Moses in the Holy Scriptures of Judaism, Christianity and Islam: A Call for Peace

By Osman Elhadary

Hate must be stopped between Jews, Christians, and Muslims, and must be replaced by respect, love, and peace.

The purpose of this book is to motivate Jews, Christians, and Muslims to understand the religion of each other. I recommend Interfaith Dialogue Meetings as a way to assist in this understanding. Jews, Christians, and Muslims can live together in harmony if they respect one another.

In order to achieve this aim, I have chosen Moses as the central figure of this book because he is a great figure in the scriptures of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

This is a research book based on the study of comparative religions, the history of ancient Egypt, and the views of ancient and modern historians and thinkers.

This research took most of my time during the last ten years. I gained significant knowledge from this research. I believe that life is a continuous quest for knowledge.

This is an unbiased presentation. I have attempted to be as objective and neutral as possible in my writings. To keep my commitment of neutrality to the readers, I did not use "Pbuh", which means "Peace be upon him", after the name of each prophet, because this symbol is used by Muslims only.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Feb 8, 2016
• ISBN: 9781483563039

Book preview

Note

PART - ONE

MOSES IN THE BIBLE

CHAPTER ONE

WHAT IS THE BIBLE?

INTRODUCTION

The word ‘bible’ comes from the Greek word biblia meaning books.¹

It is believed that the Greek word Biblia was first applied to the sacred books by John Chrysostom, patriarch of Constantinople from C.E. 398 to 404.²

The Jewish Bible Tanakh is the Holy Scriptures of Judaism. The Christian Bibles are the Holy Scriptures of Christianity.

1. THE JEWISH BIBLE TANAKH (39 BOOKS)

It is a divine library containing a collection of thirty-nine books touching all aspects of life,³ which covers the period up to the Christian era.

It was inspired and written primarily for the benefit of the Israelites, which if they will faithfully obey God, they will be his very own people (Ex. 19:5 - CEV).

God chose them to be his special representatives on Earth. God’s choice of them is an expression of his love for them.⁴

The Jewish name of this collection is the Tanakh, which comes from the three letters: T, N, and K standing for the three sections of the Jewish Bible:⁵

T for Torah (the law) - the five books of Moses; known as the Pentateuch (means five scrolls in Greek).

N for Nevi’im (the prophets).

K for Kethuvim (the writings).

These three sections contain the following books:⁶

The first section:

TORAH The five books of Moses:

GENESIS

EXODUS

LEVITICUS

NUMBERS

DEUTERONOMY

The second section:

NEVI’IM THE PROPHETS

It contains twenty-one books:

JOSHUA

JUDGES

I SAMUEL

II SAMUEL

I KINGS

II KINGS

ISAIAH

JEREMIAH

EZEKIEL

The twelve minor Prophets

HOSEA

JOEL

AMOS

OBADIAH

JONAH

MICAH

NAHUM

HABAKKUK

ZEPHANIAH

HAGGAI

ZECHARIAH

MALACHI

The third section:

KETHUVIM THE WRITINGS

It contains thirteen books:

PSALMS

PROVERBS

JOB

THE SONG OF SONGS

RUTH

LAMENTATIONS

ECCLESIASTES

ESTHER

DANIEL

EZRA

NEHEMIAH

I CHRONICLES

II CHRONICLES

In addition to its religious values, the books of the Jewish Bible have an honored place in history of world literature on account of:

•  Their stories of patriarchs.

•  Their antiquity to Middle Eastern races, the Sumerians, the Babylonians, the Assyrians, the Persians, and the Egyptians.

•  Their interesting information concerning early beliefs, ancient customs, and legal practices.⁷

The Jewish Bible constitutes the first part of the Christian Bibles. This part is commonly known to many Christians as the Old Testament –O.T..

2. THE CHRISTIAN BIBLES

Each Christian Bible consists of two parts:

•  The first part is the Old Testament (O.T.)

•  The second part is the New Testament (N.T.)

The first part contains the thirty-nine books of the Jewish Bible, but presented in a different order. The three main Christian Bibles differ in the number of O.T books - See below.

The second part contains twenty-seven books, written by or on behalf of the apostles (the followers of Jesus Christ).⁸

Now, an outstanding question arises. Why the Jewish Bible (Tanakh), which is originally for the Jews, is part of the Christian Bible?

