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125-765: The Statenvertaling ( Dutch: [ˈstaːtə(ɱ)vərˌtaːlɪŋ] , States Translation ) or Statenbijbel ( States Bible ) was the first translation of the Bible from the original Hebrew , Aramaic and Greek languages into Dutch . It was ordered by the Synod of Dordrecht in 1618, financed by the government of the Protestant Dutch Republic and first published in 1637. The first complete Dutch Bible had been printed in Antwerp in 1526 by Jacob van Liesvelt . Like other existing Dutch Bibles, however, it

250-641: 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

375-670: A direct ancestor; in any case, the emphasis is placed on faith being the only requirement for the Abrahamic Covenant to apply (see also New Covenant and supersessionism ). In Christian belief, Abraham is a role model of faith, and his obedience to God by offering Isaac is seen as a foreshadowing of God's offering of his son Jesus. Christian commentators have a tendency to interpret God's promises to Abraham as applying to Christianity subsequent to, and sometimes rather than (as in supersessionism), being applied to Judaism, whose adherents rejected Jesus . They argue this on

500-407: 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

625-469: 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

750-467: 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

875-557: 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 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

1000-603: 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

1125-473: Is a universal religion (i.e. membership is open to anyone). Like Judaism, it has a strictly unitary conception of God, called tawhid or "strict monotheism". The story of the creation of the world in the Quran is elaborated less extensively than in the Hebrew scripture, emphasizing the transcendence and universality of God, instead. According to the Quran, God says kun fa-yakūnu . The Quran describes God as

1250-532: Is a Kurdish religion which combines elements of Shi'a Islam with pre-Islamic Kurdish beliefs; it has been classified as Abrahamic due to its monotheism, incorporation of Islamic doctrines, and reverence for Islamic figures, especially Ali ibn Abi Talib , the fourth caliph and first imam of Shia Islam . A number of sources include the Baháʼí Faith established in the 19th century, since it historically emerged in an Islamic milieu, and shares several beliefs with

1375-411: Is a collective religious descriptor for elements shared by Judaism , Christianity , and Islam . It features prominently in interfaith dialogue and political discourse but also has entered academic discourse . However, the term has also been criticized for being uncritically adopted. Although historically the term Abrahamic religions was limited to Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, restricting

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1500-460: 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

1625-629: Is also sometimes classified as Abrahamic, in particular due to its monotheism and use of the Bible as scripture. Chrislam , a group of related Nigerian religious movements which seek to syncretise Christianity and Islam, is sometimes also considered a minor Abrahamic religion. Other African diaspora religions, such as Haitian Vodou and Candomblé , are not classified as Abrahamic, despite originating in syncretism between Christianity and African traditional religions, since they are not monotheistic, and Abraham plays no role in them. Scholarly sources do not classify Sikhism as an Abrahamic religion, but it

1750-581: Is an alternate term for the Hebrew Bible composed of the first letters of those three parts of the Hebrew scriptures: 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

1875-416: 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:

2000-471: Is controversial, given Mandaeism does not accept Abraham as a prophet, despite revering as prophets several other figures from the Jewish scriptures – on the contrary, they believe that Abraham was originally a priest of their religion, but became an apostate from it. Druze is another religion which emerged from Islam in the 11th century, and hence is sometimes also considered an Abrahamic religion. Yarsanism

2125-604: 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

2250-912: Is its connection with the Miʿrāj , where, according to traditional Muslim belief, Muhammad ascended through the Seven heavens on a horse like winged beast named Buraq , guided by the Archangel Gabriel , beginning from the Foundation Stone on the Temple Mount , in modern times under the Dome of the Rock . Even though members of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam do not all claim Abraham as an ancestor, some members of these religions have tried to claim him as exclusively theirs. For Jews , Abraham

