THE HOLY SCRIPTURE
In the
Dictionary of the Bible, the following is written under the item Holy
Book: it is the set of the books revealed from God, related to the creation
of the world, the history of Gods treatment with His people and the prophesies
predicting what will happen up to the end of the world as well as the religious
and moral advises that correspond with all human beings in all ages. It is also
called Books and Word of God. The inspired scholars who
composed the Bible were about forty writers in a period of 1600 years all of
whom belonged to the Jewish nation except Luke, the writer of the Gospel of
Luke. The current Bible is of course free from any flaw or error.
For
Christians, the Bible consists of the Old Testament (the holy Books before the
Christian era, which account, altogether with the other books, more than forty)
and New Testament (the holy books after the Christian era in addition to the
Four Gospels and the attached books).
Books of Old Testament
Traditionally, the Jews have divided the
Old Testament into three parts:
1) The Torah
The Torah (the Pentateuch) comprises the
Five Booksthe first five books of the Bible and known as The Chumash, which
are Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. These five books are
also called the Torah of Moses and the Namus, a Greek word meaning the
Law.
2) The Nevi'im
The Nevi'im (the Prophets i.e. the Code
of Law) comprises the books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel I and II, Kings I and II,
Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum,
Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi.
3) The Ketuvim
The Ketuvim (the Writings or
Hagiographa) includes poetical books (Psalms, Proverbs, and Job), the
Megillot, or Scrolls (Song of Solomon, Ruth, Lamentations of Jeremiah,
Ecclesiastes, and Esther), prophecy (Daniel), and history (Ezra, Nehemiah, and I
and II Chronicles).
The above-mentioned order is currently
found in the Hebrew Torah. These three parts are altogether known among Jews as
TaNaKh, an acronym derived from the names of its three divisions: Torah
(Instruction or Law), Nevi'im (Prophets) and Ketuvim (Writings).
The earliest extant Greek translation of
the Old Testament from the original Hebrew is known as Septuagint and the books
therein are classified into two sectionsthe first comprises the books of law
and history and the second comprises the books of poetry and prophets.
In addition to its order of the books, the
Septuagint is characterized by comprising new books that the Jew scholars and
their Christian ones who followed them, later on, considered as unlawful. They
are books of the Song of the Three Young Men, Addition to (Book of) Daniel,
History of Susanna, Bel and the Dragon, Addition to Book of Esther, the Prayer
of Manasseh, the Letter of Jeremiah, the Apocalypse of Baruch, Book of Tobit,
Judith, Esdras II, the Wisdom of Solomon and Ecclesiasticus (the Wisdom of Jesus
the son of Sirach). Most of these books were composed in the period from BC 200
to AD 100.
Some of these books have been translated into Arabic and printed in the Arabic
version of the Bible, Catholic Press
Beirut, 1960.
In their Syriac, Arabic, English and other
translations of the Bible, Christian scholars have depended in the arrangement
of the Old Testament books upon the order of the Septuagint, yet they have
deleted the additions.
Biblical Languages
According to the Dictionary of the Bible,
most of the Old Testament was written in Hebrew, while the New Testament was
written in Greek, which was the lingua franca throughout the Jewish community in
the different countries after the conquests of Alexander and the Romans.
The current Hebrew Version of the Old
Testament was quoted from the Masoretic text, which had been composed by a group
of Jew scholars in Tebarias from AD 6th century to 12th.
Those scholars corrected, punctuated and furnished the texts with a Masoretic
apparatus and made an interpretation for the texts, known as the Masorathe
tradition, comprising all aspects related to the authenticity of the texts.
Before so, Hebrew had been written without punctuation or signs of vocalization.
The Masoretic scholars also wrote down the reformations that they had done to
the text as footnotes giving the other scholars the freedom to either accept or
reject, yet after thorough search and investigation.
The most ancient copies of some of the manuscripts of the Hebrew
Old Testament were discovered in the twentieth century in
Qumran, a
region on the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea. Their dates belong to the third century BC.
Yet, the most ancient manuscripts of the Hebrew Old Testament as a whole belong
to the tenth century AD. One of such important manuscripts was kept in
Aleppo for many centuries while the others are still
in Leningrad.
The Old Testament was first printed in Hebrew in Soncino (the
Dukedom of MilanItaly) AD 1488 then in Brescia 1494.
Depending upon this edition, Martin Luther produced his first complete German
version of the Bible.
Biblical Translations
The most famous, yet ancient, translations
of the Bible that depended upon the Hebrew version of the Old Testament and the
Greek version of the New Testament and are still known are four; (1) the Greek
version known as the Septuagint and comprised the books of the Old Testament
only and was translated before the Christian era, (2) the Aramaic version known
as the Targum and comprised the books of the Old Testament only and was
translated before the Christian era, (3) the Syriac version known as the
Peshitta and comprised the books of the Old and New Testaments, and (4) the
Latin version known as the Vulgate comprising the books of the Old and New
Testaments.
