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| Gladys Parker, co-ed, Normal College, 1931. My mother's generation enjoyed a classical revival, which gave us sororities, fraternities, and names from Greece and Rome. My father's name was Homer, and we had an Uncle Horace. Virgil was common in those days, but now we think they are funny or rural. |
The History of the Bible
Most of History Is Lost
C. S. Lewis described our knowledge of history as if all
the libraries in the world were destroyed, except one, and that was also burned
up, except for one book, and that book had only one sentence left visible, and
it could hardly be read. We read histories without assuming that the effort in
each case is to condense facts and perspectives as much as can be known at that
time. The first to uncover something new is often able to own that story when
published, accepted, and promoted.
Yale professor Paul L. Holmer discussed this in a lecture
we attended. He said, “There is a new idea every 50 years, with everyone
writing about that idea until something else comes up. However, the subordinate
writers in-between are always stuck in producing about books. They are
writing about that new or creative discovery.”[1] The
temptation with ancient documents is to invent something worthy of universal
publicity while controlling the information. Rewards are great for the person
who discovers or uncovers something new and ancient. The temptation to commit
fraud is great, because the supposed facts become established truths in spite
of contrary evidence. A good example is the promotion of Roman Catholic dogma,
with the claim, “We have always taught this” – Purgatory, the Assumption of
Mary, the Immaculate Conception of Mary, the power of the scapular, the
infallibility of the Pope, and the ability of the Pope to forgive all sins or
retain all sins.
Old Testament
The Old Testament is written in Hebrew and Aramaic. The sentences
read from right to left, which seems impossible for the uninitiated, but the
style is not difficult to learn. The Hebrew language is quite different from
our Greek, Latin, and English, but learning it opens up the meaning to Biblical
students, young and old. One professor described Hebrew as “easy to learn, easy
to forget,” but easily remembered again. Greek is difficult to learn but also
difficult to forget, because so many Greek words transliterate into English –
lamp, sandal, photo, graph, phone, and hydro.
The original Old Testament has not been trashed and cut
up the way the New Testament has in the Hort-Aland era, doubtless because Old
Testament copies remained within the Jewish community and particular care was
given to each copy. The letters and words were counted to make sure the copy
was the same as the original being reproduced.
The Old Testament books accepted by the Jews, excluding
the Apocrypha, are also accepted by Christians.
Alexander the Great’s Universal Language
One man changed our world and gave his language and
culture to generations following – Alexander the Great. When his father King
Philip was murdered in 336 BC, Alexander took over the professional army of
Macedonia, which was always kept in training, not called up part-time as other
armies were. Alexander first united Greece and then sailed across the
Mediterranean Sea to conquer Persia, a constant enemy and threat to the Greek
cities.
Alexander turned the largest empire in the world, Persia,
into his empire, and exported his language and culture to the lands he
conquered.[2]
The Romans eventually took over that territory and more, but Greek remained the
international language of culture and commerce, much like English is today.
Baby Boomers were told they needed Latin to get into a good college, but the
Roman Empire always saw Greek as the language of culture. From Greece they borrowed
the gods, engineering, math, architecture, sculpture, architecture, poetry,
drama, comedy, and republican government. Washington DC is a collection of
Greek temples with Roman touches. Rome’s unique accomplishments are perhaps
overstated, so there is a saying – “The Romans had the drains, but the Greeks
had the brains.”[3]
The Septuagint and the Subsequent Loss of Greek
One of the greatest achievements of Biblical versions
came from the need of Jews to have the Old Testament studied a common language.
The name Septuagint is often represented by the Roman numeral LXX for 70. No
one knows exactly when it was translated or the exact dates. The translation
probably began around 285 BC, so it was available not only to Jews but to those
who knew Greek.
The glory of Greece was far gone when the Son was born of
the Virgin Mary. However, the language remained in all territories conquered by
Alexander and ruled by his generals afterwards. Rome got into peace-making,
often called occupation, when they were called in to settle the constant
fighting in the Holy Land, around 60 BC. For a time, people teaching the Bible
claimed the New Testament was written in Aramaic, that Jesus taught in Aramaic.
No one has found this proposed Aramaic New Testament, a theory which ignores
how useless a local idiom might be contrasted to the language used around the
civilized world, Koine Greek, or common Greek. They did not use the same style
of Greek as Homer did centuries earlier but the simplified Greek of
conversation, letters, and commerce.
Jesus was born in the pagan Roman Empire, seemingly at
the peak of its size, power, and grandeur. But the decline had started and
rushed to a conclusion a few centuries later, the Western Roman empire
conquered by outsiders. However, the Eastern Roman Empire began with the
Emperor Constantine Christianizing its lands, which lasted a total of 1100
years, 306AD - 1453. The Fall of Rome led to the fragments of the Western Roman
Empire – Europe – adopting Latin Bibles while the Eastern Roman Empire - called
Byzantium after its capital city - preserved Greek, Greek literature, and Greek
culture with Christianity the main religious force.
[1]
These words are paraphrased from memory, summer school at Yale Divinity, about
1980.
[2]
His favorite item was a copy of Homer’s Iliad, which he kept in a
special box near his bed.
[3]
Ignore the San Francisco song. The original words of the poem are – “The glory
that was Greece, the grandeur that was Rome.” Poe, 1845, Helen. Compare that to
Tony Bennett singing, “The glory that was Rome is of another day.”