2375-513: Is known by different names. Each of these religions preaches that God creates, is one, rules, reveals, loves, judges, punishes, and forgives. However, although Christianity does not profess to believe in three gods—but rather in three persons , or hypostases, united in one essence —the Trinitarian doctrine , a fundamental of faith for the vast majority of Christian denominations, conflicts with Jewish and Muslim concepts of monotheism. Since

2500-520: 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

2625-669: 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)

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2750-435: Is primarily a revered ancestor or patriarch (referred to as Avraham Avinu (אברהם אבינו in Hebrew ) "Abraham our father") to whom God made several promises: chiefly, that he would have numberless descendants, who would receive the land of Canaan (the " Promised Land "). According to Jewish tradition, Abraham was the first post- Flood prophet to reject idolatry through rational analysis, although Shem and Eber carried on

2875-415: Is singular ( tawḥīd ) unique ( wāḥid ) and inherently One ( aḥad ), all-merciful and omnipotent. According to Islamic teachings, God exists without place and according to the Quran, "No vision can grasp him, but His grasp is over all vision: He is above all comprehension, yet is acquainted with all things." God, as referenced in the Quran, is the only God. Islamic tradition also describes

3000-431: Is sometimes popularly misconceived as being one, in particular due to the theory that it is a syncretism of Hinduism and Islam, which was popular in older accounts but has been rejected as inaccurate by contemporary scholarship. Zoroastrianism is not considered an Abrahamic religion, since Abraham is not part of Zoroastrian religious traditions. All Abrahamic religions accept the tradition that God revealed himself to

3125-828: Is stated.) The 1657 English Version owed itself to the close contact between the Puritans in Holland and England. In 1646 the House of Lords in England commissioned Theodore Haak (1605-1690) a respected German polyglot and academic to begin work on an English translation of the Statenvertaling met Aantekeningen – the Dutch State Bible. There is a suggestion that the Westminster Assembly initiated

3250-554: 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

3375-500: Is the all-powerful and all-knowing creator, sustainer, ordainer and judge of everything in existence. In contrast to the Jewish and Christian traditions, which depict God usually as anthropomorph, the Islamic conception of God is less personal, but rather of a conscious force behind all aspects of the universe only known through signs of nature, metaphorical stories, and revelation by the prophets and angels. Islam emphasizes that God

3500-455: Is the founding patriarch of the children of Israel. God promised Abraham: "I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you." With Abraham, God entered into "an everlasting covenant throughout the ages to be God to you and to your offspring to come". It is this covenant that makes Abraham and his descendants children of the covenant. Similarly, converts, who join the covenant, are all identified as sons and daughters of Abraham. Abraham

3625-525: 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

3750-528: 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

3875-749: Is typically viewed as the heresy of idolatry by Islam and Judaism. Jerusalem is considered Judaism's holiest city. Its origins can be dated to 1004 BCE, when according to Biblical tradition David established it as the capital of the United Kingdom of Israel, and his son Solomon built the First Temple on Mount Moriah . Since the Hebrew Bible relates that Isaac's sacrifice took place there, Mount Moriah's importance for Jews predates even these prominent events. Jews thrice daily pray in its direction, including in their prayers pleas for

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4000-601: The Hasmonean Kingdom , and modern Israel). It has been majority Jewish since about 1852 and continues through today. Jerusalem was an early center of Christianity . There has been a continuous Christian presence there since. William R. Kenan, Jr., professor of the history of Christianity at the University of Virginia , Charlottesville, writes that from the middle of the 4th century to the Islamic conquest in

4125-582: The Hebrew Bible or the Christian Bible, which contains both the Old and New Testaments . The English word Bible 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

4250-763: 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

4375-758: The Ishmaelites are descended from Abraham through his son Ishmael in the Arabian Peninsula. In its early stages, the Israelite religion shares traits with the Canaanite religions of the Bronze Age ; by the Iron Age , it had become distinct from other Canaanite religions as it shed polytheism for monolatry . They understood their relationship with their god, Yahweh , as a covenant and that

