Bible - Canon - History of creation and characteristics of individual books
The Jewish Bible, as already noted, consists of three sections, called in Hebrew Torah (תּוֹרָה), Nevi'im (נְבִיאִים; see Book of the Prophets) and Ketuvim (כְּתוּבִים; Scriptures).
The activities of Ezra in the 5th century BCE contributed to the wide dissemination of the Torah among subsequent generations. It became customary, for convenience, to write it on five separate scrolls (but only for non-liturgical use). In rabbinic literature these scrolls were called Hameshet Sifrei Torah (Five Books of the Torah; in the Russian tradition Pentateuch). Each of these books is usually designated by its initial or first significant word in its Hebrew text: Breshit, Shmot, Va-ikra, Be-midbar, Dvarim. In the Russian translation of the Pentateuch, in accordance with the Septuagint (see Bible. Editions and Translations) and the Vulgate, these books are called: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers andDeuteronomy. The title reflects, to some extent, the content of these books.
The second section of the Bible, known as Neviim ("Prophets"), was later divided into the "Early Prophets" and the "Later Prophets". The first subdivision includes narrative historical works—the books of Jesus bin Nun, Judges, Samuel (I and II), andKings (I and II). The second group consists mainly of poetic works: the books of the prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and the twelve "minor" prophets: Хошеа (in Russian Hosea), Joel (in Russian Joel), Amos, Ovadia (in Russian Obadiah), Jonah, Micah (in Russian Micah), Nahum (in Russian Naum), Habakkuk (in Russian Avvakum), Tsphaniah (in Russian Zephaniah), Haggai (in Russian Haggai), Zechariah (in Russian Zechariah) and Mal’akhi (in Russian Malachi). The common epithet "small" in connection with these twelve prophets refers solely to the size of the books, and not to an assessment of their content or meaning.
Ketuvim (Scriptures, or Hagiographa—Greek αγιος, holy; γραφω, I write)—the third section of the Bible. It presents a very diverse literature: liturgical poetry—Psalms andLamentations of Jeremiah; secular love poetry—Song of Songs; didactic literature— Proverbs of Solomon, Job andEcclesiastes; historical works— Ruth, Book of Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah (Nehemiah), Esther; stories of miracles and apocalyptic revelations— the book of Daniel.
The division of the Scriptures is not the result of classifying books by their content or literary genre, but the result of a historical process.
A clear distinction should be made between the literature that served as a source for the compilation of the Torah and the books of the Torah as such. The material that made up the Pentateuch had a complex history, not all of whose details have been studied. Undoubtedly, much of it is of very ancient origin and was revered as sacred at a very early period. The tradition that attributes the authorship of the entire Torah to Moses relies primarily on Deuteronomy (31:9–12, 24), which tells us that Moses wrote down Torah. However, it is possible that this refers only to the song included in the following 32nd chapter of Deuteronomy. The Torah itself does not directly indicate that Moses was its author: he bequeaths to the people only legal and ritual prescriptions. The word Torah means `teaching` and is in no way limited to laws. Indeed, the phrase `Mosaic Torah' is not found in the Pentateuch.
An important event in the history of the canonization of the Pentateuch was the unexpected discovery in 622 BCE of the book of the Torah, as described in II Kings (22–23) and II Chronicles (34:14–33). Authenticity and the authority of the book found was immediately recognized by the high priest and king Josiahху. The Torah was read at a public ceremony and proclaimed a binding Covenant. It is very likely that it contained the core of Deuteronomy and that the ceremony described was a formal act of canonization of this book and the beginning of the formation of the Pentateuch.
Until 444 BCE, there is no information in the Bible about a public reading of the Torah. In that year it was performed by Ezra (Neh. 8–10) at the great assembly of the people in Jerusalem, which took place approximately 150 years after the destruction of the First Temple and 50 years after the beginning of the return of the Jews from the Babylonian captivity. In this context, the Torah is called the book of the law of Moses, which the Lord commanded Israel (Neh. 8:1). Apparently, the systematic collection of the texts of the Torah, their arrangement and preservation, although not yet in their final form, as well as the canonization of the structure of the Pentateuch, belong to the period of Babylonian captivity.
