The Bible, New Revised Standard Version - Bibles Free. Org

[Pages:3062]THE BIBLE

with the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical Books

ZAINE RIDLING, Ph.D.

Editor

New Revised Standard Version

Copyright ?1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Bible Document Statistics:

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3,060

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114,010

Words:

1,054,957

THE HEBREW BIBLE

with the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical Books

ZAINE RIDLING, Ph.D.

Editor

New Revised Standard Version

Copyright ?1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

HEBREW BIBLE, TABLE OF CONTENTS 1

TABLE OF CONTENTS

to the Hebrew Bible

Foreword .......................................................................

3

HT

TH

To the Reader ...............................................................

7

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Abbreviations ...............................................................

15

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Introduction to the Pentateuch .....................................

19

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Genesis ......................................................................

28

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Exodus .......................................................................

124

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Leviticus .....................................................................

207

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Numbers .....................................................................

266

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Deuteronomy ..............................................................

348

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Introduction to the Historical Books ...............................

426

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Joshua ........................................................................

435

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Judges ........................................................................

486

HT

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Ruth ...........................................................................

536

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1 Samuel .....................................................................

544

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TH

2 Samuel .....................................................................

605

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1 Kings ........................................................................

657

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2 Kings ........................................................................

717

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1 Chronicles .................................................................

773

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2 Chronicles .................................................................

828

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Ezra ............................................................................

892

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TH

Nehemiah ....................................................................

914

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Esther ..........................................................................

941

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TH

1

HEBREW BIBLE, TABLE OF CONTENTS 2

Introduction to the Poetical and Wisdom Books .................

HT

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Job ...............................................................................

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Psalms ...........................................................................

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Proverbs ........................................................................

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Ecclesiastes ....................................................................

HT

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Song of Solomon ............................................................

HT

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Introduction to the Prophetic Books ..................................

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Isaiah ............................................................................

HT

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Jeremiah .......................................................................

HT

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Lamentations .................................................................

HT

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Ezekiel ..........................................................................

HT

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Daniel ...........................................................................

HT

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Hosea ...........................................................................

HT

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Joel ..............................................................................

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Amos ............................................................................

HT

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Obadiah ........................................................................

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Jonah ...........................................................................

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Micah ...........................................................................

HT

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Nahum ..........................................................................

HT

TH

Habakkuk ......................................................................

HT

TH

Zephaniah .....................................................................

HT

TH

Haggai ..........................................................................

HT

TH

Zechariah ......................................................................

HT

TH

Malachi .........................................................................

HT

TH

958 967 1038 1231 1290 1308

1324 1332 1486 1625 1646 1754 1787 1814 1825 1847 1852 1858 1874 1882 1890 1900 1905 1925

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FOREWORD

FOREWORD 3

The Bible is the single most important influence in the imaginative tradition of Western literature. The Bible redeems history with a visionary, poetic perspective, which complements science in the understanding of human nature. It is encyclopedic in character, stretching from creation to the end of the world. It is violently partisan, abstract rather than objective or representational, with a multidimensional theme and variations rather than a linear exposition. The Bible can be read as literally as any fundamentalist could desire, but the real literal meaning is an imaginative and poetic one, brought forth through myth and metaphor.

The Bible's deep influence on Western literature makes it one of the first literary classics, but my own reading of the Bible is expansive, open to resonances of contextual meaning. The book is a double mirror, revealing a unified structure of narrative and recurrent imagery that ultimately reflects itself: the old is transformed and given new meaning; and the story ends back where it all began. Given this, there is a rich interaction between biblical and secular knowledge. Indeed, there is an imaginative energy flowing from the Bible to creative minds for centuries. A student of English literature who does not know the Bible does not understand a good deal of what is going on in what he reads: the most conscientious student would be continually misconstruing the implications, even the meaning.

I recommend reading the Bible straight through to form a conceptual unity that corresponds to the imaginative unity of the text, but the Bible is a very long and miscellaneous book, and many of those who have tried to read it straight though have bogged down very soon, generally around the middle of Leviticus. One reason for this is that the Bible is more like a small library than a real book: it almost seems that it has come to be thought of as a book only because it is contained for convenience within two covers. In fact what the word "Bible" itself primarily means is ta biblia, the little books.

3

FOREWORD 4

Those who do succeed in reading the Bible from beginning to end will discover that at least it has a beginning and an end, and some traces of a total structure. It begins where time begins, with the creation of the world; it ends where time ends, with the Apocalypse, and it surveys human history in between, or the aspect of history it is interested in, under the symbolic names of Adam and Israel. There is also a body of concrete images: city, mountain, river, garden, tree, oil, fountain, bread, wine, bride, sheep, and many others, which recur so often that they clearly indicate some kind of unifying principle. The Bible's disregard for unity is quite as impressive as its exhibition of it.

The Quran is the earliest and by far the finest work of Classical Arabic prose. For Muslims it is the infallible Word of God, a transcript of a tablet preserved in heaven, revealed to the Prophet Muhammad by the Angel Gabriel. The Quran in itself is a literary masterpiece, but is also one of the most influential books in the history of prophetic literature. My effort here, with the aid of several Arabic scholars, is to provide a meaningful translation of the Quran for the modern English reader, written in standard (American) English.

More often than not, when reading English translations of the Qur'an, one gets the sense of reading a foreign language translated literally, and thus sentences come across in English in strange contortions, leading the reader to scratch his head and reread the surah over and over in frustration. Until now, the Quran's contents has frustrated English readers simply because of poor translation efforts to date. The Standard English Version (SEV) translation directly addresses the problem of historical distance between past and present, between tradition and the needs of the contemporary generation, between revelation and interpretation. Part of the continuing relevance of the Quran in translation is that it does not permit itself to be read literally or passively. It challenges its readers actively to confront the problem of the relation between revelation and interpretation and breaks down conventional boundaries between scripture and tradition amidst the language divide that will always exist between Arabic and, for example, English. With that in mind, those who have not read the Quran will see that it is a capstone to all the Scriptures of the West:

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