Posted: 4/8/2013 6:27:21 PM EDT
|
I am fascinated with the Bible both spiritually and in a practicle sense. What I would like to see is a time line of when each book was written (approximate year). I would also like to know who assembled the various books into the collection that it is now and also who decided that it was complete and no more would be added. |
|
Quoted:
The NIV version will give you some help. The majority of Bible versions come from what The Catholic religion put together over several centuries. Google will give you mroe exact dates, but the process of compiling what we call the Bible was completed by the end of the 4th century AD. |
| you can figure Abraham and the early descendants were around 2000-1700BCE. Out of Egypt around 1200BCE, Babylonian Exile around 580BCE. By then, most of the OT books were in scroll format, although there is no way to know how many survived the destruction of the temple. The OT (or Jewish Bible) was probably set by Jesus' time, although it was not in book format, but in format of individual scrolls. The Torah however was linked together (Genesis, Exodus, Lev., Numbers, Deut.) much in the way the Gospels of the NT are. |
|
The Torah is thought to have been assembled during the Babylonian captivity and the subsequent books later. It probably wasn't fully compiled until about the 2nd century BC. The Tanakh and the Christian Old Testament are not in agreement with the order of the books or exactly which books are included.
Job is thought to be the oldest by some scholars, written in the late 3rd or early 2nd millennium BC. (The Age of the Patriarchs) The New Testament had pretty much come together by 150AD but there continued to be discussion about a few books until about 400 AD. It wasn't until the Council of Trent that the Catholic bible was officially canonized. The Gospels were written at about 50-60AD (except for John, which was written at about 90 to refute false prophets already arising in the Church) There were three basic criteria for inclusion: 1. Were the authors either eyewitnesses to the events they wrote about or at least directly taught about them by the Apostles? 2. Was each book’s teachings consistent with the others? 3. Was each book already in general use by the church, and accepted as the Divine Word of God? The Gospel of Judas, The Gospel of Thomas, etc. do not meet the above criteria. They were rejected as false. They are not "newly found", they were known and they were tossed as heretical. Catholics hold the Apocrypha to be more important than the Protestants and the Reformed. They refer to them as "Deuterocanonical", or the second canon. So from their perspective, the books are missing from the Protestant Bibles. Not all OT Jews included them and it is maintained by many that they were never composed in Hebrew and that they do not meet the criteria listed above. Many cite Jesus Himself defining the Old Testament with, Luke 24:27: "And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself." Lutherans hold them not equal to the Scriptures but useful and good to read. |
|
The Pentateuch, otherwise known as the Book of Moses (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy) were written by Moses and were begun on Mt. Sinai (~mid 1400's BC). Following the death of Moses, the Old Testament (Jewish Tanak) records the history of the nation of Israel and various other writings until the Babylonian invasion/Jewish exile (586 BC) When the Jews returned to Israel after Babylon's fall (539 BC) there was a concentrated effort to combine these various writing into a single book, a task completed by Ezra (457 BC), who contributed two books of his own (Ezra, Nehemiah). Ezra is largely responsible for the structure of the Old Testament that we know today. Following Ezra there were a few writings of other prophets (minor prophets), the last of which was Malachi (425 BC). By the time of Christ, the Old Testament as we know it today had been largely settled. There are some "intertestamental books" that record's Israel's history from Alexander's conquests to the Roman period - books like 1st & 2nd Maccabees. While these books are considered important histories and are often published along side the Old Testament and New Testament, neither Judaism nor Christianity regards them as inspired by God. The New Testament was written between the late 30's to the early 90's AD. The Gospel of Mark is considered the earliest (dated late 30's/early 40's) and the latest New Testament book was written in the early 90's (Gospel of John). All other Gospels, Paul's letters, Hebrews, "the Pastorals" and Acts were written between these times. By the early 3rd century AD, for various reasons, Christians felt the need to collect the writings on Jesus in one volume and began examining all of the various writings that were circulating through the church. In order to be included in the New Testament each writing had to meet 4 criteria: 1 - rule of faith - meaning that they were widely used in Christian churches. 2 - apostolicity - meaning that they were written by an eyewitness to Christ, or one of their immediate peers. (Such as John Mark, the author of the Gospel of Mark, who worked with Peter for the vast majority of his life). 