The answer is: the early Christians saw themselves as being in complete continuity with their Jewish religion, which is why they retained and maintained the thirty-nine books of the Jewish Bible of the Jews, as sacred.⁹

These early Christians added writings of their own to these thirty-nine books of the Jewish Bible, and held them in equal esteem, starting with the Gospels and Paulene Letters.

In order to distinguish between these Jewish Scriptures and the new added Christian writings, the officials of the early church maintained the thirty-nine books of the Jewish Bible as sacred under the name Old Testament, while the new added Christian writings were called the New Testament.

The N.T. as part of the Bible makes it a Christian Bible.¹⁰

2.1 The Old Testament

It is the first part of the Christian Bibles.

There is a disagreement among Christian faith groups about which books are included in the O.T.¹¹

The major dispute is about those books called the Apocrypha. The Roman Catholic and Orthodox Churches accept them as inspired writings, while the Protestants reject them as scriptures, stating that these books were not part of the original Jewish collections.¹²

That is why the three main Christian Bibles differ in the number of O.T. Books:

The Orthodox Bible contains seventy-eight books (O.T. has 51 and N.T. has 27).

The Catholic Bible contains seventy-three books (O.T. has 46 and N.T. has 27).

The Protestant Bible contains sixty-six books (O.T. has 39 and N.T. has 27).

2.1.1 What is the Apocrypha?

Apocrypha (Greek apokrupha) means secret matters or mysterious.¹³

•  The name Apocrypha is given to sixteen books:¹⁴

1.   The first book of Esdras

2.   The second book of Esdras

3.   The book of Tobit

4.   The book of Judith

5.   The rest of Esther

6.   The book of the Wisdom of Solomon

7.   The book of Ecclesiasticus (the book of Sirach)

8.   The book of Baruch with the Epistie of Jeremiah

9.   The Song of the three Holy Children

10. The History of Susanna

11. The History of Bel and the Dragon

12. The Prayer of Manasses

13. The first book of Maccabees

14. The second book of Maccabees

15. The third book of Maccabees

16. The fourth book of Maccabees

•  The Council of Trent and the Apocryphal sixteen books

The Council of Trent on April 15, 1546 declared eleven of the sixteen Apocryphal books to be canonical (ordered by the church law).¹⁵

The Council rejected five books:

o  The first book of Esdras

o  The second book of Esdras

o  The Prayer of Manasses

o  The third book of Maccabees

o  The fourth book of Maccabees

The Council took away one book, The rest of Esther, and added it to the canonical book of Esther.¹⁶

The Council also took away another three books:

o  The Song of the three Holy Children

o  The History of Susanna

o  The History of Bel and the Dragon

The Council took these three books and incorporated them in one canonical book, the Book of Daniel.¹⁷

In other words, the sixteen Apocryphal books decreased by nine (5 + 1 + 3) books to become seven (16 - 9) books.

The Council of Trent was very strict and pronounced on April 15, 1546 an anathema against anyone who ventures to differ from the Council in opinion.¹⁸ This has since regulated the belief of the Roman Catholic Church until now.¹⁹

That is why the Catholic Bible now contains, in its O.T. section, the thirty-nine books of the Jewish Bible Tanakh, presented in a different order, and including within them, i.e. not separately, the remaining seven books of the Apocrypha, making the total number books in the O.T. forty-six (39 + 7).

Below are the Christian Old Testaments compared to the Jewish Bible Tanakh:²⁰

2.2 The New Testament

It is the second part of the Christian Bibles.

The New Testament covers the life of Jesus, and the first decades of the Christian experience. Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant Bibles all contain the same twenty-seven New Testament Books presented in five groups:

3. OTHER BIBLES

There are other Bibles that differ slightly from the previous ones regarding the O.T.

3.1 The Dead Sea Bible

It is the oldest group of the Jewish Bible manuscripts ever found. It is at least a thousand years older than the traditional Hebrew texts that have been the basis of all modern Bible translations.²²

3.1.1 The Dead Sea Scrolls (D.S.S.) were found, starting in year 1946, in four vicinities.²³

•  Wadi (Valley) Qumran (near the north-west end of the Dead Sea). The scrolls were found in 11 caves, from year 1946 through year 1956, having about 870 scrolls (originally may have been as high as 1,000 because some have vanished).