4500-590: 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

4625-987: The Last Supper in an "upper room" (traditionally the Cenacle ) there the night before he was crucified on the cross and was arrested in Gethsemane . The six parts to Jesus' trial—three stages in a religious court and three stages before a Roman court—were all held in Jerusalem. His crucifixion at Golgotha , his burial nearby (traditionally the Church of the Holy Sepulchre ), and his resurrection and ascension and prophecy to return all are said to have occurred or will occur there. Jerusalem became holy to Muslims, third after Mecca and Medina . The Al-Aqsa , which translates to "farthest mosque" in sura Al-Isra in

4750-618: 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

4875-670: 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

5000-473: 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 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

5125-411: 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

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5250-677: The prophets and messengers amongst the Children of Israel (Bani Israil), the Zabur ( Psalms ) revealed to Dawud ( David ) and the Injil (the Gospel ) revealed to Isa ( Jesus ). The Quran also mentions God having revealed the Scrolls of Abraham and the Scrolls of Moses . The relationship between Islamic and Hebrew scriptures and New Testament differs significantly from the relationship between

5375-704: The restrictions on pork consumption found in Jewish and Islamic dietary law), and key beliefs of Islam, Christianity, and the Baháʼí Faith not shared by Judaism (e.g., the prophetic and Messianic position of Jesus ). Jewish tradition claims that the Twelve Tribes of Israel are descended from Abraham through his son Isaac and grandson Jacob , whose sons formed the nation of the Israelites in Canaan ; Islamic tradition claims that twelve Arab tribes known as

5500-521: The siege of Jerusalem (70 CE), forced Jews to reconcile their belief-system with the destruction of the Second Temple and associated rituals. At this time, both Judaism and Christianity had to systematize their scriptures and beliefs, resulting in competing theologies both claiming Abrahamic heritage. Christians could hardly dismiss the Hebrew scriptures as Jesus himself refers to them according to Christian reports, and parallels between Jesus and

5625-479: The " sons of God " rather than "children of Abraham". For Muslims, Abraham is a prophet , the " messenger of God" who stands in the line from Adam to Muhammad, to whom God gave revelations, , who "raised the foundations of the House" (i.e., the Kaaba ) with his first son, Isma'il , a symbol of which is every mosque. Ibrahim (Abraham) is the first in a genealogy for Muhammad. Islam considers Abraham to be "one of

5750-568: The 16th century, the birth and growth of Protestantism during the Reformation further split Christianity into many denominations . Christianity remains culturally diverse in its Western and Eastern branches , Christianity played a prominent role in the development of Western civilization . Islam is based on the teachings of the Quran . Although it considers Muhammad to be the Seal of

5875-403: 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

6000-462: The 1st century as a sect within Judaism initially led by Jesus . His followers viewed him as the Messiah , as in the Confession of Peter ; after his crucifixion and death they came to view him as God incarnate , who was resurrected and will return at the end of time to judge the living and the dead and create an eternal Kingdom of God . In the 1st century AD, under the Apostles of Jesus of Nazareth ; Christianity spread widely after it

6125-460: The 2nd century: "His greatness lacks nothing, but contains all things." In the 8th century, John of Damascus listed eighteen attributes which remain widely accepted. As time passed, theologians developed systematic lists of these attributes, some based on statements in the Bible (e.g., the Lord's Prayer , stating that the Father is in Heaven ), others based on theological reasoning. In Islamic theology , God ( Arabic : الله Allāh )

6250-436: The 7th century AD, Islam was founded by Muhammad in the Arabian Peninsula; it spread widely through the early Muslim conquests , shortly after his death. Islam understands its form of "Abrahamic monotheism" as preceding both Judaism and Christianity, and in contrast with Arabian Henotheism . The teachings of the Quran are believed by Muslims to be the direct and final revelation and words of God . Islam, like Christianity,

