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97-453: This list contains tribes or other groups of people named in the Bible of minor notability, about whom either nothing or very little is known, aside from any family connections. For the descendants of "Accaba" (1 Esdras 5:30, Revised Version ), see the entry for Hagab . For the "Agaba" of 1 Esdras 5:30, see Hagab . Ahumai , according to 1 Chronicles 4:2, was the name of a clan within

194-589: A certain degree are held to be sacred in Christianity , Judaism , Samaritanism , Islam , the Baháʼí Faith , and other Abrahamic religions . The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) originally written in Hebrew , Aramaic , and Koine Greek . The texts include instructions, stories, poetry, prophecies, and other genres. The collection of materials that are accepted as part of

291-429: A city in the north of what is now Lebanon Arvadites were descendants of Canaan , according to Genesis 10:18 and 1 Chronicles 1:16 . They inhabited Arvad/Arwad , an island city that is now part of Syria . The Asshurites (also called Ashurites or Asshurim ) are a group of people who, according to Genesis 25:3, descended from Dedan , the son of Jokshan , the son of Abraham . Their exact historical identity

388-641: A combined linguistic and historiographical approach, Hendel and Joosten date the oldest parts of the Hebrew Bible (the Song of Deborah in Judges 5 and the Samson story of Judges 16 and 1 Samuel) to having been composed in the premonarchial early Iron Age ( c.  1200 BCE ). The Dead Sea Scrolls , discovered in the caves of Qumran in 1947, are copies that can be dated to between 250 BCE and 100 CE. They are

485-576: A figure in the genealogy of Jesus according to Luke. Where the Greek has Elmadam , the Peshitta has Elmodad. The Encyclopaedia Biblica (1899) suggests that the original Semitic name is Elmatham, a form of the name Elnathan. Eshban is a name found in a genealogy in Genesis and Chronicles. In both genealogies, Eshban is identified as the son of Dishon, the son of Anah, the son of Zibeon, the son of Seir

582-731: A mistaken form of the originally intended "Keilah the Calebite." For the Edomite clan name "Gatam," see Gatam . Gazzam is the family name of a group of Nethinim in Ezra 2:48 and Nehemiah 7:51. Both instances are in copies of a list which claims to contain the family names of people who returned from the Babylonian captivity to Yehud Medinata . Girgashites , or Girgasites , were descendants of Canaan , according to Genesis 10:16 and 1 Chronicles 1:14 , and they also were inhabitants of

679-469: A place like Alexandria, Egypt. Moreover, in the early centuries of the church, some locales had better scribes than others. Modern scholars have come to recognize that the scribes in Alexandria – which was a major intellectual center in the ancient world – were particularly scrupulous, even in these early centuries, and that there, in Alexandria, a very pure form of the text of the early Christian writings

776-408: A profound influence both on Western culture and history and on cultures around the globe. The study of it through biblical criticism has indirectly impacted culture and history as well. The Bible is currently translated or is being translated into about half of the world's languages. Some view biblical texts to be morally problematic, historically inaccurate, or corrupted, although others find it

873-568: A repetition of the same name. It is still uncertain exactly how the Chronicler intended for the names in verses 20 and 21 to relate to one another. The term Elkoshite appears only in Nahum 1:1, where the prophet is called "Nahum the Elkoshite." It would seem to come from the name of a town named "Elkosh," but no such town has been positively identified. Elmadam or Elmodam is the name of

970-467: A special two-column form emphasizing their internal parallelism, which was found early in the study of Hebrew poetry. "Stichs" are the lines that make up a verse "the parts of which lie parallel as to form and content". Collectively, these three books are known as Sifrei Emet (an acronym of the titles in Hebrew, איוב, משלי, תהלים yields Emet אמ"ת, which is also the Hebrew for "truth"). Hebrew cantillation

1067-462: A tribe of people. Another of the tribes removed to Samaria, or perhaps the same as the Apharsachites ( Ezra 4:9 ). Arkites , also Archites were descendants of Canaan , according to Genesis 10:17 and 1 Chronicles 1:15 , and were also inhabitants of the land of Canaan , according to Joshua 16:2 . David's friend Hushai was an Arkite ( 2 Samuel 15:32 ). The Arkites inhabited Arqa ,

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1164-485: A useful historical source for certain people and events or a source of moral and ethical teachings. The Bible neither calls for nor condemns slavery outright, but there are verses that address dealing with it, and these verses have been used to support it, although the Bible has also been used to support abolitionism . Some have written that supersessionism begins in the book of Hebrews where others locate its beginnings in

1261-549: A variety of disparate cultures and backgrounds. British biblical scholar John K. Riches wrote: [T]he biblical texts were produced over a period in which the living conditions of the writers – political, cultural, economic, and ecological – varied enormously. There are texts which reflect a nomadic existence, texts from people with an established monarchy and Temple cult, texts from exile, texts born out of fierce oppression by foreign rulers, courtly texts, texts from wandering charismatic preachers, texts from those who give themselves

