Description: Very RARE Original Bible Leaf Early Lutheran Bible - Folio Book of Maccabees German 1567 For offer, a very rare Bible leaf (2 pgs.) ! Fresh from a local estate - never offered on the market until now! Vintage, Old, Original, Antique - NOT a Reproduction - Guaranteed !! Folio size early German printed leaf from 1567 Martin Luther Christian Bible. From the original German translation of the Holy Bible by Martin Luther, published in Frankfurt in 1567. Gothic German typeface Late Medieval / early Renaissance period. This master work, with woodcuts by Jost Amman after Johann Bocksberger, is one of the most important religious works of the Reformation , signaling Luther's final break with the Catholic Church and his determination to bring the word of God to the people, in their own language. Measures approx 9 x 14 inches. Exquisite detail in the initial letter woodcut area. Printed on hand-made, laid paper. From: Biblia, das ist: die gantze Heylige Schrifft Teutsch. D. Mart. Luth. Sampt einem Register/Summarien vber alle Capittel vnd schönen Figuren. [Frankfurt am Main]: Sigmund Feyerabend, Georg Rab & heirs of Weygand Han, 1567. Leaf is in good to very good condition. Light age toning. As shown in photos. Please see photos for details. Would look great framed! Whether you are a Christian Lutheran, Catholic, Jewish, or Protestant faith, this is a nice item and historically important! If you collect 16th century religion, religious items, theology, early printing or print history, Martin Luther connection. Great gift for the pastor, minister, etc. Protestant Reformation period. If you collect 16th century German imprints, Luther, Christian religion, etc., this is a nice one for your bibliophile library or paper / ephemera collection. Combine shipping on multiple bid wins! 3378 The Maccabees (/ˈmækəbiːz/), also spelled Machabees (Hebrew: מַכַּבִּים, Makkabbīm or מַקַבִּים, Maqabbīm; Latin: Machabaei or Maccabaei; Ancient Greek: Μακκαβαῖοι, Makkabaioi), were a group of Jewish rebel warriors who took control of Judea, which at the time was part of the Seleucid Empire.[1][2] Its leaders, the Hasmoneans, founded the Hasmonean dynasty, which ruled from 167 BCE (after the Maccabean Revolt) to 37 BCE,[3] being a fully independent kingdom from 104 to 63 BCE. They reasserted the Jewish religion, expanded the boundaries of Judea by conquest, and reduced the influence of Hellenism and Hellenistic Judaism. Jost Amman (June 13, 1539 – March 17, 1591) was a Swiss-German artist, celebrated chiefly for his woodcuts, done mainly for book illustrations. Early lifeAmman was born in Zürich, the son of a professor of Classics and Logic. He was himself well-educated. Little of his personal history is known beyond the fact that he moved to Nuremberg in 1560, where he took on citizenship and continued to reside until his death in March 1591. He worked initially with Virgil Solis, then a leading producer of book illustrations. CareerHis productivity was very remarkable, as may be gathered from the statement of one of his pupils, who said that the drawings he made during a period of four years would have filled a hay wagon. A large number of his original drawings are in the Berlin print room. About 1,500 prints are attributed to him. He was one of the last major producers of woodcuts for books, as during his career engravings were gradually taking over that role. Although like most woodcut artists, he normally let a specialist formschneider cut the block to his drawing, he occasionally included both a cutter's knife and a quill pen in his signature on prints, suggesting he sometimes cut his own blocks. Amman was the artist for Wenzel Jamnitzer's book Perspectiva corporum regularium (1568).[1] A series of engravings by Amman of the kings of France, with short biographies, appeared in Frankfurt in 1576. He also executed many of the woodcut illustrations for the Bible published at Frankfurt by Sigismund Feierabend, and for a topographical survey of Bavaria by Philipp Apian.[2] Another serial work, the Panoplia Omnium Liberalium Mechanicarum et Seden-tariarum Artium Genera Continens, containing 115 plates, is of great value.[3] Amman's drawing is correct and spirited, and his delineation of the details of costume is minute and accurate. Paintings in oil and on glass are attributed to him, but none have been identified. DeathAmman died in Nuremberg, Bavaria, aged 51. Sigmund Feyerabend (1528– 22 April 1590) was a bookseller and publisher at Frankfort. To him are attributed the woodcuts from the designs of Virgil Solis in a German Bible printed at Frankfort in 1561, and the portraits of the Doges of Venice in Kellner's Chronica, also printed at Frankfort in 1574. He died in 1590. He signed his cuts with SF or a monogram. Several of his relations also were wood-engravers, and one of them, M. Feyerabend, who worked about 1578, executed several figures after Melchior Lorch. His business was highly successful, but his son-in-law, Kuno Wiederhold, married to Katharina Maria Feyerabend, incurred heavy debts, leaving little for the younger, minor son, Karl Sigmund Feyerabend (+ 15 Jul 1609).[1] The Bible (from Koine Greek τὰ βιβλία, tà biblía, "the books")[1][a] is a collection of religious texts or scriptures sacred to Christians, Jews, Samaritans, Rastafari and others. It appears in the form of an anthology, a compilation of texts of a variety of forms that are all linked by the belief that they are collectively revelations of God. These texts include theologically-focused historical accounts, hymns, prayers, proverbs, parables, didactic letters, erotica, poetry, and prophecies. Believers also generally consider the Bible to be a product of divine inspiration. Those books included in the Bible by a tradition or group are called canonical, indicating that the tradition/group views the collection as the true representation of God's word and will. A number of Biblical canons have evolved, with overlapping and diverging contents from denomination to denomination.[2] The Hebrew Bible overlaps with the Greek Septuagint and the Christian Old Testament. The Christian New Testament is a collection of writings by early Christians, believed to be mostly Jewish disciples of Christ, written in first-century Koine Greek. Among Christian denominations there is some disagreement about what should be included in the canon, primarily about the biblical apocrypha, a list of works that are regarded with varying levels of respect. Attitudes towards the Bible also differ among Christian groups. Roman Catholics, high church Anglicans, Methodists and Eastern Orthodox Christians stress the harmony and importance of both the Bible and sacred tradition,[3][4] while many Protestant churches focus on the idea of sola scriptura, or scripture alone. This concept rose to prominence during the Reformation, and many denominations today support the use of the Bible as the only infallible source of Christian teaching. Others though, advance the concept of prima scriptura in contrast.[3] The Bible has had a massive influence on literature and history, especially in the Western world, where the Gutenberg Bible was the first book printed using movable type.[5][6] According to the March 2007 edition of Time, the Bible "has done more to shape literature, history, entertainment, and culture than any book ever written. Its influence on world history is unparalleled, and shows no signs of abating."[5] With estimated total sales of over 5 billion copies, it is widely considered to be the best-selling book of all time.[5][7][8] As of the 2000s, it sells approximately 100 million copies annually.[9][10] EtymologyThe word βιβλίον itself had the literal meaning of "paper" or "scroll" and came to be used as the ordinary word for "book". It is the diminutive of βύβλος byblos, "Egyptian papyrus", possibly so called from the name of the Phoenician sea port Byblos (also known as Gebal) from whence Egyptian papyrus was exported to Greece. The Greek ta biblia (lit. "little papyrus books")[11] was "an expression Hellenistic Jews used to describe their sacred books" (the Septuagint).[12][13] Christian use of the term can be traced to c. 223 CE. The biblical scholar F. F. Bruce notes that Chrysostom appears to be the first writer (in his Homilies on Matthew, delivered between 386 and 388) to use the Greek phrase ta biblia ("the books") to describe both the Old and New Testaments together.[14] Medieval Latin biblia is short for biblia sacra "holy book", while biblia in Greek and Late Latin is neuter plural (gen. bibliorum). It gradually came to be regarded as a feminine singular noun (biblia, gen. bibliae) in medieval Latin, and so the word was loaned as singular into the vernaculars of Western Europe.[15] Latin biblia sacra "holy books" translates Greek τὰ βιβλία τὰ ἅγια tà biblía tà hágia, "the holy books".[16] The English word Bible is from the Latin biblia, from the same word in Medieval Latin and Late Latin and ultimately from Koinē Greek: τὰ βιβλία, romanized: ta biblia "the books" (singular βιβλίον, biblion).[17][better source needed] Textual historyBy the 2nd century BCE, Jewish groups began calling the books of the Bible the "scriptures" and they referred to them as "holy", or in Hebrew כִּתְבֵי הַקֹּדֶשׁ (Kitvei hakkodesh), and Christians now commonly call the Old and New Testaments of the Christian Bible "The Holy Bible" (in Greek τὰ βιβλία τὰ ἅγια, tà biblía tà ágia) or "the Holy Scriptures" (η Αγία Γραφή, e Agía Graphḗ).[18] The Bible was divided into chapters in the 13th century by Stephen Langton and into verses in the 16th century by French printer Robert Estienne[19] and is now usually cited by book, chapter, and verse. The division of the Hebrew Bible into verses is based on the sof passuk cantillation mark used by the 10th-century Masoretes to record the verse divisions used in earlier oral traditions.[citation needed] The oldest extant copy of a complete Bible is an early 4th-century parchment book preserved in the Vatican Library, and it is known as the Codex Vaticanus. The oldest copy of the Tanakh in Hebrew and Aramaic dates from the 10th century CE. The oldest copy of a complete Latin (Vulgate) Bible is the Codex Amiatinus, dating from the 8th century.