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CHAPTER 1BOX 1.3DESIGNATIONS OF YEARSThe common scholarly conventions for thedesignations of the eras have changed sothat it is more inclusive. The designationb.c. (Before Christ) has been replaced byb.c.e. (Before the Common Era) and a.d.(Anno Domini; in the year of our Lord) hasbeen replaced by c.e. (Common Era), thetime when both Judaism and Christianityexist.with God. In addition to the texts that retellIsrael’s national story, the books attributed toprophets were often completed only after theprophet’s death. One clear indication of thisprocess of writing is that they often refer to theprophet in the third person rather than in thefirst person; that is, the prophetic books oftensay the word of the Lord came to him, ratherthan saying it came to me.“The book of the law.” Since many of thesebooks were composed by multiple writers andsometimes rewritten over centuries, we shouldexpect that gathering them into a single volume was also complex. The process did not getstarted as early as we might think. There wasno large collection of authoritative books thatIsraelites could consult until about the sixthcentury b.c.e. The story of King Josiah (640–609) shows how late the process of gatheringthese books started. In 2 Kings 22:8-13 we hearthat Josiah commissioned a refurbishing of theneglected temple of God in Jerusalem. Duringthe renovations, workers found “the book ofthe law” in a back room of the temple. WhenThe Bible7some officials read this newly discovered book,they became aware that they had not been livingby its commands at all. Worried about this stateof affairs, they called on a prophet, Huldah, toverify that the book really was the word of God.After she confirmed that it was, Josiah began asweeping reform based on what this text commands. Though it might seem unbelievable tous, this story says that during Josiah’s reformthe people kept the Passover for the first time inthree hundred years (2 Kgs. 23:21-23).This story shows that the Israelites did notpossess an extensive collection of writings byMoses or anyone else that gave instructions onhow they should live and worship. They foundthis one book and were surprised by its instructions. So the process of developing a canon, agroup of authoritative writings, did not beginuntil some time after this point. It is important tonote that this story took place in about 620 b.c.e.,only about thirty-five years before the kingdomof Judah fell. This means that the work of assembling the canon began in earnest during the exile.Developments after the ExileWhen Judah (the second of the two Israelitenations) fell in 587 b.c.e., a large part of thepopulation was forced to migrate to Babylon(located in today’s Iraq). While Judah was inexile, the Babylonian Empire fell to the PersiansBOX 1.4Read 2 Kings 22:8-10. What does thispassage suggest about the authority ofprophets in ancient Israel? What does itsuggest about the status of women whopossess this gift?

8What Is the Bible, And How Did It Come About?(located roughly in today’s Iran). The Persians’policy concerning regions in the more distantparts of the empire differed from that of theBabylonians, so they allowed the people ofJudah to return to Jerusalem around the year539. The Persians granted the Judahites andother distant regions permission to governthemselves by their ancestral laws.Ezra and the “book of the law of Moses.”The first evidence for a collection of authoritative books within Judaism appears as thepeople of Judah returned from exile and beganthe process of semiautonomous governance.The book of Nehemiah tells about the returnBOX 1.5Read Nehemiah 8:1-8, 13-18. Notice themention of the leaders and how they functioned on this occasion. How do you thinkthe writer wants readers to understandthe place of the Law in ordering society?of some exiles and the establishment of the lawof the land. It says that the priest Ezra gatheredthe people in Jerusalem and read to them the“book of the law of Moses” (Neh. 8:1-3). WhileNehemiah describes the book as what God gaveMoses, there is no evidence that it existed inwritten form, particularly in the form that Ezraread, until sometime during the exile. Afterall, before they found it in a back room of thetemple, neither the king nor the temple’s priestsknew of its existence at the time of Josiah, theking who reigned just a few years before the firstwave of the exile. Yet when the exiles return justabout eighty years later, they possess a collection of writings by which they can govern theirreligious and civic lives.The three parts of the Hebrew Bible. WeFIGURE 1.2TORAH SCROLLEarly eighteenth century. Art Resourcedo not know what was in the collection fromwhich Ezra read, but it probably includedmuch of what is now in the Pentateuch, the firstfive books of the Bible. These books are calledthe Torah in the Hebrew Bible. Other bookswere collected and began to be revered over thenext two hundred fifty years. By the mid-secondcentury b.c.e. the book called Ecclesiasticusor Sirach (part of the Apocrypha) could referto a collection of writings divided into threegroups: “the Law, the Prophets, and the otherbooks,” very close to the divisions of books ofthe Hebrew Bible still used today. While some

