BIBLE: The main source in the study of Christian Faith

When we talk of Christian Formation we cannot avoid using the Bible .It is one of the sources our faith
aside from tradition, experience and reason. It is derived from the greek word Biblos which means book
and the plural form is Biblia.

Presumed Definitions

1..Ancient documents

2. Jewish National Archives

3.Book of Faith

4.Story of Jesus christ Moses David etc.

5.Book of magical knowledge

6. The book in the shelf which we never read

Bible did not magically appear to us. It was written by different people centuries ago. It did not fall down
from heaven.Is this a divine book or a plain human book?
GOD chose writers and inspired writers to write them down to reveal Gods identity to us and his plans
to this planet earth which he created for all of us . So, God was involved in the process of of writing
using writers ,personalities and circumstances to communicate what he wanted to tell us and wants to
tell the future.

1st tim 3-16 All sriptures is breathed by God therefore the Bible is a serious book.

Basic Sources

The ancient Manuscripts in the Old Testament

MASORETIC tEXT-from the hebrew word which means masar to hand down. Masoretic refers to what is
handed down traditionally said to be the traditional Bible consisting of 39 books from Genesis to
Malachi.

Dead Sea Scrolls- Found by a young arab boy called Bedouin inside the qumran cave in 1947 .the only
complete scroll was said to be the scroll of prophet isaiah while other scrolls are in fragments. Preserved
by the Essenes Community during the time of Jesus. The date was said to be 100bc to 100ad.

Septuagint- The greek version of the hebrew Bible .The word Septuagint means 70 which is rounded
number of the 72 legendary translators 6 from each tribe of the 12 tribes of israel. the date was 300-
250bc consisting of 46 books and 7 more books came from Masoretic.

These are the 3 basic sources of the Old Testament.It will lead us to an understanding why different
religious have different compositions of the Bible.
 Sources of the New Testament

1.Papyri Scroll- Bible before was in the form of scrolls since there was no paper yet made from the firm
stem of aquatic plants and bark of a tree.then they dry it up converted in heavy scrolls .

2.Parchment- skin of animls like goats,sheeps and soaked to lime solution and hairs were removed and
scrolls are glued together. Parchment and papyri are so much expensive.

3.Codex- a book form of manuscripts .the first codices of the NT were written in greek capital letters
clled Uncials or majuscules. These contain most of the new testament writings came from the bulk of
Septuagint.

3CODICES

1.Codex vaticanus

2Codex Sinaiticus

3Codex alexandrinus

They have been named due to particular places where they were found . The only codex in proper place
is codex vaticanus while the 2 are in fragments. The concrete evidences of these 3 codices proved that
the Bible did not just come from God directly. The word of God came to us through different sources.
So. the combination of the OT and the NT is now the complete christian Bible.

Therefore.God is the main author of the Bible but worked through different men. Theologically the bible
is the word of God but philosophically it contains the word of God.

4 Major Divisions of OT

1.Pentateuch-Torah or Law the first five scrolls .It tells the creation story and the formation of israel and
the Hebrew people.

2. Historical Books- After the people of God entered the promised land they have to start building their
own nation so this book introduced different leaders this nation has known throughout its long history.

3.Wisdom Books- these are wisdom literatures containing beautiful prayers called psalm praising the
goodness and greatness of God.

4.Prophetic Books- Prophets appear to people when nation becomes weak and falls into the hands of
foreign nations. prophets scold people when they commit sin and infidelity to God. They warn the
people that God would punish them.

Historical Books
Joshua

Judges

1st and 2nd samuel

1st and 2nd Chronicles

1st and 2nd Kings

Nehemiah

Ezra

Ruth

Esther

Wisdom Books

JOb, Pslams, Proverbs, Ecclesiates, Songs of Songs

Major Prophets

Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel

 Minor Prophets

Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi

Oral Tradition

It means handling down by word of mouth of stories, beliefs and customs. When story is told over and
over aginit might change bit in the end. Some of the details in the story might be forgotten others might
be added. The same thing happens when same story is is told in different places. the pentateuch goes
back to the time of Moses and collected them ogether in 5 books.

No wonder that sometimes same story was written down twice. with some differences. the first 2 stories
have different oral traditions. Yet hte heart of the story is the grea love of God which is his greatest act.
We have 4 different traditions in Pentateuch they are different because they go back to people in
different places and different times.

4 Different Traditions of Creation Stories

Yahwist- It uses the name of God called Yahweh representing southern tradition written 1000 years
before the arrival of Christ.

Elohists- it came from the name of God too called Elohim which is the plurality of powers of Godcoming
from the northern tradition.
Deuteronomic- it goes back to the book of the law which King Josiah used in order to bring religioud
reform in israel.

Priestly- levitical traditions or priestly writings started shaping up at the time of babylonian exile .the
most organized of all the stories because the creation was numerically done step by step within 6 days

The book of Genesis is not a book of science and history because we wont find the answer to the
questions how and when did god create the world.