I. Text and Transmission of the Hebrew Bible
The idea that these people had such an impact over the authoritative and Holy texts astounds me. Just imagine all the things we never caught because the changes were so subtle. I am glad that some of the changes made the Bible easier or more clear to understand. I have always took notations for granted because I never saw a reason to change what I was reading, but I have now learned that notations help us to better understand the original text. Many, many texts have been approved or denied assimilation into the Bible; therefore, notations help to clear up some of the misunderstanding between translations.
The Masoretic Scribes (500-1000 A.D) were of greatest help in allowing common people to be able to read the Bible. They introduced vowels that before were non-existent. Though this was helpful to the society at the time, as Hebrew became a dying language the pronunciation was skewed. I found it so interesting that we have words today such as Jehovah that were NEVER holy names for God. They only came to exist because of mispronunciation and illiteracy of the Hebrew language. They are not true, original names for God. It is a satisfying thought when the Dead Sea Scrolls are found and there were only minor changes made by the Masoretic people. Just think of the total revision that would have had to been made, the hours lost, if the Scrolls had revealed something entirely different. I could not imagine the original texts of books I have read, or texts I have studied, coming to light and being nothing similar of what I had previously learned. The great minds that slaved over these writings died in vain. We won't ever know individuals that worked on our Bible, our most sacred book. I find that very sad. Being a person who finds it comforting to receive praise for my accomplishments, I would not have wanted my name to go to the grave with me as most of these men did.
Given the list of books that almost did not make it into the Old Testament, I am glad that our society is not the ones putting the Bible together. Our separate parties and prideful view points would make it impossible to create a work of literature such as the Bible. The intelligence and patience these ancient people had makes me view my own life and mind. I wonder what my opinion of these books would have been if I had not been familiar with the set Bible already. Would I been willing to allow any book God saw as Holy into the Bible if that meant sexual relations or contradictions in its own text? How these leaders knew what God wanted them to include creates a picture in my mind: a man up at all hours of the night, contemplating the decision; to include or not to include. He falls asleep because of exhaustion and has a dream, in which God shows him the answer. I can only imagine these things happening, but find it extraordinary that they were able to follow God's plan. I believe that God did have a had in creating the book that the entire world would be reading and deciding to follow Him or not. He would not lead us astray with false teachings.
I am super excited to read the Apocrypha! I had never heard of it before and want to make my own decisions whether it should be part of my faith.
The next section might have some repeats of the earlier post because I think I was actually suppose to read this one first but didn't...
II. Structure of the Hebrew Bible
First, I want to know why all the Bibles aren't ordered chronologically. The Hebrew, the original, texts were, so I think it would make sense to continue that. However, I have not read the Bible in its chronological form and do not know how confusing that would be, so I can not complain too much about the subject.
Torah = Law
Nebiim = Prophets
Kethubim = Writings
Again, I love that communities came together to decide which books were to be canonized. I think all of God's word is true, but to decide which is most helpful to them makes it even more personal. I want to study the different cultures of the Hebrew and the Greek to see why they contract the most diverse canons. Differences range from 10-20 books, a significant amount that was left out or adopted. To go from nothing to something or to loose what I have spent a lifetime studying, would be tragic.
Conclusion
I am a note taker, so many of these entries will seem very similar to the actual readings because I haven't quite learned how to journal correctly. I'm going for thorough and personal, and that is a hard subject for me to grasp. As an English major, I have written all my life but most are fictional stories or objective papers; never a personal narrative. Therefore, bear with me as I learn to take these Ancient Scrolls and apply them to my Modern Mind. It might take me to semester, but I hope the journey will last a lifetime.
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