1358-603: A variety of hypotheses regarding when and how the Torah was composed , but there is a general consensus that it took its final form during the reign of the Persian Achaemenid Empire (probably 450–350 BCE), or perhaps in the early Hellenistic period (333–164 BCE). The Hebrew names of the books are derived from the first words in the respective texts. The Torah consists of the following five books: The first eleven chapters of Genesis provide accounts of

1455-575: Is a dialect, or group of dialects, of Eastern Aramaic , originating around Edessa . It is written in the Syriac alphabet and is transliterated into the Latin script in a number of ways, generating different spellings of the name: Peshitta , Peshittâ , Pshitta , Pšittâ , Pshitto , Fshitto . All of these are acceptable, but Peshitta is the most conventional spelling in English. The Peshitta had from

1552-709: Is a term that appears in passing only once in the Masoretic Text of the Hebrew Bible , in a genealogical passage which mentions a member of the Tribe of Judah referred to as "Keilah the Garmite". Where the Hebrew reads "the garmi ", various manuscripts of the Greek Septuagint read " atamei ", "the tarmi ", or "the garmei ". Thomas Kelly Cheyne wrote that the name "Keilah the Garmite" may have been

1649-460: Is also known as the "Five Books of Moses " or the Pentateuch , meaning "five scroll-cases". Traditionally these books were considered to have been dictated to Moses by God himself. Since the 17th century, scholars have viewed the original sources as being the product of multiple anonymous authors while also allowing the possibility that Moses first assembled the separate sources. There are

1746-416: Is any deviation between two texts. Textual critic Daniel B. Wallace explains that "Each deviation counts as one variant, regardless of how many MSS [manuscripts] attest to it." Hebrew scholar Emanuel Tov says the term is not evaluative; it is a recognition that the paths of development of different texts have separated. Medieval handwritten manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible were considered extremely precise:

1843-464: Is based on a collation of more than seventy Peshitta and a few other Aramaic manuscripts. All 27 books of the common Western Canon of the New Testament are included in this British & Foreign Bible Society's 1905 Peshitta edition, as is the adultery pericope (John 7:53–8:11). The 1979 Syriac Bible, United Bible Society, uses the same text for its New Testament. The Online Bible reproduces

1940-604: Is defined by what we love". Natural law is in the Wisdom literature, the Prophets, Romans 1, Acts 17, and the book of Amos (Amos 1:3–2:5), where nations other than Israel are held accountable for their ethical decisions even though they don't know the Hebrew god. Political theorist Michael Walzer finds politics in the Hebrew Bible in covenant, law, and prophecy, which constitute an early form of almost democratic political ethics. Key elements in biblical criminal justice begin with

2037-500: Is derived from Koinē Greek : τὰ βιβλία , romanized:  ta biblia , meaning "the books" (singular βιβλίον , biblion ). The word βιβλίον itself had the literal meaning of " scroll " and came to be used as the ordinary word for "book". It is the diminutive of βύβλος byblos , "Egyptian papyrus", possibly so called from the name of the Phoenician seaport Byblos (also known as Gebal) from whence Egyptian papyrus

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2134-444: Is described two times as the fifth son of Seir, but one time he is described as the son of Anah, who is in turn the son of Seir. Eleadah , Elead , or Eladah is the name of a clan in the tribe of Ephraim, personified as an individual in 1 Chronicles 7:20. The individual who appears in 7:20 is called "Eladah" or "Eleadah" depending on how one translates the Hebrew name, while an "Elead" appears in verse 21. This "Elead" may possibly be

2231-520: Is no surprise that different localities developed different kinds of textual tradition. That is to say, the manuscripts in Rome had many of the same errors, because they were for the most part "in-house" documents, copied from one another; they were not influenced much by manuscripts being copied in Palestine; and those in Palestine took on their own characteristics, which were not the same as those found in

2328-627: Is not described as having a named "mother" or "father" in the Hebrew Masoretic Text , but the Greek Septuagint Ishbah is described as the "son" of Jether. See Ishvi . For the Horite clan named Ithran, see Ithran . Jahmai is the name of a clan in the Tribe of Issachar , mentioned only in 1 Chronicles 7:2. Jakim is a Priestly division mentioned in 1 Chronicles 24:12. According to 1 Chronicles 24, in

2425-453: Is not known. Cheran is the name given to a Horite clan in Genesis 36:28 and 1 Chronicles 1:41. While the passage containing "Cheran" is written as though it were a genealogy of individuals, it expresses the relationship between various Horite clans as they understood by the writer of Genesis. In Ezra 2:56 and Nehemiah 7:58, which both reproduce versions of the same list, the bene darkon ("sons" i.e. "descendants" of Darkon) appear as one of