6375-482: The Abrahamic faiths, including monotheism and recognising Jewish, Christian and Islamic figures as prophets. Some also include Bábism , another 19th century movement which was a precursor to the Baháʼí Faith – but while most followers of Bábism became Baháʼís, a minority did not, and Bábism survives today as an independent religion, albeit only with a few thousand remaining followers. Rastafari , an Afrocentric religion which emerged from Christianity in 1930s Jamaica,

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6500-415: The Abrahamic religions themselves. Proponents of the term argue that all three religions are united through the deity worshipped by Abraham. The Catholic scholar of Islam Louis Massignon stated that the phrase "Abrahamic religion" means that all these religions come from one spiritual source. The modern term comes from the plural form of a Quranic reference to dīn Ibrāhīm ("religion of Ibrahim"),

6625-572: The Arabic form of Abraham's name. In Christianity, Paul the Apostle , in Romans 4:11–12 , refers to Abraham as "father of all", including those "who have faith, circumcised or uncircumcised." From its founding, Islam likewise conceived of itself as the religion of Abraham. The Bahá’í scriptures state that the religion's founder, Baháʼu’lláh , descended from Abraham through his wife Keturah 's sons. The appropriateness of grouping Judaism, Christianity, and Islam as "Abrahamic religions" and related terms has been challenged. Adam Dodds argues that

6750-463: 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

6875-471: 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 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

7000-624: 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

7125-432: The Biblical stories of creation and redemption starting with Abraham in the Book of Genesis . The distant God asserted by Jesus according to the Christians, created a form of dualism between Creator and creation and the doctrine of Creatio ex nihilo , which later heavily influenced Jewish and Islamic theology. By that, Christians established their own identity, distinct from both Greeks and Jews, as those who venerate

7250-442: 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

7375-401: 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

7500-404: 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 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

7625-429: 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

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7750-489: 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),

7875-409: The New Testament and the Hebrew Bible . Whereas the New Testament draws heavily on the Hebrew Bible and interprets its text in light of the foundations of the new religion, the Quran only alludes to various stories of Biblical writings, but remains independent of both, focusing on establishing a monotheistic message by utilizing the stories of the prophets in a religious decentralized environment. In

8000-414: The Quran and its surroundings are addressed in the Quran as "the holy land". Muslim tradition as recorded in the ahadith identifies al-Aqsa with a mosque in Jerusalem. The first Muslims did not pray toward Kaaba , but toward Jerusalem. The qibla was switched to Kaaba later on to fulfill the order of Allah of praying in the direction of Kaaba (Quran, Al-Baqarah 2:144–150). Another reason for its significance

8125-429: 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 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

8250-427: 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

8375-421: The annual Hajj pilgrimage. The conception of God as universal remains a common feature of all Abrahamic religions. The Abrahamic God is conceived of as eternal , omnipotent , omniscient and as the creator of the universe . God is further held to have the properties of holiness, justice, omnibenevolence , and omnipresence . Proponents of Abrahamic faiths believe that God is also transcendent , but at

8500-426: 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 a variety of disparate cultures and backgrounds. British biblical scholar John K. Riches wrote: [T]he biblical texts were produced over

8625-461: The basis that just as Abraham as a Gentile (before he was circumcised ) "believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness" (cf. Rom. 4:3, James 2:23), "those who have faith are children of Abraham" (see also John 8:39). This is most fully developed in Paul's theology where all who believe in God are spiritual descendants of Abraham. However, with regards to Rom. 4:20 and Gal. 4:9, in both cases he refers to these spiritual descendants as

8750-456: 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

8875-419: 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. Abrahamic religions Abrahamic religions make up

9000-472: 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

9125-526: The category to these three religions has come under criticism. The late-19th-century Baháʼí Faith has been listed as Abrahamic by scholarly sources in various fields since it is a monotheistic religion that recognizes Abraham. The figure of Abraham is suggested as a common ground for Judaism, Christianity, Islam and a hypothesized eschatological reconciliation of the three. Commonalities may include creation , revelation , and redemption , but such shared concepts vary significantly between and within

