The Bible As Literature, An Introduction - A Review

SUMMARIESa. Chapter 15 (The Text of the Bible)This chapter assesses the evidence available to Biblical textual scholars as they work toward realistic goals like determining the earliest among the variant readings that ancient manuscripts provide and understanding the development of Biblical texts during the history of their transmission. How have the ancient Biblical texts been transmitted to our time? In what forms do they exist? To what extent can we trust those forms to embody the actual words of the original authors? The writers observe that printed Hebrew Bibles and Greek New Testaments are artificial entities which are created in relatively modern times from the evidence in ancient manuscripts. Repeated copying introduces alterations and some copyists deliberately alter the text to ''correct'' or ''improve'' the original. The writers observe that there are about 5,350 different manuscripts of the Greek New Testament. What can account for this wide variance among documen
ts written so early in the history of the New Testament text? In addition to errors of copying and writing, Christianity was evolving rapidly during the first several centuries and the New Testament evolved along with it to meet its needs. Generally, the textual situation of the Hebrew Bible appears far more stable than that of the Greek New Testament. This notwithstanding, the situation is far more complicated than it would appear to be. We should not suppose that the urge to ''correct'' text was any less active among Old Testament writers than among Christian Scribes. The writers observe that there are passages in the Bible that are sufficiently similar to indicate that they derive from the same source (or from one another) but also sufficiently different to demonstrate that there was great freedom in handling the text even during the time of the books of the Bible were being written. Some duplicate (Psalms 14 and 53; 40: 14-18 and 70: 2-6) and triplicate texts (II Kings 1
8:13ff, Isaiah 36:1ff and II Chronicles 32:1 ff; and Jeremiah 39:1ff, Jeremiah 52:4ff and II Kings 25:1ff) provide supportive evidence. The textual situation of the Apocryphal text, Ecclesiastics (known to Jews as The Wisdom of Jesus been sire) is discussed. The writers observe that it was sometimes cited in rabbinic literature although it was never formally admitted to the Hebrew canon.b. Chapter 16 (Translating the Bible)It is a paradox to note that not more than one percent of Bible readers can read the text in Hebrew and Greek. The implication is a very heavy reliance on translation. This chapter discusses some challenges faced in translating the Bible. How well readers are served who must depend on translations? Can such readers be confident that translations in general, or any one in particular, will give them the whole Bible and nothing but the Bible? Gabel, Wheeler and York are correct to observe that a completely faithful translation cannot be made into another lang
uage because there is no universally agreed upon text of the Bible to translate from and secondly that complete faithfulness in translating anything (the Bible included) is not always possible.Establishing a text therefore is very complex and potentially tedious. Demanding a translation of "the whole Bible and nothing but the Bible" is imagining an entity that does not exist. The ideal of translation (to carry over the whole sense of the word from the original language to the ''receptor language'') can never be realized. Some original sense is left behind while an additional sense could be imposed. How can one choose among the diverse translations? What criteria should guide the choice? The writers propose that readers should use the characteristic combination of formal correspondence and dynamic equivalence. The former is the quality of a translation in which the features of the form of the source text have been mechanically reproduced in the receptor language. The latter i
s the quality of a translation in which the message of the original text has been so transported into the receptor language that the response of the receptor is like that of the original receptors. Depending on a translation is to be at the mercy of the translators. A realistic recommendation is to use at least two or three versions in order to double or triple the number of expert opinions available on a given passage.c. Appendix II (Writing in Biblical times)The Bible had been a handwritten book for a much longer time than it had been a printed book. What was required to create a formal written document during those many centuries before the printing press took over? In this appendix, the writers surveyed the technology of writing in order to shed light on the conditions that gave us the Bible as a physical object.Writing is regarded as a very old human invention. Clay, animal skin and papyrus are identified as three major materials employed for writing in the West and in
the Near East until the introduction of rag paper from the Far East long after the Biblical period. The writer traces a number of Biblical accounts concerned with the writings. Moses writes on stone labels (Ex. 34:28-29); Joshua engraves a copy of the Law of Moses (Josh. 8:32); Isaiah is instructed to take a large tablet (Is. 8:1) and write a symbolic name upon it; Ezekiel is given a scroll to eat by Yahweh, which according to the writers, is perhaps understood as a small roll of papyrus (Ezek. 3:1-2); Jeremiah dictates an oracle concerning Judah''s coming destruction to his secretary Baruch, who takes it down in ink on a scroll (Jer. 36). At the end of II Timothy, the author requests that the scrolls be brought to him especially the parchments and John is required to eat a little scroll (Rev. 10:9-10). According to the writers'' supposition, the Pentateuch, history books, Job, Proverbs and Psalms would have been written on leather (locally available to Israel) or papyrus (f
rom Egypt). They opined that the oracles of the prophets probably circulated orally and might have been written down initially in the form of notes on potsherds or wood and then on leather and papyrus. Parchment, they believed, could have been chosen later as an alternative. They also traced the movement from roll to codex and papyrus to parchment.RESPONSEa. Chapter 15 (The Text of the Bible)The writers are correct to observe that the task of biblical textual scholarship is not easy since its theoretical goal (that is to weed out alterations of any kind and thus to arrive back at the original texts as the authors wrote them) will never be reached since there will never be enough evidence to accomplish it. It is rightly observed that the very notion of a single original text is itself an illusion.b. Chapter 16 (Translating the Bible)The writers did very little to separate the challenges faced in translation, making it relatively difficult for the reader to fully appreciate th
e discussion. This is where the strength of Omanson (1988) lies. He divides the problems into several categories ? textual, grammatical, terms of kinship and pronoun gender. Another vivid summary is also worth mentioning:First, no matter how wonderful a translation is, it has limitations. The Bible was originally written using 11,280 Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek words, but the typical English translation uses only around 6,000 words. Obviously, nuances and shades of meaning can be missed, so it is always helpful to compare translations (Warren 2002, 325).It is a truism that "the translation you are using may be correct, of course; but it also may be wrong" (Fee and Stuart 1982, 29). One limitation of this chapter is surveying the history of Biblical translation only in English though the writers acknowledged the fact that there is an equivalent history for other European languages.c. Appendix (Writing in Biblical Times)Perhaps the most impressive feature in their presentation i
s the manner in which the writers portrayed the vast gulf that separates our world, with its inexpensive printed materials and widespread literacy, from the world within which the Bible developed ? and within which it was disseminated for so many hundred years. It is however unfortunate that theirs is not as impressive as Patzia''s similar presentation on writing, copying and transmitting the New Testament manuscripts (Patzia 1995). Unlike Patzia, there are no pictures to give a graphic illustration of how these texts appeared on different writing materials. Generally, the fact that the text itself is in its third edition has been published in twenty seven cities reveals its importance. The writers provide essential background information of the sort that few students have either the time or ability to piece together out of the enormous mass of published material on the Bible.LIST OF REFERENCESFee, Gordon and Douglas Stuart. 1992. How to Read the Bible for all its Worth: A G
uide to Understanding the Bible. Michigan: The Zondervan Corporation.Omanson, Roger L. 1988. Can You Get There from Here?: Problems in Bible Translation. Christian Century. June 22-29.Patzia, Arthur G. 1995. The Making of the New Testament: Origin, Collection, Text and Canon. Downers Grove, Illinois: Inter Varsity Press.Warren, Rick. 2002. The Purpose Driven Life: What on Life Am I Here for? Grand Rapids, Michigan:Zondervan.

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