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0000Discovering Sacred Textsbl.uk/sacred-textsTeachers’ NotesCurriculum subject: Religious EducationKey Stage: 4Religion: ChristianityTheme: The BibleRationaleThese activities introduce the Christian Bible, and looks at its authorship, genres and different interpretations.ContentBritish Library resources from the site:Codex SinaiticusEthiopic BibleKing James BibleThe four gospels in ArabicEthiopic BibleTe Paipera Tapu araIllustrated Life of JesusRecommended reading (short articles):From sacred scriptures to the people’s BibleKey questionsWhat is in the Bible?What are the Old Testament and the New Testament?What is the Apocrypha?Do all Christians follow the same Bible?Why are different books in the Bible so different in style?Who wrote the Bible?How do Christians interpret the Bible?ActivitiesSlide 3) What is the most famous book in the world?Activity: Engage students in a discussion. What do they think?Why do they think that?Answer: The Bible!Slide 4) Not one book, but many.Except the bible is not a single book- it’s a collection of books – a bit like a library. The term 'bible' is actually derived from the Greek word βιβλ?α (books).It is a variety of different genres of writing, by different authors, written over a span of hundreds of years.Slide 5) Activity: Take a look at this Bible: Ethiopic BibleWhat’s the first thing the label tells us? (That unlike the King James Bible, which contains 66 books, the Ethiopic Bible comprises a total of 84 books and includes some writings that were rejected or lost by other Churches.)The fact that different branches of Christianity approve of slightly different versions of the Bible makes a lot more sense if we remember that the Bible is a library, not a single book. It didn’t descend from heaven in one bound volume, but is God’s message transmitted over time. Neither does it define itself- the table of contents is the work of the faith communities that edit or publish the texts. Slide 6) It’s also important to remember that originally all the separate books of the Bible were transmitted orally, and only written down centuries later. The Early Church had the authority to identify which books were true writings of the faith. Activity: Using the Bookshelf worksheet, brainstorm all the different types of books that you might come across in a library- we’ll come back to that in a minute! Slide 7) The two major partsThe Bible is made up of two major divisions – the Old Testament and the New Testament. Although the Christian Church regards both Testaments as inspired by God, it also holds as a fundamental doctrine that the New Testament bears witness to the fulfilment of the Old.There are 39 books in the Old Testament (54 books in the Catholic Old Testament).It tells the story of how humankind was separated from God and how God set in motion a plan to bring about reconciliation.There are 27 books in the New Testament.It continues the story, recounting how God’s promise was fulfilled through the incarnation and atonement of Jesus Christ as the son of God and saviour.Slide 8) How are the two testaments different? Activity: How can you tell which one is the Old Testament and which is the New Testament?Answer: Jesus- the Old Testament was written before Jesus, it is the Jewish book of law effectively. The New Testament was written after Jesus, when Christianity had formed.Slide 9) The Old TestamentThe Old Testament is about the Jews and contains their beliefs about God and the religion, their history and their hopes for the future. At its heart the three key elements of Jewish scripture: The first, the Torah in the Jewish tradition, is traditionally ascribed to Moses and comprises the five books from Genesis to Deuteronomy. Within this are works of law and history. The second, the twenty-one books of the Prophets, including the twelve Minor Prophets. The third, the Writings, comprises thirteen assorted books: the Psalms, Proverbs, Job, the Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther, Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah and Chronicles 1–2.Slide 10) The shaping of these thirty-nine books had evolved over nearly a millennium.Christians believe that the Old Testament pointed towards the coming of the Messiah (anointed one) – Jesus.Slide 11) The ApocryphaIn Coptic, Roman Catholic and Greek and Russian Orthodox Bibles there are extra books which Protestants call the Apocrypha (meaning hidden), but the other churches prefer to call ‘Deuterocanonical’ (books to be found only in the second or Greek list of canonical Scriptures). These are the books of Tobit, Judith, the Wisdom of Solomon, Ecclesiasticus (Sirach), Baruch and the two books of Maccabees.Slide 12) Where did they come from?In the days of early Christianity the Jews did not have a rigidly defined Old Testament canon. There was a central body of the Torah, and then other books of varying authority, including the apocrypha or deuterocanonical books. Because more Christians spoke Greek instead of Hebrew, the early Christian Church adopted a Greek version of the Jewish scriptures, called the Septuagint. We can’t speculate on what whether Jesus accepted them- it is not referenced at all in the New Testament. However, we know these texts were accepted by early Christians.Slide 13) How do we know this?Activity: Codex SinaiticusStudents can also turn the pages on: and consider its history! The oldest surviving Christian Bible manuscripts in the world are the Codex Vaticanus (4th century) and the Codex Sinaiticus (4th century). The Codex Sinaiticus contains all of the Apocrypha except II Maccabees but also includes IV Maccabees. These manuscripts show that the Septuagint was the Old Testament used by the early Church. Later on the Jewish community defined their scripture to exclude these books.Slide 14) When the early Christian scholar St Jerome (c. 342–420) initiated a translation and revision of the complete Bible into Latin, he advocated that the Church follow the Jewish Hebrew canon, and designated these extra texts as Apocrypha (from ?π?