The Greek Version
The Septuagint (from the Latin septuaginta 70 was derived later
from the legend that there were seventy-two translators, 6 from each of the 12
tribes of Israel, who worked in separate cells, translating the whole, and in
the end all their versions were identical) is the earliest Greek translation of
the Old Testament from the original Hebrew. It was presumably made in
Egypt in the
middle of the third century BC at the request of Ptolemy II Philadelphus
(285-246 BC) who founded the famous Library of Alexandria.
The Aramaic Version
The earliest Targum (Aramaic:
Translation) is the Targum of Onkelos (AD 90) and the Targum of Jonathan ben
Uzziel, the disciple of Hillel (BC 70-AD 10).
Some experts believe that the two previous Targums were made by the Jewish
priests in
Babylonia a long
period before the above-mentioned dates
where the Aramaic was the lingua franca in the
Persian empire since the
sixth century BC and lasted for many centuries and, accordingly, the Jews of
Babylonia and the neighboring territories spoke that language. On the whole, the
Targum of Onkelos is quite literal, but it shows a tendency to obscure
expressions attributing human form
and feelings to God. It has been still recited with the Hebrew origin during the
ritual weekly recital once whenever the Hebrew origin is recited twice.
The Syriac Version
The Syriac Version (the Peshitta) was
produced in the second or third century AD from the Hebrew origin. Later on, it
was corrected according to the Greek version.
The Latin Version
In the last of the second century AD, the Bible was translated
from the Septuagint, not the Hebrew origin, into Latin and when it was necessary
to produce a united, acceptable Latin version (in the fourth century), Pope
Damasus of the Roman church commissioned Jerome (AD 340-420), the leading
biblical scholar of his day, to produce an acceptable Latin version of the Bible
from the various translations then being used. His revised Latin translation of
the Gospels appeared about AD 384. Using the Septuagint Greek version of the Old
Testament, he produced two Latin translations of the Psalms sending one to Roma
in AD 384 and the other to
France in AD 387-90. In 387, he moved to a monastery
in Bethlehem where he
produced a new version of the Old Testament from the Hebrew origin depending
upon the Greek versions. Having sought the help of some Jewish scholars, he also
continued studying the Hebrew, which he had learnt in earlier stages of his
life. Thus, he worked on translating the Vulgate, the standard Latin translation
of the Bible, in AD 390 up to 405. Unfortunately, people of his time did not
appreciate such a great work to which all Christians, as well as the church, are
much obliged.
The Coptic Version
The Coptic versions of the Bible spread in
many dialects the most famous of which was the Sahidic (copsah) and the Bohairic
(copboh). Although the previous had been the earliest, the Coptic Church
accepted the latter. The date of both translations could not be counted exactly
though it is presumably that some segments of the New Testament in the Sahidic
and the Bohairic dialects were found before the end of the second century AD. It
is also presumably that the Sahidic translation was produced in the third
century or about AD 350 while the Bohairic was produced in the period between AD
600 and 650.
The Ethiopic Version
According to traditions, Christianity intruded in
Ethiopia during the reign of Constantine (AD 324-337). Athanasius, the patriarch of
Alexandria, appointed Saint Frumentius the Syriac as the
bishop of
Ethiopia before AD 370 or, probably, 330. When King
Ezana at Aksum converted to Christianity in about AD 340, his
entire kingdom became Christians, too. It seems that Frumentius himself produced
the Ethiopic version of the Bible or that the version was made under his
supervision. Yet, other traditions say that the Nine Monks who fled from Syria
to Egypt in AD 451 after the Council of Chalcedon because they held to the
Monophysite doctrine, that is they believed that Christ had only one nature,
translated or encouraged the translation of the Scripture into Ethiopic. Those
nine monks were said to have fled to Ethiopia after
they had reviewed the original translation, which was completed in the middle of
the fourth century AD. The Ethiopic version was revised according to the Arabic
version in the fourth century AD and on.
The Gothic Version
The Gothic version was produced in AD 350
by Ulfilas, a Christian bishop and missionary, who translated the whole Bible
except the books of Samuel and the Kings claiming that it would be dangerous to
produce them to the Gothic people because they the Books- comprised such a high
combative spirit. This translation constitutes practically all that is left of
Gothic literature and is considered as the earliest literary fragment of the
German languages.
The Armenian Version
Musa al-Khurini, an Armenian author who
lived in the fifth century AD, says that the earliest translation of the Bible
into Aramaic was produced by Saint Isaac the Great (AD 390-428) from the Syriac
version. Curion, an author of the fifth century AD, says that Saint Mesrop, the
inventor of the Armenian alphabet, aided one of the Greek translators to
translate the whole Bible from Greek into Armenian.
The Georgian Version
The Georgian Version is called the twin of
the Armenian. It was accomplished in the sixth century AD after it had been
worked on by numerous translators from the Armenian and Syriac versions though
Greek influence can be manifestly seen therein.
