Table I: Chronological Overview
This table summarises the chronology of the main tables and serves as a guide to the historical periods mentioned. Much of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament may have been assembled in the 5th century BCE. The New Testament books were composed largely in the second half of the 1st century CE. The Deuterocanonical books fall largely in between.
When Was The Old Testament Written
The Old Testament scriptures were composed and compiled across time. By this, we mean to say that there were not certain dates to locate. Rather, the ancient Church, believers in the Old Testament era, recognized the impression of the Holy Spirit on the text. The believers, like in the New Testament, gathered those documents either because of the author or because the text demonstrated unity, historicity, reliability, and impression was in concert with the other parts of the Word of God. Bodie Hodge and Dr. Terry Mortenson state this about the Pentateuch in their Answers in Genesis article Did Moses Write Genesis?:
“There is abundant biblical and extra-biblical evidence that Moses wrote the Pentateuch during the wilderness wanderings after the Jews left their slavery in Egypt and before they entered the Promised Land .”
Who Lived 1000 Years In The Bible
Having died at the age of 969, he lived the longest of all human figures mentioned in the Bible. According to the Book of Genesis, Methuselah was the son of Enoch, the father of Lamech, and the grandfather of Noah. Elsewhere in the Bible, Methuselah is mentioned in genealogies in 1 Chronicles and the Gospel of Luke.
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How Did People Decide What Belonged In The Old Testament
We dont know a lot about the exact process that resulted in a fixed Hebrew canon. Unfortunately, we have no ancient documents from the scribes detailing the various steps of the procedure that culminated in a Hebrew Bible. Two things do seem certain:
The limited data we have fits with a generic outline of canon formation. But first, whats a canon?
Preparing The Bible For A Changing World
It was during this time that the Jewish Scriptures were translated into Greek. This translation is called the Septuagint, which means seventy, and is often identified by the Roman numeral for seventy . The legend of how the Septuagint came to be, and how it got its name is told in a document called the Letter of Aristeas. The legend says that seventy-two scholars began translating the Jewish Scriptures from Hebrew, all at the same time. The Letter goes on to say that they all finished at the same time, in seventy-two days, and that all seventy-two scholars discovered that their translations were exactly the same! All the seventy-some numbers in this story gave the translation its name. This Greek version of the Bible was used by Jewish people scattered throughout the Roman world, because most of them spoke Greek instead of Hebrew. The oldest copies of the Septuagint date from the second century B.C., more than one hundred years before Jesus was born. The Septuagint was also the main version of the Jewish Scriptures used by early Christians.
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Let Science Be The Judge
The good thing about science is that it seeks truth through discovery and proof. Religion seeks blind obedience. Religion makes unsubstantiated claims that lack logic and then demands, under threat, that all followers believe them. This does not nurture spirituality in any way. It represses truths that could be immensely beneficial to humankind and all the species and beings on Earth. If this information eventually becomes universally accepted, the most prominent religions could easily collapse.
It’s amazing that we, as a global society, go about our daily lives without any consideration whatsoever about extraterrestrial aliens actually existing. Yet, the evidence is everywhere. The media presents it as what if rather than it is. And the world seems to be okay with this worldwide denial.
Even though more than half of all individuals everywhere believe that UFOs are real. Even though they seem to have been with us throughout recorded history. Even though there are thousands of reports of them. Even though every government on Earth both reports and denies them. Even though several of our US Presidents have had encounters with them. Even though all of this stuff, we act as though they don’t exist. Why? Because our governments say they don’t exist, therefore they don’t. What will be our response when governments admit they do exist? I think Jack Nicholson said it best. The truth? You can’t handle the truth!”
How Did We Get The Old Testament
- ZA Blog
The Old Testament is thousands of years old, and contains accounts stretching back to the beginning of time. This ancient collection of books provides the foundation of both Judaism and Christianity.
So where did it come from? How did these age-old traditions, stories, and commandments make their way to modern times? These are important questions.
John Walton and Andrew Hill answer these questions in their Old Testament Survey online course. The following post is adapted from their unit on the background, history, archaeology, and formation of the Old Testament.
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New Testament: Who Wrote The Gospels
Just as the Old Testament chronicles the story of the Israelites in the millennium or so leading up to the birth of Jesus Christ, the New Testament records Jesuss life, from his birth and teachings to his death and later resurrection, a narrative that forms the fundamental basis of Christianity. Beginning around 70 A.D., about four decades after Jesuss crucifixion , four anonymously written chronicles of his life emerged that would become central documents in the Christian faith. Named for Jesuss most devoted earthly disciples, or apostlesMatthew, Mark, Luke and Johnthe four canonical Gospels were traditionally thought to be eyewitness accounts of Jesuss life, death and resurrection.
