Bible

The Bible (from the Late Latin biblĭa, and the latter from the Greek βιβλία [bible]; literally 'books') is a set of canonical books that in Christianity and other religions are considered the product of divine inspiration and a reflection or record of the relationship between God and humanity. The Bible is organized into two main parts: the Old Testament and the New Testament, which focuses on Jesus Christ and early Christianity.

It was at the Council of Rome in the year 382, when the Catholic Church together with Pope Damasus I instituted the Biblical Canon with the list of the New Testament similar to that of Athanasius of Alexandria and the books of the Old Testament of the LXX Version. This version was translated from Greek into Latin by Jerome (the Vulgate) at the request of the Church. Subsequently, the regional Councils of Hippo in 393, III of Carthage in 397 and IV of Carthage in 419, in which Augustine of Hippo participated, definitively approved said canon. In the year 405 this list was sent by Pope Innocent I to Bishop Exuperio de Tolosa (in Gaul, today France), where the biblical canon appears with the 73 existing books. The Council of Trent fixed the canon of the Catholic Church declaring it dogma. The division by chapters, as it is today, was introduced by Cardinal Stephen Langton.

It is estimated that over the centuries there have been around five billion copies of the Bible in all its varieties (although some put it at many more), most of them in the last few decades (3900). million between the years 1960 and 2013), which makes it the most distributed and best-selling book in history, being frequently recognized as the most influential book of all time.

The great success of its distribution in recent times is attributed to the printing press, having been the first book made using movable type printing (the so-called Gutenberg Bible). In May 2000, it was stated that “the Bible has done more to shape literature, culture, and entertainment than any other book ever written. Its influence on world history is unmatched, and it shows no signs of waning." About one hundred million copies of the Bible are sold each year, having been translated into 438 languages in its entirety (Old Testament, New Testament and additional texts), and partially to at least 2454 languages.

Etymology

The word Bible comes, through the Latin biblĭa, from the Greek expression τὰ βιβλία τὰ ἅγια (ta bíblía ta hágia; ' the sacred books'), coined for the first time in the deuterocanonical 1 Maccabees 12:9, where βιβλία is the plural of βιβλίον (biblion, 'papyrus' or 'scroll' and, by extension, ' book'). It is believed that this name arose as a diminutive of the name of the city of Byblos (Βύβλος, Býblos), an important papyrus market in antiquity.

However, since Byblos could only with difficulty be a loanword from the original Phoenician name for the said city, Gubla, there is a possibility that the city was the that it received its Greek name from the term that designated the papyrus plant, and not the other way around.

This expression was used by the Hellenized Hebrews (those who lived in Greek-speaking cities) long before the birth of Jesus of Nazareth to refer to the Tanaj or Old Testament. In the Greek Septuagint translation of the Book of Daniel (ca. 150 BC), bible appears as a translation of the original Hebrew sepharim used in Daniel 9:2. Many years later it began to be used by Christians to refer to the set of books that make up the Old Testament, as well as the Gospels and the apostolic letters (that is, the New Testament). By then, it was already common to use only the first phrase, τὰ βιβλία, as a title.

Now as a title, Biblia Sacra (‘the sacred books’) began to be used in Latin, without an article, since this did not exist in Latin. However, as Biblia is a cultism in Latin, it ended up being considered a neuter plural to a feminine singular (“the Holy Bible”), now understanding Biblia as the name characteristic of the whole set. Through Latin it was derived to the vast majority of modern languages.

The Bible and different languages

The Biblical books were initially written in different languages, called Biblical languages (Hebrew, Aramaic, and Hellenistic Greek). In different historical periods they were translated from one of them to another, and later to the others.

The Hebrew Bible

This section is a Hebrew Bible extract.[chuckles]edit]

Hebrew Bible with targum in Aramaic, manuscript of the eleventh century. Presents the text Book of Exodus (12:25-31) in Hebrew characters.

Hebrew Bible, 1300

Hebrew Bible or Hebrew Bible is a generic term to refer to books of the Bible originally written in Hebrew and ancient Aramaic. It fits very closely with the Jewish concept Tanaj and the Christian Old Testament (particularly in the version of some Christian (Evangenic) groups, which do not include the deuterocanic parts of the Old Testament and Anagignoskomena orthodox).

The term Hebrew Bible does not imply any kind of denomination, numeration or ordination of books, which is very variable. (See Bible Canon).

In today's scholarly study, it is common to refer to the three editions of the work called Hebrew Bible edited by Rudolf Kittel. In this context the abbreviation is frequent BHor BHK (K by Kittel), or (where they refer to the different editions), BH1, BH2 and BH3.