[20] DevelopmentSee also: Authorship of the Bible The Isaiah scroll, which is a part of the Dead Sea Scrolls, contains almost the whole Book of Isaiah. It dates from the 2nd century BCE.Professor John K. Riches, Professor of Divinity and Biblical Criticism at the University of Glasgow, says that "the biblical texts themselves are the result of a creative dialogue between ancient traditions and different communities through the ages",[21] and "the biblical texts were produced over a period in which the living conditions of the writers – political, cultural, economic, and ecological – varied enormously".[22] Timothy H. Lim, a professor of Hebrew Bible and Second Temple Judaism at the University of Edinburgh, says that the Old Testament is "a collection of authoritative texts of apparently divine origin that went through a human process of writing and editing."[23] He states that it is not a magical book, nor was it literally written by God and passed to mankind. Parallel to the solidification of the Hebrew canon (c. 3rd century BCE), only the Torah first and then the Tanakh began to be translated into Greek and expanded, now referred to as the Septuagint or the Greek Old Testament.[24] In Christian Bibles, the New Testament Gospels were derived from oral traditions in the second half of the first century. Riches says that: Scholars have attempted to reconstruct something of the history of the oral traditions behind the Gospels, but the results have not been too encouraging. The period of transmission is short: less than 40 years passed between the death of Jesus and the writing of Mark's Gospel. This means that there was little time for oral traditions to assume fixed form.[25] The Bible was later translated into Latin and other languages. John Riches states that: The translation of the Bible into Latin marks the beginning of a parting of the ways between Western Latin-speaking Christianity and Eastern Christianity, which spoke Greek, Syriac, Coptic, Ethiopic, and other languages. The Bibles of the Eastern Churches vary considerably: the Ethiopic Orthodox canon includes 81 books and contains many apocalyptic texts, such as were found at Qumran and subsequently excluded from the Jewish canon. As a general rule, one can say that the Orthodox Churches generally follow the Septuagint in including more books in their Old Testaments than are in the Jewish canon.[25] Hebrew Bible from 1300. page 20, Genesis.Hebrew Bible from 1300. Genesis. Saint Paul Writing His Epistles, 16th-century painting.Hebrew BibleTanakhJoshua 1:1 as recorded in the Aleppo CodexTorah (Instruction)Nevi'im (Prophets)Ketuvim (Writings)vteMain article: Development of the Hebrew Bible canon The Nash Papyrus (2nd century BCE) contains a portion of a pre-Masoretic Text, specifically the Ten Commandments and the Shema Yisrael prayer.The Masoretic Text is the authoritative Hebrew text of the Hebrew Bible. It defines the books of the Jewish canon, and also the precise letter-text of these biblical books, with their vocalization and accentuation. The oldest extant manuscripts of the Masoretic Text date from approximately the 9th century CE,[26] and the Aleppo Codex (once the oldest complete copy of the Masoretic Text, but now missing its Torah section) dates from the 10th century. The term "Keter" (crown, from the Arabic, taj) originally referred to this particular manuscript, Over the years, the term Keter came to refer to any full text of the Hebrew Bible, or significant portion of it, bound as a codex (not a scroll) and including vowel points, cantillation marks, and Masoretic notes. Medieval handwritten manuscripts were considered extremely precise, the most authoritative documents from which to copy other texts.[27] The name Tanakh (Hebrew: תנ"ך) reflects the threefold division of the Hebrew Scriptures, Torah ("Teaching"), Nevi'im ("Prophets") and Ketuvim ("Writings"). TorahMain article: TorahSee also: Oral Torah A Torah scroll recovered from Glockengasse Synagogue in Cologne.The Torah (תּוֹרָה) is also known as the "Five Books of Moses" or the Pentateuch, meaning "five scroll-cases".[28] Traditionally these books were considered to have been written almost entirely by Moses himself.[29] In the 19th century, Julius Wellhausen and other scholars proposed that the Torah had been compiled from earlier written documents dating from the 9th to the 5th century BCE, the "documentary hypothesis".[29] Scholars Hermann Gunkel and Martin Noth, building on the form criticism of Gerhard von Rad, refined this hypothesis, while other scholars have proposed other ways that the Torah might have developed over the centuries.[29] Samaritan Inscription containing portion of the Bible in nine lines of Hebrew text, currently housed in the British MuseumThe Hebrew names of the books are derived from the first words in the respective texts. The Torah consists of the following five books: Genesis, Beresheeth (בראשית)Exodus, Shemot (שמות)Leviticus, Vayikra (ויקרא)Numbers, Bamidbar (במדבר)Deuteronomy, Devarim (דברים)The first eleven chapters of Genesis provide accounts of the creation (or ordering) of the world and the history of God's early relationship with humanity. The remaining thirty-nine chapters of Genesis provide an account of God's covenant with the biblical patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (also called Israel) and Jacob's children, the "Children of Israel", especially Joseph. It tells of how God commanded Abraham to leave his family and home in the city of Ur, eventually to settle in the land of Canaan, and how the Children of Israel later moved to Egypt. The remaining four books of the Torah tell the story of Moses, who lived hundreds of years after the patriarchs. He leads the Children of Israel from slavery in ancient Egypt to the renewal of their covenant with God at biblical Mount Sinai and their wanderings in the desert until a new generation was ready to enter the land of Canaan. The Torah ends with the death of Moses.[30] The commandments in the Torah provide the basis for Jewish religious law. Tradition states that there are 613 commandments (taryag mitzvot). Nevi'imMain article: Nevi'imBooks of Nevi'im Former ProphetsJoshuaJudgesSamuelKingsLatter Prophets (major)IsaiahJeremiahEzekielLatter Prophets (Twelve minor)HoseaJoelAmosObadiahJonahMicahNahumHabakkukZephaniahHaggaiZechariahMalachiHebrew BiblevteNevi'im (Hebrew: נְבִיאִים, romanized: Nəḇî'îm, "Prophets") is the second main division of the Tanakh, between the Torah and Ketuvim. It contains two sub-groups, the Former Prophets (Nevi'im Rishonim נביאים ראשונים, the narrative books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings) and the Latter Prophets (Nevi'im Aharonim נביאים אחרונים, the books of Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel and the Twelve Minor Prophets). The Nevi'im tell the story of the rise of the Hebrew monarchy and its division into two kingdoms, ancient Israel and Judah, focusing on conflicts between the Israelites and other nations, and conflicts among Israelites, specifically, struggles between believers in "the LORD God"[31] (Yahweh) and believers in foreign gods,[32][33] and the criticism of unethical and unjust behaviour of Israelite elites and rulers;[34][35][36] in which prophets played a crucial and leading role. It ends with the conquest of the Kingdom of Israel by the Assyrians followed by the conquest of the Kingdom of Judah by the Babylonians and the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem. Former ProphetsThe Former Prophets are the books Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings. They contain narratives that begin immediately after the death of Moses with the divine appointment of Joshua as his successor, who then leads the people of Israel into the Promised Land, and end with the release from imprisonment of the last king of Judah. Treating Samuel and Kings as single books, they cover: Joshua's conquest of the land of Canaan (in the Book of Joshua),the struggle of the people to possess the land (in the Book of Judges),the people's request to God to give them a king so that they can occupy the land in the face of their enemies (in the Books of Samuel)the possession of the land under the divinely appointed kings of the House of David, ending in conquest and foreign exile (Books of Kings)Latter ProphetsThe Latter Prophets are divided into two groups, the "major" prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and the Twelve Minor Prophets, collected into a single book. The collection is broken up to form twelve individual books in the Christian Old Testament, one for each of the prophets: Hosea, Hoshea (הושע)Joel, Yoel (יואל)Amos, Amos (עמוס)Obadiah, Ovadyah (עבדיה)Jonah, Yonah (יונה)Micah, Mikhah (מיכה)Nahum, Nahum (נחום)Habakkuk, Havakuk (חבקוק)Zephaniah, Tsefanya (צפניה)Haggai, Khagay (חגי)Zechariah, Zekharyah (זכריה)Malachi, Malakhi (מלאכי)KetuvimMain article: KetuvimBooks of the Ketuvim Three poetic booksPsalmsProverbsJobFive Megillot (Scrolls)Song of SongsRuthLamentationsEcclesiastesEstherOther booksDanielEzra–Nehemiah (EzraNehemiah)ChroniclesHebrew BiblevteKetuvim or Kəṯûḇîm (in Biblical Hebrew: כְּתוּבִים "writings") is the third and final section of the Tanakh. The Ketuvim are believed to have been written under the Ruach HaKodesh (the Holy Spirit) but with one level less authority than that of prophecy.[37] The poetic books Hebrew text of Psalm 1:1–2In Masoretic manuscripts (and some printed editions), Psalms, Proverbs and Job are presented in a special two-column form emphasizing the parallel stichs in the verses, which are a function of their poetry. Collectively, these three books are known as Sifrei Emet (an acronym of the titles in Hebrew, איוב, משלי, תהלים yields Emet אמ"ת, which is also the Hebrew for "truth"). These three books are also the only ones in Tanakh with a special system of cantillation notes that are designed to emphasize parallel stichs within verses. However, the beginning and end of the book of Job are in the normal prose system. The five scrolls (Hamesh Megillot)The five relatively short books of Song of Songs, Book of Ruth, the Book of Lamentations, Ecclesiastes and Book of Esther are collectively known as the Hamesh Megillot (Five Megillot). These are the latest books collected and designated as "authoritative" in the Jewish canon even though they were not complete until the 2nd century CE.