•  Wadi (Valley) Murabba’at.

•  Wadi (Valley) Daliyeh.

•  Ruins of Masada - See Map 4.

The mentioning of the Dead Sea Scrolls may sometimes mean the scrolls in the above mentioned four vicinities, but more likely, the Qumran Scrolls are only meant. Long centuries turned some of them into to small fragments; some no larger than the size of a fingernail.

3.1.2 The Dead Sea Bible/Qumran Bible was written during the period c. 200 B.C.E. to 100 C.E. The evidence for this dating is:²⁴

•  The science of Paleography (the study of ancient writing and its evaluation).

•  Carbon-14 dating.

•  Texts referring to historical individuals by name confirm the first centuries B.C.E. and C.E.

•  Artifacts, pottery styles are typical of the period 150 B.C.E. to 100 C.E.

3.1.3 The languages used in writing these scrolls are:²⁵

•  Hebrew: in the majority of the scrolls. At the time of the D.S.S. in Palestine the Hebrew language had died. It was known only by the educated classes and the Rabbis.

•  Aramaic: About one-sixth of the D.S.S. is written in Aramaic, the spoken language of the Jews.

•  Greek: A small minority of the D.S.S. is in Greek.

3.1.4 This Bible does not contain the book of Esther, which is completely missing.²⁶

3.1.5 In many cases the scrolls have supported the Jewish Bible currently used, but among the scrolls there are non-Biblical texts, i.e., are not part of the Bible nowadays. These non-Biblical texts can be subdivided into two categories:²⁷

•  Non-Biblical texts that were known before the discovery of the scrolls like:

o  The book of Jubilees.

o  The book of 1 Enoch.

o  The Testaments of the twelve Patriarchs.

Although the Jews wrote them in Aramaic and Hebrew in ancient times, these writings did not survive in Jewish circles. They survived only among the Christians who adapted them and republished them as edifying literature.

•  Non-biblical texts that were completely unknown until the scrolls were read such as:

o  A dozen of writings that came from the caves, claiming Moses as their author.

o  Psalms attributed to King David.

3.2 The Christian Ethiopian Bible

²⁸

The Old Testament of the Ethiopian Bible considers the book of Jubilees and the book of 1 Enoch as Biblical, and includes them in the O.T. of the Ethiopian church, despite that they are non-biblical.

The New Testament in all Christian Bibles contains the same twenty-seven books with exception to the New Testament of the Ethiopian Bible. The Ethiopian Church recognized thirty-five books as canonical. The extra eight books are of the so-called Apostolic Constitution.²⁹

4. DENOMINATIONS

The Jews, who believe in the Jewish Bible Tanakh, and the Christians who believe in the Christian Bibles, differ in their views towards their Bibles. The result of these different view is what is known as Denominations.

Denomination means a group of religious congregations having its own organization and distinctive faith.³⁰

4.1 Christian denominations

The Christians follow more than one Christian Bible. Moreover, Christians have different views regarding the sacred texts of the Holy Bibles, and also in their beliefs in:

Creeds, inspiration and inerrancy of the Bible, sources, nature of Christ, resurrection of Christ, Holy Spirit, Angels, Satan, sin and salvation, original sin, end of the times, day of judgment, Trinity, and more.

These different views led to the establishment of numerous Christian Denominations (particular sects with specific names). The World Christian Encyclopedia of 2001 lists 33,830 Christian Denominations.³¹

4.1.1 If we take into consideration the number of members of each Christian Denomination, these are the largest denominations according to the number of members:³²

•  Catholicism

•  Protestantism

•  Eastern Orthodoxy

•  Anglicanism

•  Oriental Orthodoxy

•  Restorationism

•  Unitarian Universalism

•  Nestorianism

The above denominations include affiliated minor churches.

The other denominations are minorities, as each has less than 0.6 million members.

4.2 Jewish denominations

³³

While Christian Denominations differ chiefly in matters of doctrine, Jewish Denominations differ from one another primarily with regard to practice. The Jewish Denominations, commonly known as movements, reflect the varying responses to changing times and culture.