The first two editions appeared between 1906 and 1913 respectively; the difference between them is mild, except for a list of errors in the second. The second edition was reprinted several times. Reproduced the Hebrew text found in the third edition has been replaced by Hebrew Bible Stuttgartensia.

Torah

The Torah or "law" understood as "instruction" it is the basis of Jewish religious rules and regulations and consists of:

• Genesis (Hebrew Bereshit, Greek ↓ GênesisLatin Genesis).
• Exodus (Hebrew Shemot, Greek,. ExodusLatin Exodus).
• Leviticus (Hebrew Vayikra, Greek Ḥευτικόν LeuitikónLatin Leviticus).
• Numbers (Hebrew Bamidbar, Greek,ριθμοί ArithmóiLatin Numeri).
• Deuteronomy (Hebrew Devarim, Greek Δευτερονόμιον DeuteronomyionLatin Deuteronomium).

The Hebrew title comes from the first word in every part except Exodus, where it is the fifth word. The books contain 613 mitzvot, or commandments of God, which form the basis of Jewish religious law (Halakha).

The Torah describes three stages in the relationship between God and man. First Genesis 1-11 describes the general story of the creation of mankind, the fall and decline of man thereafter. The last 39 chapters of Genesis, where Abraham is chosen as the ancestor of a numerous people through whom he will be blessed. Abraham was called by God to go to Canaan, where the promise was repeated to his descendants, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. In the last four books he tells the story of Moses, who lived hundreds of years after the patriarchs of Egypt and tells the story of the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt, the exodus from the desert and the renewal of the covenant with God on Mount Sinai. The Torah ends with the death of Moses.

Nevi'im

The Nevi'im or "prophets" they include some scriptures that refer to the historical scriptures of the Bible. The books describe the reign of Judgment, the establishment of the Israelite monarchy, the division into two kingdoms, and prophets who, in the name of God, warn and judge the kings and the people of Israel. The scriptures end with the Babylonian conquest of the southern kingdom of Judah. According to Jewish tradition, Nevi'im is divided into eight books. That division is not followed in normal Danish Bibles:

• Book of Joshua Yehoshua).
• Book of Judges (Hebrew Sefer Shoftim).
• Books of Samuel (Hebrew: Shemuel).
• Book of Kings (Hebrew: Melakhim).
• Isaiah, (Hebrew: Yeshayahu).
• Jeremiah (Hebrew: Yirmiyahu).
• Ezekiel, (Hebrew: Yekhezkel).
• The Book of the Twelve Prophets (Hebrew: Trei Asar), includes the twelve minor prophets: the Book of Hosea, the Book of Joel, the Book of Amos, the Book of Obadiah, the Book of Jonah, the Book of Micaiah, the Book of Nahum, the Book of Habacuc, the Book of Sophonies, the Book of Haggai, the Book of Zechariah and the Book of Malachi.

Ketuvim

Ketuvim, or "the writings" in Hebrew, there are 11 books written by various authors and contain the Israeli wisdom literature. According to rabbinic tradition, many of the hymns were written by David; King Solomon in his youth is presumed to have authored the Song of Songs, the Book of Proverbs in his mid-life, and the Book of Ecclesiastes in his old age. The book of Ruth is the only biblical book about a non-Jew. Five of the books are called "The Five Scrolls" (Megilot) and are read aloud during Jewish holidays: The Song of Songs at Passover; book of ruth for shavuot; Book of Lamentations by tisha b'av; The Succot Book of Ecclesiastes; and the Purim Book of Esther. In general, the "scriptures" They contain poetry, philosophical reflections on life, the lives of the prophets and other Israelite leaders during the Babylonian captivity. It ends with the Persian decree, allowing the Jews to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple.

• Book of the Psalms (Hebrew: ּ ה ה ה Tehilim).
• Book of Proverbs (Hebrew: Meshlê Shlomoh).
• Book of Job Iyyov).
• Song of Songs (Hebrew: Shir ha-Shirim).
• Book of Ruth (Hebrew: Megilath Ruth).
• Book of Lamentations (Hebrew ÊykhôhAlso called Kinot).
• Book of Ecclesiastes (Hebrew: Kohelet).
• Book of Esther (Hebrew: Megillat Esther).
• Book of Daniel (hebreo: ה Dānīyē).
• Book of Ezra-Nehemiah (Hebrew: ‘Ezrā-Nambiḥemyāh).
• Book of Chronicles, includes I Chronicles and II Chronicles (Hebrew: Divrei ha-Yamim).

The Greek Bible

This section is a Septuagint extract.[chuckles]edit]

Column in uncial characters of Ezra texts, as read in the Septuagint Bible.