κρυφο?, hidden). Then when the Protestant Church split from the Catholic Church, they used the Jewish Hebrew canon of Scripture as the basis for their new Bibles, so these Apocrypha texts either do not form part of Protestant Bibles, or are included in them separately. The Apocrypha do, however, remain part of Coptic, Roman Catholic and Orthodox Bibles.Slide 15) The New TestamentChristians believe the New Testament is a fulfilment of the hopes that are found in the Old Testament.There are four different types of books:The Gospels - Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. These tell about the life of Jesus. ‘Gospel’ means ‘good news’.One history book – Acts. This tells of the first Christians and the growth of the Church.The Letters (or Epistles) - These were written by St Paul and some other early Christians. They help Christians know how to live their lives.Revelation - The last book of the Bible is a book of prophecy about the end of time.Slide 16) Different genres of writingWithin the Bible there are multiple genres of writing. There are books of law, history, songs, prophetic visions, letters…and many more!When we read the Bible, it’s essential to understand the literary style of the scripture, in order to interpret the message correctly. If we don’t take the genre of writing into consideration we might be confused about the text. For example, the Psalms are poetry full of figurative language. When the Psalm 91:4 says that God “shall cover you with His feathers, and under His wings you shall take refuge...”, we need to recognise that this is poetry and not historical narrative.Slide 17) Image from Add MS 11695, Silos Apocalypse showing a war in heaven, described at the beginning of the 12th chapter of the Book of Revelation.Activity: What can you see in this image? What book do you think this image is from? Do you think it’s a book of law? Or history? Or is it poetic? If we don’t account for genre of the writing, then we are likely to misunderstand God’s message.Slide 18) What are some of the major genres?Activity: Divide the class up into groups of 2 or 3 and hand each small group one of the summaries of the different genres (see accompanying worksheets and print outs document). Ask them to read it and discuss it amongst themselves. Questions they could ask each other: Are they familiar with this genre? Do they think it might be difficult to understand or fairly straight forward? Do they think it might be open to interpretation, or likely to be read very literally? Once they have had a chance to do this in pairs hand the students a Bible Bingo sheet (see accompanying worksheets and print outs document). One person from each small group presents what they have found (they may paraphrase) to the class. The other students can tick off the books mentioned in Bible Bingo (lower ability), or annotate with which genre the books fall in (higher ability). Slide 19) Who wrote the Bible?When reading a book of the Bible (or anything actually!), it helps to understand who wrote it, why the wrote it, and for what audience they wrote it. There are two answers to this question of ‘who wrote the Bible?’. A historical account would be that about 40 people contributed to writing of the Bible. We cannot know for sure, but there are approximately 30 authors of the Old Testament and 10 of the New Testament. These authors span many years and geographical locations, which accounts for why the different books of the Bible amount to such a diverse collection.Some books have very obvious authorship, others are attributed to people through historical clues in the text. Slide 20) The Old Testament goes back thousands of years. The books were communicated orally before being written down. Both Jewish and Christian tradition holds that, the first five books of the Bible books of (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy) were written by Moses in about 1,300 B.C.Some books are have several authors. For example, the book of Psalms is usually attributed to David, but individual psalms were written by others. King Solomon (David’s son), is credited with inspiring or writing the Bible’s wisdom literature. The books of prophets were mostly likely delivered orally in public places like the Temple or royal court, and transcribed later by the oracles themselves or later scribes. Slide 21) The New Testament consists of the early writings of the first Christian churches. The gospels were written as eyewitness accounts of Jesus’s life, by his disciples or companions to the apostles. The epistles were letters designed to be read by congregations, typically in aloud in a communal setting, such as those by Paul. They would memorise the message and share it with neighbouring Christians.Slide 22) The fuller answer to the question of ‘who wrote the Bible?’, is that first and foremost, Christians believe that God wrote the Bible. The Bible is the Word of God, in some way. This is why for all Christians, the Bible has authority.‘All Scripture is inspired by God.’ 2 Timothy 3:16The human authors were vessels for God’s message and inspiration. The Bible is God speaking to our world. He did not simply dictate words to scribes, the human contribution is significant. This is why there are so many styles and different perspectives in the Bible, but God’s message of redemption unifies them all. The Bible is human and divine, inspired by the Spirit but also the output of the world in which it was written for. Slide 23) How do Christians interpret the Bible?Because Christians believe that the Bible is the Word of God, it holds authority. The ways in which different groups interpret it can differ though. What do you think is relevant to Bible interpretation?There are many things that separate us from the true understanding of the Bible. We live in very different times from when it was written- no one can query the author on what they mean!Culturally and geographically, the context in which the Bible was written is very foreign to a lot of us. The Bible was not written in 21st-century English. It was not even written in English, but 3000-year-old Hebrew, or 2000-year old Greek. Throughout the many translations that have occurred over the years people have contested over the meanings of certain words. We are not always familiar with the genre in which certain books of the Bible are written in. Some are very hard to read and understand. Our ability to grasp God’s infinite wisdom with our limited capabilities. Slide 24) LiteralistsLiteralists believe that every single word of the Bible comes from God and that it must be taken literally. They