9250-470: 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

9375-470: The completion of the works of creation/ here for the first time God is given the name IEHOVAH / meaning the independent/ self being/ being the same from eternity to eternity/ and the origin or cause of existence of all things; that is why this name only belongs to God. Remember for all time; wherever you from now on see the word LORD written in capital letters/ that there in Hebr. the word IEHOVAH, or shorter/ IAH

9500-555: The conception of a divine Trinity is not amenable to tawhid , the Islamic doctrine of monotheism, Islam regards Christianity as variously polytheistic . Christianity and Islam both revere Jesus ( Arabic : Isa or Yasu among Muslims and Arab Christians respectively) but with vastly differing conceptions: However, the worship of Jesus, or the ascribing of partners to God (known as shirk in Islam and as shituf in Judaism),

9625-537: 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

9750-544: The creator of "heavens and earth", to emphasize that it is a universal God and not a local Arabian deity here. While many sources limit the list of Abrahamic religions to only include Judaism, Christianity and Islam, some sources include other religions as well. Samaritanism diverged from Judaism in the 6th to 3rd centuries BCE; although sometimes considered a branch of Judaism, most consider it to be an independent Abrahamic religion. Some sources consider Mandaeism to be an Abrahamic religion – however, that classification

9875-661: The deity of Jesus. After several periods of alternating persecution and relative peace vis-à-vis the Roman authorities under different administrations, Christianity became the state church of the Roman Empire in 380, but has been split into various churches from its beginning . An attempt was made by the Byzantine Empire to unify Christendom , but this formally failed with the East–West Schism of 1054. In

10000-598: The deity promised Abraham a permanent homeland. While the Book of Genesis speaks of multiple gods ( ʾĔlōhīm ), comparable to the Enūma Eliš speaking of various gods of the Canaanite pantheon to create the earth, at the time of the Babylonian captivity , Jewish theologians attributed the six-day narrative all to Yahweh , reflecting an early conception of Yahweh as a universal deity. The monolatrist nature of Yahwism

10125-668: 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

10250-466: 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

10375-464: The first Muslims" (Surah 3)—the first monotheist in a world where monotheism was lost, and the community of those faithful to God, thus being referred to as ابونا ابراهيم or "Our Father Abraham", as well as Ibrahim al-Hanif or "Abraham the Monotheist". Also, the same as Judaism, Islam believes that Abraham rejected idolatry through logical reasoning. Abraham is also recalled in certain details of

10500-594: 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

10625-547: 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

10750-484: The labors of individuals. The notes are too short and fragmentary to be of any great value. The volumes are a heavy investment." Bible The Bible is a collection of religious texts or scriptures which to 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

10875-445: The largest major division in the study of comparative religion . By total number of adherents, Christianity and Islam comprise the largest and second-largest religious movements in the world, respectively. Judaism is the smallest of the three major Abrahamic religions, and Samaritanism is the smallest Abrahamic religion. Bábism and Druzism are offshoots of Abrahamic religions. The term Abrahamic religions (and its variations)

11000-731: 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

11125-467: 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

11250-654: The later definitive form produced by the Ecumenical Council of 381 . Trinitarians, who form the large majority of Christians , hold it as a core tenet of their faith. Nontrinitarian denominations define the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit in a number of different ways. The theology of the attributes and nature of God has been discussed since the earliest days of Christianity, with Irenaeus writing in

11375-526: 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

11500-514: The middle of the 7th century, the Roman province of Syria Palaestina was a Christian nation with Jerusalem its principal city. According to the New Testament , Jerusalem was the city Jesus was brought to as a child to be presented at the temple and for the feast of the Passover . He preached and healed in Jerusalem, unceremoniously drove the money changers in disarray from the temple there, held

