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Continuing with examining the bible …

 

In Jesus’ days, the bible as we know it did not exist.  There was no prescribed list of books, there was not 2,000 years of an entire industry, the most preeminent and sustained scientific endeavour the world has known (i.e.: theology and biblical literacy).   Instead, there was a small but intense nation focussed on scriptures and the revelation of God.   These people would memorize their scriptures as part of growing up into adulthood.  Rather than a canonized collection of books, the scriptures existed as individual scrolls which were separately copied and stored.  The scrolls existed in what can be thought of as three clouds of scrolls – the Babylonian cloud, the Alexandrian cloud, and the Jerusalem cloud.  While the clouds were broadly similar (all would have recognized Torah (‘the Law’) or the first five books of the bible for example and most would have recognized the Prophets, but not always the same Prophets, and the Psalms were largely recognized), they had their differences.  Beyond the Law and the Prophets, the status of other scrolls was neither clear nor necessarily widely accepted.  Each cloud of scrolls was nurtured by a Receptive Community.

The Babylonian cloud morphed into what is known as the Masoretic Text.  The Alexandrian school morphed into what is known as the Septuagint.  The Jerusalem cloud consisted of the Samaritan Pentateuch, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and other schools.  Our present bible is mainly from the Septuagint and Masoretic schools, along with the writings we now call the New Testament, which were written mainly by Jews (but also some non-Jews) who were trying to figure out how to live as communities of Christ.  The early Christian community largely depended on the Septuagint for its scriptural source.

Each of those communities, Babylonia, Alexandria, and Jerusalem, were receptive to specific versions of the scriptures – for example, the Dead Sea Scrolls, part of the “Jerusalem cloud”, have additional psalms compared to our bibles, and other bits and pieces – mostly minor differences of grammar and wording, in other ways larger differences where there are sections added or omitted.   The Septuagint (Alexandrian) version was the go-to foundation for the writers of the New Testament, and it still is for the Orthodox churches.  With increasing scholarship, many Masoretic texts have now been incorporated into non-Orthodox bibles.  These were accepted by their originating communities, and then through collectors, interpreters, editors, and copiers, brought into other communities and their contexts – which brings us to the next level of inspiration.

For more information on the versions of the scrolls in Jesus’ time, and a deep dive into one of the communities, The Dead Sea Scroll Bible, by Martin Abegg Jr., Peter Flint, & Eugene Ulrich is a good introduction.

 

Does it make sense that different communities would interpret the same writing in different ways?  That they would have additional or different versions of texts?  How does this fit into being inspired by God?

 

 

Share your thoughts with others whom you trust.

 

+David