The existence of the books of the Torah served as an incentive for collecting and organizing prophetic literature. A persistent tradition, repeated many times in rabbinic sources, regards Haggai, Zechariah, and Mal'achi as the last prophets, with whose death divine inspiration ceased: "the spirit of God departed from Israel" (Sanhx. 11a). Indeed, the absence of prophecies was considered one of the phenomena characterizing the period of the Second Temple, in contrast to the First. The return from the Babylonian captivity led to a short-term revival of prophetic activity. However, the restoration of the Temple did not justify the messianic hopes and aspirations, and the prophetic movement soon died out.
The tradition that declares the prophetic canon to be complete by the end of Persian rule, that is, by 323 BC, is supported by a number of facts. It is significant that the two books of Chronicles, which were included somewhat later in the Ketuvim, did not replace or supplement the books of Samuel and Kings in the Neviim section, which are historical books describing the same period and almost the same events. This is explained, apparently, by the fact that the time of their canonization coincided. In the same way, the belonging of the book of Daniel (he can well be counted among the prophets) to the section Ketuvim would be inexplicable if the canonizationNevi'im originated in the Hellenistic period. The absence of Greek words in Nevi'im and any references to the fall of the Persian Empire (see Iran) and the transition of Judea to Greek rule also confirm that this section of the Bible was canonized by 323 BC. BC.
The third section of the Bible consists of books that differ greatly from each other both in form and style, and in content and in the views expressed in them. Most of these books were undoubtedly written in the time of the prophets, and some of them, as separate works, were canonized at a comparatively early period. They were not included in Nevi'im, because they were perceived as the fruit of human rather than divine inspiration, or were not considered suitable for ideological or historical-philosophical reasons. These include such works as Psalms and Proverbs. The books of Ezra and Nehemiah, Chronicles, and Daniel were probably written too late to be included in Nevi'im, although, like Job, they were undoubtedly regarded as canonical by the generation that lived in the period preceding the destruction of the Second Temple (Yoma 1:6). On the other hand, there is much evidence that Ketuvim as a whole and some of the books in this section were not finally included in the canon as late as the early 2nd century. CE.
There is also other evidence for the late origin of some of the Ketuvim. For example, the Song of Songs contains two Greek words; Greek words also appear in the Book of Daniel. Ecclesiastes bears some traces of Greek and Persian influence. Ben Sira (c. 180 BCE; see Ben Sira's Wisdom), who was well acquainted with all the other biblical books, does not mention the books of Daniel or Esther. The latter, apparently, was not accepted by the Qumran sect (among the manuscripts found in the Judean Desert, not a single fragment of this book has yet been found; see Qumran; Dead Sea Scrolls).
The books of the Bible are written in Hebrew. Only about half of the book of Daniel (2:4–7:28) and part of the book of Ezra (4:8–6:18; 7:12–26) are written in Aramaic; there are two Aramaic words in Genesis (31:47) and one verse in Aramaic in Jeremiah (10:11). The language of the Bible reflects a long period in the life of society, spanning hundreds of years. During this period, Hebrew went through various stages of development. Therefore, in the study of the Bible, the problem of language is very complex and inseparable from the larger complex of historical development, as well as the formation of biblical literature. In general, the poetic texts included in the historical books conveyed to the population the earliest layers of the language (Gen. 49; Ex. 15; Num. 23-24; Deut. 32-33; Judges 5). On the other hand, the language of the books written after the Babylonian captivity (Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi, Ecclesiastes, Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Daniel) has some features characteristic of post-biblical Hebrew.
In medieval copies of the Hebrew Bible and in printed editions up to the present day, the text, as a rule, consists of three elements: consonants, vowel marks (diacritics), and liturgical cantillation notation. The last two elements were invented by the Masoretes (see Masorah), while the consonantal text was gradually formed as a result of a very complex process that began in ancient times. It is impossible to reconstruct the full history of the evolution of the text of the Hebrew Bible from the time of the creation of any particular book to the first known textual evidence (c. 300 BCE). Deuteronomy 17:18–19 contains an injunction for the king to have with him a “copy of the law” for constant study and to hold regular public readings from the official text, which is kept in the central sanctuary. This suggests the existence of a written text of at least part of the Torah before the completion of the Pentateuchal canon.
Before the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls at Qumran, evidence for the existence (up to the 1st century CE) of different versions of the biblical texts was limited mainly to variant readings in the Samaritan The Pentateuch and the Septuagint. The latter was obviously translated from a Hebrew source that differed from the traditional Jewish texts that had reached the population. Evidence of this kind is also contained in quotations from the Holy Scriptures found in apocryphal books (see Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha) and in rabbinic literature describing the activities of sofrim (scribes) in correcting text, although very insignificant.
