-Study Overview--
The History of the English Bible

Last revised: 11/07/06

What are we going to learn?

The goal of this study is to foster a deeper understanding of how the Christian Bible came into existence and has been translated into the English language.

The approach to learning will make use of class discussions, answering questions, lecture manuscripts posted in this course room, hyperlinks to web sites with more detailed information, and several other learning techniques.

Each student will be challenged to take the information made available in class and do further study for personal enrichment.

Self-check tests will be available for seeing how much of the study has been grasped.

Week One: The Origin of the Old Testament: Moses to Jesus

• 1.1 What is the Old Testament?
• 1.1.1 Definition of "Old Testament"
• 1.1.2 Different canons of the Old Testament
• 1.1.3 Analyzing the Content of the OT documents.
• 1.1.4 Why did these different versions of the Old Testament come about?
• 1.2 Who wrote the documents in the OT?
• 1.2.1 Definitions of "author"
• 1.2.2 Compositional History
• 1.2.3 Writers
• 1.3 When did the Old Testament come together as a collection of documents?
• The process of OT canonization in Christianity
• 1.3.1.1 Origen
• 1.3.1.2 Eusebius
• 1.3.1.3 Jerome
• The process of canonization in Judaism
• 1.4 How have Christians used the Old Testament as sacred scripture down through the centuries?
• 1.4.1 The Bible of Jesus and the apostles: How did Jesus and the apostles refer to and use the Old Testament?
• 1.4.2 The Bible of early Christianity: When did the Bible become the Old and New Testaments?
• 1.4.3 The Impact of the Protestant Reformation: What role did the European Reformers have on our Old Testament?
• 1.4.4 The relationship of the Old and New Testaments: Does the New Testament override the Old Testament?

Week Two: The Origin of the New Testament: First Four Christian Centuries

• 2.1 Composition: Who wrote the New Testament? And when?
• 2.1.1 The gospels
• 2.1.1.1 External History: How does one determine who wrote each gospel?
• 2.1.1.2 Internal History: What is inside each of the gospels?
• 2.1.1.3 The Gospel of Mark
• 2.1.1.3.1 Compositional History
• 2.1.1.3.2 Contents
• 2.1.1.4 The Gospel of Matthew
• 2.1.1.4.1 Compositional History
• 2.1.1.4.2 Contents
• 2.1.1.5 The Gospel of Luke
• 2.1.1.5.1 Compositional History
• 2.1.1.5.2 Contents
• 2.1.1.6.1 The Gospel of John
• 2.1.1.6.1 Compositional History
• 2.1.1.6.2 Contents
• 2.1.2 Acts
• 2.1.2.1 Compositional History
• 2.1.2.2 Contents
• 2.1.3 Paul's Letters
• 2.1.3.1 Early Writing Ministry
• 2.1.3.1.1 Letter to the Galatians
• 2.1.3.1.1.1 Compositional History
• 2.1.3.1.1.2 Contents
• 2.1.3.1.2 First Letter to the Thessalonians
• 2.1.3.1.2.1 Compositional History
• 2.1.3.1.2.2 Contents
• 2.1.3.1.3 Second Letter to the Thessalonians
• 2.1.3.1.3.1 Compositional History
• 2.1.3.1.3.2 Contents
• 2.1.3.2 Middle Period of Writing
• 2.1.3.2.1 First Letter to the Corinthians
• 2.1.3.2.1.1 Compositional History
• 2.1.3.2.1.2 Contents
• 2.1.3.2.2 Second Letter to the Corinthians
• 2.1.3.2.2.1 Compositional History
• 2.1.3.2.2.2 Contents
• 2.1.3.2.3 Letter to the Romans
• 2.1.3.2.3.1 Compositional History
• 2.1.3.2.3.2 Contents
• 2.1.3.3 Captivity Letters
• 2.1.3.3.1 Letter to the Ephesians
• 2.1.3.3.1.1 Compositional History
• 2.1.3.3.1.2 Contents
• 2.1.3.3.2 Letter to the Colossians
• 2.1.3.3.2.1 Compositional History
• 2.1.3.3.2.2 Contents
• 2.1.3.3.3 Letter to Philemon
• 2.1.3.3.3.1 Compositional History
• 2.1.3.3.3.2 Contents
• 2.1.3.3.4 Letter to the Philippians
• 2.1.3.3.4.1 Compositional History
• 2.1.3.3.4.2 Contents
• 2.1.3.4 Pastoral Letters
• 2.1.3.4.1 First Letter to Timothy
• 2.1.3.4.1.1 Compositional History
• 2.1.3.4.1.2 Contents
• 2.1.3.4.2 Letter to Titus
• 2.1.3.4.2.1 Compositional History
• 2.1.3.4.2.2 Contents
• 2.1.3.4.3 Second Letter to Timothy
• 2.1.3.4.3.1 Compositional History
• 2.1.3.4.3.2 Contents
• 2.1.4 The General Letters
• 2.1.4.1 James
• 2.1.4.1.1 Compositional History
• 2.1.4.1.2 Contents
• 2.1.4.2 First and Second Peter
• 2.1.4.2.1 First Peter
• 2.1.4.2.1.1 Compositional History
• 2.1.4.2.1.2 Contents
• 2.1.4.2.2 Second Peter
• 2.1.4.2.2.1 Compositional History
• 2.1.4.2.2.2 Contents
• 2.1.4.3 The Letters of John
• 2.1.4.3.1 First John
• 2.1.4.3.1.1 Compositional History
• 2.1.4.3.1.2 Contents
• 2.1.4.3.2 Second John
• 2.1.4.3.2.1 Compositional History
• 2.1.4.3.2.2 Contents
• 2.1.4.3.3 Third John
• 2.1.4.3.3.1 Compositional History
• 2.1.4.3.3.2 Contents
• 2.1.4.4 The Letter of Jude
• 2.1.4.4.1 Compositional History
• 2.1.4.4.2 Contents
• 2.1.5 The book of Revelation
• 2.1.5.1 Compositional History
• 2.1.5.2 Contents
• 2.2 Canonization: How did the New Testament come together as a collection of documents?
• 2.2.1 Definitions
• 2.2.2 History of the Process: Designing the Vehicle
• 2.2.2.1 The second Christian century (100 to 200 AD)
• 2.2.2.1.1 Marcion
• 2.2.2.1.2 Muratorian Canon
• 2.2.2.1.3 Diatasseron
• 2.2.2.1.4 Tertullian
• 2.2.2.1.5 Irenaeus of Lyons
• 2.2.2.2 The third Christian century (200 to 300 AD)
• 2.2.2.2.1 Origen
• 2.2.2.3 The fourth Christian century (300 to 400 AD)
• 2.2.2.3.1 Eusebius
• 2.2.2.3.2 Athanasius of Alexandria
• 2.2.2.3.3 Jerome
• 2.2.3 History of the Process: Assembling the Pieces
• 2.2.3.1 The Pauline Collection
• 2.2.3.2 The Gospels
• 2.2.3.3 Fitting in Acts as a paperclip
• 2.2.3.4 The Other Apostles collection
• 2.2.3.5 Adding Revelation