The Greek Bible, commonly referred to as the Septuagint Bible or the Seventy Bible (in ancient Greek: de ετεάφρασις τιν;βδομ κοντα; in modern Greek: Μεετφραστιν των Εβδομκοντα; in Latin: Septuagint or Vetus Testamentum Graece iuxta LX interpreters), and generally abbreviated simply LXX, is an ancient collection in koiné Greek of the Hebrew and Aramaic books of the Tanaj o Hebrew Bible and other books, including some originally written in Greek.

The five books of the Pentateuch (i.e. the Torah also called "The Law") were translated under the reign of Ptolemy II (285–246 BC), the other Hebrew and Aramaic books later. The translations of the last of the prophetic books probably appeared before the year 130 BC. It is generally estimated that the most recent of the Septuagint books, the WisdomIt was written between the 80s and 50 BC. Some scholars place in the centuryI of the Christian Era the translation into the Greek of the books of Esther, Ruth, Ecclesiastes, Lamentations, and the Song of Songs, just by Aquila (active around the year 130 AD).

The Latin Bible

The Christian Bible

Christian bibles are made up of Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek writings, which have been taken from the Greek Bible, called the Septuagint, and from the Hebrew-Aramaic Tanakh, and then regrouped under the name of Old Testament. To these has been added a third series of Christian Greek writings grouped under the name of the New Testament. Different Christian groups have debated at length about the inclusion or exclusion of some of the books of both testaments, emerging the concepts of apocryphal and deuterocanonical to refer to some of these texts.

Gutenberg's Bible.

The current Jewish community reserves the expression "Christian Bible" to identify only those books that have been added to the Hebrew-Aramaic Tanakh by late Hellenizing Alexandrian Judaism, and later by Christianity, and avoids referring to its Tanakh by the terms "Bible" or "Old Testament". Various Christian denominations incorporate other books into the canon of both Testaments.

Bible Reina Valera 1960

The Reina Valera Protestant Bible has 66 books, divided between the Old Testament, which comprises 39 books, and the New Testament, 27 books.

The Old Testament

The Old Testament is the series of Israelite sacred texts prior to Christ, and which is accepted by all Christians as the first part of Christian bibles. In general terms, there is no general consensus among the different groups of Christians on whether the canon of the Old Testament should correspond to that of the Greek Bible, with deuterocanonical, which is what the Orthodox and Catholic Christian churches have proposed throughout their history. or that of the Hebrew Tanakh, which is what current Jews, some Protestants, and other Christian groups emanating from them propose. In total, 39 books are numbered in the Old Testament in the Protestant version, 46 books in the version of the Catholic Church, and 51 books in the version of the Orthodox Church. However, the order, names and partitions of the Old Testament books of Christian bibles, throughout history, follow the Greek usage and not the Hebrew one. And, likewise, it varies from Judaism in interpretation and emphasis (See, for example, the Book of Isaiah, chapter 7, verse 14). Apart from the books proper to the Greek text of the Bible, the canon of the Coptic Church admits other books, such as the Book of Enoch and the Book of Jubilees.

The New Testament

Genoa Bible, one of the main translations of the Bible into English by the Protestant movement of the centuryXVI. In the image, our Father in the Gospel of Luke.

The New Testament is a collection of 27 books, representative of 4 different Judeo-Christian literary genres:

• 4 Gospels.
• 1 Book of Acts.
• 19 Epistles (or "charts"): 6 epistles "Catholic" or apostolic, and 13 epistles of Pauline; (a seventh apostolic epistles—the First Epistles of John—and a fourteenth Pauline Epistles—the Epistles of the Hebrews—the Hebrews really belong to the essayist or doctotypedical genre; that is to say, they represent a treatise written by the New Testaments. The leading figure in the epistles is Jesus of Nazareth, called Christ. Almost all Christians (with some exceptions, such as the gnostics of the first centuries) have been assuming the New Testament as a divinely inspired sacred text. However, there is no universal unity in the canon of the New Testament. There are 27 books in the canon of the Catholic Church, as in most Protestant Churches. The Orthodox Christian Church of Syria accepts only 22 books in her canon. Books like the First Epistle of Clement and Second Epistle of Clement, the Book of the Alliance, the Octateuco, and others, have been a cause for disputes and are accepted by other Christian Churches.
• The Apocalypse of Saint John.

Biblical canons

The word canon means 'rule' or 'measure', so the biblical canon refers to the set of books that make up the Bible according to a specific religious tradition, that he considers them thus "divinely inspired" and distinguishes them from other texts that are not considered revealed. These differences between the different branches of Christianity occur only for the Old Testament; for example, according to the Catholic Church there are 46 books, and according to most Protestant churches there are 39. Regarding the New Testament, they all have the same number of books.

The first canon is the Pentateuch, which is made up of the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy and contains the "Law of God", which is the set of 613 precepts of Judaism (Mitzvah).