The Qumran scrolls, especially the find in Cave IV, where about 100 complete or fragmentary manuscripts were discovered, confirmed that at that time there was no final, generally accepted text of the Bible. A distinctive feature of the Qumran community was the equal recognition of different texts of the same book and lexical orthographic diversity within the same textual variant. There was no inviolable sacred text in Qumran yet.
Rabbinic sources speak of variant readings in the scrolls of the Pentateuch from the Temple archive and of the need for "book correctors" (magichei sfarim). This indicates that at some point in the Second Temple period there was already a generally accepted version, against which other copies were compared for the purpose of unifying the text. Indeed, the existence of a highly authoritative official Temple manuscript (sefer ha-azara) is attested to at length in Talmudic literature, although it is impossible to establish with certainty to what period these testimonies refer. The seven rules of hermeneutics (method of interpreting the Bible), established by Hillel (the Elder) on the basis of the practice that preceded him, serve as evidence that the canonization of the text was to a significant extent was already achieved during the reign of Herod or even earlier (1st century BCE).
The existence of a binding official text of the Bible is clearly reflected in the halakhic discussions of the period of the uprisings against Rome (see Jewish War I andBar Kokhba revolt). Probably, the text was finally formed in the 1st century CE, when after the destruction of the Temple the people realized the need for a religious and cultural cohesion and national unity. Soon the uncanonized versions were rejected and forgotten. For 600 years that passed from the time of the last lists of the tannaitic period (c. 200 CE) to the earliest medieval lists (c. 9th century CE), no noticeable changes occurred in the biblical consonant text.
Various literary genres are found in almost all sections of the Bible. Some biblical books are entirely or almost entirely poetic works. To them, for example, the Song of Songs, Psalms, Proverbs of Solomon, the Book of Job, and almost all the books of the Later Prophets. However, poetic fragments, and sometimes entire songs, are also included in other biblical books that do not in themselves belong to the genre of poetry. The Bible reflects the ancient Hebrew poetic creativity of almost an entire millennium - from the period of the Exodus from Egypt until the Hellenistic era. Examples of the most ancient poetry in biblical literature are considered to be the Song Deborah (Judges 5:2–31) and the Song of Moses (Deuteronomy 32:1–43). Biblical poetry is distinguished by a great variety of forms. It includes religious poetic works—prayers, mourning songs, hymns (Psalms); love songs (Song of Songs); moral poetry (Proverbs), as well as sermons (Prophets), philosophical sayings and reflections, set out in poetic form. As in the ancient epic works of other peoples, in the biblical epic, too, the line between poetry and prose has not yet been drawn. The most ancient sagas of heroes and semi-legendary historical events were passed from mouth to mouth and acquired a fairly complete form even before they were recorded in writing. This literary genre includes the epic (about the patriarchs - Genesis; about the exodus from Egypt - Exodus; about the conquest of Canaan - Yehoshua bin Nun). The books of Ruth and Esther, as well as the various narratives in all three sections of the Bible, are novellas. Biographies of kings and leaders, such as the stories of Saul and David in the book of Samuel, are a unique form of narrative in ancient Near Eastern literature. Unlike the autobiographical, self-praising literary monuments of other Middle Eastern rulers of that time, these biographies in their assessments are based on high moral and ethical criteria.
The next genre is temple and palace chronicles, which served as the basis for the historical books of Kings and Chronicles.
The codes of laws are the Book of the Covenant (Ex. 20-23) and other legislative sections in the Pentateuch, mainly in Deuteronomy (starting with chapter 12). A special place in the Bible is occupied by cultic prescriptions, to which almost the entire book of Numbers and separate sections in other books of the Torah are devoted. This so-called priestly literature was originally strictly esoteric in nature and was kept secret by the priests. Of the prophets, only Ezekiel, who was also a priest, was well versed in it.
Prophetic literature consists of the sermons of the Later Prophets. These sermons were delivered in poetic form, and in their external characteristics they are similar to some literary monuments of Ancient Egypt and, to a much lesser extent, Mesopotamia.
Moral teachings (Proverbs), philosophical reflections (Ecclesiastes) and discussions of theological problems (Job) make up the so-called wisdom literature.
