Exploring the composition, structure and development of the Catholic Bible, the literary types used in it and important terms related to reading and understanding the Scriptures

2. Previously on

3. A WORLD OF HEROES

4. Sumer Egypt Assyria Persia Babylon The LAND

5. HISTORY

6. PEOPLE

7. the context

8. revelation inspiration tradition

9. revelation inspiration tradition The act of God manifesting His presence and His will to a person or persons He chooses. It’s all God’s choice! The act of God’s chosen people in safe keeping/safeguarding/ preserving God’s revelation by remembrance, sharing with others, and recording The act of God moving or motivating His chosen to respond to His revelation, to act according to His will and purpose. oral written

10. Specific circumstances Particular culture Real historical events

11. God’s Word comes to us clothed in the particular culture and historical experience of the chosen people to whom He revealed His will with divine inspiration.

13. reading the Bible in context

14. Can we take whatever is recorded in the Bible at face value?

15. Can we take God’s Word revealed in the Bible as genuine and true?

16. the hall of heroes

17. How did it develop? What makes up the Bible? What are the essential concepts we need to understand and keep in mind as we study the Bible?

18. not just a BOOK, but a whole LIBRARY

20. New Testament Old Testament

21. not a collection of books written outright in any modern language

22. a collection of books written in ancient language

23. rural and agricultural Small, weak and insignificant

25. Poetry and prayers prophecies Laws and rituals Proverbs and wise sayings Sermons and songs

26. A collection of different kinds of writing

30. From REVELATION to TRANSLATION From ANCIENT TEXT to MODERN EDITION

31. in person REVELATION events situations through other people

32. Through the Holy Spirit inspiration Moving, motivating to respond Listening, acting, sharing, transmitting, preserving

33. ORAL tradition WRITTEN - testimony - Interpretation - instruction - reminder - expression of faith - not exactly an actual record of events - written in the context of the writer’s community

34. The Bible was not written in one day or even in a thousand years!

35. compilation Gathering of extant or available documents and examining them

36. redaction recovering lost documents through archaeology, piecing together fragments and examining their authenticity

37. codex A collection of manuscripts compiled according to similarity - origin, time of discovery, place found, subject matter, author, people who collected them

38. canon Authenticated and approved collection of manuscripts from various compiled and redacted codices.

42. Hebrew translation Greek (koine) Latin European languages Local and modern idiom

43. editions Done according to need and circumstances St. Jerome Latin Vulgate John Wycliffe 1st English Bible

44. editions Done according to need and circumstances Erasmus Gutenberg King James I

45. editions Done according to need and circumstances John Calvin Martin Luther Noah Webster

46. editions Done according to need and circumstances Paul VI John XXIII John Paul II

47. so many editions and versions, which one to read?

48. Is this our Textbook Bible ?

50. Guided REFLECTION

52. Homework: Reaction paper

53. Blogging the Bible What happens when an ignoramus reads the Good Book? By David Plotz http://www.slate.com/id/2141050

54. Like many lax but well-educated Jews (and Christians), I have long assumed I knew what was in the Bible—more or less. I read parts of the Torah as a child in Hebrew school, then attended a rigorous Christian high school where I had to study the Old and New Testaments. Many of the highlights stuck in my head—Adam and Eve, Cain vs., Abel, Jacob vs. Esau, Jonah vs. whale, 40 days and nights, 10 plagues and Commandments, 12 tribes and apostles, Red Sea walked under, Galilee Sea walked on, bush into fire, rock into water, water into wine. And, of course, I absorbed other bits of Bible everywhere—from stories I heard in churches and synagogues, movies and TV shows, tidbits my parents and teachers told me. All this left me with a general sense that I knew the Good Book well enough, and that it was a font of crackling stories, Jewish heroes, and moral lessons.

55. So, what can I possibly do? My goal is pretty simple. I want to find out what happens when an ignorant person actually reads the book on which his religion is based. I think I'm in the same position as many other lazy but faithful people (Christians, Jews, Moslems, Hindus). I love Judaism; I love (most of) the lessons it has taught me about how to live in the world; and yet I realized I am fundamentally ignorant about its foundation, its essential document . So, what will happen if I approach my Bible empty, unmediated by teachers or rabbis or parents? What will delight and horrify me? How will the Bible relate to the religion I practice, and the lessons I thought I learned in synagogue and Hebrew School?