Within Judaism disputes arise over the correct canon. One religious group, the Sadducees, maintains that only the Torah ('the Law') or Pentateuch ('five books') make up the canon of Scripture, while other groups also include the Nevi'im (Prophets) and the Ketuvim (the Writings). After the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70. C., the predominant Jewish group was that of the Pharisees, which does consider the canon as made up of the Law, the Prophets and the Writings. Thus, at the end of the I century, Judaism established in Yamnia (Yavne) as a canon of its sacred books those that met three requirements: that there was a copy of the book in question that was known to have been written before the year 300 B.C. C. (when Hellenization reached Judea, with the subsequent cultural and religious problems, and which can be read in books such as the Book of Maccabees or the Book of Daniel), that said copy was written in Hebrew or at least Aramaic (not Greek, the invading language and culture) and that had a message considered inspired or addressed to the people of God (so that some books that met the two previous characteristics also had to come out of the canon).

In the time of Jesus of Nazareth, the second opinion was dominant, which was held and transmitted by many Christians until the time of the Protestant Reformation with the controversy of the deuterocanonical books (see «Structure», ut supra). This controversy probably arose precisely from the fact that Judaism had established its canon at the end of the I century, thereby for them those texts that would only be found in Greek (in the Septuagint version of the Jewish Bible) were no longer present. These books were precisely those that would be considered, later, as deuterocanonical.

The Jewish version of the Bible, called the Tanakh, consists of 24 books, with certain differences from Christian Bibles. Some of them are:

• The names of several books: Exodus for the original Shemot (‘names’); Leviticus for Vaikra (‘and called’).
• The subdivision in three sections:
  • Torah (the Law, the Pentateuch);
  • Nevi'im, the former prophets (Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings) and later prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and the younger prophets); and
  • Ketuvim, the writings (Psalms, Proverbs, Daniel and the other books).
• The order of the books.

Currently, books that are not considered canonical by Catholics and Orthodox are called apocryphal books; in turn, these same books are usually called pseudepigrapha by Protestants, who usually also respect the name deuterocanonical (literally, 'of the second canon') for those that have received canonical recognition from Catholics and Orthodox (in general, they are books originally written in Greek, included in the Greek translation of the Jewish Bible known as the Septuagint or the LXX). However, some fundamentalist Protestant currents insist on keeping the name of apocrypha for the deuterocanonical books. However, it should be noted that the first Christians did not use the Hebrew Bible, but used the Septuagint or the LXX, since several of the new Christians were Jews of Greek culture, such as Paul of Tarsus, Stephen, and the evangelists Luke and Mark.

Thus, Catholic versions of the Bible contain 73 writings, while most Protestant versions contain only 66. Anabaptist, Lutheran, Anglican, and Episcopalian Bibles, however, include deuterocanonicals, if well under the rubric of "apocrypha"; since they consider them "edifying reading", but not canonical. The orthodox versions, meanwhile, include 76 books in total. In addition, the Coptic Church includes in its canon of the Old Testament the Book of Enoch and the Book of Jubilees, which does not include any of the other current currents of Judeo-Christianity, but which were quite popular books in the times of Christ; traces of which have remained even in the writings of the New Testament. The Syrian Church initially had only 22 in its New Testament, although it later ended up accepting the rest.

History

Hebrew Bible with Aramaic Targum, manuscript of the centuryXI. It presents the text of Exodus 12:25-31 in Hebrew characters.

The Bible is a collection of texts that were originally separate documents (called “books”), first written in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek over a very long period of time, and then brought together to form the Tanakh and the Septuagint (Old Testament). for Christians) and then the New Testament. Both testaments make up the Christian Bible. In itself, the texts that make up the Bible were written over approximately 1000 years (between 900 BC and 100 AD). The oldest texts are found in the Book of Judges ("Song of Deborah") and in the so-called sources (elohist tradition) and (yahvist tradition) of the Torah (called Pentateuch by Christians), which are dated to the period of the two kingdoms (centuries X to century VIII BC). The oldest complete book, that of Hosea, is also from the same period. The Jewish people identify the Bible with the Tanakh, for which it makes no sense and the denomination as Old Testament is not accepted by not accepting the validity of the New Testament.

The Catholic canon of the Bible known today was created by the primitive Church which, in the Letters of Ignatius of Antioch to the Church of Smyrna, is mentioned as Catholic (Universal), under the pontificate of Pope Damasus I, in the Synod of Rome in the year 382, and this version is the one that Jerome of Estridón translated into Latin. Said canon consists of 73 books: 46 constitutive of the so-called Old Testament, including 7 books currently called deuterocanonical (Tobit, Judith, First Book of Maccabees, Second Book of Maccabees, Wisdom, Ecclesiastical (Sirach), and Baruch) and 27 of the New Testament. It was confirmed at the Council of Hippo in the year 393, and ratified at the III Council of Carthage (in the year 397), and the IV Council of Carthage, in the year 419.