Literary and historical research of the works of the biblical canon is extremely complex. The authors of ancient literary works did not strive to invent new forms, but expressed their thoughts and feelings and presented their knowledge in generally accepted and time-honored stereotypes. This conservatism of ancient Near Eastern literature explains the difficulties in the path of a researcher trying to establish the historical layers of the Bible. They are aggravated by the system of pseudepigraphy adopted in the biblical canon (the authorship of Proverbs and the Song of Songs is attributed, for example, to King Solomon, and the Psalms to King David), and the anonymity of the true authors of the biblical books, except for the prophets. The only exception is the book of Nehemiah, which is a genuine autobiography, written for the purposes of personal apology. However, it was compiled on the threshold of the Hellenistic era, when most of the biblical books had already been written, and some of them had been canonized.
Despite the fact that biblical literature was created over many centuries, the Bible in its final edition is imbued with a single worldview based on the idea of one God, the creator of the Universe and its complete ruler.
The first two sections of the Bible—from the book of Genesis to the second book of Kings—are entirely devoted to the history of the relationship between God and humanity and between Him and His chosen people Israel.
The biblical narrative begins with the creation of the world. God designed the world as a place for human life and activity, and He created the world so that man would be provided with everything necessary for happiness. God made man lord over all creation, the caretaker of paradise, God's Garden of Eden. However, man, God's creation, had a flaw: a tendency to disobey his creator. Having endowed man with reason, free will and choice as the master over all creations, God also assumed such a potential possibility as passive disobedience to the creator. To this was added the desire for power and self-aggrandizement, and disobedience became active. The first human couple transgressed the boundaries set by God and were expelled from paradise. The successors of the human race behaved worse and worse. And this led, as a result, to the general corruption of all living beings. Therefore, God was forced to wipe them all off the face of the earth (by a global flood), and then start all over again. However, the new generation again showed ambitious aspirations and decided to build a tower as high as the heavens. This time, in order to upset the general plan of people, God scattered them across the earth and gave them different languages.
Harmony between people disappeared from the worldand nature, as well as the harmony between people themselves. By refusing to recognize himself as only a creation of God, man lost not only paradise, but also the peace and satisfaction that he received from the unity and fellowship of the entire human race. Different nations appeared in the world, and humanity split into warring and rival groups.
However, God still continued to seek ways to implement his original plan and came to the idea of choosing on earth, among all others, one special people, in whose history His exclusive power would be directly reflected. This people would be destined to become the community of God on earth. As his ancestors, God chose the patriarchs - Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob - and predicted to them the glorious destiny of becoming the founders of a people that would belong to God himself. He also promised to give them possession of the land of Canaan, where the patriarchs had wandered as nomads.
The history of the patriarchs, which unfolded under the watchful eye of the Lord, the suffering of their descendants in Egypt, and the spectacular deliverance from slavery under the leadership of the great leader and prophet Moses - all this makes up the end of the book of Genesis and the first part of the book of Exodus. The meaning of the exodus from Egypt was fully revealed only after Moses led the Jewish people to Mount Sinai. God demanded that Israel acknowledge his authority and obey his will, as expressed in the requirements of the covenant, or contract, which God intended to make with the Jews. The people accepted this demand, and God revealed himself to all Israel against the backdrop of the mighty forces of nature and proclaimed ten principles (see The Ten Commandments) for all to hear. On these principles was to rest the new society He had created, as well as the laws and regulations which the Jews were henceforth to follow. The peculiarity of these principles lies in the fact that for the first time in history they are formulated as an appeal of God not to the king and the ruler, but to the whole people, to Israel, as an expression of His will, which should become public property.
The stop at Mount Sinai ended, and God commanded the people of Israel to go to the promised land of Canaan. However, God's plan again encountered disobedience. The people of Israel forgot about the power that God showed when he led them out of Egypt, and doubted His ability to defeat the Canaanites, who lived in well-fortified cities. Therefore, an entire generation was condemned to spend their lives in the desert. The conquest of Canaan was to be accomplished by a generation born and raised in freedom. Thus began the wanderings in the Sinai desert, which lasted 40 years until a new generation came of age. God once again proved his power and favor and saved the people where nature would have doomed them to destruction. God taught the lesson that "man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord." The journey through the desert represents God's triumph over nature.