11625-452: 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

11750-406: The name is given to Moses when YHWH calls himself " I Am that I Am ", ( Hebrew : אהיה אשר אהיה ’ehye ’ăšer ’ehye ), seemingly connecting it to the verb hayah (הָיָה), meaning 'to be', but this is likely not a genuine etymology. Jewish tradition accords many names to God, including Elohim , Shaddai , and Sabaoth . In Christian theology , God is the eternal being who created and preserves

11875-463: The name of the Phoenician seaport Byblos (also known as Gebal) from whence Egyptian papyrus 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

12000-525: 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

12125-443: 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

12250-404: 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

12375-586: 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

12500-407: 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,

12625-427: 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

12750-457: The patriarch Abraham. All of them are monotheistic , and all of them conceive God to be a transcendent creator and the source of moral law . Their religious texts feature many of the same figures, histories, and places, although they often present them with different roles, perspectives, and meanings. Believers who agree on these similarities and the common Abrahamic origin tend to also be more positive towards other Abrahamic groups. In

12875-662: The project in 1645, but there is no evidence that the Westminster Assembly discussed the matter in that year. Charles Spurgeon , a Calvinist Baptist , wrote: "Haak's Annotations come to us as the offspring of the famous Synod of Dort, and the Westminster Annotations as the production of a still more venerable assembly; but if, with my hat off, bowing profoundly to those august conclaves of master minds, I may venture to say so, I would observe that they furnish another instance that committees seldom equal

13000-468: The prophets , Islam teaches that every prophet preached Islam, as the word Islam literally means submission, the main concept preached by all prophets. Although the Quran is the central religious text of Islam, which Muslims believe to be a revelation from God, other Islamic books considered to be revealed by God before the Quran, mentioned by name in the Quran are the Tawrat ( Torah ) revealed to

13125-771: The restoration and the rebuilding of the Holy Temple (the Third Temple ) on mount Moriah, close the Passover service with the wistful statement "Next year in built Jerusalem," and recall the city in the blessing at the end of each meal. Jerusalem has served as the only capital for the five Jewish states that have existed in Israel since 1400 BCE (the United Kingdom of Israel , the Kingdom of Judah , Yehud Medinata ,

13250-448: The same time personal and involved, listening to prayer and reacting to the actions of his creatures. Jewish theology is unitarian. God is an absolute one, indivisible and incomparable being who is the ultimate cause of all existence. Jewish tradition teaches that the true aspect of God is incomprehensible and unknowable and that it is only God's revealed aspect that brought the universe into existence, and interacts with mankind and

13375-419: 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

13500-535: 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

13625-470: The synod during its 8th session on 20 November 1618. The four main instructions to the translators were: Regarding the Biblical apocrypha , the synod decided to translate these books but not to make them part of the canon. They were placed after the books of the New Testament and preceded with a "warning for the reader". In the Hebrew Bible, God's name is written with the four consonants JHWH (as seen on

13750-494: The term "Abrahamic faiths", while helpful, can be misleading, as it conveys an unspecified historical and theological commonality that is problematic on closer examination. While there is a commonality among the religions, their shared ancestry is mainly peripheral to their respective foundational beliefs and thus conceals crucial differences. Alan L. Berger , professor of Judaic Studies at Florida Atlantic University , wrote that "while Judaism birthed both Christianity and Islam,

13875-570: The text varies. The religious texts were compiled by different religious communities into various official collections. The earliest contained the first five books of 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 "

14000-689: The three main Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam), the individual, God, and the universe are highly separate from each other. The Abrahamic religions believe in a judging, paternal, fully external god to which the individual and nature are both subordinate. One seeks salvation or transcendence not by contemplating the natural world or via philosophical speculation, but by seeking to please God (such as obedience with God's wishes or his law) and see divine revelation as outside of self, nature, and custom. All Abrahamic religions claim to be monotheistic, worshiping an exclusive God, although one who

