The Hebrew Bible

An Introduction to the Canon

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)

Canon

From the Greek word kanon

Hebrew qaneh

Measuring stick or line

TaNaK (Tanakh) An acronym for the three parts of the text A total of 24 books (39 by the Christian

system of counting)

Torah (also called Books of Moses or Pentateuch)

Genesis Exodus Leviticus Numbers Deuteronomy

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

Prophets (Nebi’im or Nevi’im) 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

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.

Writings (Kethub’im or Kethuv’im) Psalms Proverbs Job Song of Songs Ruth Lamentations

Ecclesiastes Esther Daniel Ezra-Nehemiah Chronicles

The Writings as a Collection

Different formulations existed over time (compare Mt 7:12 to Lk 24:44)

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

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

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

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 48:16 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.

Haplography

In this case, you write only one time what should have appeared two times.

Example: Isaiah 26:3-4 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.

Homoioteleuton

When words or phrases have similar endings, the copyist can leave something out because the eye skips.

Example: Gen 4:8 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.

Confusion of Letters

Many Hebrew letters can look alike – especially if the copyist is sloppy. And so misreadings can result.

Example: Gen 10:4 Rodanim (a person) should read Dodanim.

See how similar r and d are.

Other easily confused letters:

b r

h jn bz ww r w nt ji /u x

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 100:3 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.”

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.

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

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

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

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

Vulgate

Jerome’s 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

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 7:14 rq@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@on (noqed) and say ‘shepherd.’

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

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

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 3:9b:

NRSV: And she answered, “I am Ruth,

your servant; spread your cloak over

your servant, for you are next-of-kin.”

TEV: “It’s Ruth sir,” she answered.

“Because you are a close relative, you

are responsible for taking care of me.

So please marry me.”

MT: la@g{ yK! ;t=m*a&-lu^ ;p#n`k=

T*c=r~p*W ;t#m*a& tWr yk!n{a* rm#aT)w~

English Bibles

First English translation by John Wyclif in the 14th century

First English translation from the Hebrew by Wm Tyndale in 1526

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

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.