After the conquest of Canaan, the development of Israel outwardly differs little from the history of numerous peoples of the Ancient East who found a homeland and founded their own state. However, the historical books of the Bible describing these events are imbued with the idea that the history of Israel is a reflection of God's will. The key to understanding the meaning of all the events that happened to Israel lies in its relationship with God. As long as Israel remained faithful to the obligations it assumed by accepting the Covenant, it prospered and was reliably protected from enemies, even much stronger than itself. But as soon as Israel violated its loyalty to God, departed from His commands and began to worship other gods, no alliance with the powerful powers of that time could save Israel from defeat. With God's help, little Israel can withstand a large and powerful enemy and defeat it. But if God renounces Israel, then the people fall under the action of general laws and become victims of powerful enemies. These thoughts are expressed with exceptional force in the sermons of the Later Prophets.
After the conquest of Canaan, the Israelites formed a union of various tribes in it (the era of the Judges - 1200-1025 BC). Then these tribes united into a single state that existed for a hundred years. In 928 it fell apart into two kingdoms: Northern (Israel) and Southern (Judea). The first was destroyed by Assyria in 720, and the second - by Babylonia in 586. Their inhabitants were expelled and taken into captivity.
In the Bible, the history of the successive defeats of the Jews and the fall of their statehood is interpreted as the fulfillment of prophecies. Israel and Judea fell not because the enemy outnumbered them. A sad end awaited the monarchy solely because of the refusal of the kings to comply with the terms of the Covenant and to listen to the speeches of the prophets. From this, however, followed another important conclusion: if Israel would again turn to God and worship Him alone and carry out His commands, God could again grant them His mercy and return their homeland and independence. Under the influence of the prophets who lived in exile, this idea was recognized by the Jews who were in Babylonian captivity, and soon after their return to their homeland, the Torah was proclaimed the God-given constitution of the Jewish people, and the books of the prophets were sacred.
In biblical literature, as in the works of other ancient peoples, there is evidence of the slave system, witchcraft and magic, human sacrifice, cruelty to the defeated enemy, the humiliated position of women, etc. However, the peculiarity of the Bible and its distinctive feature in comparison with other literary monuments of antiquity is that it clearly expresses the opposite tendency - the tendency of ever-increasing humanism, emphasizing the moral and social consciousness of the collective and the individual. Its highest imperative is "For justice, for justice you shall pursue" (Deut. 16:20). This tendency sees in the pursuit of justice the pinnacle of moral relationships between people, as well as between an individual and the community in which he lives.
In biblical legislation, these principles formed the basis of a ramified legal system and were expressed in such provisions as, for example, the law on a mandatory day of rest even for slaves, regulations on the protection of slaves, on various types of assistance to the poor, on equality before the law, on fair treatment of a foreigner and on assistance to him.
All this contrasts sharply with the laws and customs of other peoples biblical era, when in the eastern despotisms the average person was considered only a labor force and could in no way be a bearer of spiritual values, which, according to the biblical worldview, every Jew was supposed to become. The idea of chosenness did not proclaim the dominance of the Jews over other nations, but imposed on the Jewish people heavy obligations to observe strict and high ethical and moral imperatives.
While in Egypt and Mesopotamia, as well as in ancient Greece, the prophets (and prophetesses) were only predictors of the future or court soothsayers, in the Jewish people prophecy developed and rose to the level of a political, social and moral mission. The work of the prophets in the form in which it is reflected in the Bible is not the creation of a closed, esoteric group; it expresses the most perfect social, religious and moral ideas that matured in ancient Jewish society. The speeches of the prophets (beginning with the 8th century BC and until the return from the Babylonian captivity) have been preserved in more or less verbatim form. They are distinguished not only by high imagery and vivid expression of thoughts, but also by a daring rebellion against the generally accepted conventions of their era. These prophecies deny the cult as the most important element of the Jewish religion and denounce the worship of the religious cults of other peoples and the military might of the great powers of Egypt, Assyria, Babylonia. Prophets declare an irreconcilable war on social injustice and class exploitation, lies and hypocrisy in relations between people. For the first time in history, prophets (especially Isaiah and Micah) elevated moral behavior and good deeds to the level of a decisive historical factor in the life of peoples and states. They foretold the establishment of eternal peace among all the nations of the earth and the final triumph of virtue and justice.