Following the Protestant Reformation, the Council of Trent (1546 AD) reaffirmed the biblical canon that had already been affirmed in previous councils, through a dogmatic declaration in the fourth session of the Council of Trent, of the April 8, 1546. The doctrinal definitions of the Council of Trent were not recognized or accepted by many Protestants, who emerged from the XVI century, nor by different denominations linked to Protestantism that emerged from the XIX century. The canon of Orthodox Christian Bibles is even broader than the Catholic Biblical canon, including Psalm 151, the Prayer of Manasseh, the Third Book of Ezra, and the Third Book of Maccabees. In addition to these, the Fourth Book of Ezra and the Fourth Book of Maccabees also appear as appendices to many important versions and editions of the Orthodox Christian Bible.

The Old Testament mainly narrates the history of the Hebrews and the New Testament the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, his message and the history of the first Christians. The New Testament was written in the Koine Greek language. In it, the Old Testament is frequently quoted from the version of the Septuagint, a Greek translation of the Old Testament made in Alexandria (Egypt) in the III a. c.

For believers, the Bible is the word of God, of divine inspiration, although its writing was carried out through chosen men who used their faculties as true authors. It is an eminently spiritual work that believers interpret as God's way of revealing himself and manifesting his will to save humanity, as well as his character and attributes.

For Christian believers, the Bible is the primary source of faith and doctrine in Christ. In the 16th century the different movements of the Protestant Reformation began to experience high wear and tear in philosophical discussions and to separate from each other; In order to reduce this problem, the principle called “scripture only” was defined, which means that only the Bible can be considered a source of Christian doctrine. For the Catholic Church, in addition to the Bible, Tradition, the teachings of the Fathers of the Church (disciples of the apostles), and the decisions emanating from the Councils are also a doctrinal source. This divergence among Christians intensified after 1870, when Pope Pius IX promulgated the constitution Pastor Aeternus, of the First Vatican Council, which reaffirms the papal primacy and proclaims the infallibility of the Supreme Pontiff in matters of faith, morality and Christian doctrine (dogma of papal infallibility) when he speaks ex cathedra (July 18, 1870) as the sole "successor of Peter" and, consequently, "custodian and depositary of the keys of the Kingdom from the heaven". While Protestant Christians reject this assertion and consider Jesus Christ as the sole head of the church. For both parties, this great difference is no longer considered only in philosophical or religious terms, but as divine designs embodied and established in the Bible itself.

For orthodox Jews, of course, the New Testament has no validity. Rabbinic Judaism considers the Talmud as the source of doctrine, while the Karaites have defended the Tanach as the only source of faith since the VIII century..

Old Testament and New Testament

The Christian Old Testament canon came into use in the Greek Septuagint, translations and original books, and their various lists of texts. In addition to the Septuagint, Christianity later added various writings that would become the New Testament. Little different lists of accepted works continued to develop in antiquity. In the IV century, various synods were drawing up lists of sacred writings fixing an Old Testament canon of between 46 and 54 different documents and a New Testament canon from 20 to 27, the latter being the one used to this day; which was finally defined at the Council of Hippo in the year 393. By the year 400, Jerome had written a definitive edition of the Bible in Latin (see the Vulgate), the Canon of which, due in part to the insistence of Pope Damasus, it was made to coincide with decisions of several of the previously assembled Synods. With the benefit of hindsight it can be said that these processes effectively established the New Testament canon, although there are other examples of canonical lists in use after this time. However, this definitive list of 27 books was not closed by any Ecumenical Council until the Council of Trent (1545-63).

During the Protestant Reformation, some canonical reformers proposed different lists from those currently in use at St. Peter's Church in Rome. Although not without debate, the list of New Testament books would remain the same, however, in the Old Testament some texts present in the Septuagint were removed from most Protestant canons. Thus, in a Catholic context, these texts are called the deuterocanonical books, while in the Protestant context, where they are called the Apocrypha, the label is applied to all texts excluded from the Biblical canon that were in the Septuagint. It should also be noted that both Catholics and Protestants describe some other books, such as the Book of the Acts of Peter, as apocryphal.

Therefore, today's Protestant Old Testament has 39 books—the number differs from the number of books in the Tanakh (though not in content) because of a different method of division. The order and names of the books also vary, while the Catholic Church recognizes 46 books as part of the canonical Old Testament. The Book of Enoch is accepted into the Old Testament canon only by the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. The term "Hebrew Scriptures" is only synonymous with the Protestant (non-Catholic) Old Testament which contains the Hebrew Scriptures and additional texts. As for the canon of the New Testament, there are 27 books in the canon of the Catholic Church, accepted by most of the Churches of the Reformation. The Syrian Church currently accepts all 27 books in its canon. Books such as the First Book of Clemente and the Second Book of Clemente, the Book of the Covenant, the Octateuch and others, have been the subject of disputes, and are canonized by some Eastern Orthodox churches.

