further, saying the scriptures were there to teach something. His letters, later includded in the Bible, were mean to bring these lessons to light.

The Bible was not canonized until the fourth century. It includded the gospels by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, the Acts of the Apostles, Epistles by Paul, James, Peter, John and Jude, Hebrews and Revelation. Jerome, a fluent western exegetes translated the Bible into Latin. This became known as the Vulgate. The Vulgate was the standard European text until the sixteenth century. the Vulgate was copied and re-copied by monks until their copying errors became compounded and texts they wrote varied from the original.