[38] Other booksBesides the three poetic books and the five scrolls, the remaining books in Ketuvim are Daniel, Ezra–Nehemiah and Chronicles. Although there is no formal grouping for these books in the Jewish tradition, they nevertheless share a number of distinguishing characteristics: Their narratives all openly describe relatively late events (i.e., the Babylonian captivity and the subsequent restoration of Zion).The Talmudic tradition ascribes late authorship to all of them.Two of them (Daniel and Ezra) are the only books in the Tanakh with significant portions in Aramaic.Order of the booksThe following list presents the books of Ketuvim in the order they appear in most printed editions. It also divides them into three subgroups based on the distinctiveness of Sifrei Emet and Hamesh Megillot. The Three Poetic Books (Sifrei Emet) Tehillim (Psalms) תְהִלִּיםMishlei (Book of Proverbs) מִשְלֵיIyyôbh (Book of Job) אִיּוֹבThe Five Megillot (Hamesh Megillot) Shīr Hashshīrīm (Song of Songs) or (Song of Solomon) שִׁיר הַשִׁירִים (Passover)Rūth (Book of Ruth) רוּת (Shābhû‘ôth)Eikhah (Lamentations) איכה (Ninth of Av) [Also called Kinnot in Hebrew.]Qōheleth (Ecclesiastes) קהלת (Sukkôth)Estēr (Book of Esther) אֶסְתֵר (Pûrîm)Other books Dānî’ēl (Book of Daniel) דָּנִיֵּאל‘Ezrā (Book of Ezra–Book of Nehemiah) עזראDivrei ha-Yamim (Chronicles) דברי הימיםThe Jewish textual tradition never finalized the order of the books in Ketuvim. The Babylonian Talmud (Bava Batra 14b–15a) gives their order as Ruth, Psalms, Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, Lamentations of Jeremiah, Daniel, Scroll of Esther, Ezra, Chronicles.[39] In Tiberian Masoretic codices, including the Aleppo Codex and the Leningrad Codex, and often in old Spanish manuscripts as well, the order is Chronicles, Psalms, Job, Proverbs, Ruth, Song of Solomon, Ecclesiastes, Lamentations of Jeremiah, Esther, Daniel, Ezra.[40] CanonizationThe Ketuvim is the last of the three portions of the Tanakh to have been accepted as biblical canon. While the Torah may have been considered canon by Israel as early as the 5th century BCE and the Former and Latter Prophets were canonized by the 2nd century BCE, the Ketuvim was not a fixed canon until the 2nd century of the Common Era.[38] Evidence suggests, however, that the people of Israel were adding what would become the Ketuvim to their holy literature shortly after the canonization of the prophets. As early as 132 BCE references suggest that the Ketuvim was starting to take shape, although it lacked a formal title.[41] References in the four Gospels as well as other books of the New Testament indicate that many of these texts were both commonly known and counted as having some degree of religious authority early in the 1st century CE. Many scholars believe that the limits of the Ketuvim as canonized scripture were determined by the Council of Jamnia c. 90 CE. Against Apion, the writing of Josephus in 95 CE, treated the text of the Hebrew Bible as a closed canon to which "... no one has ventured either to add, or to remove, or to alter a syllable..."[42] For a long time following this date the divine inspiration of Esther, the Song of Songs, and Ecclesiastes was often under scrutiny.[43] Original languagesThe Tanakh was mainly written in biblical Hebrew, with some small portions (Ezra 4:8–6:18 and 7:12–26, Jeremiah 10:11, Daniel 2:4–7:28) written in biblical Aramaic, a sister language which became the lingua franca for much of the Semitic world.[44] Samaritan PentateuchMain article: Samaritan PentateuchSamaritans include only the Pentateuch in their biblical canon.[45] They do not recognize divine authorship or inspiration in any other book in the Jewish Tanakh.[46] A Samaritan Book of Joshua partly based upon the Tanakh's Book of Joshua exists, but Samaritans regard it as a non-canonical secular historical chronicle.[47] SeptuagintMain article: Septuagint Fragment of a Septuagint: A column of uncial book from 1 Esdras in the Codex Vaticanus c. 325–350 CE, the basis of Sir Lancelot Charles Lee Brenton's Greek edition and English translation.The Septuagint, or the LXX, is a translation of the Hebrew Scriptures and some related texts into Koine Greek, begun in the late 3rd century BCE and completed by 132 BCE,[48][49][50] initially in Alexandria, but in time it was completed elsewhere as well.[51] It is not altogether clear which was translated when, or where; some may even have been translated twice, into different versions, and then revised.[52] As the work of translation progressed, the canon of the Septuagint expanded. The Torah always maintained its pre-eminence as the basis of the canon but the collection of prophetic writings, based on the Nevi'im, had various hagiographical works incorporated into it. In addition, some newer books were included in the Septuagint, among these are the Maccabees and the Wisdom of Sirach. However, the book of Sirach, is now known to have existed in a Hebrew version, since ancient Hebrew manuscripts of it were rediscovered in modern times. The Septuagint version of some Biblical books, like Daniel and Esther, are longer than those in the Jewish canon.[53] Some of these deuterocanonical books (e.g. the Wisdom of Solomon, and the second book of Maccabees) were not translated, but composed directly in Greek.[citation needed] Since Late Antiquity, once attributed to a hypothetical late 1st-century Council of Jamnia, mainstream Rabbinic Judaism rejected the Septuagint as valid Jewish scriptural texts. Several reasons have been given for this. First, some mistranslations were claimed. Second, the Hebrew source texts used for the Septuagint differed from the Masoretic tradition of Hebrew texts, which was chosen as canonical by the Jewish rabbis.[54] Third, the rabbis wanted to distinguish their tradition from the newly emerging tradition of Christianity.[50][55] Finally, the rabbis claimed a divine authority for the Hebrew language, in contrast to Aramaic or Greek – even though these languages were the lingua franca of Jews during this period (and Aramaic would eventually be given a holy language status comparable to Hebrew).[56] The Septuagint is the basis for the Old Latin, Slavonic, Syriac, Old Armenian, Old Georgian and Coptic versions of the Christian Old Testament.[57] The Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches use most of the books of the Septuagint, while Protestant churches usually do not. After the Protestant Reformation, many Protestant Bibles began to follow the Jewish canon and exclude the additional texts, which came to be called biblical apocrypha. The Apocrypha are included under a separate heading in the King James Version of the Bible, the basis for the Revised Standard Version.[58] Incorporations from TheodotionIn most ancient copies of the Bible which contain the Septuagint version of the Old Testament, the Book of Daniel is not the original Septuagint version, but instead is a copy of Theodotion's translation from the Hebrew, which more closely resembles the Masoretic Text.[citation needed] The original Septuagint version was discarded in favour of Theodotion's version in the 2nd to 3rd centuries CE. In Greek-speaking areas, this happened near the end of the 2nd century, and in Latin-speaking areas (at least in North Africa), it occurred in the middle of the 3rd century. History does not record the reason for this, and St. Jerome reports, in the preface to the Vulgate version of Daniel, "This thing 'just' happened."[59] One of two Old Greek texts of the Book of Daniel has been recently rediscovered and work is ongoing in reconstructing the original form of the book.[60] The canonical Ezra–Nehemiah is known in the Septuagint as "Esdras B", and 1 Esdras is "Esdras A". 1 Esdras is a very similar text to the books of Ezra–Nehemiah, and the two are widely thought by scholars to be derived from the same original text. It has been proposed, and is thought highly likely by scholars, that "Esdras B" – the canonical Ezra–Nehemiah – is Theodotion's version of this material, and "Esdras A" is the version which was previously in the Septuagint on its own.[59] Final formSome texts are found in the Septuagint but are not present in the Hebrew. These additional books are Tobit, Judith, Wisdom of Solomon, Wisdom of Jesus son of Sirach, Baruch, the Letter of Jeremiah (which later became chapter 6 of Baruch in the Vulgate), additions to Daniel (The Prayer of Azarias, the Song of the Three Children, Susanna and Bel and the Dragon), additions to Esther, 1 Maccabees, 2 Maccabees, 3 Maccabees, 4 Maccabees, 1 Esdras, Odes, including the Prayer of Manasseh, the Psalms of Solomon, and Psalm 151. Some books that are set apart in the Masoretic Text are grouped together. For example, the Books of Samuel and the Books of Kings are in the LXX one book in four parts called Βασιλειῶν ("Of Reigns"). In LXX, the Books of Chronicles supplement Reigns and it is called Paralipomenon (Παραλειπομένων – things left out). The Septuagint organizes the minor prophets as twelve parts of one Book of Twelve.