What is the Latin Vulgate Bible?
“The Vulgate” is the popular name given to the Latin version of the Bible, a translation usually attributed to Jerome. Before Jerome’s time, as the number of Latin-speaking Christians grew, the Bible was translated into Latin so that the Christians of the time could understand it. It is believed that the first Latin translation was…
How long did it take to write the Bible?
The books of the Bible were written at different times by different authors over a period of approximately 1,500 years. But that is not to say that it took 1,500 years to write the Bible, only that it took that long for the complete canon of Scripture to be penned as God progressively revealed His…
What is the Gutenberg Bible?
In 1997 Time-Life Magazine published a list of the most important inventions of the second millennium, and the top spot was awarded to the moveable-type printing press invented by Johann Gutenberg. The very first book to be printed on this history-altering invention was the Bible—specifically, the Latin Vulgate—now known as the Gutenberg Bible. Little is…
What is the history of the Bible in English?
There is evidence of Christianity in the British Isles as early as the late second century. For the next 1,000 years, missionaries and teachers translated bits and pieces of the Bible into the language of the people for teaching purposes, but there was no concerted effort to translate the whole Bible. Latin was the language…
What are the lost books of the Bible?
There are no “lost books” of the Bible, or books that were taken out of the Bible, or books missing from the Bible. Every book that God intended to be in the Bible is in the Bible. There are many legends and rumors of lost books of the Bible, but the books were not, in…
What is the JEDP Theory?
In brief, the JEDP theory states that the first five books of the Bible, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, were not written entirely by Moses, who died in the 1400’s B.C., but also by different authors/compilers after Moses. The theory is based on the fact that different names for God are used in different…
What was the process of deciding on the New Testament canon?
A full explanation of the process of deciding on the New Testament canon would require a book-length response, and indeed books have been written about it; however, it is possible to give a basic overview in a short article. The canon is the list of authoritative books that make up the New Testament. There were…
How do we know that the Bible is the Word of God?
The question of which (if any) religious text is the true word of God is of utmost importance. To avoid circular reasoning, the first question we must ask is: how would we know if God communicated in the first place? Well, God would have to communicate in a manner that people could understand, but that…
What is the antilegomena?
The antilegomena is a collection of Bible texts that were subject to a high level of skepticism while the canon of Scripture was being established. The word antilegomena literally means “spoken against” and was applied to those writings that were accepted by the majority of the early church but had more detractors than other books.…
What is the Samaritan Pentateuch?
The Samaritan Pentateuch, or Samaritan Torah, is the text of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible written in the Samaritan script for the Samaritan people. It is the only text the Samaritans consider inspired, rejecting Joshua through Malachi and the entire New Testament. The Samaritan Pentateuch stems from an ancient version of the…