2522-669: Is not until the Babylonian Talmud ( c.  550 BCE ) that a listing of the contents of these three divisions of scripture are found. The Tanakh was mainly written in Biblical Hebrew , with some small portions (Ezra 4:8–6:18 and 7:12–26, Jeremiah 10:11, Daniel 2:4–7:28) written in Biblical Aramaic , a language which had become the lingua franca for much of the Semitic world. The Torah (תּוֹרָה)

2619-541: Is recorded in Ezra 2:51 and Nehemiah 7:53 as the collective name of a group of Nethinim who returned to Judah after the Babylonian captivity . The phrase used to describe this group is b'nei harhur , literally "sons of Harhur," which can be interpreted either as "descendants of [a person named] Harhur" or "people from [a place named] Harhur." Haruphite is a term applied to "Shephatiah the Haruphite" in 1 Chronicles 12:6 (or verse 5) in some Bibles. The form "Haruphite"

2716-459: Is short for biblia sacra "holy book". It gradually came to be regarded as a feminine singular noun ( biblia , gen. bibliae ) in medieval Latin, and so the word was loaned as singular into the vernaculars of Western Europe. The Bible is not a single book; it is a collection of books whose complex development is not completely understood. The oldest books began as songs and stories orally transmitted from generation to generation. Scholars of

2813-751: Is still quoted under the symbol "Syrschaaf", or "SyrSch". In a detailed examination of Matthew 1–14, Gwilliam found that the Peshitta agrees with the Textus Receptus only 108 times and with the Codex Vaticanus 65 times. Meanwhile, in 137 instances it differs from both, usually with the support of the Old Syriac and the Old Latin, and in 31 instances it stands alone. A statement by Eusebius that Hegesippus "made some quotations from

2910-554: Is taken from the masoretic text (called the Leningrad Codex ) which dates from 1008. The Hebrew Bible can therefore sometimes be referred to as the Masoretic Text. The Hebrew Bible is also known by the name Tanakh ( Hebrew : תנ"ך ‎). This reflects the threefold division of the Hebrew scriptures, Torah ("Teaching"), Nevi'im ("Prophets") and Ketuvim ("Writings") by using the first letters of each word. It

3007-576: Is that the Old Testament of the Peshitta was translated into Syriac from Biblical Hebrew , probably in the 2nd century CE, and that the New Testament of the Peshitta was translated from Koine Greek , probably in the early 5th century. This New Testament, originally excluding certain disputed books ( 2 Peter , 2 John , 3 John , Jude , Revelation ), had become a standard by the early 5th century. The five excluded books were added in

List of minor biblical tribes - Misplaced Pages Continue

3104-525: Is the manner of chanting ritual readings as they are written and notated in the Masoretic Text of the Bible. Psalms, Job and Proverbs form a group with a "special system" of accenting used only in these three books. The five relatively short books of Song of Songs , Book of Ruth , the Book of Lamentations , Ecclesiastes , and Book of Esther are collectively known as the Hamesh Megillot . These are

3201-528: Is thought to have occurred before 68 during Nero's reign. Early Christians transported these writings around the Empire, translating them into Old Syriac , Coptic , Ethiopic , and Latin , and other languages. Bart Ehrman explains how these multiple texts later became grouped by scholars into categories: during the early centuries of the church, Christian texts were copied in whatever location they were written or taken to. Since texts were copied locally, it

3298-638: Is unknown, but the name may refer to an Assyrian or Egyptian tribe, or it may be a generic term for peasants. In the King James Version of the Bible, people known as "Chemarims" (Hebrew kemarim ) are mentioned in Zephaniah 1:4 as people to be punished by God for their associations with idolatry. In most later translations the noun is treated as a common noun meaning "idolatrous priests" or something similar. The underlying Hebrew term also appears in 2 Kings 23:5 and Hosea 10:5, and its precise meaning

3395-506: Is used in the Qere , or the form of the text as traditionally read out loud in synagogues. The Ketiv , the form of the text written in the main body of the Masoretic Text but not traditionally read aloud in synagogues, calls Sephatiah a "Hariphite." The term "Hariphite" or "Haruphite" may refer to the same group of people called by the family name Hariph. Hashum is the name of a family or clan listed in Ezra 2:19 as returnees to Jerusalem from

3492-629: The Babylonian captivity . The Book of Ezra records that 233 members of this group returned to Jerusalem. The original pronunciation of the name is uncertain: it may have once been Hashim. Hatita is the name given to a family or clan of porters in Ezra–Nehemiah 's list of people who returned to Yehud Medinata after the Babylonian captivity . See Hattil . For information about the Hepherites mentioned in Numbers 26:32, see Hepher . In