[60] The OrthodoxOld Testament[51][61][b]Greek-basednameConventionalEnglish nameLawΓένεσιςGénesisGenesisἜξοδοςÉxodosExodusΛευϊτικόνLeuitikónLeviticusἈριθμοίArithmoíNumbersΔευτερονόμιονDeuteronómionDeuteronomyHistoryἸησοῦς NαυῆIêsous NauêJoshuaΚριταίKritaíJudgesῬούθRoúthRuthΒασιλειῶν Αʹ[c]I ReignsI SamuelΒασιλειῶν ΒʹII ReignsII SamuelΒασιλειῶν ΓʹIII ReignsI KingsΒασιλειῶν ΔʹIV ReignsII KingsΠαραλειπομένων ΑʹI Paralipomenon[d]I ChroniclesΠαραλειπομένων ΒʹII ParalipomenonII ChroniclesἜσδρας ΑʹI Esdras1 EsdrasἜσδρας ΒʹII EsdrasEzra–NehemiahΤωβίτ[e]TobitTobit or TobiasἸουδίθIoudithJudithἘσθήρEstherEsther with additionsΜακκαβαίων ΑʹI Makkabaioi1 MaccabeesΜακκαβαίων ΒʹII Makkabaioi2 MaccabeesΜακκαβαίων ΓʹIII Makkabaioi3 MaccabeesWisdomΨαλμοίPsalmsPsalmsΨαλμός ΡΝΑʹPsalm 151Psalm 151Προσευχὴ ΜανάσσηPrayer of ManassehPrayer of ManassehἸώβIōbJobΠαροιμίαιProverbsProverbsἘκκλησιαστήςEkklesiastesEcclesiastesἎσμα ἈσμάτωνSong of SongsSong of Solomon or CanticlesΣοφία ΣαλoμῶντοςWisdom of SolomonWisdomΣοφία Ἰησοῦ ΣειράχWisdom of Jesus the son of SeirachSirach or EcclesiasticusΨαλμοί ΣαλoμῶντοςPsalms of SolomonPsalms of Solomon[62]ProphetsΔώδεκαThe TwelveMinor ProphetsὩσηέ ΑʹI. OsëeHoseaἈμώς ΒʹII. AmōsAmosΜιχαίας ΓʹIII. MichaiasMicahἸωήλ ΔʹIV. IoëlJoelὈβδίου Εʹ[f]V. ObdiasObadiahἸωνᾶς Ϛ'VI. IonasJonahΝαούμ ΖʹVII. NaoumNahumἈμβακούμ ΗʹVIII. AmbakumHabakkukΣοφονίας ΘʹIX. SophoniasZephaniahἈγγαῖος ΙʹX. AngaiosHaggaiΖαχαρίας ΙΑʹXI. ZachariasZachariahἌγγελος ΙΒʹXII. MessengerMalachiἨσαΐαςHesaiasIsaiahἹερεμίαςHieremiasJeremiahΒαρούχBaruchBaruchΘρῆνοιLamentationsLamentationsἘπιστολή ΙερεμίουEpistle of JeremiahLetter of JeremiahἸεζεκιήλIezekiêlEzekielΔανιήλDaniêlDaniel with additionsAppendixΜακκαβαίων Δ' ΠαράρτημαIV Makkabees4 Maccabees[g]Christian BiblesPart of a series onChristianityPrincipal symbol of ChristianityJesusChristBibleFoundationsTheologyHistoryTraditionDenominationsGroupsRelated topicsChristian cross Christianity portalvteMain articles: Biblical canon and List of English Bible translations A page from the Gutenberg BibleA Christian Bible is a set of books that a Christian denomination regards as divinely inspired and thus constituting scripture. Although the Early Church primarily used the Septuagint or the Targums among Aramaic speakers, the apostles did not leave a defined set of new scriptures; instead the canon of the New Testament developed over time. Groups within Christianity include differing books as part of their sacred writings, most prominent among which are the biblical apocrypha or deuterocanonical books. Significant versions of the Christian Bible in English include the Douay-Rheims Bible, the Authorized King James Version, the Revised Version, the American Standard Version, the Revised Standard Version, the New American Standard Version, the New King James Version, the New International Version, the New American Bible, and the English Standard Version. Old TestamentMain article: Old TestamentThe books which make up the Christian Old Testament differ between the Catholic (see Catholic Bible), Orthodox, and Protestant (see Protestant Bible) churches, with the Protestant movement accepting only those books contained in the Hebrew Bible, while Catholic and Orthodox traditions have wider canons. A few groups consider particular translations to be divinely inspired, notably the Greek Septuagint and the Aramaic Peshitta.[citation needed] The Old Testament consists of many distinct books produced over a period of centuries: The first five books – Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, book of Numbers and Deuteronomy – reached their present form in the Persian period (538–332 BC), and their authors were the elite of exilic returnees who controlled the Temple at that time.[63] The books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings follow, forming a history of Israel from the Conquest of Canaan to the Siege of Jerusalem c. 587 BC.[64] These history books make up around half the total content of the Old Testament. Of the remainder, the books of the various prophets – Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the twelve "minor prophets" – were written between the 8th and 6th centuries BC, with the exceptions of Jonah and Daniel, which were written much later. The "wisdom" books – Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Psalms, Song of Solomon – have various dates: Proverbs possibly was completed by the Hellenistic time (332–198 BC), though containing much older material as well; Job completed by the 6th century BC; Ecclesiastes by the 3rd century BC.[65] Apocryphal or deuterocanonical booksIn Eastern Christianity, translations based on the Septuagint still prevail. The Septuagint was generally abandoned in favour of the 10th-century Masoretic Text as the basis for translations of the Old Testament into Western languages.[citation needed] Some modern Western translations since the 14th century make use of the Septuagint to clarify passages in the Masoretic Text, where the Septuagint may preserve a variant reading of the Hebrew text.[citation needed] They also sometimes adopt variants that appear in other texts, e.g., those discovered among the Dead Sea Scrolls.[66][67] A number of books which are part of the Peshitta or the Greek Septuagint but are not found in the Hebrew Bible (i.e., among the protocanonical books) are often referred to as deuterocanonical books by Roman Catholics referring to a later secondary (i.e., deutero) canon, that canon as fixed definitively by the Council of Trent 1545–1563.[68][69] It includes 46 books for the Old Testament (45 if Jeremiah and Lamentations are counted as one) and 27 for the New.[70] Most Protestants term these books as apocrypha. Modern Protestant traditions do not accept the deuterocanonical books as canonical, although Protestant Bibles included them in Apocrypha sections until the 1820s. However, Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches include these books as part of their Old Testament. The Roman Catholic Church recognizes:[71] TobitJudith1 Maccabees2 MaccabeesWisdomSirach (or Ecclesiasticus)BaruchThe Letter of Jeremiah (Baruch Chapter 6)Greek Additions to Esther (Book of Esther, chapters 10:4–12:6)The Prayer of Azariah and Song of the Three Holy Children verses 1–68 (Book of Daniel, chapter 3, verses 24–90)Susanna (Book of Daniel, chapter 13)Bel and the Dragon (Book of Daniel, chapter 14)In addition to those, the Greek and Russian Orthodox Churches recognize the following:[citation needed] 3 Maccabees1 EsdrasPrayer of ManassehPsalm 151Russian and Georgian Orthodox Churches include:[citation needed] 2 Esdras i.e., Latin Esdras in the Russian and Georgian BiblesThere is also 4 Maccabees which is only accepted as canonical in the Georgian Church, but was included by St. Jerome in an appendix to the Vulgate, and is an appendix to the Greek Orthodox Bible, and it is therefore sometimes included in collections of the Apocrypha.[citation needed] The Syriac Orthodox tradition includes:[citation needed] Psalms 151–155The Apocalypse of BaruchThe Letter of BaruchThe Ethiopian Biblical canon includes:[citation needed] JubileesEnoch1–3 Meqabyanand some other books. The Anglican Church uses some of the Apocryphal books liturgically, though rarely and with alternative reading available. Therefore, editions of the Bible intended for use in the Anglican Church may include the Deuterocanonical books accepted by the Catholic Church, plus 1 Esdras, 2 Esdras and the Prayer of Manasseh, which were in the Vulgate appendix.[72][self-published source] Pseudepigraphal booksMain article: PseudepigraphaThe term pseudepigrapha commonly describes numerous works of Jewish religious literature written from about 300 BCE to 300 CE. Not all of these works are actually pseudepigraphical. It also refers to books of the New Testament canon whose authorship is misrepresented. The Old Testament pseudepigraphal works include the following:[73] 3 Maccabees4 MaccabeesAssumption of MosesEthiopic Book of Enoch (1 Enoch)Slavonic Book of Enoch (2 Enoch)Hebrew Book of Enoch (3 Enoch) (also known as "The Revelation of Metatron" or "The Book of Rabbi Ishmael the High Priest")Book of JubileesSyriac Apocalypse of Baruch (2 Baruch)Letter of Aristeas (Letter to Philocrates regarding the translating of the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek)Life of Adam and EveMartyrdom and Ascension of IsaiahPsalms of SolomonSibylline OraclesGreek Apocalypse of Baruch (3 Baruch)Testaments of the Twelve PatriarchsBook of EnochNotable pseudepigraphal works include the Books of Enoch (such as 1 Enoch, 2 Enoch, surviving only in Old Slavonic, and 3 Enoch, surviving in Hebrew, c. 5th to 6th century CE). These are ancient Jewish religious works, traditionally ascribed to the prophet Enoch, the great-grandfather of the patriarch Noah. They are not part of the biblical canon used by Jews, apart from Beta Israel. Most Christian denominations and traditions may accept the Books of Enoch as having some historical or theological interest or significance. It has been observed that part of the Book of Enoch is quoted in the Epistle of Jude (part of the New Testament) but Christian denominations generally regard the Books of Enoch as non-canonical or non-inspired.[74] However, the Enoch books are treated as canonical by the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church and Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church. The older sections (mainly in the Book of the Watchers) are estimated to date from about 300 BCE, and the latest part (Book of Parables) probably was composed at the end of the 1st century BCE.[75] Denominational views of pseudepigraphaThere arose[when?] in some Protestant biblical scholarship an extended use of the term pseudepigrapha for works that appeared as though they ought to be part of the biblical canon, because of the authorship ascribed to them, but which stood outside both the biblical canons recognized by Protestants and Catholics. These works were also outside the particular set of books that Roman Catholics called deuterocanonical and to which Protestants had generally applied the term Apocryphal. Accordingly, the term pseudepigraphical, as now used often among both Protestants and Roman Catholics (allegedly for the clarity it brings to the discussion), may make it difficult to discuss questions of pseudepigraphical authorship of canonical books dispassionately with a lay audience. To confuse the matter further, Eastern Orthodox Christians accept books as canonical that Roman Catholics and most Protestant denominations consider pseudepigraphical or at best of much less authority. There exist also churches that reject some of the books that Roman Catholics, Orthodox and Protestants accept. The same is true of some Jewish sects. Many works that are apocryphal are otherwise considered genuine.[clarification needed] Role of the Old Testament in Christian theologyFurther information: Sola scriptura and Christian theologyThe Old Testament has always been central to the life of the Christian church. Bible scholar N.T. Wright says "Jesus himself was profoundly shaped by the scriptures."