• 3.1 Copying the Bible: How were copies of the Bible made before the printing press?
• 3.1.1 How did people write in the ancient world?
• 3.1.2 Who did the copying of the documents of the New Testament and how?
• 3.1.3 Who did the copying of the documents of the Old Testament and how?
• 3.2  Analyzing all these copies: How do we get back to the words originally written in these documents?
• 3.2.1 Some history of the process called Textual Criticism
• 3.2.2 A glance at how the experts do it
• 3.2.3 The results of their work: printed Greek and Hebrew texts
• 3.2.4How does this work impact your study of the Bible?
• 3.3 The importance of the Latin Vulgate: What Bible have Christians mostly used over the centuries?
• 3.3.1 Establishing the Vulgate
• 3.3.2 The challenges to the Vulgate in the Protestant Reformation
• 3.3.3 How Gutenberg changed the Bible

• 4.1 Early English Translations: How did English speaking people read the Bible before the King James Version?
• 4.1.1 Pre-Reformation Translations
• 4.1.1.1 Venerable Bede, 730s
• 4.1.1.2  John Wycliffe, 1384
• 4.1.2 Reformation Era Translations
• 4.1.2.1  William Tyndale, 1525 (1534), 1536
• 4.1.2.2  Coverdale Bible, 1535
• 4.1.2.3  The Great Bible, 1539
• 4.1.2.4  The Bishop's Bible, 1568
• 4.1.2.5 The Geneva Bible, 1560

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• 4.2  The King James Version, 1611: What about the KJV?
• 4.2.1  Its beginnings
• 4.2.2  Which version of the KJV
• 4.2.2.1 Pre-Twentieth Century editions
• 4.2.2.2 Twenthieth Century editions
• 4.2.2.2.1 New King James Version
• 4.2.2.2.2 21st Century King James
• 4.2.3  Its lingering influence
• 4.2.3.1  Positive aspects
• 4.2.3.2  Negative aspects

• 5.1  Modern Translations: Why are there so many translations today?
• 5.1.1  Structures for creating translations
•  5.1.1.1  Individual (IT)
•  5.1.1.2  Committee (CT)
• 5.1.2  Types of translation methodology used:
•  5.1.2.1  Formal Equivalent ( = Verbal = Form Oriented; FE)
•  5.1.2.2  Dynamical Equivalent  ( = Content Oriented; DE)
•  5.1.2.3  Mixture of both methods (MM)
• 5.2  The Result: Translations, Translations, Translations: How do I know which translation is the best?
• 5.2.1 What are some possible contexts? Or, put another way, what baggage (assumptions) is attached to the question, Which translation is the best?
• 5.2.2 List of Translations

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