3 - Liturgical Use — meaning that they were read publicly when early Christian communities gathered for the Lord's Supper (their weekly worship services). 4 - Consistent Message — meaning that they contained a theological outlook similar to or complementary to other accepted Christian writings Debate continued until the third council of Carthage (397 AD). Someone previously mentioned the so called "lost gospels" (such as the Gospel of Thomas, Gospel of Judas, Acts of Paul and Thekla, et al.) were not included in the New Testament. These "lost books" were never lost - they were rejected because they didn't meet any of the aforementioned criteria. They were written by the Gnostics - a quasi-Christian cult. These books were usually written in the 2nd & 3rd centuries and were then attributed to apostles. These writings were one of the reasons why Christians wanted to identify and collect legitimate Christian texts. |
|
Quoted:
The Pentateuch, otherwise known as the Book of Moses (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy) were written by Moses and were begun on Mt. Sinai (~mid 1400's BC). Following the death of Moses, the Old Testament (Jewish Tanak) records the history of the nation of Israel and various other writings until the Babylonian invasion/Jewish exile (586 BC) When the Jews returned to Israel after Babylon's fall (539 BC) there was a concentrated effort to combine these various writing into a single book, a task completed by Ezra (457 BC), who contributed two books of his own (Ezra, Nehemiah). Ezra is largely responsible for the structure of the Old Testament that we know today. Following Ezra there were a few writings of other prophets (minor prophets), the last of which was Malachi (425 BC). By the time of Christ, the Old Testament as we know it today had been largely settled. There are some "intertestamental books" that record's Israel's history from Alexander's conquests to the Roman period - books like 1st & 2nd Maccabees. While these books are considered important histories and are often published along side the Old Testament and New Testament, neither Judaism nor Christianity regards them as inspired by God. The New Testament was written between the late 30's to the early 90's AD. The Gospel of Mark is considered the earliest (dated late 30's/early 40's) and the latest New Testament book was written in the early 90's (Gospel of John). All other Gospels, Paul's letters, Hebrews, "the Pastorals" and Acts were written between these times. By the early 3rd century AD, for various reasons, Christians felt the need to collect the writings on Jesus in one volume and began examining all of the various writings that were circulating through the church. In order to be included in the New Testament each writing had to meet 4 criteria: 1 - rule of faith - meaning that they were widely used in Christian churches. 2 - apostolicity - meaning that they were written by an eyewitness to Christ, or one of their immediate peers. (Such as John Mark, the author of the Gospel of Mark, who worked with Peter for the vast majority of his life). 3 - Liturgical Use — meaning that they were read publicly when early Christian communities gathered for the Lord's Supper (their weekly worship services). 4 - Consistent Message — meaning that they contained a theological outlook similar to or complementary to other accepted Christian writings Debate continued until the third council of Carthage (397 AD). Someone previously mentioned the so called "lost gospels" (such as the Gospel of Thomas, Gospel of Judas, Acts of Paul and Thekla, et al.) were not included in the New Testament. These "lost books" were never lost - they were rejected because they didn't meet any of the aforementioned criteria. They were written by the Gnostics - a quasi-Christian cult. These books were usually written in the 2nd & 3rd centuries and were then attributed to apostles. These writings were one of the reasons why Christians wanted to identify and collect legitimate Christian texts. Catholics view these books as Sacred Scripture and included them in the original Christian Bible. They were removed from Protestant/Reformer Bibles during the Reformation period. Some histories show that the Jews included them until about 70 AD, at which they seemingly overnight decided to remove them from the Tanahk - presumably because of the aforementioned language issue. Of course that begs the question: if the language wasn;t an issue for 450 years, what changed? http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/religion/re0134.html |
|
Quoted:
Quoted:
The Pentateuch, otherwise known as the Book of Moses (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy) were written by Moses and were begun on Mt. Sinai (~mid 1400's BC). Following the death of Moses, the Old Testament (Jewish Tanak) records the history of the nation of Israel and various other writings until the Babylonian invasion/Jewish exile (586 BC) When the Jews returned to Israel after Babylon's fall (539 BC) there was a concentrated effort to combine these various writing into a single book, a task completed by Ezra (457 BC), who contributed two books of his own (Ezra, Nehemiah). Ezra is largely responsible for the structure of the Old Testament that we know today. Following Ezra there were a few writings of other prophets (minor prophets), the last of which was Malachi (425 BC). By the time of Christ, the Old Testament as we know it today had been largely settled. There are some "intertestamental books" that record's Israel's history from Alexander's conquests to the Roman period - books like 1st & 2nd Maccabees. While these books are considered important histories and are often published along side the Old Testament and New Testament, neither Judaism nor Christianity regards them as inspired by God. The New Testament was written between the late 30's to the early 90's AD. The Gospel of Mark is considered the earliest (dated late 30's/early 40's) and the latest New Testament book was written in the early 90's (Gospel of John). All other Gospels, Paul's letters, Hebrews, "the Pastorals" and Acts were written between these times. By the early 3rd century AD, for various reasons, Christians felt the need to collect the writings on Jesus in one volume and began examining all of the various writings that were circulating through the church. In order to be included in the New Testament each writing had to meet 4 criteria: 1 - rule of faith - meaning that they were widely used in Christian churches. 2 - apostolicity - meaning that they were written by an eyewitness to Christ, or one of their immediate peers. (Such as John Mark, the author of the Gospel of Mark, who worked with Peter for the vast majority of his life). 3 - Liturgical Use — meaning that they were read publicly when early Christian communities gathered for the Lord's Supper (their weekly worship services). 4 - Consistent Message — meaning that they contained a theological outlook similar to or complementary to other accepted Christian writings Debate continued until the third council of Carthage (397 AD). Someone previously mentioned the so called "lost gospels" (such as the Gospel of Thomas, Gospel of Judas, Acts of Paul and Thekla, et al.) were not included in the New Testament. These "lost books" were never lost - they were rejected because they didn't meet any of the aforementioned criteria. They were written by the Gnostics - a quasi-Christian cult. These books were usually written in the 2nd & 3rd centuries and were then attributed to apostles. These writings were one of the reasons why Christians wanted to identify and collect legitimate Christian texts. Catholics view these books as Sacred Scripture and included them in the original Christian Bible. They were removed from Protestant/Reformer Bibles during the Reformation period. Some histories show that the Jews included them until about 70 AD, at which they seemingly overnight decided to remove them from the Tanahk - presumably because of the aforementioned language issue. Of course that begs the question: if the language wasn;t an issue for 450 years, what changed? http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/religion/re0134.html I forget the word he used for it, but a Bishop I spoke to said that the Apocrypha - while important - didn't hold the same weight as the OT or NT. I'm curious as to your source that the intertestamental books were included in the Tanak until 70. The Rabbi that taught my Judaism class said they were never included. Just for giggles I looked it up in my old Judaism text book. It notes that what is the Apocrypha was left out of the Tanak because "it was seen as repetitious, not significant in its message, and of too recent origin." |
|
Quoted:
Catholics view these books as Sacred Scripture and included them in the original Christian Bible. They were removed from Protestant/Reformer Bibles during the Reformation period. Some histories show that the Jews included them until about 70 AD, at which they seemingly overnight decided to remove them from the Tanahk - presumably because of the aforementioned language issue. Of course that begs the question: if the language wasn;t an issue for 450 years, what changed? ....seemingly overnight......presumably because of a language isue.... what changed? There must be some significant event in Jewish history that must of occured around then. What could it be? It is almost as if the hand of God reached out and made damn sure Pseudepigrapha wouldn't be in His scriptures. 
|
| The New "Panorama" Bible Study Course by Alfred Thompson Eade here shows the complete timeline of the Bible from Genesis 1 thru Revelations. |
|
Quoted:
Quoted:
Catholics view these books as Sacred Scripture and included them in the original Christian Bible. They were removed from Protestant/Reformer Bibles during the Reformation period. Some histories show that the Jews included them until about 70 AD, at which they seemingly overnight decided to remove them from the Tanahk - presumably because of the aforementioned language issue. Of course that begs the question: if the language wasn;t an issue for 450 years, what changed? ....seemingly overnight......presumably because of a language isue.... what changed? There must be some significant event in Jewish history that must of occured around then. What could it be? It is almost as if the hand of God reached out and made damn sure Pseudepigrapha wouldn't be in His scriptures. Between the red highlight and the 10 cent word, sounds like homework.... 