History of Israel

The Bible describes the historical development of a people, the Israelites, over a long period of time. The story begins in Mesopotamia, where God calls Abraham to settle in Canaan (now the State of Israel and Palestine). Due to famine, the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob traveled to Egypt. After a long stay in Egypt, the family emigrated to Canaan, after 40 years in the desert under the leadership of Moses. The people now have the law. The dating of the event has been debated. The successor, Joshua, led them into Canaan and led the invasion of the land, which was inhabited by other tribes. After 400 years of changing judges, the people wanted a king, King Saul, who was succeeded by King David and King Solomon. After Solomon's prosperous reign, the land was divided into two parts. The northern ten tribes in the "Northern Kingdom" (Israel), the two tribes Judah and Benjamin in the "Southern Kingdom" (Judah), where David's descendants sat on the throne until 586 B.C. C., where Judah was taken by the Babylonians and the exiled people.

Approximately 70 years later, part of the population was allowed to return and build the temple and the city wall of Jerusalem. It was led by Ezra and Nehemiah. Since then, the country was in the hands of various rulers and for a few years under independent rule, until the Romans incorporated it as the province of Iudaea into the Roman Empire in 63 BC. c.

Between the years 7 and 4 B.C. C. was Jesus was born under Herod I the Great, who had expanded the temple and built several large palaces and fortresses in the country and the metropolis of Caesarea Maritima as a tribute to the emperor in Rome. In the year 66 AD. C. the failed Jewish uprising occurred and in 135 Jews were denied access to Jerusalem, which was renamed Aelia Capitolina.

Jesus of Nazareth

All of the New Testament writings are marked by Jesus Christ as the starting point for faith and preaching and is the central figure of Christianity. Mark's gospel is presented like this: "Beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, Son of God" (Mark 1:1). The gospels speak of the wonderful teachings and works of Jesus; about how he gathered disciples around him, he came into conflict with the existing society, he was accused of blasphemy; how he was crucified, died and rose again after three days. Since then, he has sent his disciples to preach the gospel to all nations. The same is true of the letters and other writings of the New Testament. Jesus Christ plays a dominant role in Paul's writings. The epistle to the Romans begins with: "the gospel of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord"; (Rom. 3:1). New Testament writers and the Church consider Jesus to be the fulfillment of Old Testament messianic prophecies. According to them, Jesus "ascended into heaven, seated at the right hand of God the Almighty Father, from where he will come to judge the living and the dead."

The letters of the apostles, according to their own testimony, are the attempt to carry out the mandate of the mission by transmitting the teachings of Jesus and interpreting his teachings. According to Jesus, the apostles speak with their authority and their words should receive as much importance as his.

Archaeology

Biblical archeology is the branch of archeology that deals with biblical evidence. Over time, archaeologists have sought to corroborate or undermine the credibility of the Bible through archaeological excavations in the Middle East: remains of buildings and cities, finds of texts, and inscriptions. Biblical manuscripts have been compared to other texts from the surrounding community to gain a greater awareness of the Bible and the cultural texts written on them. Important sites include: the Hizkias tunnel in Jerusalem, the walls of Jericho, Sennacherib's siege ramp, the Pool of Siloam, the temple in Jerusalem, and the Dead Sea Scrolls at Qumran. In addition, there are countless smaller excavations and individual finds related to the Biblical accounts.

Biblical archeology shows that the events of the Bible have their roots in contemporary history, but it is far from all archaeologically provable. Archaeologist William Matthew Flinders Petrie was the first to carry out a scientific excavation in Palestine in 1890, during which he excavated Tell el-Hesi for six weeks, which was incorrectly identified with Lachish. He is called the father of Palestinian archaeology, categorizing and dividing finds into archaeological periods and attempting to date them from pottery shards and stratification in various excavations.

Structure

A book of the Bible is a set group of scriptures. For example, the Book of Psalms (in Hebrew Tehillim or 'songs of praise') has 150 songs (151 in the Septuagint version), while the Epistle of Judas is a letter of half page.

The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh is divided into three sections: the five books of Moses (the Torah), the books written by the Hebrew prophets (the Prophets or Nevi'im) and some books that do not fall into the two previous categories (the Scriptures or Ketuvim); these are known as hagiographer or simply "the Scriptures."