[76] He adds that the earliest Christians also searched those same Hebrew scriptures in their effort to understand the earthly life of Jesus. They regarded the "holy writings" of the Israelites as necessary and instructive for the Christian, as seen from Paul's words to Timothy (2 Timothy 3:15), and as pointing to the Messiah, and as having reached a climactic fulfilment in Jesus himself, generating the "new covenant" prophesied by Jeremiah.[77] New TestamentMain article: Development of the New Testament canonThe New Testament is the name given to the second and final portion of the Christian Bible. Jesus is its central figure. The term "New Testament" came into use in the second century during a controversy among Christians over whether the Hebrew Bible should be included with the Christian writings as sacred scripture. The New Testament presupposes the inspiration of the Old Testament.[78] Some other works which were widely read by early churches were excluded from the New Testament and relegated to the collections known as the Apostolic Fathers (generally considered orthodox) and the New Testament Apocrypha (including both orthodox and heretical works). The New Testament is a collection of 27 books[79] of 4 different genres of Christian literature (Gospels, one account of the Acts of the Apostles, Epistles and an Apocalypse). These books can be grouped into: The Gospels Synoptic GospelsGospel According to MatthewGospel According to MarkGospel According to LukeGospel According to JohnNarrative literature, account and history of the Apostolic age Acts of the ApostlesPauline Epistles Epistle to the RomansFirst Epistle to the CorinthiansSecond Epistle to the CorinthiansEpistle to the GalatiansEpistle to the EphesiansEpistle to the PhilippiansEpistle to the ColossiansFirst Epistle to the ThessaloniansSecond Epistle to the ThessaloniansPastoral epistles First Epistle to TimothySecond Epistle to TimothyEpistle to TitusEpistle to PhilemonEpistle to the HebrewsGeneral epistles, also called catholic epistles Epistle of JamesFirst Epistle of PeterSecond Epistle of PeterFirst Epistle of JohnSecond Epistle of JohnThird Epistle of JohnEpistle of JudeApocalyptic literature, also called Prophetical Revelation, or the ApocalypseThe New Testament books are ordered differently in the Catholic/Orthodox/Protestant tradition, the Slavonic tradition, the Syriac tradition and the Ethiopian tradition. Original languageSee also: Language of the New TestamentThe mainstream consensus is that the New Testament was written in a form of Koine Greek,[80][81] which was the common language of the Eastern Mediterranean[82][83][84][85] from the Conquests of Alexander the Great (335–323 BCE) until the evolution of Byzantine Greek (c. 600). Historic editionsSee also: Biblical manuscript and Textual criticism An early German translation by Martin Luther. His translation of the text into the vernacular was highly influential.The original autographs, that is, the original Greek writings and manuscripts written by the original authors of the New Testament, have not survived.[86] But historically copies exist of those original autographs, transmitted and preserved in a number of manuscript traditions. There have been some minor variations, additions or omissions, in some of the texts. When ancient scribes copied earlier books, they sometimes wrote notes on the margins of the page (marginal glosses) to correct their text – especially if a scribe accidentally omitted a word or line – and to comment about the text. When later scribes were copying the copy, they were sometimes uncertain if a note was intended to be included as part of the text. The three main textual traditions of the Greek New Testament are sometimes called the Alexandrian text-type (generally minimalist), the Byzantine text-type (generally maximalist), and the Western text-type (occasionally wild). Together they comprise most of the ancient manuscripts. Development of the Christian canonsMain articles: Development of the Old Testament canon and Development of the New Testament canon St. Jerome in his Study, by Marinus van Reymerswaele, 1541. Jerome produced a 4th-century Latin edition of the Bible, known as the Vulgate, that became the Catholic Church's official translation.The Old Testament canon entered into Christian use in the Greek Septuagint translations and original books, and their differing lists of texts. In addition to the Septuagint, Christianity[vague] subsequently added various writings that would become the New Testament. Somewhat different lists of accepted works continued to develop in antiquity. In the 4th century a series of synods produced a list of texts equal to the 39, 46, 51, or 54-book canon of the Old Testament and to the 27-book canon of the New Testament that would be subsequently used to today, most notably the Synod of Hippo in 393 CE. Also c. 400, Jerome produced a definitive Latin edition of the Bible (see Vulgate), the canon of which, at the insistence of the Pope, was in accord with the earlier Synods. With the benefit of hindsight it can be said that this process effectively set the New Testament canon, although there are examples of other canonical lists in use after this time. The Protestant Old Testament of today has a 39-book canon – the number of books (though not the content) varies from the Jewish Tanakh only because of a different method of division – while the Roman Catholic Church recognizes 46 books (51 books with some books combined into 46 books) as the canonical Old Testament. The Eastern Orthodox Churches recognize 3 Maccabees, 1 Esdras, Prayer of Manasseh and Psalm 151 in addition to the Catholic canon. Some include 2 Esdras. The Anglican Church also recognizes a longer canon.[citation needed] The term "Hebrew Scriptures" is often used as being synonymous with the Protestant Old Testament, since the surviving scriptures in Hebrew include only those books, while Catholics and Orthodox include additional texts that have not survived in Hebrew. Both Catholics and Protestants (as well as Greek Orthodox) have the same 27-book New Testament Canon.[87] The New Testament writers assumed the inspiration of the Old Testament, probably earliest stated in 2 Timothy 3:16, "All scripture is given by inspiration of God".[11] Some denominations have additional canonical holy scriptures beyond the Bible, including the standard works of the Latter Day Saints movement and Divine Principle in the Unification Church. Ethiopian Orthodox canonMain article: Ethiopian Biblical canonThe Canon of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church is wider than the canons used by most other Christian churches. There are 81 books in the Ethiopian Orthodox Bible.[88] The Ethiopian Old Testament Canon includes the books found in the Septuagint accepted by other Orthodox Christians, in addition to Enoch and Jubilees which are ancient Jewish books that only survived in Ge'ez but are quoted in the New Testament,[citation needed] also Greek Ezra First and the Apocalypse of Ezra, 3 books of Meqabyan, and Psalm 151 at the end of the Psalter. The three books of Meqabyan are not to be confused with the books of Maccabees. The order of the other books is somewhat different from other groups', as well. The Old Testament follows the Septuagint order for the Minor Prophets rather than the Jewish order.[citation needed] PeshittaMain article: PeshittaThe Peshitta (Classical Syriac: ܦܫܺܝܛܬܳܐ or ܦܫܝܼܛܬܵܐ pšīṭtā) is the standard version of the Bible for churches in the Syriac tradition. The consensus within biblical scholarship, although not universal, is that the Old Testament of the Peshitta was translated into Syriac from biblical Hebrew, probably in the 2nd century AD, and that the New Testament of the Peshitta was translated from the Greek.[89] This New Testament, originally excluding certain disputed books (2 Peter, 2 John, 3 John, Jude, Revelation), had become a standard by the early 5th century. The five excluded books were added in the Harklean Version (616 AD) of Thomas of Harqel.[90][91][92] Divine inspirationMain articles: Biblical inspiration, Biblical literalism, Biblical infallibility, and Biblical inerrancy A Bible is placed centrally on a Lutheran altar, highlighting its importanceThe Second Epistle to Timothy says that "all scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness". (2 Timothy 3:16)[93] Various related but distinguishable views on divine inspiration include: the view of the Bible as the inspired word of God: the belief that God, through the Holy Spirit, intervened and influenced the words, message, and collation of the Bible[94]the view that the Bible is also infallible, and incapable of error in matters of faith and practice, but not necessarily in historic or scientific mattersthe view that the Bible represents the inerrant word of God, without error in any aspect, spoken by God and written down in its perfect form by humansWithin these broad beliefs many schools of hermeneutics operate. "Bible scholars claim that discussions about the Bible must be put into its context within church history and then into the context of contemporary culture."[77] Fundamentalist Christians are associated[by whom?] with the doctrine of biblical literalism, where the Bible is not only inerrant, but the meaning of the text is clear to the average reader.[95] Jewish antiquity attests to belief in sacred texts,[96][97] and a similar belief emerges in the earliest of Christian writings. Various texts of the Bible mention divine agency in relation to its writings.[98] In their book A General Introduction to the Bible, Norman Geisler and William Nix write: "The process of inspiration is a mystery of the providence of God, but the result of this process is a verbal, plenary, inerrant, and authoritative record."[99] Most evangelical biblical scholars[100][101][102] associate inspiration with only the original text; for example some American Protestants adhere to the 1978 Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy which asserted that inspiration applied only to the autographic text of Scripture.[103] Among adherents of Biblical literalism, a minority, such as followers of the King-James-Only Movement, extend the claim of inerrancy only to a particular version.