4.2.1 The movements responding to the time of the historical Roman rule of Israel are:

•  Pharisses

•  Sadducees

•  Essenes

4.2.2 While the major modern movements responding to the modern secular culture of Europe and America are:

•  Reform Judaism

•  Orthodox Judaism

•  Conservative Judaism

4.2.3 There are also mystical approaches to the Jewish faith. They are:

•  Hasidic Judaism

•  Kabbalah Jewish Mysticism

CHAPTER TWO

WHO WERE THE AUTHORS OF THE BOOKS OF THE BIBLE?

INTRODUCTION

The writing of the Bible started by Moses who wrote the first five books: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, which are known as the Torah, the Law or the Pentateuch. He wrote them on animal skins during the forty years of wandering in Sinai Peninsula.

Moses began to write the Torah in year 1570 B.C.E. if Pharaoh Ahmosis I (the founder of the New Kingdom, Dynasty 18) was the Pharaoh of the Exodus; or in 1070 B.C.E. if a Pharaoh from the New Kingdom, Dynasty 20, was the Pharaoh of the Exodus; or in any year in between - See Who was the Pharaoh of the Exodus part 4, chapter 14, article 7. The writing of the Bible ended by writing the book of Revelation circa 100 C.E.

This means that the original books of the Bible were written over a period of at least 1,200 years. Therefore, a lot of time elapsed between when the original manuscript was written (which is lost), and when the writing was done of what was orally transmitted and then copied by hand (which was most likely the same information).

It is believed that the authors of the books of the Bible were inspired by God. So, the Bible is called the Word of God. The second Letter to Timothy 3:16 states, Everything in the Scriptures is God’s Word.

For the sake of talking about the authors of the books of the Bible, it is preferable to classify these books into three groups:

•  The first five books of the Old Testament (also called: Torah, Law, or Pentateuch).

•  The remaining books of the Old Testament.

•  The books of the New Testament.

1. AUTHORS OF THE FIRST FIVE BOOKS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT (GENESIS, EXODUS, LEVITICUS, NUMBERS, AND DEUTERONOMY)

1.1 It is believed that the first five books of the Old Testament were written by Moses from divine instructions at the Sinai Peninsula.¹

The Bible does not mention where Moses put these five books.

The original writings of the first five books of the Old Testament, believed to be written on the skins of animals, are lost and have not been found. They may be hidden and may be discovered in the future by Biblical Archeologists.

They may also have been destroyed in one of the following disasters that afflicted the Hebrews and destroyed Jerusalem:

1.1.1 In circa 1207 B.C.E.²

Merneptah (circa 1220-1202 B.C.E.), the Egyptian Pharaoh of the 19th Dynasty of the New Kingdom of ancient Egypt, devastated Israel. Merneptah’s funerary temple at Thebes has a stele known as the Israel Stele having an inscription that provides the first known reference to ISRAEL in the whole of Egyptian monuments. The Stele is now in the Cairo Museum. It is grey granite, height 3.18 m.

The line before the last one of the stele mentions, Israel is devastated; her seed is no more, Palestine has become a widow for Egypt.

It would appear to confirm the fact that the Israelites were established in their own domain during Merneptah’s reign.

1.1.2 In year 925 B.C.E.³

Sheshonq I (945-924 B.C.E.), the Egyptian Pharaoh of the 22nd Dynasty of ancient Egypt (Shishak of the Bible) defeated the Kingdoms of Judah and Israel in 925 B.C.E. Jerusalem was surrounded, but Sheshonq was bought off from entering by being given the treasures of the house of the Lord, and the treasures of the King’s house. He even took away the shields of gold that Solomon had made (I Kings 14:26).

1.1.3 In year 722 / 721 B.C.E.⁴

The Assyrian armies conquered Israel, the northern Kingdom, put the King and nobles to death, and transported the remaining citizens (27,000 Israelites), never to be seen again.

1.1.4 In year 587/586 B.C.E.⁵

Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, destroyed Jerusalem and took people into Babylonian captivity (Hebrew Exile to Babylon). His army destroyed the Great Temple of Jerusalem and the original sacred writings were burned up in a fire that destroyed the Temple.

1.1.5 In 70-135 C.E.⁶

The complete destruction of Jerusalem following the Roman wars. Although the original writings of the first five books of the Old Testament were lost, they were preserved by being told and retold orally for many centuries before finally being rewritten by a variety of authors.