3589-649: The Book of Nehemiah , one of Nehemiah 's enemies is called Sanballat the Horonite . Scholars have disagreed as to whether this identifies Sanballat as hailing from Beth-horon (in Samaria ) or from Horonaim (in Moab ). Ishbah is the name of a clan mentioned in 1 Chronicles 4:17, to which the people of Eshtemoa belonged. The passage describes relationships between clans and regions in terms of genealogical relationships, personifying them as if individual persons. "Ishbah"

3686-558: The Harklean Version (616 CE) of Thomas of Harqel . The New Testament of the Peshitta often reflects the Byzantine text-type , although with some variations. Peshitta is derived from the Syriac mappaqtâ pšîṭtâ (ܡܦܩܬܐ ܦܫܝܛܬܐ), literally meaning "simple version". However, it is also possible to translate pšîṭtâ as "common" (that is, for all people), or "straight", as well as the usual translation as "simple". Syriac

3783-700: The Hebrew Bible : the Septuagint , the Masoretic Text , and the Samaritan Pentateuch (which contains only the first five books). They are related but do not share the same paths of development. The Septuagint, or the LXX, is a translation of the Hebrew scriptures, and some related texts, into Koine Greek, and is believed to have been carried out by approximately seventy or seventy-two scribes and elders who were Hellenic Jews , begun in Alexandria in

3880-590: The Israelites and other nations, and conflicts among Israelites, specifically, struggles between believers in "the L ORD God" ( Yahweh ) and believers in foreign gods, and the criticism of unethical and unjust behaviour of Israelite elites and rulers; in which prophets played a crucial and leading role. It ends with the conquest of the Kingdom of Israel by the Neo-Assyrian Empire , followed by

3977-618: The Mediterranean (fourth century to the founding of the Principate , 27  BCE ), the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple (70 CE), and the extension of Roman rule to parts of Scotland (84 CE). The books of the Bible were initially written and copied by hand on papyrus scrolls. No originals have survived. The age of the original composition of the texts is therefore difficult to determine and heavily debated. Using

List of minor biblical tribes - Misplaced Pages Continue

4074-670: The Nevi'im ("prophets"), was canonized in the third century BCE. A third collection called the Ketuvim ("writings"), containing psalms, proverbs, and narrative histories, was canonized sometime between the second century BCE and the second century CE. These three collections were written mostly in Biblical Hebrew , with some parts in Aramaic , which together form the Hebrew Bible or "TaNaKh" (an abbreviation of "Torah", "Nevi'im", and "Ketuvim"). There are three major historical versions of

4171-599: The Revised Standard Version reads "Hagab" while the King James Version has "Agaba" and the Revised Version "Accaba." The Book of Acts has a prophet who shared a form of the same name: Agabus . See Hagabah . The family Hakupha (also Acipha or Achipha ) is listed as a sub-group of the Nethinim in Ezra 2:51, Nehemiah 7:53, and 1 Esdras 5:31. In manuscripts of the Greek Septuagint

4268-541: The Tribe of Judah . The name "Ahuman" appears only in this verse of the Hebrew Bible , and manuscripts of the Greek Septuagint read Acheimei , Achimai or Achiman. The Encyclopaedia Biblica raises the possibility that the correct reading is "Ahiman" rather than "Ahumai." A company of the colonists whom the Assyrian king planted in Samaria ( Ezra 5:6–7 ). Apharsathchites , according to Ezra 4:9 , were among

4365-411: The creation (or ordering) of the world and the history of God's early relationship with humanity. The remaining thirty-nine chapters of Genesis provide an account of God's covenant with the biblical patriarchs Abraham , Isaac and Jacob (also called Israel ) and Jacob's children, the " Children of Israel ", especially Joseph . It tells of how God commanded Abraham to leave his family and home in

4462-578: The 17th century; its oldest existing copies date to c. 1100 CE. Samaritans include only the Pentateuch (Torah) in their biblical canon. They do not recognize divine authorship or inspiration in any other book in the Jewish Tanakh. A Samaritan Book of Joshua partly based upon the Tanakh's Book of Joshua exists, but Samaritans regard it as a non-canonical secular historical chronicle. In

4559-725: The 5th century onward a wide circulation in Asia, and was accepted and honored by the whole diversity of sects of Syriac Christianity. It had a great missionary influence: the Armenian and Georgian versions, as well as the Arabic and the Persian, owe not a little to the Syriac. The Nestorian tablet of Chang'an shows the presence of the Syriac scriptures in China in the 8th century. The Peshitta

4656-463: The Bible "often juxtaposes contradictory ideas, without explanation or apology". The Hebrew Bible contains assumptions about the nature of knowledge, belief, truth, interpretation, understanding and cognitive processes. Ethicist Michael V. Fox writes that the primary axiom of the book of Proverbs is that "the exercise of the human mind is the necessary and sufficient condition of right and successful behavior in all reaches of life". The Bible teaches

