P follows JE.Ĭonvergence - many overlapping texts. P connects to period after fall of Israel. Relationship to history and other sources - JE connect to Kingdoms of Judah and Israel. P is the same so cannot be composed around JE as some scholars aver.Ĭonnections with other parts of the Bible - D has parallels with Jeremiah. Narrative flow - RJE is a flowing narrative. Terminology - Mountain is called Sinai in J and P (20 times) but Horeb in E and D (14 times).Ĭonsistent content - Tabernacle is mentioned 200 times in P, 3 times in E and not at all in J or D. Linguistic - chronology is shown by development of Hebrew and comparison with outside sources. The method of examination of biblical sources is known to philologists as Documentary Hypothesis*. Just to confuse matters there are two versions of this writing: Dtr1 written during the reign of King Josiah of Judah around 622BC and Dtr2 written during the Babylonian exile.Īll these sources were put together by an editor known as the Redactor or R. P - after Priesthood, dated 6th to 5th century BC.ĭ - after Deuteronomy, which comprises the law code chapters 12 to 26 known as Dtn and an introductory text, two old poems and the end of Moses’s life known as Dtr. In 722Bc the Assyrians destroyed the northern Kingdom and the two documents were combined, a manuscript that is known as RJE, the R standing for Redactor (editor). J - after JAWEH the German translation of God (YHWH). The original manuscripts are catalogued as follows: Let us start with the Pentateuch (Greek) or Torah (Hebrew), the first five books of the Old Testament: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. Luke 4 16/17 tells us that Jesus read aloud from the scroll of Isaiah in Nazareth, which makes history really come alive. Amazingly, the reverse of the Isaiah scroll shows the finger prints of those who read it. Yeshua is the Aramaic form of Joshua which corresponds to the Greek Iesous and Latin IESVS from where we get the English ‘Jesus’. Aramaic is the language from ancient Syria (2nd millenium BC) and became one of the most prominent Near East languages. Altogether there were 19 books from the Old Testament in Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek. This turned out to be the complete Hebrew text of Es Aias (Isaiah). The most remarkable find was a 23’ scroll comprising 17 sheets of leather. The pots in which the manuscripts were stored have been radio carbon dated to 30BC - 7AD but the linen wrappings came out at 100BC.Ībove a 1993 photo of the Psalms Scroll by the Israel Antiquities Authority courtesy of Library of Congress. Unfortunately, they managed to trash a lot of what they initially found, causing experts years of painstaking work assembling fragments. For most of our history, the Latin Vulgate written by St.Jerome in the 4th Century AD, has been the main accepted text but all this changed in 1947 when shepherds discovered the Dead Sea Scrolls in Wadi Qumran, east of Bethlehem. The Septuagint is the Alexandrian, first centuries BC, translation of Jewish scriptures into Greek (above is a fragment of the Minor Prophets scroll from Nahal Hever courtesy of Eliyah). There are a staggering number of biblical manuscripts, 10,000 alone were found in the old Cairo Synagogue. The Bible is of course two books which we call the Old and New Testament. The subject is extremely complicated and very academic but I will have a go at trying to simplify things. So, we are not talking about theology here just what has been found out of the Bible’s origins (even so, apologies to anyone who has a fundamentalist point of view). I recently acquired Bible Manuscripts by Scot McKendrick and Kathleen Doyle, published by the British Library in 2007 and The Bible with Sources Revealed by Richard Elliott Friedman, published by Harper Collins in 2005. Ever since I have been fascinated by the origins of the biblical narratives - and as you know we are always supposed to use primary sources where possible in historical investigation. At school I was booted out of the choir when my voice broke and was given the job of reading the lesson instead. This paralleled the Bible stories with the latest archaeology and also showed that for example the parting of the Red Sea and Manna from Heaven were phenomena that could still be seen today. As a child I was given by an uncle The Bible as History by Werner Keller, originally published in 1956 (bought for 25/-).
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