Tradition says that Ezra (5th century B.C.E.), priest, scribe, and the teacher of the laws of God, was able to restore the Torah (the first five books of the Old Testament) by revelation.⁷

This tradition is preserved in a work called the Fourth Book of Ezra. This book is not part of the Bible. In it God spoke to Ezra from a bush. Ezra said to God, Your Law (the Pentateuch, first five books of the Old Testament) has been burned,….send the Holy Spirit to me. Ezra then recites the lost texts for forty days.⁸

So, you may see that Moses is the author of the Torah (Pentateuch, the first five books of the Old Testament), while Ezra renewed the same work.

1.2 My view

I believe that Moses received revelation from God during the forty years of wandering in the Sinai Peninsula. Moses passed on what he received ORALLY to his disciple Joshua.

Why did Moses transmit the first five books of the Old Testament orally instead of giving them to Joshua written by his hand?

The writing of these books by Moses in Sinai raises two questions:

•  On what material did Moses write these books? It could not have been papyrus scrolls, which were used in Egypt at the time of Moses, as it was impossible to manufacture papyrus scrolls, ink, and tools for writing in the desert of Sinai. The only way of writing these books would have been on animal skin, but transporting and storing them would have been difficult during forty years of wandering in Sinai.

The volume of these animal skins could be compared to the volume of the Great Pyramid of King Khufu (Cheops) in Egypt.

•  In what language did Moses write these five books? It is reasonable to say they were written in the ancient Egyptian language. It is the language that Moses had learned and excelled in, during his education at the palace of Pharaoh and during his authoritative positions in Egypt before his escape to Midian. And in this case, which alphabet of the ancient Egyptian language did he use, Hieroglyphic, Hieratic, or Demotic?

It makes sense that the first five books of the Old Testament were passed on orally to Joshua, and orally from Joshua to the Elders. The Elders passed on orally to the Prophets who passed on orally to the men of the Great Assembly.

1.3 The Documentary Hypothesis¹⁰ The first five books of the Christian Old Testament and the Jewish Bible, are called the Torah.

So, who were the authors of Torah in its present form? The Biblical scholars, in the 19th century, analyzed and questioned these five books and noted the following:⁹

•  Different names of God used in various parts.

•  Significant differences in style, vocabulary, and content that indicates a variety of authors for the first four books, as well as an independent author for the fifth book of Deuteronomy.

These Biblical scholars theorized what is called the Documentary Hypothesis.

It is often referred to by two of its most widely known presenters: Karl Graf and Julius Wellhauser.

It claims that there are four major sources (authors) called J, E, P, and D. The combination of them during the 5th century B.C.E. resulted in the creation of the Torah (the first five books of the Bible), which was declared as sacred text by the religious body about the year 400 B.C.E.

1.3.1 J source (or the Yahwist): 848-722 B. C. E.

It is called so because it is given to the source (author) who refers to the name of God as YHWH (called J from the German: JHVH) and spoken as Yahweh. The Germans pronounce the German letters J and V as the English letters Y and W respectively.

The author probably lived in the Southern Kingdom some time after the death of Solomon. This author was responsible for writing most of the book of Genesis. J stands for YHWH.

1.3.2 E source (or the Elohist): 747-722 B.C.E.

It is called so because it is given to the source (author) who refers to the name of God as Elohim.

This author authored the binding of Isaac (Gen. 22) and other passages of the book of Genesis, as well as, much in the book of Exodus and the book of Numbers. The author was most likely a Northern contemporary of J. E stands for Elohim.

1.3.3 P source (or the Priestly writing): 722-587 B.C.E.

It is called so because it is given to the source (author) who is characterized by interest in priesthood and genealogies.

This author authored first chapter of the book of Genesis, the book of Leviticus, and other sections.

There are challenges between Bible scholars about P; Is it the latest part or the earliest part of the Torah?

•  According to Dr. Bamberger, P is the latest part of the Torah. It is composed during or after the Babylonian exile (approximately 507 to 516 B. C. E.) when the Jews had no king and the High Priest was the leader and the spokesman of the nation. According to this view, P was the framework into which J, E, and D were fitted in the 5th century B.C.E.

•  According to many 20th century Bible scholars, among them Yehezkel Kaufmann, the P source is not the latest, but the earliest part of the Torah.

Anyhow, P contains many old strands and traditions -probably predating J and E - but also contains later additions when the Torah was put into final written form after the return from exile. P stands for Priest.