12th-13th century depiction of evangelists Luke and Matthew writing the Gospels.
But for more than a century, scholars have generally agreed that the Gospels, like many of the books of the New Testament, were not actually written by the people to whom they are attributed. In fact, it seems clear that the stories that form the basis of Christianity were first communicated orally, and passed down from generation to generation, before they were collected and written down.
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Why Did It Take That Long To Write The Bible
There were several books and scriptures that had ultimately made up The Bible and it was written over the span of 1500 years. However, this does not mean that The Bible took 1500 solid years to be written or to be completed.
The Bible was written a long time ago and there is no information that how long it took for each book to be completed during that period of time. Moses had completed the first five books of the Old Testament between 1445-1405 BC.
Pauls letters, on the other hand, could have been written in one sitting because there were many short ones. However, most scholars believe that the earliest books of the Bible were written were either Genesis or Job.
Some people even believe that the New Testament was written centuries later after the death of Jesus Christ. To be exact some people say it about 100-300 years but, the truth is that the Bible was written before the first century.
Well, on the other hand, most people think that it took only about fifty years for the New Testament to be written to be exact about AD 44 to 90. This means that the Old Testament took the majority of time to be completed or for the writing of the Bible. Some people would argue about the true facts because there are different thoughts about the creation of the Bible.
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And 2 Peter: Early And Reliable
Both epistles clearly state that they were authored by Peter, an eyewitness of Jesus life and post-resurrection appearances. Though there have been some who have doubted the authorship of these two epistles, the clear opening statements of each epistle tell us Peter was the author. Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who reside as aliens, scattered throughout Pontus, and Simon Peter, a bond-servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours . It certainly seems most logical that Peter is indeed the author of the letters that bear his name.
Peter died in Rome during Neros persecution of Christians around 64 AD, so the epistles were obviously written before that time.
How Old Is The World According To The Bible
Concerning the age of the Earth, the Bibles genealogical records combined with the Genesis 1 account of creation are used to estimate an age for the Earth and universe of about 6000 years, with a bit of uncertainty on the completeness of the genealogical records, allowing for a few thousand years more.
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When Was The First Complete Bible Published
Well, that is a hard one. Naturally, the Bible developed with Hebrew Scriptures and the Scriptures after Jesus Christ on through to the death of the Apostle John. The Old Covenant text in Hebrew was already being recorded on skins four hundred years before our Lord Jesus incarnate birth. Jesus knew the Bible as the lectionary was read in his local synagogue. The Gospel of Mark was well-circulated in the early years after Jesus ascension. The letters of Paul and Peter, Luke and Acts by Luke, and the other letters were copied and disseminated amongst the local Christian communities in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth .
But we can say that there was the first work published that we know of that contained the Old and New Testaments . This Bible, the Codex Sinaiticus , was published around 350 AD.5 Until that discovery by Dr. Constantin von Tischendorf in 1844, the Codex Vaticanus was the only surviving Bible from the early Church. We must remember, however, that though those documents survived, that doesnt mean there were not earlier editions. For example, I do not believe that I have the first Bible I used in the pastoral ministry. I used it up. So, too, we have what has remained and what has been found. If you are ever in London, go to the British Museum and you will see the full New Testament at its earliest publication, with much of the Old Testament. But how about the Bible in English?
Stage : Collecting Written Documents
A millennium of Hebrew history is recorded in the Old Testament, which indicates the canonization process likely took a long time. Its also believed that these texts were rather comprehensive. Numerous ancient sources cited in the Old Testament remain unknown to modern scholarship .
Assembling the written records of the Hebrew experience with Yahweh into anthologies and books was partially a matter of convenience for the Israelite community, since it permitted easy access to documents and ensured their continued preservation. More importantly though, it signified the value, prominence, and authority of the writings collected for the religious life of the community. These books demanded special attention.
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What About The Original Language
Again, the beauty of the Bible is how God reaches men and women, boys and girls, by coming to us in our own language. The Old Testament was written in ancient Hebrew. Parts of the Old Testament were written in an imperial Aramaic . The fact that the Bible was written to a People, in a place, amidst their trials and joys, their living and dying, demonstrates the astounding relevance, relation, and reliability of Gods Word. This is no fable. This is not yarn. This is God with us.