14125-609: The three monotheistic faiths went their separate ways" and "each tradition views the patriarchal figure differently as seen in the theological claims they make about him." Aaron W. Hughes , meanwhile, describes the term as "imprecise" and "largely a theological neologism ." The common Christian doctrines of Jesus's Incarnation , the Trinity , and the resurrection of Jesus , for example, are accepted in neither Judaism nor Islam. There are fundamental beliefs in both Islam and Judaism that are likewise denied by most of Christianity (e.g.,

14250-616: The tradition from Noah . Christians view Abraham as an important exemplar of faith , and a spiritual, as well as physical, ancestor of Jesus. For Christians, Abraham is a spiritual forebear as well as/rather than a direct ancestor depending on the individual's interpretation of Paul the Apostle , with the Abrahamic covenant "reinterpreted so as to be defined by faith in Christ rather than biological descent" or both by faith as well as

14375-801: The very top of the title page in Hebrew characters), and would not be pronounced by the Jews. During the 12th session, the synod decided to translate God's name with " HEERE " ("LORD"). In the margin where God's name first appears, the following note is given: Na de voleyndinge van het werck der scheppinge/ wort hier aldereerst Gode de naem van IEHOVAH gegeven/ beteeckenende de selfstandigen/ selfwesenden/ van hem selven zijnde van eeuwicheyt tot eeuwicheyt/ ende den oorspronck ofte oorsake van het wesen aller dinge; daerom oock dese naem de ware Godt alleen toecomt. Onthoudt dit eens voor al; waer ghy voortae het woort HEERE met groote letteren geschreven vindt/ dat aldaer in 't Hebr. het woort IEHOVAH, oft korter/ IAH staet. (After

14500-432: 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 the twenty-first century are only in the beginning stages of exploring "the interface between writing, performance, memorization, and

14625-408: The world's languages. Some view biblical texts to be morally problematic, historically inaccurate, or corrupted, although others find it 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

14750-469: The world. Christians believe God to be both transcendent and immanent (involved in the world). Early Christian views of God were expressed in the Pauline Epistles and the early creeds , which proclaimed one God and the divinity of Jesus . Around the year 200, Tertullian formulated a version of the doctrine of the Trinity which clearly affirmed the divinity of Jesus and came close to

14875-524: The world. In Judaism, the one God of Israel is the God of Abraham, Isaac , and Jacob , who is the guide of the world, delivered Israel from slavery in Egypt , and gave them the 613 Mitzvot at Mount Sinai as described in the Torah . The national god of the Israelites has a proper name , written Y-H-W-H ( Hebrew : יהוה ) in the Hebrew Bible . The etymology of the name is unknown. An explanation of

15000-570: Was adopted by the Roman Empire as a state religion in the 4th century AD. Paul the Apostle interpreted the role of Abraham differently than the Jews of his time. While for the Jews, Abraham was considered a loyal monotheist in a polytheistic environment, Paul celebrates Abraham as a man who found faith in God before adhering to religious law. In contrast to Judaism, adherence to religious law becomes associated with idolatry. While Christians fashioned their religion around Jesus of Nazareth ,

15125-451: Was further developed in the period following the Babylonian captivity , eventually emerging as a firm religious movement of monotheism. With the Fall of Babylon , Judaism emphasised concepts such as messianism, belief in free will and judgement after death, conception of heaven and hell, angels and demons, among others, into their belief-system. Christianity traces back their origin to

15250-636: Was merely a translation of other translations. Furthermore, the translation from Martin Luther was widely used, but it had a Lutheran interpretation. At the Synod of Dort in 1618/19, it was therefore deemed necessary to have a new translation accurately based on the original languages. The synod requested the States General of the Netherlands to commission it. The Statenvertaling was written with specific guidelines for translation established by

15375-686: 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,

15500-594: 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,

15625-412: 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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