4753-404: The Bible by a particular religious tradition or community is called a biblical canon . Believers in the Bible generally consider it to be a product of divine inspiration , but the way they understand what that means and interpret the text varies. The religious texts were compiled by different religious communities into various official collections. The earliest contained the first five books of

4850-458: The Bible, called the Torah in Hebrew and the Pentateuch (meaning five books ) in Greek. The second-oldest part was a collection of narrative histories and prophecies (the Nevi'im ). The third collection (the Ketuvim ) contains psalms, proverbs, and narrative histories. " Tanakh " is an alternate term for the Hebrew Bible composed of the first letters of those three parts of the Hebrew scriptures:

4947-778: The Bible. A number of biblical canons have since evolved. Christian biblical canons range from the 73 books of the Catholic Church canon, and the 66-book canon of most Protestant denominations, to the 81 books of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church canon, among others. Judaism has long accepted a single authoritative text, whereas Christianity has never had an official version, instead having many different manuscript traditions. All biblical texts were treated with reverence and care by those that copied them, yet there are transmission errors, called variants, in all biblical manuscripts. A variant

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5044-442: The Former Prophets ( Nevi'im Rishonim נביאים ראשונים , the narrative books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings) and the Latter Prophets ( Nevi'im Aharonim נביאים אחרונים , the books of Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel and the Twelve Minor Prophets ). The Nevi'im tell a story of the rise of the Hebrew monarchy and its division into two kingdoms, the Kingdom of Israel and the Kingdom of Judah , focusing on conflicts between

5141-401: The Galilean cities of Tiberias and Jerusalem, and in Babylonia (modern Iraq). Those living in the Jewish community of Tiberias in ancient Galilee ( c.  750 –950), made scribal copies of the Hebrew Bible texts without a standard text, such as the Babylonian tradition had, to work from. The canonical pronunciation of the Hebrew Bible (called Tiberian Hebrew) that they developed, and many of

5238-440: The Gospel according to the Hebrews and from the Syriac Gospel," means we should have a reference to a Syriac New Testament as early as 160–180 CE, the time of that Hebrew Christian writer. The translation of the New Testament has been admired by Syriac scholars, who have deemed it "careful, faithful, and literal" with it sometimes being referred to as the "Queen of the versions". The standard United Bible Societies 1905 edition of

5335-429: The Hebrew Bible was produced. During the rise of Christianity in the first century CE, new scriptures were written in Koine Greek. Christians eventually called these new scriptures the "New Testament" and began referring to the Septuagint as the "Old Testament". The New Testament has been preserved in more manuscripts than any other ancient work. Most early Christian copyists were not trained scribes. Many copies of

5432-489: The Hebrew Bible was written with spaces between words to aid in reading. By the eighth century CE, the Masoretes added vowel signs. Levites or scribes maintained the texts, and some texts were always treated as more authoritative than others. Scribes preserved and changed the texts by changing the script and updating archaic forms while also making corrections. These Hebrew texts were copied with great care. Considered to be scriptures ( sacred , authoritative religious texts),

5529-529: The Horite. The name refers to a Horite clan. Gammadim ( KJV Gammadims ) are a group or class of people mentioned only in Ezekiel 27:11, in a passage which lists them, along with various other groups of people, as defenders of Tyre . Some Hebrew manuscripts spell the name as Gammarim , while the Septuagint and other ancient Greek versions interpret it in a wide variety of ways. Some interpreters have taken it to refer to Cimmerians or Capadocians . The Gammadim are listed alongside Arvadites in Ezekiel, just as

5626-451: The New Testament of the Peshitta was based on editions prepared by Syriacists Philip E. Pusey (d. 1880), George Gwilliam (d. 1914) and John Gwyn . These editions comprised Gwilliam & Pusey's 1901 critical edition of the gospels, Gwilliam's critical edition of Acts , Gwilliam & Pinkerton's critical edition of Paul's Epistles and John Gwynn's critical edition of the General Epistles and later Revelation. This critical Peshitta text

5723-405: The Septuagint as the basis of the Old Testament . The early Church continued the Jewish tradition of writing and incorporating what it saw as inspired, authoritative religious books. The gospels , Pauline epistles , and other texts quickly coalesced into the New Testament . With estimated total sales of over five billion copies, the Bible is the best-selling publication of all time. It has had

5820-470: The Torah ("Teaching"), the Nevi'im ("Prophets"), and the Ketuvim ("Writings"). The Masoretic Text is the medieval version of the Tanakh, in Hebrew and Aramaic, that is considered the authoritative text of the Hebrew Bible by modern Rabbinic Judaism . The Septuagint is a Koine Greek translation of the Tanakh from the third and second centuries BC; it largely overlaps with the Hebrew Bible. Christianity began as an outgrowth of Second Temple Judaism , using