Old Testament Texts And Versions
Over the centuries, the Old Testament has been copied and translated countless times. There are literally thousands of copies available in different languages from various time periods. Naturally, the extended hand-copying process created errors of transmission. These human errors of sight, hearing, writing, memory, and judgment are called variants or variant readings of the text. The science of comparing these variants is called textual criticism.
Sometimes referred to as lower biblical criticism, the goal of textual criticism is to sort through the various versions of the Old Testament and get as close to the original as possible. The practice or methodology of textual criticism includes gathering, sorting, and evaluating the variant readings of a given verse or passage of Scripture. The available manuscript data is then rated to select the most appropriate reading of the text in question based on the available data. .
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Old Testament: The Single Author Theory
The Old Testament, or Hebrew Bible, narrates the history of the people of Israel over about a millennium, beginning with Gods creation of the world and humankind, and contains the stories, laws and moral lessons that form the basis of religious life for both Jews and Christians. For at least 1,000 years, both Jewish and Christian tradition held that a single author wrote the first five books of the BibleGenesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomywhich together are known as the Torah and the Pentateuch . That single author was believed to be Moses, the Hebrew prophet who led the Israelites out of captivity in Egypt and guided them across the Red Sea toward the Promised Land.
Yet nearly from the beginning, readers of the Bible observed that there were things in the so-called Five Books of Moses that Moses himself could not possibly have witnessed: His own death, for example, occurs near the end of Deuteronomy. A volume of the Talmud, the collection of Jewish laws recorded between the 3rd and 5th centuries A.D., dealt with this inconsistency by explaining that Joshua likely wrote the verses about Moses death.
Rembrandt van Rijn, painting of Moses Breaking the Tablets of the Law, 1659.
That’s one opinion among many, says Joel Baden, a professor at Yale Divinity School and author of The Composition of the Pentateuch: Renewing the Documentary Hypothesis. But they’re already asking the questionwas it possible or not possible for to have written them?
Stage : Sorting Written Documents And Fixing A Canon
We dont know the details of how ancient Hebrews sorted through documents, but we can discern the basic criteria they applied to these documents for the purpose of sorting and delineating canon. Over the course of Israelite history, the Holy Spirit guided Hebrew religious leaders to make consensus choices, which eventually resulted in a Hebrew canon of Scripture.
The Hebrews apparently had a fixed canon of Scripture well before the time of Jesus Christ. The prologue to the Apocryphal Wisdom of Jesus Ben Sirach, or Ecclesiasticus, refers to a threefold collection of great teaching including the Law, the Prophets, and the Other Books of Our Fathers . Jesus himself appealed to a threefold Hebrew canon consisting of the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms .
It seems that there were at least four key periods during Old Testament history when sorting documents and fixing a canon wouldve been crucial for the Hebrew religious community:
Learn more in the Old Testament Survey online course
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The Sumerian Bible Translation
The Hebrew Bible says that the creation of Adam and Eve was the beginning. There are detailed records of all of the generations from Adam down through to Jesus. These records state how old each person was when they had their children. So, if you add up the dates in the bible, it clearly shows that the earth is a little older than 6,000 years old.
The Sumerian version includes the birth of the universe over 13.7 billion years ago. Our scientists now estimate this to be the approximate age of our universe. How could the Sumerians have possibly known this thousands of years before our Bible was even written? They clearly state that this was told to them by those who from the heavens came to earth,” or the Anunnaki.
Scientists have estimated the age of the Earth to be 4.54 billion years . This age may represent the age of the Earths accretion, of its core formation, or of the material from which the Earth formed. This dating is based on evidence from radiometric age dating of meteorite material and is consistent with the radiometric ages of the oldest-known terrestrial and lunar samples.
Nibiru is in a 3,600 year elliptical orbit around our sun.
Who Wrote The Bible: The First Five Books
Wikimedia CommonsMoses, as painted by Rembrandt.
According to both Jewish and Christian Dogma, the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy were all written by Moses in about 1,300 B.C. There are a few issues with this, however, such as the lack of evidence that Moses ever existed and the fact that the end of Deuteronomy describes the author dying and being buried.
Scholars have developed their own take on who wrote the Bibles first five books, mainly by using internal clues and writing style. Just as English speakers can roughly date a book that uses a lot of thees and thous, Bible scholars can contrast the styles of these early books to create profiles of the different authors.
In each case, these writers are talked about as if they were a single person, but each author could just as easily be an entire school of people writing in a single style. These biblical authors include:
Wikimedia CommonsA depiction of the destruction of Jerusalem under Babylonian rule.
Wikimedia CommonsKing Josiah
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