CHAPTER 1discussion continued about which books shouldbe included, and some included books were stillbeing reedited, the basic contours of the collection were in place at this point.The Dead Sea Scrolls. Until the discovery ofthe Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947, our earliest extensive Hebrew manuscripts of the Bible camefrom about 1000 c.e. Among the Dead SeaScrolls are copies of at least part of the HebrewFIGURE 1.3The Bible9text of every book in the Hebrew Bible exceptEsther. These copies were made just before andduring the time of Jesus. For the most part, thescrolls demonstrate the care with which thecopyists preserved the ancient text. But in somecases, we can see the ways that some books ofthe Hebrew Bible were still under construction.For example, some of copies of Jeremiah foundamong the scrolls are like the longer text in theGreek translation, others like the later acceptedQUMRANOne of the caves in which the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered, near Qumran. Among the Scrolls arecopies of portions of every book in the Hebrew Bible except Esther.

10FIGURE 1.4What Is the Bible, And How Did It Come About?SECTION OF A SCROLL FROM QUMRANThe Dead Sea Scrolls give us some of our best evidence for the form of the Hebrew Bible’s text in thefirst century. This is a section from the Isaiah Scroll. Art ResourceThe Completion of the Canon of theHebrew Biblesecond century b.c.e. That translation includedall the books now found in the Hebrew Bible(Old Testament) and the books often called theApocrypha. Many Jews viewed these books asauthoritative, at least in some way.* While thelist was not completely decided upon, thereOur other most important evidence for understanding what Jews were reading as guides fortheir religious life is the Septuagint. The Septuagint is a translation of the Hebrew Bible intoGreek that was completed near the end of the*There were disagreements among different groupsabout which books were authoritative. For example,Sadducees accepted only the Torah as authoritative, while Pharisees accepted all thirty-nine books asauthoritative.biblical text, and another has different expansions so that it is significantly longer than thatfound in the Bible today.

CHAPTER 1was wide enough agreement about its contentthat first-century Jews could refer to the Torah,Prophets, and Writings, confident that otherJews knew what they meant. The first-centuryJewish historian Josephus could refer to thebooks of Scripture. His accounting seems toamount to the thirty-nine books now in theHebrew Bible. While there was a wide andbroadening consensus about which books toinclude in the canon, there was no definitivedelimiting of the canon until the end of the firstcentury c.e. Before its destruction in 70 c.e., thetemple had been a vitally important element indefining what it meant to be Jewish. Once it wasdestroyed, these texts (and their interpretation)became the central guide for determining whatit meant to be a faithful Jew. Thus the canon ofthe Hebrew Bible was the result of ten centuriesof work and thought.The Bible11Orthodox Bible includes two additional books,3 Maccabees and 2 Esdras, books also preservedin Greek and known widely in the early church.The earliest Christian writings. The Septua-gint was not only the early church’s first Bible,but also nearly its only Bible through the firstcentury. The earliest book of the New Testament(probably 1 Thessalonians) was not written untilaround 50 c.e. The latest of the New Testamentbooks (probably 2 Peter) was composed around125. The books of the New Testament also comefrom many different authors, and a number ofthem are written anonymously. Paul wrote hisletters, the earliest writings in the New Testament, between the years 50 and 65. The NewTestament Gospels began to be written soonafter that and were probably all written by theyear 100. By then, there were already collectionsof Paul’s letters to churches circulating amongthe early communities of Christ believers.P The Christian CanonThe question of authority. From the earliestThe Protestant Old Testament contains thesame books as the Hebrew Bible, though theyappear in a different order and are numbereddifferently. The Roman Catholic Bible includesas deuterocanonical the books called the Apocrypha. These seven books plus additions toDaniel and Esther were part of the Septuagint.2Later Judaism did not include these books in itscanon, in part because most were not originallywritten in Hebrew. They remained within thecanon in some parts of the Christian traditionbecause they were in the Septuagint, the translation of the Hebrew Bible that was the primaryBible of the early church. Furthermore, thepresence of these books in the Septuagint led totheir inclusion in the Vulgate, the fifth-centurytranslation of the Bible into Latin. The Greektime after the death and resurrection of Jesus,the apostles were the central authorities withinthe church. The church needed to know morethan simply what Jesus said or did and howhe had died; they needed to know what thesethings meant. Knowing specific facts about thelife of Jesus was less important than being ableto interpret those facts in a way that was appropriate to what the church confessed about him.From the earliest times, the apostles were thepeople that the church saw as authorized tointerpret the life, teaching, death, and resurrection of Christ. Many interpretations of thelife of Jesus were current in the first century:some saw him as a great reformer within Judaism, others as a political rebel, and still othersas a misguided artisan. These interpretations