[104] Versions and translationsFurther information: Bible translations and List of Bible translations by language Title page from the first Welsh translation of the Bible, 1588. William Morgan (1545–1604)The original texts of the Tanakh were almost entirely written in Hebrew; about one per cent is written in Aramaic. In addition to the authoritative Masoretic Text, Jews still refer to the Septuagint, the translation of the Hebrew Bible into Greek, and the Targum Onkelos, an Aramaic version of the Bible. There are several different ancient versions of the Tanakh in Hebrew, mostly differing by spelling, and the traditional Jewish version is based on the version known as Aleppo Codex. Even in this version there are words which are traditionally read differently from written, because the oral tradition is considered more fundamental than the written one, and presumably mistakes had been made in copying the text over the generations.[citation needed] The primary biblical text for early Christians was the Septuagint. In addition, they translated the Hebrew Bible into several other languages. Translations were made into Syriac, Coptic, Ethiopic, and Latin, among other languages. The Latin translations were historically the most important for the Church in the West, while the Greek-speaking East continued to use the Septuagint translations of the Old Testament and had no need to translate the New Testament. The earliest Latin translation was the Old Latin text, or Vetus Latina, which, from internal evidence, seems to have been made by several authors over a period of time. It was based on the Septuagint, and thus included books not in the Hebrew Bible. According to the Latin Decretum Gelasianum (also known as the Gelasian Decree), thought to be of a 6th-century document[105][106] of uncertain authorship and of pseudepigraphal papal authority (variously ascribed to Pope Gelasius I, Pope Damasus I, or Pope Hormisdas)[107][108][109] but reflecting the views of the Roman Church by that period,[110] the Council of Rome in 382 AD under Pope Damasus I (366–383) assembled a list of books of the Bible. Damasus commissioned Saint Jerome to produce a reliable and consistent text by translating the original Greek and Hebrew texts into Latin. This translation became known as the Latin Vulgate Bible, in the fourth century AD (although Jerome expressed in his prologues to most deuterocanonical books that they were non-canonical).[111][112] In 1546, at the Council of Trent, Jerome's Vulgate translation was declared by the Roman Catholic Church to be the only authentic and official Bible in the Latin Church. Since the Protestant Reformation, Bible translations for many languages have been made. The Bible continues to be translated to new languages, largely by Christian organizations such as Wycliffe Bible Translators, New Tribes Mission and Bible societies. Bible translations, worldwide (as of October 2020)[113]NumberStatistic7,360Approximate number of languages spoken in the world today2,731Number of translations into new languages in progress1,551Number of languages with a translation of the New Testament704Number of languages with a translation of the Bible (Protestant Canon)ViewsJohn Riches, professor of Divinity and Biblical Criticism at the University of Glasgow, provides the following view of the diverse historical influences of the Bible: It has inspired some of the great monuments of human thought, literature, and art; it has equally fuelled some of the worst excesses of human savagery, self-interest, and narrow-mindedness. It has inspired men and women to acts of great service and courage, to fight for liberation and human development; and it has provided the ideological fuel for societies which have enslaved their fellow human beings and reduced them to abject poverty. ... It has, perhaps above all, provided a source of religious and moral norms which have enabled communities to hold together, to care for, and to protect one another; yet precisely this strong sense of belonging has in turn fuelled ethnic, racial, and international tension and conflict.[114] Other religionsMain article: Islamic view of the Christian BibleIn Islam, the Bible is held to reflect true unfolding revelation from God; but revelation which had been corrupted or distorted (in Arabic: tahrif); which necessitated the giving of the Qur'an to the Islamic prophet, Muhammad, to correct this deviation.[citation needed] Members of other religions may also seek inspiration from the Bible. For example, Rastafaris view the Bible as essential to their religion[115] and Unitarian Universalists view it as "one of many important religious texts".[116] Biblical studiesMain articles: Biblical studies and Biblical criticismBiblical criticism refers to the investigation of the Bible as a text, and addresses questions such as authorship, dates of composition, and authorial intention. It is not the same as criticism of the Bible, which is an assertion against the Bible being a source of information or ethical guidance, or observations that the Bible may have translation errors.[117] Higher criticismMain articles: Higher criticism and Lower criticismIn the 17th century, Thomas Hobbes collected the current evidence to conclude outright that Moses could not have written the bulk of the Torah. Shortly afterwards the philosopher Baruch Spinoza published a unified critical analysis, arguing that the problematic passages were not isolated cases that could be explained away one by one, but pervasive throughout the five books, concluding that it was "clearer than the sun at noon that the Pentateuch was not written by Moses ..."[118] Archaeological and historical researchMain articles: Biblical archaeology school, Historicity of the Bible, and Religiously motivated pseudoarchaeologyBiblical archaeology is the archaeology that relates to and sheds light upon the Hebrew Scriptures and the Christian Greek Scriptures (or the New Testament). It is used to help determine the lifestyle and practices of people living in biblical times. There are a wide range of interpretations in the field of biblical archaeology. One broad division includes biblical maximalism which generally takes the view that most of the Old Testament or the Hebrew Bible is based on history although it is presented through the religious viewpoint of its time. It is considered to be the opposite of biblical minimalism which considers the Bible to be a purely post-exilic (5th century BCE and later) composition. Even among those scholars who adhere to biblical minimalism, the Bible is a historical document containing first-hand information on the Hellenistic and Roman eras, and there is universal scholarly consensus that the events of the 6th century BCE Babylonian captivity have a basis in history. The historicity of the biblical account of the history of ancient Israel and Judah of the 10th to 7th centuries BCE is disputed in scholarship. The biblical account of the 8th to 7th centuries BCE is widely, but not universally, accepted as historical, while the verdict on the earliest period of the United Monarchy (10th century BCE) and the historicity of David is unclear. Archaeological evidence providing information on this period, such as the Tel Dan Stele, can potentially be decisive. The biblical account of events of the Exodus from Egypt in the Torah, and the migration to the Promised Land and the period of Judges are not considered historical in scholarship.[119][120] Bible museumsThe Dunham Bible Museum is located in Houston, Texas. It is known for its collection of rare Bibles from around the world and for having many different Bibles of various languages.[121]The Museum of the Bible opened in Washington, D.C. in November 2017.[122] The museum states that its intent is to "share the historical relevance and significance of the sacred scriptures in a nonsectarian way", but this has been questioned.[123][124]The Bible Museum in St Arnaud, Victoria, Australia opened in 2009.[125] As of 2020, it is closed for relocation.[126]There is a Bible Museum at The Great Passion Play in Eureka Springs, Arkansas.[127][128]The Bible Museum on the Square in Collierville, Tennessee opened in 1997.[129][130]Biedenharn Museum and Gardens in Monroe, Louisiana includes a Bible Museum.[131] The Book of Psalms (/sɑːmz/ or /sɔː(l)mz/ SAW(L)MZ; Hebrew: תְּהִלִּים, Tehillim, "praises"), commonly referred to simply as Psalms, the Psalter or "the Psalms", is the first book of the Ketuvim ("Writings"), the third section of the Hebrew Bible, and a book of the Christian Old Testament.[1] The title is derived from the Greek translation, ψαλμοί, psalmoi, meaning "instrumental music" and, by extension, "the words accompanying the music".[2] The book is an anthology of individual psalms, with 150 in the Jewish and Western Christian tradition and more in the Eastern Christian churches.[3][4] Many are linked to the name of David. In fact, of the 150 Psalms, David is named as the author of 75. David is specifically noted as the author of 73 psalms in the titles of the psalms but his authorship is not accepted by some highly critical modern scholars.[4] StructureFor the Orthodox Christian division into twenty kathismata, see below. An 1880 Baxter process illustration of Psalm 23, from the Religious Tract Society's magazine The Sunday at HomeBenedictionsThe Book of Psalms is divided into five sections, each closing with a doxology (i.e., a benediction)—these divisions were probably introduced by the final editors to imitate the five-fold division of the Torah:[5] Book 1 (Psalms 1–41)Book 2 (Psalms 42–72)Book 3 (Psalms 73–89)Book 4 (Psalms 90–106)Book 5 (Psalms 107–150)SuperscriptionsMany psalms (116 of the 150) have individual superscriptions (titles), ranging from lengthy comments to a single word. Over a third appear to be musical directions, addressed to the "leader" or "choirmaster", including such statements as "with stringed instruments" and "according to lilies". Others appear to be references to types of musical composition, such as "A psalm" and "Song", or directions regarding the occasion for using the psalm ("On the dedication of the temple", "For the memorial offering", etc.). Many carry the names of individuals, the most common (73 psalms—75 if including the two Psalms attributed by the New Testament to David) being of David, and thirteen of these relate explicitly to incidents in the king's life.