I just learned moments ago that I won’t be able to add the
answers later tonight as planned, so I am posting them now. I have tried to
provide the most up-to-date information and stay as nominal as possible (as
there is always room for a little disagreement here and there in some of the
details).
The answers are not meant to reflect my personal convictions,
however, so keep that in mind if you find something you strongly disagree with
(but feel free to post the alternative or additional information).
And here are the answers:
1. The Bible
was written in four languages. Name all four and the two books which were both
written using two.
The books of the Bible are written in ancient forms of
Hebrew and Aramaic, Koine Greek, and Jewish (Septuagint) Greek.
There are two books in the canon that are composed in two of
the four languages: Daniel, which is written in Hebrew with Aramaic sections
transliterated via Hebrew characters, and Luke, which is written in Koine Greek
but stylistically lapses into Jewish Septuagint Greek from Luke 1.5 through the
end of Luke chapter 2. This is the Infancy Narrative, and the author of Luke
does this to make this part of his gospel read as if it were directly taken
from or part of the Old Testament.
2. Explain
how Mary Jones changed history regarding the Bible.
Ever see that illustration by the Jehovah’s Witnesses of
first-century Christians preaching door-to-door with scrolls of Scripture to
read to others? Or ever heard the preaching of the Good News throughout history
described by the Witnesses in similar fashion? It’s an awesome scene to
imagine, but it is only the product of imagination.
While some did own their own individual copy of Scripture,
mass numbers owning a personal copy of the Bible is a modern phenomenon that
owes its existence to a Welsh girl by the name of Mary Jones (1784-1864).
Though brought up in a Methodist household, Mary, like most Christians up until
her day, did not own a copy of the Bible. Unless you were rich or had access to
your church on a regular basis, you could not read the Bible. There were just
not enough copies to go around because they were so expensive to produce (not
to mention the fact that illiteracy was the rule of thumb for many folk).
But Mary loved the Scriptures each time she heard them preached
or taught, and this little girl wanted nothing more than her own Bible. At age
8, Mary became a Christian, and she took advantage of all the education on
reading made available to her. She began saving her pennies until she could
afford a Bible of her very own (which, again, was costly due to the difficulty
involved in producing them). When Mary had enough money, she walked barefoot,
25 miles to the nearest town that sold them, only to end up dismayed and
literally in tears when she learned that the Bible she wanted was no longer
available.
While a Welsh Bible was eventually found for Mary, her story
attracted the attention of Christian men in her area and inspired them to
create the first non-profit organization in the world dedicated to the production
and distribution of Bibles at cost or less in order that all persons of any
class could own one. The organization, the first of its kind, was called the
Religious Tract Society (founded in 1799), beginning the era where many
followed suit to ensure that people anywhere in the world could own a copy of
the Holy Scriptures.
While the first actual tract society was created in 1782,
the Deutsche Christentumsgesellschaft, it was developed to create literature to
“combat” atheism. The London Religious Tract Society was the first to realize
that there was a need to publish Bibles in more than just English or Latin (or
other major languages) and that affordable (or even free) editions were
necessary. This would lead to the development of other Bible societies around
the world, with the Religious Tract Society eventually changing its name to the
British and Foreign Bible Society.
3. Place
these New Testament canticles in order of their use during thei day by
Christians, and state which book, chapter, and verse in which they appear: The
Magnificat, the Nunc Dimittis, the Benedictus.
Inherited from the Jewish style of sanctifying the hours of
the day by means of prayer, Christians began to do the same, borrowing words
from texts which (often due to their use as prayer) would eventually make up
the Christian canon.
Of the most important used to mark the day (outside of the
Pater Noster) are those used to mark Morning, Evening, and Night prayers. Those
said upon rising (Morning Prayer) end with a recitation of the Benedictus from
Luke 1.68-80, with sundown (Evening Prayer) concluding with the Magnificat from
Luke 1.46-55, and prayers before retiring adding the Nunc Dimittis found at
Luke 2.29-32.
Catholics, Anglicans, and others often recite these
canticles as part of their official daily ritual of formal prayer and have been
doing so for probably as long as there have been Christians. The very
preservation of these canticles for inclusion in the New Testament may even, in
some cases, be due to this ancient daily practice.
