Western literature/week15

Introduction about bible

Old Testament

The Old Testament is the first section of the Christian Bible, based primarily

upon the Hebrew Bible, a collection of religious writings by ancient Israelites

believed by most Christians and religious Jews to be the sacred Word of God. It

is the counterpart to the New Testament, the second portion of the Christian

Bible. The Old Testament canon varies between Christian Churches. Protestants

have a version with 39 books. Catholics have a version with 46 books, and

Eastern Orthodox, and Oriental Orthodox Churches choose the Old Testament

version with 49 books.

         

The formation of the Old Testament

The process by which scriptures became canons and Bibles was a long one, and its complexities account for the

many different Old Testaments which exist today. Timothy H. Lim, a professor of Hebrew Bible and Second

Temple Judaism at the University of Edinburgh, identifies the Old Testament as "a collection of authoritative texts

of apparently divine origin that went through a human process of writing and editing." He states that it is not a

magical book, nor was it literally written by God and passed to mankind. By about the 5th century BC Jews saw the

five books of the Torah (the Old Testament Pentateuch) as having authoritative status; by the 2nd century BC the

Prophets had a similar status, although without quite the same level of respect as the Torah; beyond that,

the Jewish scriptures were fluid, with different groups seeing authority in different books.

The interrelationship between various significant ancient manuscripts of the Old Testament, according to the Encyclopaedia Biblica (1903). Some manuscripts are identified by their siglum. LXX here denotes the original Septuagint.

Lot's wife

In the Bible, Lot's wife is a figure first mentioned in Genesis 19. The Book of Genesis describes how she became a pillar of salt after she looked back at Sodom. She is called "Ado" or "Edith" in some Jewish traditions, but is not named in the Bible. She is also referred to in the deuterocanonical books at Wisdom 10:7 and the New Testament at Luke 17:32.

When Abraham heard that his nephew, Lot, had been taken captive by the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah, he pursued the enemies and freed Lot, and “the women, and the people.” Who the women were, Scripture does not say. They may have been Lot’s wife and daughters, or Sodomite female servants.The first direct reference we have of Lot’s unnamed wife is when the angels came to hasten the family out of doomed Sodom (Genesis 19:15). Who she was, of what race and family, of what life and character, by what name she was known, the Bible is silent. All the information we have about her is packed into one short verse, “His wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.” Yet we must give attention to her for it is written in burning words by the finger of God—

“Remember Lot’s wife.”

Some dozen words in the Old Testament, and three words in the New Testament, then, are all we have of this female character.

Samuel

literally meaning "Name of God" in Hebrew, is a leader of ancient Israel in the Books of Samuel in the Hebrew Bible. He is also known as a prophet by Christians and Muslims, and is mentioned in the second chapter of the Qur'an, although not by name.

The lord's prayer

The Lord's Prayer, also called the Our Father, Pater Noster, and the Model Prayer is a venerated Christian prayer originally recorded in Aramaic that, according to the New Testament, was taught by Jesus to his disciples.

      

 Sermon on the Mount

        The Sermon on the Mount is a collection of sayings and teachings of Jesus, which emphasizes his moral teaching found in the Gospel of Matthew (chapters 5, 6, and 7). It is the first of the Five Discourses of Matthew and takes place relatively early in the Ministry of Jesus after he has been baptized by John the Baptist and preached in Galilee.

       

     The Death of Joseph

 22 So Joseph remained in Egypt, he and his father's house. Joseph lived 110 years. 23 And Joseph saw Ephraim's children of the third generation. The children also of Machir the son of Manasseh were counted as Joseph's own.[a] 24 And Joseph said to his brothers, “I am about to die, but God will visit you and bring you up out of this land to the land that he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.” 25 Then Joseph made the sons of Israel swear, saying, “God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here.” 26 So Joseph died, being 110 years old. They embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.