[6] Others named include Asaph (12), the sons of Korah (11), Solomon (2), Moses (1), Ethan the Ezrahite (1), and Heman the Ezrahite (1). The Septuagint, the Peshitta (the Syriac Vulgate), and the Latin Vulgate each associate several Psalms (such as 111 and 145) with Haggai and Zechariah. The Septuagint also attributes several Psalms (like 112 and 135) to Ezekiel and Jeremiah. NumberingHebrewnumbering (Masoretic)Greeknumbering (Septuagintor Vulgate)1–81–89–10911–11310–112114–115113116114–115117–146116–145147146–147148–150148–150Psalms are usually identified by a sequence number, often preceded by the abbreviation "Ps." Numbering of the Psalms differs—mostly by one, see table—between the Hebrew (Masoretic) and Greek (Septuagint) manuscripts. Protestant translations (Lutheran, Anglican, Calvinist) use the Hebrew numbering, but other Christian traditions vary: Roman Catholic official liturgical texts, such as the Roman Missal, use the Greek numbering[7]Modern Roman Catholic translations often use the Hebrew numbering (noting the Greek number)Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic translations use the Greek numbering (noting the Hebrew number)For the remainder of this article, the Hebrew numbering is used, unless otherwise noted. The variance between Masorah and Septuagint texts in this numeration is likely enough due to a gradual neglect of the original poetic form of the Psalms; such neglect was occasioned by liturgical uses and carelessness of copyists. It is generally admitted that Pss. 9 and 10 were originally a single acrostic poem; they have been wrongly separated by Massorah, rightly united by the Septuagint and Vulgate.[8] Pss. 42 and 43 are shown by identity of subject (yearning for the house of Yahweh), of metrical structure and of refrain (cf. Heb. Ps. 42:6, 12; 43:5), to be three strophes of one and the same poem. The Hebrew text is correct in counting as one Ps. 146 and Ps. 147. Later liturgical usage would seem to have split up these and several other psalms. Zenner combines into what he deems were the original choral odes: Pss. 1, 2, 3, 4; 6 + 13; 9 + 10; 19, 20, 21; 56 + 57; 69 + 70; 114 + 115; 148, 149, 150.[9] A choral ode would seem to have been the original form of Pss. 14 and 70. The two strophes and the epode are Ps. 14; the two antistrophes are Ps. 70.[10] It is noteworthy that, on the breaking up of the original ode, each portion crept twice into the Psalter: Ps. 14 = 53, Ps. 70 = 40:14–18. Other such duplicated portions of psalms are Ps. 108:2–6 = Ps. 57:8–12; Ps. 108:7–14 = Ps. 60:7–14; Ps. 71:1–3 = Ps. 31:2–4. This loss of the original form of some of the psalms is allowed by the Biblical Commission (1 May 1910) to have been due to liturgical practices, neglect by copyists, or other causes. Verse numbers were first printed in 1509.[11][12] Different traditions exist whether to include the original heading into the counting or not. This leads to inconsistent numbering in 62 psalms, with an offset of 1, sometimes even 2 verses.[13] Additional psalmsThe Septuagint, present in Eastern Orthodox churches, includes a Psalm 151; a Hebrew version of this was found in the Psalms Scroll of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Some versions of the Peshitta (the Bible used in Syriac churches in the Middle East) include Psalms 152–155. There are also the Psalms of Solomon, which are a further 18 psalms of Jewish origin, likely originally written in Hebrew, but surviving only in Greek and Syriac translation. These and other indications suggest that the current Western Christian and Jewish collection of 150 psalms were selected from a wider set. Primary typesHermann Gunkel's pioneering form-critical work on the psalms sought to provide a new and meaningful context in which to interpret individual psalms—not by looking at their literary context within the Psalter (which he did not see as significant), but by bringing together psalms of the same genre (Gattung) from throughout the Psalter. Gunkel divided the psalms into five primary types: HymnsHymns, songs of praise for God's work in creation or history. They typically open with a call to praise, describe the motivation for praise, and conclude with a repetition of the call. Two sub-categories are "enthronement psalms", celebrating the enthronement of Yahweh as king, and Zion psalms, glorifying Mount Zion, God's dwelling-place in Jerusalem.[14] Gunkel also described a special subset of "eschatological hymns" which includes themes of future restoration (Psalm 126) or of judgment (Psalm 82).[15] Communal laments David is depicted giving a psalm to pray for deliverance in this 1860 woodcut by Julius Schnorr von KarolsfeldCommunal laments, in which the nation laments some communal disaster.[16] Both communal and individual laments typically but not always include the following elements: address to God,description of suffering,cursing of the party responsible for suffering,protestation of innocence or admission of guilt,petition for divine assistance,faith in God's receipt of prayer,anticipation of divine response, anda song of thanksgiving.[17][18]In general, the individual and communal subtypes can be distinguished by the use of the singular "I" or the plural "we". However, the "I" could also be characterising an individual's personal experience that was reflective of the entire community.[19] Royal psalms David is depicted giving a penitential psalm in this 1860 woodcut by Julius Schnorr von KarolsfeldRoyal psalms, dealing with such matters as the king's coronation, marriage and battles.[16] None of them mentions any specific king by name, and their origin and use remain obscure;[20] several psalms, especially Ps. 93–99, concern the kingship of God, and might relate to an annual ceremony in which Yahweh would be ritually reinstated as king.[21] Individual lamentsIndividual laments over the fate of the particular individual who utters them. By far the most common type of psalm, they typically open with an invocation of God, followed by the lament itself and pleas for help, and often ending with an expression of confidence.[16] Individual thanksgiving psalmsIndividual thanksgiving psalms, the opposite of individual laments, in which the psalmist thanks God for deliverance from personal distress.[16] In addition to these five major genres, Gunkel also recognised a number of minor psalm-types, including: communal thanksgiving psalms, in which the whole nation thanks God for deliverance;wisdom psalms, reflecting the Old Testament wisdom literature;pilgrimage psalms, sung by pilgrims on their way to Jerusalem;entrance and prophetic liturgies; anda group of mixed psalms which could not be assigned to any category.[22]Composition Scroll of the PsalmsOriginsThe composition of the psalms spans at least five centuries, from psalm 29 to others clearly from the post-Exilic period (not earlier than the fifth century B.C.) The majority originated in the southern kingdom of Judah and were associated with the Temple in Jerusalem, where they probably functioned as libretto during the Temple worship. Exactly how they did this is unclear, although there are indications in some of them: "Bind the festal procession with branches, up to the horns of the altar," suggests a connection with sacrifices, and "Let my prayer be counted as incense" suggests a connection with the offering of incense.[3] According to Jewish tradition, the Book of Psalms was composed by ten elders, along with David who was one of its principal contributors. Those explicitly named are the First Man (Adam), Melchizedek, Abraham, Moses, Heman, Jeduthun, Asaph, and the three sons of Korah.[23][24] The book, however, is largely attributed unto David on account of his being the arch poet (the largest composer of the psalms), and who is called elsewhere "the sweet psalmist of Israel."[25] The final redaction of the book was made, according to Abraham ibn Ezra, by the Men of the Great Assembly.[26] Saadia Gaon (882–942), dissenting, wrote that "even though one may think that there is in it of what... [had been] sung by someone other than David, such as Asaph and Jeduthun, and Ethan and Moses the man of God, among others, upon consideration of the subject, one should know that the matter is not as it has been portrayed, rather, there is naught that does not belong to David."[27] According to Saadia, David compiled the majority of the psalms to be sung specifically by different people: Psalm 90 (A prayer of Moses), written by David for the descendants of Moses who were contemporaries with David; Psalm 39 (to Jeduthun, a psalm of David), written by David for the sons of Jeduthun; Psalms 50, 73–83 (a psalm of Asaph), written by David for the sons of Asaph mentioned in 1 Chronicles 6:24; Psalms 42, 44, et al. (the sons of Korah), written by David for the sons of Korah; Psalm 88 (the sons of Korah, Heman the Ezrahite), written by David for one of the descendants of Korah, Heman the Ezrahite, mentioned in 1 Chronicles 6:18; Psalm 89 (Ethan the Ezrahite), written by David for one of the Levites, namely, Ethan b. Kishi b. Abdi b. Malluch, mentioned in 1 Chronicles 6:29, and so with all the rest.[28] Where Psalms 72 and 127 speak of being "for Solomon," Saadia explains that David wrote them as a vision in what he saw concerning his son, Solomon.[28] Poetic characteristicsThe biblical poetry of Psalms uses parallelism as its primary poetic device. Parallelism is a kind of symmetry, in which an idea is developed by the use of restatement, synonym, amplification, grammatical repetition, or opposition.[29][30] Synonymous parallelism involves two lines expressing essentially the same idea. An example of synonymous parallelism: "The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?" (Psalm 27:1).Two lines expressing opposites is known as antithetic parallelism. An example of antithetic parallelism: "And he led them in a cloud by day/ and all the night by a fiery light" (Psalm 78:14).Two clauses expressing the idea of amplifying the first claim is known as expansive parallelism. An example of expansive parallelism: "My mouth is filled with your praise/ all the day with your lauding" (Psalm 71:8).Editorial agenda Psalm 11 in the 9th-century Utrecht Psalter, where the illustration of the text is often literal.Many scholars believe the individual Psalms were redacted into a single collection in Second-Temple times.