The Jewish Bible was written predominantly in Hebrew, but it has some small parts that were written in Aramaic. In the Christian Bible, the Hebrew Bible is called the Old Testament, to distinguish it from the New Testament, which is the part that narrates the life of Jesus and his preaching, among other things. The New Testament is divided into the four Gospels, history (Acts of the Apostles), the letters (epistles) to Christian churches by Paul and other apostles, and Revelation.

Christian Bibles contain the entire Tanach (or Old Testament), along with a group of later Christian texts, known as the New Testament. Within Christianity there is no complete agreement on the exact number of books that the Old Testament should have (with equal recognition), that is, on its canon. Until the XVI century, the Latin translation of Jerome known as «the Vulgate» (derived from Vulgar Latin) was maintained in the West. it incorporated both the Jewish canon and those writings of the Greek Septuagint. With the Protestant Reformation, Martin Luther questioned the need to keep the books of the Septuagint alongside those of the Jewish canon and grouped them together as an appendix deeming them useful for instruction but not canonical at the end of his German translation of the Bible. The Catholic Church confirmed, however, the canon of the Bible of the Seventy and of the Vulgate at the Council of Trent (1545-1563), more clearly recognizing the canonicity of some scriptures questioned by Luther, which began to be published in that same century. be called deuterocanonical (a concept introduced by Sixtus of Siena). The Eastern churches also recognize full canonicity to the deuterocanonical ones, also adding other books found in ancient codices, such as Psalm 151, the Prayer of Manasseh, III and IV Esdras, and III and IV Maccabees. The Coptic Church also accepts in its canon the Book of Enoch and the Book of Jubilees. The New Testament refers to both the deuterocanonical books and the Book of Enoch, and narrates the events of Christ's passion according to the calculation established in the Book of Jubilees. As for the rest of the books, there is no dispute and all Christian groups have the same books in the New Testament of the Bible.

Other books referenced in the Bible

Within the biblical text, some books and epistles are mentioned of which there are currently no reported copies or only fragments are preserved. Generally they are mentioned as primary references, writings of previous elaboration or as a complement to what is written within the context where they are mentioned. In the case of the Book of Enoch, this has been considered apocryphal by most religions (the contrary being the canon of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church) despite having been referenced in the Bible and being in an entire state of content..

The following partial list shows some of the books that are not available today in most Bible editions. Said books are:

• The book of the convention or The Book of the Covenantor The Book of the Covenant
• The Book of the Battles of the Lord
• The book of Jaser (or book of the righteous)
• A book kept in front of the Lord
• The Book of the Acts of Solomon
• The Book of the Seer Samuel
• The Book of the Prophet Nathan
• The Book of the Seer Gad
• Prophecies of Ahijah the Shilonite, and the seer
• The Books of the Prophet Semaiah
• The words of Jehu
• The facts of Uzziah
• The records of the kings of Israel or The minutes of the kings of Israel
• The words of the visionaries
• A roll with the word of the Lord to Jeremiah from the days of Josiah
• A book of Jeremiah against all the wickedness of Babylon
• A book of memories
• A previous epistle of Paul to the Corinthians
• Another Epistle of Paul to the Ephesians
• Paul's letter to the Laodicians
• The Prophecies of Enoch

Preservation and integrity of the Bible

Opinions are divided on the claim that much of the Bible has survived without major changes to the present day. Currently, the common belief in almost all of Christianity supposes the infallibility and/or inerrancy of the biblical text, assuming that the Bible is exempt from all error, being perfect as God's word to man. This concept is similar to the doctrine of sola scriptura, where it is considered that the Bible contains everything necessary for the salvation of man. The Nicene creed confesses the belief that the Holy Spirit "has spoken through the prophets." This creed has been held by Catholics, Orthodox, Anglicans, Lutherans, and most Protestant denominations. However, as Alister E. McGrath notes, "the Reformers did not see the issue of inspiration connected with the absolute reliability or true inerrancy of the biblical texts." He says:

[...] the development of the ideas of 'biblical infallibility' or 'inerrancy' within Protestantism can be traced to the United States in the mid-centuryXIX.

Defenders of the idea that the biblical scriptures are faithful and complete are based on the number of identical copies that have been made since ancient times. The Hebrew scribes of the Scriptures, called the Masoretes, who copied the Hebrew Scriptures between the VI and X used to count the letters to avoid errors.

Those who disagree with these statements appeal to circumstances such as translations from one language to another, copying of manuscripts, divergent opinions on dogmas and/or deliberate destruction and therefore maintain that the Bible has not come down as a complete volume. Finds such as the Dead Sea Scrolls have shown that this was largely before the I century AD, although the texts found there, and those known until then, seem to present minor changes. In other cases, books such as the apocryphal Gospels were dropped from the accepted canon during ecumenical councils, as part of an effort to maintain doctrinal integrity. Cases such as the discovery of the complete text of the Gospel of Thomas among the Nag Hammadi Manuscripts, among other texts considered heretical at the time, show a gradual editorial process in past times. There are other relevant texts related to the "original" Bible such as the apocryphal writings found in Egypt and the West Bank (Qumran, near the Dead Sea), and even in countries far away to the South and East. These have led to a new question about whether the biblical canon would already be complete, or whether it would have to be reviewed in detail.