1.3.4 D source

It is called so because it is given to the source (author) of the book of Deuteronomy, which is said to be the book found by King Josiah (a new king of Judah) in 621 B.C.E. (2 Kings 22; some also assign Genesis 14 to D").

From above it seems that the arrangement of the text of the Torah (the first five books of the Bible) took about two and a half centuries.

1.3.5 In 1941, A. Lods distinguished three sources (authors) in the Yahwist version, four in the Elohist version, six in Deuteronomy, and nine in the Priestly writings.¹¹

In other words the four major sources (authors), mentioned in the Documentary Hypothesis are subdivided into twenty-two sources (authors). That is to say, twenty-two authors wrote the first five books of the Bible.

1.4 Comments about some of the texts of the Old Testament

Although the authors of the Christian Old Testament (or the Jewish Bible) wrote in the best way possible to equal the original writings, the commentators had their doubts and noted the following:

The authors wrote the first five books of the O.T. (Torah) in terms of their own time and not as seen in the time of Moses who is the original author of the five books - as is seen in:¹²

•  Deut. 34:5-8: telling the description of the burial of Moses.

•  Gen. 36:31: telling the name of the kings who came hundreds of years after Moses’ death.

The authors wrote that God has a family, as it is seen in:¹³

•  Gen. 1:26 "Now we will make humans, and they will be like us…" -CEV.

•  Gen. 3.22 "The Lord said, ‘These people now know the difference between right and wrong, just as we do…’ -CEV. Who could us and we" be referring to?

•  Rashi explains this plural form of God by saying that God speaks in the name of His family.

•  This is against the One God of Moses.

The four major authors J, E, P, and D erred in calculating the period in which the People of Israel (Israelites) dwelt in Egypt before the Exodus as it is seen in:

•  Ex. 12:40 The length of time that the Israelites lived in Egypt was 430 years.

•  Gen. 15:13 The number 400 is given.

Egyptology scholar Ahmed Osman argued that the figure of 430 or 400 years was wrongly arrived at by the Biblical author as a result of adding up the length of time of the four generations - who settled in Goshen, Egypt from their arrival to Exodus - as if each new generation was born on the very same day that his father died. In his calculation, A. Osman suggests that this number should be within the range of some 50-80 years.¹⁴

The majority of Egyptologists look upon this figure 430 as a sacred figure not to be challenged.¹⁵

The Orthodox or the fundamentalists maintain that the Torah (the first five books of the Christian Old Testament) is The Word of God, and maintain that not even one letter can be considered as unnecessary.¹⁶

2. AUTHORS OF THE REMAINING BOOKS OF THE JEWISH BIBLE, COMMONLY KNOWN AS THE OLD TESTAMENT BY THE CHRISTIANS

Modern scholars, after thorough investigation, recognized that the name of the author of each book according to the traditional thought does not agree with their own thoughts.¹⁷

In brief, who authored the books of the Old Testament?

The answer is: We do not know for certain.

Most of the writings in the O.T. are of anonymous authorship, and in many cases it is not known whether they were compiled by individuals or by groups.¹⁸

Richard Elliott Friedman, Professor of Hebrew and comparative literature at the University of California, San Diego writes:¹⁹

"People have been reading the Bible for nearly two-thousand years - - They have regarded it as divinely dictated, revealed, or inspired, or as a human creation. They have acquired more copies of it than of any other books - - It is at the heart of Christianity and Judaism. Ministers, priests, and rabbis preach it - - People read it, study it, admire it, disdain it, write about it, argue about it, and love it - - And we do not know who wrote it. It is a strange fact that we have never known with certainty who produced the book that has played such a central role in our civilization."

3. AUTHORS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT

The original manuscripts of the books of the New Testament have disappeared.

Three sources of information exist today for our knowledge of the text, of these:²⁰

•  Greek Manuscripts dating from the 2nd and succeeding centuries.

•  Early translations into other languages (primarily Syriac, Coptic, and Latin).

•  Quotations from the N.T. made by early Christian ecclesiastical writers.

The four Gospels are so anonymous that the names associated with their writers are all second century guesses.²¹

Christians in the 2nd century, possessing anonymous manuscripts and eager to give names to them, focused upon four historical figures:

•  Matthew, the Apostle.

