The Origin Of The Bible (Moses, gospel, Pentateuch, crucified)

[cardero]

Who owns the Bible? Who decided which inspired books would be considered when compounding these books into the editions that we know of today? Was it one person or a committee that decided on a correct English translation? Where does the money come from to print these books and where does the money go to? Is the Bible copyrighted?

[No*s]

Originally Posted by carrdero

Who owns the Bible?

In all honesty, nobody.

Originally Posted by carrdero

Who decided which inspired books would be considered when compounding these books into the editions that we know of today?

That's a tough question.

In Judaism, the Jewish people gradually consolidated it. All I know on the "when" there is that it was consolidated sometime in the first or second century. Most translations of books in the Old Testament are from this (where the Hebrew Bible has the books). This is the Hebrew Bible.

The Christian Old Testament (full one) is patterened after the Septuagint, which is a translation of several Hebrew books that began in the 3rd century BC, and was completed likely in the second or first century BC. It also is a different text-type than the Hebrew text.

The Protestant Old Testament is the hebrew Bible.

The New Testament was formed gradually from books in the third century and culminated in its final form in the late fourth century. The Church (read here either Orthodox or Roman Catholic, I obviously opt for the former ) determined these through bishops and laity.

Originally Posted by Carderro

Was it one person or a committee that decided on a correct English translation?

That depends on the translation. Read the preface on your Bibles for that one .

Originally Posted by Carderro

Where does the money come from to print these books and where does the money go to?

To the publishers mainly, the translation's copyright holders if different, the translaters, and perhaps some other causes.

Originally Posted by Carderro

Is the Bible copyrighted?

Yes and no. The contents of manuscripts are not, but their photographs may be. The translations are if they are young enough. The KJV has lost its, but the NIV is. Critical texts assembled by scholars to represent the best readings are likewise copyrighted if young enough.

Hope that answers your questions .

[linwood]

I`ve got this stuffed in a file on my HD.
I`ve never validated it but I`ll toss it in here.
It`s not the originas but an English history


A Brief History of the Bible

http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/85feb/transbib.htm

·14th Century – The first English translation appears; made by followers of the religious reformer John Wycliff. These translations were not made using the original languages of the bible (Hebrew of the Old Testament and Greek of the New Testament), but instead used the Latin Vulgate, the standard bible of Western Europe during the Middle Ages.

·16th Century – First English translations made directly from Hebrew and Greek.

·1525 – Earliest rendering of the New Testament made available in England, translated by William Tyndale.

·1530 – King Henry VIII bans Tyndale’s new testament in England; done primarily because of Tyndale’s controversial, “anti-ecclesiastical” viewpoints also shared my Martin Luther.

·1536 – King Henry has Tyndale arrested and publicly strangled as a heretic. His body is burned at the stake in Brussels.

·1535 – Miles Coverdale’s Bible, which was the first printed English Bible, relied heavily on Tyndale’s translation.

·1537 - “Thomas Matthew” prints the “Matthews Bible”, a 2nd-generation revision of Tyndale’s bible. Thomas Matthew is the alias of John Rogers, an associate and literary executor of Tyndale’s.

·1539 – The Great Bible is published. It is a 3rd-generation revision of Tyndale’s bible.

·1568 – The Bishops Bible is published, a 4th generation revision of Tyndale’s bible.

·1611 – The King James Version. The KJV has it’s origins in 1604, when King James I appoints a committee of “certain learned men, to the number of fifty and four”, to revise the Bishops Bible.

·1870 – The Church of England authorizes a revision of the KJV. Separate committees were appointed for the Old and New Testament, and shortly afterwards solicited the help of American bible scholars. The product of this effort was known as the revised version. The New Testament was published in 1881, the Old in 1885.

·1901 – Due to differences of opinion, the American scholars are granted permission to publish an edition, which incorporate their preferred renderings. This edition became known as the “American Standard Version”.

·1928 – The International Council of Religious Education acquires the copyright to the American Standard Version. The ICRE then appoints a committee of 15 American scholars to determine whether a revision of the 1901 bible was needed.

·1936 – The ICRE votes in favor of a thorough revision. Members were divided into an Old Testament section, and a New Testament section, and were assigned one or more biblical books to review for proposed changes. This revision becomes known as the Revised Standard Version (RSV), which eventually becomes the most popular bible in America.

·1946 – The RSV New Testament is finally published.

