Pastor Steve Paulus

Old Testament Poetry and Wisdom Literature

The Old Testament

2. The Old Testament: What Is It?

Since we regard the Bible as a uniquely inspired book, a revealed book, we need to look at the nature of revelation and inspiration.

2.1. Revelation and Inspiration

Revelation is the activity of God whereby He makes Himself known. It is a personal self-disclosure. There is natural and special revelation. Nature, the created universe, and conscience comprise aspects of natural revelation (Ps. 19:1ff.; Rom. 1:20, 2:14-16) Special revelation is comprised of the work of the Holy Spirit in visions, dreams, prophecy, the person of Christ, and the enscripturated revelation of God to man through the Holy Spirit in the Bible (Heb. 1:1ff.; II Peter 1:20-21; II Tim. 3:16, theopneustos). We shall concentrate on the latter, that is, special revelation. In the Bible, God's self-disclosure is verbal, it is progressive (from Old to New, clarifying, illuminating, emphasizing), it was given through various means -- sometimes through visions, dreams, ecstatic, or prophetic utterance, and at other times through more "natural" means of research, observation of natural events, recording of history, and the careful composition of poetry or songs (Is. 6:1; Daniel 7:1ff.; II Kings 3:15-20; Joel 1:1-4; Ezra 4:6-24; Lamentations). God’s verbal self-revelation is accomplished through human agency, not obliterating or by-passing human personality and limitation, but making full use of these characteristic human traits. Thus, language, cultural setting, and historical circumstance play a role in the inscripturation of the verbal revelation. Understanding such factors is significant in obtaining a clear understanding of the meaning of God’s self-revelation.

The revelation which resulted in the Old and New Testament Scriptures may be described as incarnational. That is, God’s infallible Spirit worked in a unique fashion through fallible human instrumentality. Therefore the Scriptures are all the more a self-expression of God to His creation. Inspiration is “the supernatural influence of God’s Spirit upon the Biblical authors which insured that what they wrote was precisely what God intended them to write for the communication of His truth.” (J.I. Packer, “Revelation and Inspiration” Eerdmans Bible Commentary, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1970, p. 17). Any view of verbal inspiration which fails to take into account the use of human instrumentality is inadequate. Likewise a view of the exegetical task which fails to recognize this truth is inadequate. A "gnostic" view of inspiration – where God by-passes "tainted flesh" through the violation of the scribe’s personality or faculties -- is suitable for a sub- or non-Christian view of revelation. Such a view may characterize the Muslim view of the composition of the Koran, for instance, which was given to Mohammed in a trance-like state.

(For an excellent discussion of revelation and inspiration see J.I. Packer, "Revelation and Inspiration," in Eerdmans Bible Commentary, Donald Guthrie, ed. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Publishing Co., pp. 12-18.)

2.2. Versions and Translations: Hebrew, Greek, Latin, English, Russian

The original Old Testament was written in the Hebrew and Aramaic languages. The oldest extant manuscripts are from the Dead Sea Scrolls, which date from before Christ. Manuscripts used for current English translations date from the first millennium A.D. and are called Masoretic texts because a group of scribes known as Masoretes worked to preserve the integrity and pronunciation of these texts. It is uncertain when the Masoretes began their work, some say around 500 A.D. “Nothing in the discoveries from the Qumran caves endangers the essential reliability and authority of our standard Hebrew Bible text, as represented, for example in the Kittel editions of Biblia Hebraica” (Gleason Archer, A Survey of Old Testament Introduction, p. 42).

Between 250 and 150 B.C. the Hebrew Bible was translated into Greek in Alexandria, Egypt in the most widely used Greek version known as the Septuagint, or LXX. Septuagint comes from a Greek word meaning seventy which reflects the belief that the Old Testament was translated in seventy days by seventy scribes for Greek speaking Jews in Egypt and other parts of the Hellenistic world. Another very famous version of the OT was Origen’s Hexapla. Origen was a Church Father who created the first parallel Old Testament Bible, completed about 240 A.D. In the first column was the original Hebrew text. In the next column was a Greek transliteration (Hebrew written in Greek letters), then four different Greek translations including the Septuagint. A famous Latin version is known as the Vulgate, translated primarily by St. Jerome and published prior to the year 420. It was created in order to standardize the many differing Latin translations of that era. It was a standard in the Roman Catholic Church for over a millennium.

There are many English translations of the scriptures. One of the most famous is the Authorized or King James Version, completed in 1611. Additional translations include the English Revised Version (1881,1885), The Jerusalem Bible (Catholic Version Published in English in 1966) The New American Standard Version (1971), The Living Bible (1971), and The New International Version ( 1978).