4. Which
book of the New Testament did Martin Luther want removed from the New Testament
canon?
The Letter of James was believed by Luther to contradict the
Letter to the Romans and Luther’s own theology of “salvation by grace alone.”
Therefore Luther pushed to have it removed from the Lutheran canon, but to no
avail.
His softening of his views would eventually lay the ground
work for bringing an end to the doctrinal schism on salvation between the
Catholic and Lutheran Churches with adoption by both groups of the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification in 1999.
5. What is
the Christian equivalent of parashot?
The Christian equivalent of Jewish parashot is a pericope.
They are formal divisions of Scripture set for reading on specific liturgical
dates for religious services.
In Christianity, pericopes are usually preserved together as
a Lectionary and often have incipits added to ensure proper setting for each
pericope.
6. The
Jewish canonization at the Council of Jamnia is historical or hypothetical?
Explain.
The Council of Jamnia was a hypothetical example first
introduced by Jewish historian Heinrich Graetz in 1871. It appears to have been
popularized as fact mainly by its use as anti-Catholic propaganda by some
non-Catholic Christian groups wishing to discredit the use of the
Deuterocanonicals/Apocrypha by “papists.” Whatever the reason for its elevation
to “historical” status, the theory has been largely discredited since the
discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls.
7. Historically
speaking, which books were more popular among early Christians? The
Protoevangelium of James and the Shepherd of Hermas or 2 Peter and the
Revelation to John?
The Proteoevangelium of James and the Shepherd of Hermas
appear to have enjoyed wide circulation among Christians before the
canonization process took place. Once the canon was closed in the 4th century,
2 Peter and Revelation were among the least recognized and most unheard of
among all the books selected.
8. The
Apocrypha came to be widely removed from Christian Bibles, when? Shortly after
the Reformation began or shortly before the incorporation of the Watchtower
Bible and Tract Society?
It was just shortly before the incorporation of the
Watchtower Bible and Tract Society that the Apocrypha came to be widely removed
from Christian Bibles.
Prior to this, Protestants followed the procedure developed
by reformer Myles Coverdale (1488-1569) of keeping the “Catholic books” as part
of Bibles, but consolidating them into a marked off section between the Old and
New Testaments.
However around 1825 a controversy over allowing this section
to be printed and distributed arose among members of the British and Foreign
Bible Society. Members who disagreed and left developed their own societies and thus it became
more and more popular to produce Bibles originally with an Apocrypha section
(such as the King James Version) without it.
This has since reversed itself after the discovery of the
Qumran scrolls with new "ecumenical" versions, such as the NRSV, containing all books
from all recognized canons.
9. Hebrews 1.10-12
quotes Psalm 102.26-28 according to the proto-Masoretic text. What name appears
in verse 26 in the proto-Masoretic Hebrew script?
The name that appears in Psalm 102.26, in the
proto-Masoretic text, is the Name of God, YHWH. It was dropped by the Masoretic
tradition in the 7th century CE, maybe even as a response to its use by
Christians in the Letter to the Hebrews since, as quoted, it directly identifies Jesus of Nazareth with the Creator.
This is how the text reads in Greek at Hebrew 1.10: “At the
beginning, O LORD, you established the earth…” When the New World Translation
was first published, one of the so-called “J” manuscripts was noted as carrying
on the proto-Masoretic tradition by keeping the Tetragrammaton in this spot,
though it never appeared in any edition of the NWT’s main text.
10. The
earliest copies of the Septuagint did not have the Tetragrammaton in them. What
appeared instead?
The earliest had merely a space, and some after that a dot.
It appears that the Tetragrammaton was experimented for a brief time after
that, but the substitution of the Greek word KYRIOS became the norm. Remember, the Septuagint
was translated by Jews for Jews, so one has to take into consideration that
viewing the name as holy, the Jews were looking for a way to appropriately
transfer and handle it in another language to keep from dishonoring it. Neither
leaving a space, a dot, or using the Tetragrammaton was considered acceptable,
so they finally decided up on the Greek substitute instead.