•  Mark, of Jerusalem, who is like the son of Peter (1 Peter 5:13).

•  Luke, the beloved physician of Paul (Col. 4:14).

•  John, the Apostle.

Many scholars believe that just seven of the twenty-seven books of the New Testament were written by the names on them; the rest were written by followers after their deaths.²²

This does not diminish the essential truth or the value of the New Testament.

CHAPTER THREE

THE TIMELINE OF HOW THE BIBLE CAME TO BE IN ITS PRESENT FORM

INTRODUCTION

Vellum was taken up and used as the principal writing material early in the fourth century C.E. That is why the books of the Bible that were written before the 4th century C.E. disappeared because the material they were written on was so perishable.¹

Still, some portions of books earlier than the 4th century C.E. survived. For example, The Dead Sea Scrolls, which were written on parchment or papyrus; only one scroll was etched in copper.² This was during the period circa 200 B.C.E. to 100 C.E.³ That is because these scrolls were preserved in closed stone jars, and hidden in caves (caves keep the temperature almost constant during the different seasons of the year). But, as centuries passed, some of them turned to small fragments, some no longer than a fingernail⁴ - See D.S.S., chapter 1.

1. THE PRINCIPAL WRITING MATERIALS

The books of the Bible are written on:

Papyrus, parchment, vellum, and paper.

1.1 Papyrus: It was the earliest material to be written on. The ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans made a writing material from the fibrous pith of the papyrus water plant.

The pith of the papyrus plant was cut into thin strips and laid down in two layers. One layer laid horizontally and the other also laid horizontally, but at 90 degrees. The fibers were then soaked, pressed, and dried.⁵ The papyrus was used in the Scroll form (rolls), and also used in the Codex form.

What is "Codex? The codex is a leaf-book consisting of sheets of papyrus, parchment, or vellum. These sheets were sewn together and then stacked and bound between two covers. The Christians, during their preaching and Bible study, noted that it is practically impossible to refer to the Scriptures when written in the scroll form (rolls). That is why they adopted use of the codex". The earliest known Papyrus Codex contained the books of Numbers and Deuteronomy. Vellum codex replaced papyrus in the early years of the 4th century C.E.⁶

1.2 Parchment: It is a substitute for papyrus. It is a skin of an animal, usually a sheep or a goat. It is dried and made into thin sheets for use as a writing material.⁷

1.3 Vellum: It is the finest kind of parchment, usually prepared from the skins of young animals. It may be calfskin, lambskin, or kidskin (skin of young goats) and was used for writing, binding books, or artists’ canvas. It was the new writing material at the beginning of the 4th century C.E.⁸

1.4 Paper: It came into use from about the 12th century C.E. onwards. But, for the majority of books, vellum was regularly employed until the invention of printing with movable type (1455 C.E.) for which paper was both better suited and cheaper.⁹

2. THE TIMELINE OF HOW THE BIBLE CAME TO BE IN ITS PRESENT FORM, AND ITS BASIC FACTS

The following timeline begins when Moses received the Torah and ends with more recent versions of the Bible; a journey of almost thirty-three centuries throughout the history of the Bible.

2.1 Circa 1450-1250 B.C.E.

-See who was the Pharaoh of the Exodus - part 4, chapter 14, article 7.

During the forty year wandering in the Sinai Peninsula with his people, Moses:

•  Received on Mount Sinai the two flat stones on which God had written all of His laws with His own hand (Ex. 31:18 - CEV).

•  Received on Mount Sinai, the divine revelation of the Torah (the first five books of the Old Testament, also called the Law or the Pentateuch). It was believed to be written by Moses, most likely on the skins of animals.

•  Handed the Torah, before his death, over to Joshua who handed it over to the Elders who handed it over to the Prophets who in turn handed it over to the men of the Great Assembly¹⁰ -See My view previously mentioned in chapter 2, article 1.2.

2.2 Circa 445 B.C.E.: Ezra’s combined scriptures

There was a belief that Ezra - a priest, scribe, and lawgiver - restored the Law (Torah, the five books of Moses), and even the entire Jewish Bible of which the Temple copies had been lost.¹¹

Nehemiah arrived at Jerusalem at the 20th year of King Atraxerxes’ reign; i.e., in year 445 B.C.E.¹²