5917-439: The Zemarites (Hebrew Tsemarim ) are listed alongside Avadites in Genesis 10:18. Because of this parallel between Zemarites and Gammadim, as well as the similarities in appearance of the two words as written in the consonantal Hebrew text, Thomas Kelly Cheyne believed that the current text of Ezekiel only has "Gammadims" as a result of a scribal error, and that Ezekiel 27:11 originally read "Zemarites." Garmite (Hebrew, garmi )

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6014-427: The airs of sophisticated Hellenistic writers. It is a time-span which encompasses the compositions of Homer , Plato , Aristotle , Thucydides , Sophocles , Caesar , Cicero , and Catullus . It is a period which sees the rise and fall of the Assyrian empire (twelfth to seventh century) and of the Persian empire (sixth to fourth century), Alexander 's campaigns (336–326), the rise of Rome and its domination of

6111-456: The belief in God as the source of justice and the judge of all, including those administering justice on earth. Carmy and Schatz say the Bible "depicts the character of God, presents an account of creation, posits a metaphysics of divine providence and divine intervention, suggests a basis for morality, discusses many features of human nature, and frequently poses the notorious conundrum of how God can allow evil." The authoritative Hebrew Bible

6208-447: The books of Ketuvim in the order they appear in most current printed editions. The Jewish textual tradition never finalized the order of the books in Ketuvim. The Babylonian Talmud ( Bava Batra 14b–15a) gives their order as Ruth, Psalms, Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, Lamentations of Jeremiah, Daniel, Scroll of Esther, Ezra, Chronicles. Peshitta The consensus within biblical scholarship, although not universal,

6305-421: The books were compiled by different religious communities into various biblical canons (official collections of scriptures). The earliest compilation, containing the first five books of the Bible and called the Torah (meaning "law", "instruction", or "teaching") or Pentateuch ("five books"), was accepted as Jewish canon by the fifth century BCE. A second collection of narrative histories and prophesies, called

6402-414: The city of Ur , eventually to settle in the land of Canaan , and how the Children of Israel later moved to Egypt. The remaining four books of the Torah tell the story of Moses , who lived hundreds of years after the patriarchs. He leads the Children of Israel from slavery in ancient Egypt to the renewal of their covenant with God at Mount Sinai and their wanderings in the desert until a new generation

6499-423: The conquest of the Kingdom of Judah by the neo-Babylonian Empire and the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem . The Former Prophets are the books Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings. They contain narratives that begin immediately after the death of Moses with the divine appointment of Joshua as his successor, who then leads the people of Israel into the Promised Land , and end with the release from imprisonment of

6596-433: The converted Jew whose scholarship was so valuable to the English reformers and divines, made use of it, and in 1569 issued a Syriac New Testament in Hebrew script. In 1645, the editio princeps of the Old Testament was published by Gabriel Sionita for the Paris Polyglot , and in 1657 the whole Peshitta was included in Walton's London Polyglot . An edition of the Peshitta was that of John Leusden and Karl Schaaf, and it

6693-429: The culture of the fourth century Roman empire. The Bible has been used to support the death penalty , patriarchy , sexual intolerance , the violence of total war , and colonialism ; it has also been used to support charity , culture, healthcare and education . The term "Bible" can refer to the Hebrew Bible or the Christian Bible, which contains both the Old and New Testaments . The English word Bible

6790-420: The early Christian church translated its canon into Vulgar Latin (the common Latin spoken by ordinary people), a translation known as the Vulgate . Since then, Catholic Christians have held ecumenical councils to standardize their biblical canon. The Council of Trent (1545–63), held by the Catholic Church in response to the Protestant Reformation , authorized the Vulgate as its official Latin translation of

6887-410: The end of the Talmudic period ( c.  300 – c.  500 CE ), but the actual date is difficult to determine. In the sixth and seventh centuries, three Jewish communities contributed systems for writing the precise letter-text, with its vocalization and accentuation known as the mas'sora (from which we derive the term "masoretic"). These early Masoretic scholars were based primarily in

6984-594: The first century BCE. Fragments of the Septuagint were found among the Dead Sea Scrolls; portions of its text are also found on existing papyrus from Egypt dating to the second and first centuries BCE and to the first century CE. The Masoretes began developing what would become the authoritative Hebrew and Aramaic text of the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible in Rabbinic Judaism near

7081-547: The gospels and Paul's letters were made by individual Christians over a relatively short period of time very soon after the originals were written. There is evidence in the Synoptic Gospels, in the writings of the early church fathers , from Marcion , and in the Didache that Christian documents were in circulation before the end of the first century. Paul's letters were circulated during his lifetime, and his death