·1952 – The RSV Old Testament is finally published. By September of 1952, the complete RSV bible is published.

·1962 – A slightly revised edition of the RSV is published.

[groovydancer88]

When were the books of the bible written?

[No*s]

Originally Posted by groovydancer88

When were the books of the bible written?

Honest answer: we don't really know on most .

Traditional answer varies for the books. It ascribes the Pentateuch to Moses, which would put it, maybe 12th century BC, modern scholarship places them at the Babylonian exile, about the 5th century BC.

The other books likewise have different dates. For instance, the book of Revelation may have been written about in the 60s or 90s AD, depending on the interpretation and beliefs of the person dating it. The Gospels are dated variously, generally with Mark being the oldest, but there are other models as well.

So, the dating issue gets to be a little muddy .

[hoomer]

The Nicean council decided upon the bible mostly...thogh prior to this there was another group.....

biblical scholars attribute the NT to generally between 20-100 yrs (depending on which book) after christ......

as for the OT........like all such books (probably the NT itself) the OT would have originally been oral......

technically speaking then the bible was "written" before the jews......so this leads us back to the dawn of "history"....say 10 thousand yrs or so............

but I realise you are looking for a reductionist view...you want a definative..."date"........I belive 5 thoudsand yrs or so ago.......

but as No's said...we dont know for certain......

[No*s]

Originally Posted by hoomer

The Nicean council decided upon the bible mostly...thogh prior to this there was another group.....

biblical scholars attribute the NT to generally between 20-100 yrs (depending on which book) after christ......

as for the OT........like all such books (probably the NT itself) the OT would have originally been oral......

technically speaking then the bible was "written" before the jews......so this leads us back to the dawn of "history"....say 10 thousand yrs or so............

but I realise you are looking for a reductionist view...you want a definative..."date"........I belive 5 thoudsand yrs or so ago.......

but as No's said...we dont know for certain......

A couple of points of correction . The modern Christian New Testament was first proposed in 367, the first modern Christian Bible as a whole was proposed in 396 (I'm a little fuzzy on the date there, but it's in the 390s). The Council of Nicea was in 325 and didn't address the canon of Scripture.

Christ began his ministry about 33 AD, and the first books of the NT were written in the 40s or 50s. They couldn't have begun writing it in the 20s...Christ had not yet been crucified and died.

Lastly, the Bible was written by Jews. It tells some stories found throughout Mesopotamia, but the books themseves were definitively Jewish. Moses, for instance, would have been around the 1200s BC, give or take a century or two. The patriarchs weren't far behind, so the Pentateuch couldn't be any earlier than its subject, and the other portions of the Bible are indisputably younger.

[linwood]

The Nicean council decided upon the bible mostly...thogh prior to this there was another group.....

I was under the impression the editing and acceptance of different books went on well after the Council of Nicea.

Is this incorrect?

It`s not like all those Bishops spent the entire time at that one council deliberating which books to include.
I also thought that the books themselves weren`t really the focus of the Council of Nicea but which doctrines would be agreed as Orthodox and which as heresy.

Since this Council was the one that expelled the Arians and their doctrines from contemporary Christianity at the time.
I believe the Nicean Creed was established for this purpose.

The Nicean Council did indeed outline what doctrine was acceptable and therefore by process of elimination what doctrine was not acceptable but I thought that was pretty much the extent of that particular council and subsequent councils used the outlines determined at Nicea to accept or deny which books would by allowed in the NT.

Am I even close here?
Anyone?

[linwood]

The modern Christian New Testament was first proposed in 367, the first modern Christian Bible as a whole was proposed in 396 (I'm a little fuzzy on the date there, but it's in the 390s). The Council of Nicea was in 325 and didn't address the canon of Scripture.

I should have just waited a few minutes.

Thanks No*s

[No*s]

Originally Posted by linwood

The modern Christian New Testament was first proposed in 367, the first modern Christian Bible as a whole was proposed in 396 (I'm a little fuzzy on the date there, but it's in the 390s). The Council of Nicea was in 325 and didn't address the canon of Scripture.

I should have just waited a few minutes.

Thanks No*s

Welcome Linwood. You were right .

Nicea gets credit for everything from the paganization of Christianity to the determination of Scripture to the alliance of Christianity to the exclusion of other religions. Obviously, I don't think the former happened, the second was addressed, and the latter happened under the Emperor Theodotian in the 380s. In this case, at least, the wording was neutral.