believe that: God is the sole author of the Bible, denying human collaboration.The Bible therefore cannot contain mistakes. Everything has a purpose in the Bible, even things that we consider to be mistakes. Everything in the Bible is true, even things that contradict science. Activity: How do they interpret symbolism? How do they account for changes and amendments that are made along the way? Codex Siniaticus…)Slide 25) FundamentalistsFundamentalists hold some of the same beliefs as literalists, but they allow for some interpretation.The Bible was inspired by God It doesn’t contain any errors.Everything in the Bible is true, even things that contradict science, but our understanding of some of the words used in the Bible might be different these days. For example fundamentalists believe in the Genesis story and that Adam and Eve were the first humans, but allow that ‘day’ might actually mean ‘a period of time’.Slide 26) ConservativesConservatives believe that the Bible is the work of both God and human writers.God inspired human words.The beliefs of the authors can be found in the Bible.The Bible is not incompatible with science.They look for universal truths, instead of small particular details. Conservatives see no problem with evolution, and consider the creation story in Genesis as symbolic. The underlying message of the Bible is more important. Activity: If the personal beliefs of the human writers are in the Bible, does that mean does that mean we can reinterpret them?Slide 27) LiberalsLiberals believe that the authors of the Bible were inspired by God.The Bible should be read spiritually, not literally.The Bible is largely symbolic and poetic.We should allow for different beliefs.Some liberals believe that all of Jesus’ miracles are symbolic. Some believe that some of the miracles happened, but not others.Slide 28) Where has the Bible reached?All over the world! The Bible was originally written in Hebrew and Greek (and a small bit of Aramaic). In Christianity the Bible is sacred in any language, not just the original language that it was written in. The Bible has always existed in different translations in the Middle East and parts of Africa.Activity: Explore The four gospels in Arabic and the Ethiopic BibleSlide 29) The Bibles that we read in English are translations. For many centuries there were only Latin Bibles in England, which the majority of the people in the country could not actually read themselves. However, various books of the Bible were translated into English since at least the 9th century, such as the Vespasian Psalter. Biblical texts in English and French (which was also a widely spoken language in England) were available throughout the Middle Ages. The first translation of the whole Bible into English was the Wycliffite Bible, produced in the latter decades of the 14th century, although it was later banned. In the 16th century the Protestant reformer William Tyndale made a new translation of the Bible into English and published it in print, Tyndale’s Bible.Slide 30) But from the 16th century various missionary activities spread the Bible even further than it had ever been before. Activity: Explore Te Paipera Tapu ara, The Holy Bible in Maori and Illustrated Life of Jesus in ChineseSlide 31) Activity: Read From sacred scriptures to the people’s Bible, and answer the questions on the homework sheet.Previous exam questions GCSE Edexcel:Outline three forms of writings found in the Bible.A LEVEL:AQA:‘The Bible has great authority for Christians today.’ Assess this view.Explain why there are different Christian beliefs about the authority of the Bible and why the differences between them are significant.‘Philosophical understandings of religious experience undermine Christian beliefs about the authority of the Bible.’ Critically examine and evaluate this view with reference to the dialogue between Christianity and philosophy. Explain why there are different Christian beliefs about the authority of the Bible and why the differences between them are significant.Eduqas:Explain how the Christian biblical canon was established. ‘The Bible cannot be regarded as the inspired word of God.’ Evaluate this view with reference to Christianity. Outline ways in which the Bible is used as a source of authority in Christian daily life. ‘The Bible provides the best guide to the meaning and purpose of life.’ Evaluate this view with reference to Christianity.WJEC:‘The Bible is the inspired Word of God.’ Evaluate this view with reference to Christianity.Explain the teaching the Bible gives about the meaning and purpose of life. ‘The Psalms are ancient songs that provide no guide for living as a Christian today.’ Evaluate this view.Homework taskFrom sacred scriptures to the people’s Bible comprehension: AnswersWhat was the first change that altered how we viewed our sacred texts?The first change was the invention of printing with moveable type by Johannes Gutenberg in the early 1450s. How did medieval Christians view the Holy Scripture?Medieval Christians had revered the Holy Scriptures, but had little access to them. They generally saw them as plural Scriptures rather than a single Bible. Manuscripts of the whole Bible were a rarity: they were physically huge and very expensive. Individual books of the Bible, or sets of books, were the norm. What was humanist’s motto?Their motto was ad fontes, 'back to the sources'.What did Erasmus call for in his preface?He called for the Bible to be translated into every language so that ‘even the lowliest women’ could read it. He urged Christians to take the text into their own hands and hearts, and become their own theologians.What did Luther want to do?He wanted to fundamentally rebuild the Church and its teachings. What was Luther’s slogan?His slogan was sola Scriptura, 'Scripture alone'. What European country banned bibilical translation?There was only one European country that banned biblical translation outright: England. When was the first complete English New Testament printed?The first complete, printed English New Testament was produced there in 1526When was the first full Bible printed in English?The first full Bible in English was produced in 1535, the year after Henry VIII’s final and definitive rejection of papal authority. ................
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