7178-536: The groups of people who wrote a letter to the Persian emperor in opposition to the rebuilding of Jerusalem. The exact spelling "Apharsathchites" occurs only in Ezra 4:9. However, an alternate form of the same name, "Apharsachites," appears in Ezra 5:6 and 6:6. According to the Encyclopaedia Biblica , the term seems to be "the title of certain officers under Darius," and it is "misunderstood" as referring to

7275-499: The groups of the "descendants of Solomon's servants" said to have returned from the Babylonian captivity to Jerusalem and Judah. Dishon is a Horite clan name that appears in the Hebrew Bible in 1 Chronicles 1 and Genesis 36. The passages involved are about the relations between Horite clans, but they are written as though the subject matter was the genealogical relationships between individuals, one of them named "Dishon." Dishon

7372-631: The land of Canaan , according to Genesis 15:21 , Deuteronomy 7:1 , Joshua 3:10 , 24:11 , and Nehemiah 9:8 . At times, they are not listed along with the other Canaanite tribes inhabiting the Holy Land; according to some, such as Rashi , this is because they left the Land of Israel before the Israelites returned from Egypt. For the "sons of Gibbar" see Gibbar . For the possible biblical clan-name Ginnath, see Ginath . See Haahashtari For

7469-731: The last king of Judah . Treating Samuel and Kings as single books, they cover: The Latter Prophets are Isaiah , Jeremiah , Ezekiel and the Twelve Minor Prophets , counted as a single book. Ketuvim (in Biblical Hebrew : כְּתוּבִים , romanized:  Kəṯūḇīm "writings") is the third and final section of the Tanakh. The Ketuvim are believed to have been written under the inspiration of Ruach HaKodesh (the Holy Spirit) but with one level less authority than that of prophecy . In Masoretic manuscripts (and some printed editions), Psalms, Proverbs and Job are presented in

7566-467: The late third century BCE and completed by 132 BCE. Probably commissioned by Ptolemy II Philadelphus , King of Egypt, it addressed the need of the primarily Greek-speaking Jews of the Graeco-Roman diaspora. Existing complete copies of the Septuagint date from the third to the fifth centuries CE, with fragments dating back to the second century BCE. Revision of its text began as far back as

7663-579: The latest books collected and designated as authoritative in the Jewish canon even though they were not complete until the second century CE. The books of Esther , Daniel , Ezra-Nehemiah and Chronicles share a distinctive style that no other Hebrew literary text, biblical or extra-biblical, shares. They were not written in the normal style of Hebrew of the post-exilic period. The authors of these books must have chosen to write in their own distinctive style for unknown reasons. The following list presents

7760-452: The most authoritative documents from which to copy other texts. Even so, David Carr asserts that Hebrew texts still contain some variants. The majority of all variants are accidental, such as spelling errors, but some changes were intentional. In the Hebrew text, "memory variants" are generally accidental differences evidenced by such things as the shift in word order found in 1 Chronicles 17:24 and 2 Samuel 10:9 and 13. Variants also include

7857-472: The name appears in the forms Apheika , Akoupha , Akeipha , and Acheiba. The name might mean "crooked." Hamathites were descendants of Canaan , according to Genesis 10:18 and 1 Chronicles 1:16 . They inhabited the Kingdom of Hamath , located in what is now western Syria and northern Lebanon . Hamulites were those who descended from Hamul son of Pharez according to Numbers 26:21 . Harhur

7954-525: The nature of authority and the sharing of power, animals, trees and nature, money and economics, work, relationships, sorrow and despair and the nature of joy, among others. Philosopher and ethicist Jaco Gericke adds: "The meaning of good and evil, the nature of right and wrong, criteria for moral discernment, valid sources of morality, the origin and acquisition of moral beliefs, the ontological status of moral norms, moral authority, cultural pluralism, [as well as] axiological and aesthetic assumptions about

8051-443: The nature of valid arguments, the nature and power of language, and its relation to reality. According to Mittleman, the Bible provides patterns of moral reasoning that focus on conduct and character. In the biblical metaphysic, humans have free will, but it is a relative and restricted freedom. Beach says that Christian voluntarism points to the will as the core of the self, and that within human nature, "the core of who we are

8148-404: The nature of value and beauty. These are all implicit in the texts." However, discerning the themes of some biblical texts can be problematic. Much of the Bible is in narrative form and in general, biblical narrative refrains from any kind of direct instruction, and in some texts the author's intent is not easy to decipher. It is left to the reader to determine good and bad, right and wrong, and

8245-527: The notes they made, therefore differed from the Babylonian. These differences were resolved into a standard text called the Masoretic text in the ninth century. The oldest complete copy still in existence is the Leningrad Codex dating to c. 1000 CE. The Samaritan Pentateuch is a version of the Torah maintained by the Samaritan community since antiquity, which was rediscovered by European scholars in