|
|
Quoted: Quoted: Catholics view these books as Sacred Scripture and included them in the original Christian Bible. They were removed from Protestant/Reformer Bibles during the Reformation period. Some histories show that the Jews included them until about 70 AD, at which they seemingly overnight decided to remove them from the Tanahk - presumably because of the aforementioned language issue. Of course that begs the question: if the language wasn;t an issue for 450 years, what changed? ....seemingly overnight......presumably because of a language isue.... what changed? There must be some significant event in Jewish history that must of occured around then. What could it be? It is almost as if the hand of God reached out and made damn sure Pseudepigrapha wouldn't be in His scriptures. Genghiskhabb, I'm confused. Are you referring to Pseudepigrapha (3, 4 Maccabees, Assumption of Moses, Enoch, etc.) or Deuterocanon/Apocrypha (Judith, Tobit, 1, 2 Maccabees, etc.)? |
|
Quoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
Catholics view these books as Sacred Scripture and included them in the original Christian Bible. They were removed from Protestant/Reformer Bibles during the Reformation period. Some histories show that the Jews included them until about 70 AD, at which they seemingly overnight decided to remove them from the Tanahk - presumably because of the aforementioned language issue. Of course that begs the question: if the language wasn;t an issue for 450 years, what changed? ....seemingly overnight......presumably because of a language isue.... what changed? There must be some significant event in Jewish history that must of occured around then. What could it be? It is almost as if the hand of God reached out and made damn sure Pseudepigrapha wouldn't be in His scriptures. Genghiskhabb, I'm confused. Are you referring to Pseudepigrapha (3, 4 Maccabees, Assumption of Moses, Enoch, etc.) or Deuterocanon/Apocrypha (Judith, Tobit, 1, 2 Maccabees, etc.)? My apologies as The two tend to end up in the same bucket. In this case I'm referring to what would commonly be called the Deuterocanon/Apocrypha. |
|
My home church has a very old lithographed timeline that shows everything from the beginning of recorded history until about the 1900's. It is one poster that is about 20 feet long. Very impressive. It includes multiple actual timelines to show how everything interconnects with the bible timeline. The bible timeline is actually quite small in comparison to the rest of world events.
I need to see if I can figure out where it came from and get a capture of it before it is destroyed. Here is a photo taken from a distance. 
|
|
I forget the word he used for it, but a Bishop I spoke to said that the Apocrypha - while important - didn't hold the same weight as the OT or NT. I'm curious as to your source that the intertestamental books were included in the Tanak until 70. The Rabbi that taught my Judaism class said they were never included. Just for giggles I looked it up in my old Judaism text book. It notes that what is the Apocrypha was left out of the Tanak because "it was seen as repetitious, not significant in its message, and of too recent origin." Sorry I missed this earlier. I'm sure that these books are held in no higher esteem than those of the minor prophets, but that doesn't negate their value as part of Scripture. I've read several sources, and none of them seem to be very thorough in their explination of the 'who and why' related to the removal of these books. I've read one source that attirbuted it to a break in the debate due to the fall of the Temple, and another that claims they were dropped because the new-kids-on-the-block Christians (Jewish converts, by and large) were using them and the Jewish leadership wanted a mark of separation. I say  to both of those.
ETA: Quoting is hard. |
|
Quoted:
My home church has a very old lithographed timeline that shows everything from the beginning of recorded history until about the 1900's. It is one poster that is about 20 feet long. Very impressive. It includes multiple actual timelines to show how everything interconnects with the bible timeline. The bible timeline is actually quite small in comparison to the rest of world events. I need to see if I can figure out where it came from and get a capture of it before it is destroyed. Here is a photo taken from a distance. http://www.smugmug.com/photos/i-zRt5LWK/0/L/i-zRt5LWK-L.jpg My wife did one that goes down both sides of a room. I'll have to get a picture of it. |
|
Quoted:
My home church has a very old lithographed timeline that shows everything from the beginning of recorded history until about the 1900's. It is one poster that is about 20 feet long. Very impressive. It includes multiple actual timelines to show how everything interconnects with the bible timeline. The bible timeline is actually quite small in comparison to the rest of world events. I need to see if I can figure out where it came from and get a capture of it before it is destroyed. Here is a photo taken from a distance. http://www.smugmug.com/photos/i-zRt5LWK/0/L/i-zRt5LWK-L.jpg its from a book "timeline of the Bible" |