The Christian Bible includes a series of books written by many writers over hundreds of years. These are not chapters of a book, as is implied when you order a Bible. Jewish authors wrote the 27 books we call The Old Testament, and they called it the Masoretic Text or Hebrew Bible. It was part of their canon by 20 C.E. Christian authors wrote the 24 books we call the New Testament. The canonical Christian Bible that includes both texts was confirmed by the Council of Laodicean in 363 C.E. The King James translation includes a section called the Apocrypha that is used by the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church and some Protestant Churches. It is still one of the most used editions because of the archaic language.
Evangelical Christians consider the Bible to be the final authority regarding theology as well as the teachings of Jesus. They take a literal, word by word approach, while mainstream churches take a more nuanced approach. The final authority to the Catholics is the Catechism and the edicts of the Pope. They have hedged a bit on his infallibility.
Most of the earliest texts that we have only date from the 2nd Century C.E. Most of the texts were written in Aramaic, Hebrew, or Greek. Latin translations came later. We have a multiplicity of modern translations, some of which use contemporary language. Luther translated the texts into German. The Wycliffe’s Bible was a Medieval English translation in the 14th Century from the 4th Century Latin translation known as the Vulgate. William Tyndall was an English priest. He was the first person to produce an English translation of the Bible directly from the Hebrew and Greek. He was burned at the stake for his effort.
The Interpreter’s Bible series was a biblical criticism series published in the 1950’s by the United Methodist Publishing House. An updated 12-volume series was published by the Abington Press as The New Interpreter’s Bible. It uses both the NIV and NRSV translations. Most churches have their own study Bibles as well as a number of independent companies, such as Zondervan.
Unfortunately, some people have chosen to look to the Bible as a source of conflict and debate rather than a source of inspiration.
Several other books that didn’t make it into the authorized Bible were made popular by Elaine Pagels’ book The Gnostic Gospels. Thirteen volumes of 52 manuscripts were found in 1945 that had been written by early Christian authors but banned from the Christian Bible. They were a Coptic translation, which was the language of the church in Egypt. These manuscripts revealed a different theology that indicated a variety of interpretations from the orthodox Bible.
One of these manuscripts, The Gospel of Thomas, was reviewed in a recent edition of the online version of the Biblical Archeology Review. It includes 114 “sayings of Jesus” that are enigmatic and contradictory. It presents a much more negative viewpoint than the Parables of Jesus. I could see how people would react about their authenticity.
We’ve had Bible Study guides for centuries, including the multi-volume Interpreter’s Bible.
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