The Old Testament: What Are the General Outlines?

In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.

Who is the author of the old testament?

I express my heartfelt gratitude to Allah, the Almighty, the Creator of the vast heavens and the earth, who has bestowed upon us countless blessings and guidance throughout our lives. Furthermore, I send my peace and blessings upon Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, the final Prophet and messenger sent to humanity. He is the embodiment of compassion, integrity, and wisdom, whose teachings continue to inspire millions around the world.

One wonders how many readers of the Old Testament, if asked the above questions, would reply by repeating what they had read in the introduction to their Bible. They might answer that even though it was inspired by the Holy Ghost, the author was God.

Sometimes, the author of the Bible's presentation confines himself to informing his readers of this succinct observation, which puts an end to all further questions. Sometimes he corrects it by warning them that details may have subsequently been added to the primitive text by men, but that nonetheless, the litigious character of a passage does not alter the general truth that proceeds from it. This truth is stressed very heavily. The Church authorities answer for it, being the only body, with the assistance of the Holy Ghost, able to enlighten the faithful on such points. Since the council held in the fourth century, it was the Church that issued the list of the Holy Books, ratified by the councils of Florence (1441), Trent (1546), and the First Vatican Council (1870) to form what today is known as the canon.

Just recently, after so many encyclicals, the Second Vatican Council published a text concerning the revelation which is extremely important. It took three years (1962-1966) of strenuous effort to produce. The vast majority of the Bible's readers who find this highly reassuring information at the head of a modern edition have been quite satisfied with the guarantees of authenticity made over past centuries and have hardly thought it possible to debate them.

When one refers, however, to works written by clergymen, not meant for mass publication, one realizes that the question concerning the authenticity of the books in the Bible is much more complex than one might suppose a priori. For example, when one consults the modern publication in separate installments of the Bible in French translated under the guidance of the Biblical School in Jerusalem, one realizes that the Old Testament, like the New Testament, raises problems with controversial elements that, for the most part, the authors of commentaries have not concealed.

We also find highly precise data in more condensed studies of a very objective nature, such as professor Edmonds Jacob's study. The old testament (L'Ancien Testament) . This book gives an excellent general view.

Many people are unaware and Edmonds Jacob points this out, that there were originally a number of texts and not just one. Around the third century B.C. There were at least three forms of the Hebrew text. The text which was to become the Masoretic text, the text which was used in part at least, for the Greek translation, and the Samaritan Pentateuch. In the first century B.C. there was a tendency towards the establishment of a single text, but it was not until a century after Christ that the Biblical texts was definitely established.

If we had the three forms of the text, comparison would have been possible, and we could have reached an opinion concerning what the original might have been. Unfortunately, we do not have the slightest idea. Apart from the Dead Sea Scrolls, (Cave of Qumran) dating before the Christian era near the time of Jesus, a papyrus of the ten commandments of the second century A.D. presenting variations from the classical text, and a few fragments from the fifth century A.D. Cairo Geniza. The oldest Hebrew text of the bible dates from the Ninth Century A.D.

The Septuagint was probably the first translation in Greek. It dates from the third century B.C. and was written by Jews in Alexandria. It was on this text that the new testament was based. It remained authoritative until the seventh century A.D. The basic Greek Text in general use in the Christian world are from the manuscripts catalogued under the title codex vaticanus in the Vatican City and Codex sinaiticus at the British museum, London. They date from the fourth century A D.

At the beginning of the fifth century A.D. Saint Jerome was able to produce a text in Latin using Hebrew documents. It was later to be called the Vulgate on account of its universal distribution after the seventh century A.D.

For the record, we shall mention the Aramaic version and the Syriac(Peshitta) version, but these are incomplete.

All of these versions have enabled specialists to piece together the so called " middle of the road texts, a sort of compromise between the different versions. Multi Lingual collection have also been produced which juxtapose, the Hebrew, Greek, Latin

Versions in Syriac, Aramaic, and even Arabic exist. This is true for the renowned Walton Bible (London, 1667). For thoroughness, it's important to note that differing Biblical interpretations have led to various Christian churches not accepting the same books, and they have not yet achieved identical translations into the same language. The ecumenical translation of the Old Testament is an effort towards unification, crafted by numerous Catholic and Protestant scholars, and is nearing completion, aiming to produce a synthesized work.

Thus, the human influence in the Old Testament is quite significant. It's easy to see why, from version to version and translation to translation, with inevitable corrections, the original text could have been altered over two thousand years.

To be continued...

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