The Arabic Version
Some scholars believe that it is
unlikely that the missionaries who had brought Christianity to the
Arab Peninsula before Islam neglected presenting
an Arabic version of the Bible to the Arab Christians.
Most of scholars believe that the need for
an Arabic Version of the Bible emerged after the decease of Prophet Muhammad,
the prevalence of Islam and the rallying of the Christian and Jewish communities
under Islam.
Furthermore, there is no reliable evidence of any pre-Islamic Arabic translation
of the Bible.
The following is quoted from
Encyclopedia Britannica, item: Arabic versions from biblical literature:
The
first
and most important was that of Sa'adia ben Joseph (892-942), made directly from
Hebrew and written in Hebrew script,
which became the standard version for all Jews in Muslim countries. The version
also exercised its influence upon Egyptian Christians and its rendering of the
Pentateuch was adapted by Abu al-Hasan to the Samaritan Torah in the 11th-12th
centuries. Another Samaritan Arabic version of the Pentateuch was made by Abu
Sa'id (Abu al-Barakat) in the 13th century. Among other translations from the
Hebrew, that of the 10th-century Karaite Yaphith ibn 'Ali is the most
noteworthy. In 946 a Spanish Christian of Córdova, Isaac son of Velásquez, made
a version of the Gospels from Latin. Manuscripts of 16th-century Arabic
translations of both testaments exist in
Leningrad, and both the Paris and London polyglots
(Biblia Sacra Polyglotta) of the 17th century included Arabic versions.
Some segments of these two polyglots have
been translated from the Hebrew while others from the Syriac and Greek.
Commenting on the previous quotation, the
Encyclopedia Britannica adds:
In general, the Arabic manuscripts reveal
a bewildering variety of renderings dependent on Hebrew, Greek, Samaritan,
Syriac, Coptic, and Latin translations. As such, they have no value for critical
studies. Several modern Arabic translations by both Protestants and Catholics
were made in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Yet, the following notices can be aroused
against the previous statement:
First, the
origin of the varieties of the Arabic manuscripts is indisputably one of the
following four probabilities that can also come together:
(a) the unintentional errata of the
copyists,
(b) the intentional
misrepresentations of the copyists,
(c) the variety in the
understandings of the interpreters, or
(d) the variety in the manuscripts
depended upon in the translation.
The probability of the unintentional
errata of the copyists is undoubtedly less than the others under the
circumstances surrounding the process of copying the Bible, for it is quite
unlikely that the new copies were not compared to the origins. Yet, the process
of comparison was made for the ordinary books rather the Bible.
As for the intentional misrepresentation
of the copyists, theologian experts have confirmed that some of the pious
copyists made some theologian corrections aimed at improving the significance of
some expressions, which had been exposed to serious doctrinal interpretations.
Accordingly, the probability of the intentional misrepresentation is stronger.
The third and fourth probabilities are
however not subject to dispute among the experts.
Contrasting the claim of Encyclopedia
Britannica, the variety in the copying of the manuscripts is of great
importance in the analytical theses, as is proven through our theses in this
brochure.
Secondly, the
other manuscripts, such as the Latin, the Greek, the Aramaic and many others
were not saved from bewildering and even incomprehensible variety; nonetheless,
the Encyclopedia Britannica has not disregarded their methodological
values and, yet, has done the opposite with the Arabic manuscripts.
Thirdly, the
Encyclopedia Britannica has given a special significance to the translation
of Saadia ben Joseph
describing it as exceptionally valuable for its commentaries,
the standard version for all Jews in Muslim countries and it exercised its
influence upon Egyptian Christians. If truth be told, it is quite true that
Saadias translation occupies a distinguished position among the Arabic
versions of the Old Testament.
Fourth, according to the Encyclopedia Britannica,
several modern Arabic translations by both Protestants and Catholics were made
in the 19th and 20th centuries. This item of information many hint at the idea
that the reason beyond the production of such translations was the variety of
the manuscripts. As a matter of fact, this conclusion is not accurate because
the Arabic version printed in the Paris polyglot (1645) or the London polyglot
(1657) was the same and was greatly influenced by the version of Saadia, if not
the very one.
In my conception, the reason beyond neglecting such Arabic
version, which was common in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in the
Christian world along with the spread of its Latin translation, was the
existence of the Arabic names of places mentioned in the Bible instead of the
Hebrew, such as Makkah, Bilad al-Qiblah and Hijaz. The existence of such
names has been one of the characteristics of Saadias translation, which was
adopted by many Jew and Christian scholars. According to Judica, Saadia
used the Arabic proper names instead of the Hebrew. Confirming this idea, the
Christian missionaries insisted on denying the fact that Abraham and Ishmael,
the prophets, settled in the
Arab Peninsula and built the holy House of God in Mecca. The
author of Kitab al-Hidayah has claimed that the divine revelation
teaches us that Abraham had never seen the Ka`bah or the country of the Arabs!