The oldest Slavic translations of the Bible date back to the ministry of Cyril and Methodius in Great Moravia in 864-5. These translations known as Old Church Slavonic, went through various forms until a complete Church Slavonic translation of the Bible appears in Russia at the end of the 15^th century. The Vulgate and the Septuagint were the basis of the Old testament translation, the New Testament made use of the Old Church Slavonic. It is known as the Gennadievskaia Biblia after Archbishop Gennady of Novgorod the sponsor of the translation. A Church Slavonic Bible was published by Ivan Fyodorov at Ostrog in 1581. A revision of these versions based on the Septuagint was completed under Peter the Great in 1724. The Elizabeth Bible built on these previous works and was completed in 1751 and later revised. This is the authorized version of the Russian Church. The Russian Synodal Bible is widely used by Protestant Russian speakers. Slovo Zhivny was published by the International Bible Society in 2000. It is a dynamic equivalent translation similar to the English language New International Version.

Translations take on certain characteristics in relation to the original manuscripts. They may be literal (the King James Version), or fluid (New International Version). They may be wooden, translating idioms literally (New American Standard), or a paraphrase, giving only the sense of the passage (The Living Bible). For serious Bible study, a student who does not know Greek or Hebrew, might make use of a literal translation and compare it to a more fluid or paraphrase version.

A literal translation “attempt(s) to translate by keeping as close as possible to the exact words and phrasing in the original language, yet still make sense in the receptor language” (Gordon Fee and Douglas Stuart, How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth, Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1982, p. 35). A free translation “attempt(s) to translate the ideas from one language to another, with less concern about using the exact words of the original. A free translation, sometimes called a paraphrase, tries to eliminate as much of the historical distance as possible” (Fee and Stuart, p. 35). A dynamic equivalent “attempt(s) to translate words, idioms, and grammatical constructions of the original language into precise equivalents in the receptor language” (Fee and Stuart, p. 35)

2.3. OT Books: Order, Hebrew, Greek, Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant

The order of placement of the Old Testament differs from version to version. The Masoretic text follows a formula known as the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings. The Law consists of the five books of Moses – Genesis through Deuteronomy. The Prophets consist of the former prophets – Joshua, Judges, I and II Samuel and I and II Kings – and the later prophets – Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and the Twelve Minor Prophets. The Writings consist of poetry and wisdom - Psalms, Proverbs and Job, Song of Solomon – the scrolls - Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther- and historical books - Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, I and II Chronicles.

The Masoretic text contained all 39 of these writings, but counted only 24 books, combining I and II Samuel, I and II Kings, I and II Chronicles, the twelve Minor Prophets, and Ezra and Nehemiah.

The Septuagint changed the order of the books resembling the order of the Protestant Bible. It also included additional books to the Hebrew Canon known as the Apocrypha (of questionable authorship or authenticity). Catholic and Orthodox Churches retained the books of the apocrypha in their translations and refer to them as deutero-canonical. That is, they can be read publicly in church services but do not possess the same authority as the books of the Hebrew Canon. These books were rejected by Protestants and are not included in Protestant translations of the Old Testament.

2.4. OT Canon: How was it formed?

The word canon comes from Greek kanon meaning measuring instrument, or rod. The word indicates a standard or list and is applied to the closed, standardized list of books which have been received as inspired Holy Scripture. The Old Testament canon is composed of 39 books (English Bible), which are variously combined in Ancient Israel as scrolls containing 22 or 24 books. The discrepancy in number is due to grouping numerous books together on one scroll in various fashions. In addition to the 39, 14 apocryphal books have been passed down through the Septuagint and Vulgate into the Catholic and Orthodox churches. However, even church fathers Jerome (c. 400) and Athanasius (c. 367) recognized the deutero-canonical, or secondary status of the apocryphal books.

What makes a book canonical? “The only true test of canonicity … is the testimony of God the Holy Spirit to the authority of His own Word. This testimony found a response of recognition, faith and submission in the hearts of God’s people who walked in covenant relationship with Him” (Archer, p. 78). In addition to acceptance by the community of believers over a long period of time, there are the issues of subject matter, orthodoxy of doctrine, Hebrew language, and antiquity.

Questions of the Old Testament canon, especially in regards to the Apocrypha, were resolved/closed for Jews by the deliberations of rabbis at Jamnia c. 90 A.D.

Assignment:

1. Find five passages from Old or New Testament where the writer refers to the inspiration, revelation, or some other trait of scripture as the word of God.

2. Find a passage of scripture from at least three different translations which demonstrates a marked difference in translation style. What is the difference?

3. Find a Bible with the apocrypha and read several chapters from I Maccabees. What do you think?

4. Find an example of each of the following types of literature in the Old Testament: historical narrative, vision or dream, song.

Sources for Part 2:

Gleason L. Archer. A Survey of Old Testament Introduction.

Chicago: Moody Press, 1974, p. 15-54, 68-82.

F.F. Bruce. The Canon of Scripture. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1988.

Otto Eissfeld. The Old Testament: An Introduction. New York: Harper and Row, 1965, p. 669-721.

Gordon Fee and Douglas Stuart. How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing, 1982.

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