12What Is the Bible, And How Did It Come About?CHART 1.1THE CANONS OF THE TANAKH (JEWISH BIBLE)AND THE CATHOLIC AND PROTESTANT OLD DeuteronomyProphetsFormerJoshuaJudges1 Samuel2 Samuel1 Kings2 KingsLatterIsaiahJeremiahEzekielThe rbsJobSong of SongsRuthLamentationsQoheleth (Ecclesiastes)EstherDanielEzra-Nehemiah1 Chronicles2 ChroniclesCATHOLIC OLD uteronomyHistorical BooksJoshuaEzraJudgesNehemiahRuthTobit1 SamuelJudith2 SamuelEsther (includ1 Kings   ing Greek2 Kings   portions)1 Chronicles 1 Maccabees2 Chronicles 2 sSong of SolomonWisdom of SolomonSirach Baruch (including the Letter ofJeremiah)EzekielDaniel (including the Prayer ofAzariah and the Song of theThree Young Men, Susanna,and Bel and the aggaiJonahZechariahMicahMalachiPROTESTANT sDeuteronomyHistorical BooksJoshuaEzraJudgesNehemiahRuthEsther1 Samuel2 Samuel1 Kings2 Kings1 Chronicles2 esSong of haniahHaggaiZechariahMalachi

CHAPTER 1CHART 1.2THE DEUTERO-CANONICAL BOOKSOF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CANON(AND THE PROTESTANTAPOCRYPHA)TobitJudithWisdom of SolomonEcclesiasticus (Sirach)Baruch (including the Letter of Jeremiah)1 Maccabees2 MaccabeesIn addition to these seven books, the Protestant Apocrypha also includes1–2 EsdrasAdditions to Esther*Letter of Jeremiah*Prayer of Azariah and the Song of the ThreeYoung Men*Susanna*Bel and the Dragon*the Prayer of Manasseh*These writings are included within other canonical booksin the Catholic canon, but are separate writings in the Protestant Apocrypha.rested on the same facts the church had aboutthe ministry and death of Jesus. The questionwas not what happened, but what those actions,particularly Jesus’ death, meant.Apostolic authority. Our earliest accountsagree that the church relied on the apostles forthe proper interpretations of the life, ministry,death, and resurrection of Jesus. They assertedthat he was genuinely God’s Messiah (literally“annointed one”; in Greek, Christos) or Messiah designate. Though it was nearly impossibleto believe, given how his life ended, Jesus wasthe one in whom God had chosen to be present among God’s people and to initiate the endThe Bible13times. Understanding the resurrection as God’svindication of Jesus’ teachings, life, and deathmakes this interpretation plausible. It was thoseclosest to Jesus, the Twelve, who the church saidmost clearly understood the meaning of his life,death, and resurrection. To these twelve disciples the church added Paul, because he had adirect experience of the risen Christ, and James,the brother of Jesus, who became the leader ofthe Jerusalem church around the year 44 or 45.The need for authoritative writings. In theearliest years of the church’s existence, whensomeone wondered what a person who confessed Christ should do or believe, they wouldask an apostle. What does Peter say this actionof Jesus means? What does James say this saying of Jesus means? What does Paul say Christbelievers should do in this situation? But by65–70 many, probably most, of the apostles haddied. Then the churches turned to those whoknew the apostles best, but soon those associates of the apostles gave different answers whenasked what an apostle would have told themto believe or do. (Of course, the apostles hadthemselves also given different kinds of answersto the same questions.) Since various leadersgave so many, and even contradictory, answersthe church began to look to written sources forguidance. Then the question became, whichwritings have apostolic authority?The church also felt the need to identifya set of authoritative writings because therewere competing and mutually exclusive formsof Christianity. In the second century therewere Gnostics, Marcionites, and Montanists,to mention just a few. Since these groups hadcontradictory teachings, the church needed anauthoritative guide for its beliefs and practices.