8342-407: The oldest existing copies of the books of the Hebrew Bible of any length that are not fragments. The earliest manuscripts were probably written in paleo-Hebrew , a kind of cuneiform pictograph similar to other pictographs of the same period. The exile to Babylon most likely prompted the shift to square script (Aramaic) in the fifth to third centuries BCE. From the time of the Dead Sea Scrolls,

8439-427: The path to understanding and practice is rarely straightforward. God is sometimes portrayed as having a role in the plot, but more often there is little about God's reaction to events, and no mention at all of approval or disapproval of what the characters have done or failed to do. The writer makes no comment, and the reader is left to infer what they will. Jewish philosophers Shalom Carmy and David Schatz explain that

8536-427: The priestly family in Ezra 2, see Habaiah . The descendants of Hagab, whose name means "grasshopper," are listed among the families of Nethinim , or temple assistants, who returned to Jerusalem from the Babylonian captivity in Ezra 2:46 and the parallel verse, Nehemiah 7:48. The Greek Septuagint manuscripts of Ezra and Nehemiah record the name as Agab or Gaba. The name also appears in 1 Esdras 5:30, where

8633-419: The seventh century, the first codex form of the Hebrew Bible was produced. The codex is the forerunner of the modern book. Popularized by early Christians, it was made by folding a single sheet of papyrus in half, forming "pages". Assembling multiples of these folded pages together created a "book" that was more easily accessible and more portable than scrolls. In 1488, the first complete printed press version of

8730-472: The substitution of lexical equivalents, semantic and grammar differences, and larger scale shifts in order, with some major revisions of the Masoretic texts that must have been intentional. Intentional changes in New Testament texts were made to improve grammar, eliminate discrepancies, harmonize parallel passages, combine and simplify multiple variant readings into one, and for theological reasons. Bruce K. Waltke observes that one variant for every ten words

8827-418: The time of David a systematic plan was created, in which priests were divided into twenty-four courses, which were responsible on a rotating basis for carrying out duties related to the temple at Jerusalem. Jakim is listed as the twelfth of the priestly courses. For the clan referred to as Janai or Jaanai, see Janai . Bible The Bible is a collection of religious texts or scriptures which to

8924-418: The twenty-first century are only in the beginning stages of exploring "the interface between writing, performance, memorization, and the aural dimension" of the texts. Current indications are that writing and orality were not separate so much as ancient writing was learned in a context of communal oral performance. The Bible was written and compiled by many people , who many scholars say are mostly unknown, from

9021-597: Was exported to Greece. The Greek ta biblia ("the books") was "an expression Hellenistic Jews used to describe their sacred books". The biblical scholar F. F. Bruce notes that John Chrysostom appears to be the first writer (in his Homilies on Matthew , delivered between 386 and 388 CE) to use the Greek phrase ta biblia ("the books") to describe both the Old and New Testaments together. Latin biblia sacra "holy books" translates Greek τὰ βιβλία τὰ ἅγια ( tà biblía tà hágia , "the holy books"). Medieval Latin biblia

9118-613: Was first brought to Europe by Moses of Mardin , a noted Syrian ecclesiastic who unsuccessfully sought a patron for the work of printing it in Rome and Venice. However, he was successful in finding such a patron in the Imperial Chancellor of the Holy Roman Empire at Vienna in 1555—Albert Widmanstadt. He undertook the printing of the New Testament, and the emperor bore the cost of the special types which had to be cast for its issue in Syriac. Immanuel Tremellius ,

9215-686: Was noted in the recent critical edition of the Hebrew Bible, the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, leaving 90% of the Hebrew text without variation. The fourth edition of the United Bible Society's Greek New Testament notes variants affecting about 500 out of 6900 words, or about 7% of the text. The narratives, laws, wisdom sayings, parables, and unique genres of the Bible provide opportunity for discussion on most topics of concern to human beings: The role of women, sex, children, marriage, neighbours, friends,

9312-594: Was preserved, decade after decade, by dedicated and relatively skilled Christian scribes. These differing histories produced what modern scholars refer to as recognizable "text types". The four most commonly recognized are Alexandrian , Western , Caesarean , and Byzantine . The list of books included in the Catholic Bible was established as canon by the Council of Rome in 382, followed by those of Hippo in 393 and Carthage in 397. Between 385 and 405 CE,

9409-412: Was ready to enter the land of Canaan. The Torah ends with the death of Moses. The commandments in the Torah provide the basis for Jewish religious law . Tradition states that there are 613 commandments ( taryag mitzvot ). Nevi'im ( Hebrew : נְבִיאִים , romanized :  Nəḇī'īm , "Prophets") is the second main division of the Tanakh, between the Torah and Ketuvim. It contains two sub-groups,

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