Biblical Archaeology

The archaeological investigations in the area where the events narrated in the Bible take place have as an added result the verification of the events, places and characters that appear cited in the different books that make up the Bible. The term Biblical archeology has even been created to refer to a part of archeology that is in charge of studying the places indicated in the Bible.

There are several cases in which archaeological discoveries have pointed to congruences with Biblical events or characters. Among those discoveries are the following:

• King Sargon II of Assyria. This character, which appears in Isaiah 20:1, could not be confirmed until the ruins of his palace were discovered in 1847. Writings were found in which the conquests of the cities of Samaria and Asdod were recounted, which also appear in the book of Isaiah.
• Joaquin, king of Judah. The discovery of the tablets of Babylon allowed confirmation of the existence of King Joaquin of Judah and his five sons who appeared appointed in the Second Book of Kings and the First Book of Chronicles.
• Seals of Yehujal and Gedaliah. In 2005 and 2008, archaeologist Eilat Mazar discovered clay seals that named Yehujal (or Jucal), the son of Shelemiah, and Gedaliah the son of Pasur, both Jewish officials referred to in the book of Jeremiah.
• Findings in Nineveh. In the palace of Senaquerib there is a bas-relief that shows the Assyrian troops carrying captives to the Israelites after the fall of Lachish, made in the Second Book of Kings. In the pieces known as Senaquerib anals the facts made during the reign of Hezekiah and this same character are related. It is also curious as in the list of cities conquered by the Assyrians does not appear Jerusalem which agrees with the Biblical account that they were defeated at their gates, just as the murder of Senaquerib that are included in the Second Book of Kings, chapter 19, verse 37 (Also in 2 Chronicles 32:21 and Isaiah 37:37-38). "And it came to pass, as he leaned in the house of Nisroc, his god, Adramélec and Sarezer, his sons, they brought him down by the sword, and they themselves escaped into the land of Ararat. And Esar-hadon his son began to reign instead of him." (II Kings 19:37). Also mentioned in Isaiah 37:37-38. Verse 38 is identical to 2 Kings 19:37. Senaquerib did not die immediately after reaching Nineveh; it seems that this could happen about twenty years later. It depends on assyrian and Babylonian records of doubtful reliability. There is an inscription of his son Esar-hadon that confirms his murder and escape to the land of Ararat. -Ancient Records of Assyria and Babylonia, by D. Luckenbill, 1927, volume 2, pages 200, 201.
• Ciro Cylinder. It was found in Sippar, near Baghdad (Irak). He narrates the conquest of Babylon by Cyrus the Great. Some see in the account of Isaiah 13:1, 13:17-19, and 44:26—45:3 the prophecy of the destruction of Babylon by Cyrus. Also in the cylinder, Ciro's policy is to allow the deported peoples to return to their land of origin, as happened with the Israelites. The long and difficult journey back from the Israelites to Judah and Jerusalem could last about four months, according to Ezra 7:9. They would have come the seventh month (Tisri) of 537 a. C. (Esdras 3:1-6).

Archaeology has also provided interesting discoveries regarding the conformation of the biblical texts themselves.^{[citation needed]} The discoveries of the Gospel of Thomas and the Gospel of Philip, for example, reinforced the Q Hypothesis. A few scholars are inclined to believe that the Gospel of Thomas is older than the 4 canonicals and that, like Matthew and Luke, it had Q as a documentary source. According to those who support the hypothesis of Source Q, the oldest gospels would be collections of sayings of Jesus that would not narrate the crucifixion or the resurrection, but would be concerned with keeping the record of the Master's teachings.

Biblical criticism

Biblical criticism is the study and investigation of biblical writings that seeks to discern judgments about these writings. Seeing biblical texts with a human rather than supernatural origin, one wonders when and where a certain text originates. How, why, by whom, for whom and under what circumstances was it produced, what influences exist in its production, what sources would have been used in its composition, and what message is it intended to convey.

Biblical criticism varies slightly depending on whether it focuses on the Old Testament, the New Testament letters, or the canonical Gospels, and also plays an important role in the search for the historical Jesus.

It also alludes to the physical text, including the meaning of each word and the way each word is used, its preservation, history, and integrity. In fact, biblical criticism is a discipline that encompasses a wide range of subjects such as archaeology, anthropology, folklore, linguistics, evangelical oral traditions, and religious and historical studies.

Bible translations