14What Is the Bible, And How Did It Come About?BOX 1.6INTERPRETATIONS OF JESUSThe range of interpretations that mighthave been given Jesus’ ministry can beseen by a few examples from reports in theNew Testament. Mark 3:19-27 reports thatsome who saw Jesus’ miracles thought hewas empowered to do them by the devil.Acts 5:33-39 tells of people who claimedto be called by God to oppose the powerstructure and who gathered followersand had political aspirations. They were,of course, defeated by the Romans. TheGospel of John has the people in chargein Jerusalem say the Romans will seeJesus as a political threat (11:45-51). So awide range of interpretations of the life ofJesus appeared even during his lifetime.They believed that some of these teachingsdenigrated human life and the God of Israel, sothey sought a means to reject such teachings.The first Christian canon. Not only were thereteachings that the main body of the churchrejected because they were dangerous, but in atleast one case someone put together a canon thatmost found unacceptable. In the first half of thesecond century, Marcion went to Rome, wherehe made a bid to become a bishop. He taughtthat the God of the Hebrew Bible was not theFather of Jesus Christ. The God of Israel, hesaid, was too violent and vindictive to be theloving Father revealed by Jesus. He thereforerejected the whole Hebrew Bible and acceptedonly Luke as his Gospel (which he edited tosuit his theology). He proposed that his editedversion of Luke and ten (edited) letters of Paulserve as the body of authoritative writings—thecanon—for the church. The larger body of thechurch rejected Marcion’s theology and canon.They insisted the God of Israel was the Fatherof Jesus Christ and defended the authority ofthe Hebrew Bible as well as that of the Gospelsof Matthew, Mark, and John.The criterion of apostolicity. As the churchbegan to assemble a group of authoritativetexts, the most important characteristic a writing needed to be included among them wasapostolicity; that is, it had to be written by, orrelated in some other way to, an apostle. Sincethe apostles had been the authorities within thechurch from its inception, the church looked totheir writings as guides once the apostles themselves were no longer available. They saw thePauline letters as clearly apostolic, but Matthew,Mark, and Luke were all written anonymously.Very soon after their composition, however, traditions grew up that attached each to an apostle:Matthew was said to be written by the apostleMatthew; Mark was written not by an apostlebut by a disciple of Peter who wrote what PeterBOX 1.7APOSTOLICITYSome connection to an apostle was oneof the most important criteria for a writing to be considered authoritative as theChristian canon emerged. It was important that a book be written by one of theTwelve or Paul or James—or by someoneclosely associated with one of them.

CHAPTER 1preached about Jesus; similarly, Luke was written by an associate of Paul.These traditions probably do not recordactual historical connections to those apostles,but they do demonstrate the importance thechurch placed on relating each authoritativebook to an apostle. The introductory words ofthe book of Jude exemplify the importance thechurch placed on a connection to an apostle.Jude identified himself as the brother of James.If he was the brother of James, he was also thebrother of Jesus. But Jude made no claim to thatimmediate connection to Jesus, because thatwould not have established his authority the waya connection to the apostle James did. It is notsimply what Jesus said or did that was authoritative, but the meaning the apostles gave to whatJesus did or said that mattered. So Jude had toattach himself to an apostle to get a hearing.Common usage and coherence. In additionto needing an apostolic connection, a writingalso had to be known and used widely acrossthe Christian world. A text known primarilyin Asia Minor (today’s Turkey) or Egypt didnot achieve the prominence needed to becomeauthoritative for the whole church. Furthermore, for the wider church to begin accepting abook as genuinely apostolic, it had to agree withwhat later would be called the “rule of faith.”That is, its content had to cohere with the rangeof beliefs that the early church accepted.The Closing of the Christian Canon:A Gradual ProcessThere was no one moment in the early churchwhen a council suddenly decided what bookswould be authoritative and then closed thedebate. Such decisions took several centuries.The Bible15Some accounts of the development of the canonmake it sound as though the emperor Constantine adopted Christianity as the religion of theempire, immediately got together with his croniesin the proverbial smoke-filled back room, decidedon the canon, and then imposed it on the church.Nothing could be further from the truth. WhileConstantine was interested in having Christiansagree with one another about beliefs, he did nothave a determinative role in the development ofthe canon. By the time he stepped on the stage,most of the decisions had already been made.Debated books. Relatively few books weredebated for very long. By the mid-second century, most churches (and there was no centralgoverning body at this early date) accepted tenletters of Paul and the four Gospels as authoritative. By 200 nearly everyone accepted thosefourteen books along with Acts, 1 Peter, and1 John. There were still disagreements aboutother books; among those that got the mostdebate were Hebrews, Revelation, and the Sh

origin than just a solitary author composing at his or her desk. BOX 1.1 LOCATING MATERIAL IN THE BIBLE Books of the Bible are divided into chap-ters and verses. These divisions are used to locate particular passages within the books. The regular way the divisions are written is chapter nu