Full transcript
0:00The Bible.
0:01A �book of books.�
0:03Nowadays the Bible is frequently printed as one book.
0:07But for more than one thousand years, most people encountered the Bible as a library
0:12of multiple volumes or multiple scrolls.
0:15In light of this history, it�s not so surprising that not all Bibles today contain exactly
0:20the same set of books.
0:22But if the Bible isn�t always the same, then what do we mean when we talk about �the�
0:27Bible?
0:28The Bible is a collection.
0:30Specifically, it�s the full collection of books that Jewish and Christian communities
0:34around the world have historically accepted as being uniquely authoritative.
0:38The Jewish Bible today is known as the Tanakh.
0:42It contains three collections: the Torah, the Nevi�im, and the Ketuvim.
0:49The Christian Bible contains two major collections: the Old Testament and the New Testament.
0:53Each �Testament� contains several smaller collections.
0:57The biggest difference between the Jewish Tanakh and the Christian Bible is the New
1:00Testament.
1:02Most Christian traditions today agree that the New Testament contains twenty-seven books.
1:08By contrast, major Christian traditions disagree about how many books belong in the Old Testament.
1:14The Protestant Old Testament matches the Jewish Tanakh in content, but some books are organized
1:20differently.
1:21The Roman Catholic Old Testament matches the Protestant Bible in organization, but the
1:26Catholic Old Testament contains more books.
1:30Eastern Orthodox Christians have even more books in their Old Testaments.
1:34Why do different Christian traditions have the same New Testament, but disagree about
1:39the part of the Bible they share with Judaism?
1:42The answer is timing.
1:44Have you ever thought about how different books became part of the Bible?
1:48Each book went through at least three basic stages.
1:51First, it was composed.
1:54Second, it was circulated and used, first on a smaller scale and then more widely.
1:59In many cases, it was also collected together with related books.
2:03Lastly, all the books and smaller collections were confirmed as part of a closed canon.
2:10This happened when most communities who used these books officially agreed that no more
2:14books should be added to or subtracted from the overall collection.
2:19This process finalized the Bible of today!
2:23For the New Testament, this process took place between the first and fourth centuries.
2:28The Gospels and the Pauline Epistles were used widely as collections from the second
2:32century onward.
2:34Different communities used various other books for a few centuries longer.
2:38Official agreement was established in the late 300s.
2:43The divisions between today�s major Christian traditions all occurred later.
2:49The overall process that produced the Jewish Tanakh was similar.
2:52But the timing was different.
2:54The Torah and Prophets were well established collections by the second century BCE.
2:59Different communities used various other books for a few centuries longer.
3:04During this period, Judaism was diverse.
3:07In the first century CE, Christianity was born as a variety of Judaism.
3:12After the Romans destroyed the Temple in Jerusalem, some varieties of Judaism died out, and Christianity
3:18gradually became a separate movement.
3:21The widespread Jewish agreement about �the Law and the Prophets� before the birth of
3:25Christianity explains why the differences between Christian Bibles in the Old Testament
3:29today are limited to a small percentage of books.
3:34The differences that remain were inherited before the Tanakh became the single official
3:38version of the Jewish Bible.
3:42Long ago, many communities through many centuries produced the Bibles we have today.
3:47The formation of this book is a testament to Jewish and Christian belief that God works
3:52through human history.