[31] It had long been recognized that the collection bore the imprint of an underlying message or metanarrative, but that this message remained concealed, as Augustine of Hippo said, "The sequence of the Psalms seems to me to contain the secret of a mighty mystery, but its meaning has not been revealed to me." (Enarr. on Ps. 150.1) Others pointed out the presence of concatenation, that is, adjacent Psalms sharing similar words and themes. In time, this approach developed into recognizing overarching themes shared by whole groups of psalms.[32] In 1985, Gerald H. Wilson's The Editing of the Hebrew Psalter proposed – by parallel with other ancient eastern hymn collections – that psalms at the beginning and end (or "seams") of the five books of Psalms have thematic significance, corresponding in particular with the placement of the royal psalms. He pointed out that there was a progression of ideas, from adversity, through the crux of the collection in the apparent failure of the covenant in Psalm 89, leading to a concert of praise at the end. He concluded that the collection was redacted to be a retrospective of the failure of the Davidic covenant, exhorting Israel to trust in God alone in a non-messianic future.[33] Walter Brueggemann suggested that the underlying editorial purpose was oriented rather towards wisdom or sapiential concerns, addressing the issues of how to live the life of faith. Psalm 1 calls the reader to a life of obedience; Psalm 73 (Brueggemann's crux psalm) faces the crisis when divine faithfulness is in doubt; Psalm 150 represents faith's triumph, when God is praised not for his rewards, but for his being.[34] In 1997, David. C. Mitchell's The Message of the Psalter took a quite different line. Building on the work of Wilson and others,[35] Mitchell proposed that the Psalter embodies an eschatological timetable like that of Zechariah 9–14.[36] This programme includes the gathering of exiled Israel by a bridegroom-king; his establishment of a kingdom; his violent death; Israel scattered in the wilderness, regathered and again imperilled, then rescued by a king from the heavens, who establishes his kingdom from Zion, brings peace and prosperity to the earth and receives the homage of the nations. These three views—Wilson's non-messianic retrospective of the Davidic covenant, Brueggemann's sapiential instruction, and Mitchell's eschatologico-messianic programme—all have their followers, although the sapiential agenda has been somewhat eclipsed by the other two. Shortly before his untimely death in 2005, Wilson modified his position to allow for the existence of messianic prophecy within the Psalms' redactional agenda.[37] Mitchell's position remains largely unchanged, although he now sees the issue as identifying when the historical beginning of the Psalms turns to eschatology.[38] The ancient music of the PsalmsThe Psalms were written not merely as poems, but as songs for singing. According to Bible exegete Saadia Gaon (882–942) who served in the geonate of Babylonian Jewry, the Psalms were originally sung in the Temple precincts by the Levites, based on what was prescribed for each psalm (lineage of the singers, designated time and place, instruments used, manner of execution, etc.), but are permitted to be randomly read by anyone at any time and in any place.[39] More than a third of the psalms are addressed to the Director of Music. Some psalms exhort the worshipper to sing (e.g. Pss. 33:1-3; 92:1-3; 96:1-3; 98:1; 101:1; 150). Some headings denote the musical instruments on which the psalm should be played (Pss. 4, 5, 6, 8, 67). Some refer to the Levites who sang one of eight melodies, one of which was known simply as "the eighth" (Hebrew: sheminit) (Pss. 6, 12).[40] And others preserve the name for ancient eastern modes, like ayelet ha-shachar (hind of the dawn; Ps. 22); shoshanim / shushan (lilies / lily; Pss. 45; 60), said to be describing a certain melody;[41] or ʻalmuth / ʻalamoth (mute;[42] Pss. 9, 46), which, according to Saadia Gaon, is "a silent melody, nearly inaudible."[43] Despite the frequently heard view that their ancient music is lost, the means to reconstruct it are still extant. Fragments of temple psalmody are preserved in ancient church and synagogue chant, particularly in the tonus peregrinus melody to Psalm 114.[44] Cantillation signs, to record the melody sung, were in use since ancient times; evidence of them can be found in the manuscripts of the oldest extant copies of Psalms in the Dead Sea Scrolls and are even more extensive in the Masoretic text, which dates to the Early Middle Ages and whose Tiberian scribes claimed to be basing their work on temple-period signs. (See Moshe ben Asher's 'Song of the Vine' colophon to the Codex Cairensis).[45] Several attempts have been made to decode the Masoretic cantillation, but the most successful is that of Suzanne Haïk-Vantoura (1928–2000) in the last quarter of the 20th century.[46] Although some have dismissed Haïk-Vantoura's system, Mitchell has repeatedly defended it, showing that, when applied to the Masoretic cantillation of Psalm 114, it produces a melody recognizable as the tonus peregrinus of church and synagogue.[47] Mitchell includes musical transcriptions of the temple psalmody of Psalms 120–134 in his commentary on the Songs of Ascents. Regardless of academic research, Sephardic Jews have retained a tradition in the Masoretic cantillation.[48] Themes and executionMost individual psalms involve the praise of God for his power and beneficence, for his creation of the world, and for his past acts of deliverance for Israel. They envision a world in which everyone and everything will praise God, and God in turn will hear their prayers and respond. Sometimes God "hides his face" and refuses to respond, questioning (for the psalmist) the relationship between God and prayer which is the underlying assumption of the Book of Psalms.[49] Some psalms are called "maskil" (maschil), meaning "enlightened" or "wise", because they impart wisdom. Most notable of these is Psalm 142 which is sometimes called the "Maskil of David"; others include Psalm 32 and Psalm 78.[50] A special grouping and division in the Book of Psalms are fifteen psalms (Psalms 120–134) known in the construct case, shir ha-ma'aloth (= "A Song of Ascents", or "A Song of degrees"), and one as shir la-ma'aloth (Psalm 121). According to Saadia Gaon, these songs differed from the other psalms in that they were to be sung by the Levites in a "loud melody" (Judeo-Arabic: בלחן מרתפע).[51] Every psalm designated for Asaph (e.g. Psalms 50, 73–83) was sung by his descendants while making use of cymbals, in accordance with 1 Chronicles 16:5.[51] Every psalm wherein is found the introductory phrase "Upon Mahalath" (e.g. Psalms 53 and 88) was sung by the Levites by using large percussion instruments having wide and closed bezels on both sides and beaten with two wooden sticks.[52] Later interpretation and influence David Playing the Harp by Jan de Bray, 1670 Hebrew text of Psalm 1:1-2 A Jewish man reads Psalm 119 at the Western Wall.OverviewIndividual psalms were originally hymns, to be used on various occasions and at various sacred sites; later, some were anthologised, and might have been understood within the various anthologies (e.g., ps. 123 as one of the Psalms of Ascent); finally, individual psalms might be understood within the Psalter as a whole, either narrating the life of David or providing instruction like the Torah. In later Jewish and Christian tradition, the psalms have come to be used as prayers, either individual or communal, as traditional expressions of religious feeling.[53] CommentariesMany authors have commented on the psalms, including: Hilary of Poitiers[54]Augustine of Hippo[55]Saadia Gaon[56]Thomas Aquinas[57]John Calvin[58]Emmanuel (pseudonym), Jewish Commentary on the Psalms.[59]Use in Jewish ritualSome of the titles given to the Psalms have descriptions which suggest their use in worship: Some bear the Hebrew description shir (שיר; Greek: ᾠδή, ōdḗ, 'song'). Thirteen have this description. It means the flow of speech, as it were, in a straight line or in a regular strain. This description includes secular as well as sacred song.Fifty-eight Psalms bear the description mizmor (מזמור; ψαλμός), a lyric ode, or a song set to music; a sacred song accompanied with a musical instrument.Psalm 145 alone has the designation tehillah (תהלה; ὕμνος), meaning a song of praise; a song the prominent thought of which is the praise of God.Thirteen psalms are described as maskil ('wise'): 32, 42, 44, 45, 52–55, 74, 78, 88, 89, and 142. Psalm 41:2, although not in the above list, has the description ashrei maskil.Six Psalms (16, 56–60) have the title michtam (מכתם, 'gold').[60] Rashi suggests that michtam refers to an item that a person carries with him at all times, hence, these Psalms contain concepts or ideas that are pertinent at every stage and setting throughout life, deemed vital as part of day-to-day spiritual awareness.[61]Psalm 7 (along with Habakkuk chapter 3)[62] bears the title shigayon (שיגיון). There are three interpretations:[63] (a) According to Rashi and others, this term stems from the root shegaga, meaning "mistake"—David committed some sin and is singing in the form of a prayer to redeem himself from it; (b) shigayon was a type of musical instrument; (c) Ibn Ezra considers the word to mean "longing", as for example in the verse in Proverbs 5:19[64] tishge tamid.Psalms are used throughout traditional Jewish worship. Many complete Psalms and verses from Psalms appear in the morning services (Shacharit). The pesukei dezimra component incorporates Psalms 30, 100 and 145–150. Psalm 145 (commonly referred to as "Ashrei", which is really the first word of two verses appended to the beginning of the Psalm), is read three times every day: once in shacharit as part of pesukei dezimrah, as mentioned, once, along with Psalm 20, as part of the morning's concluding prayers, and once at the start of the afternoon service. On Festival days and Sabbaths, instead of concluding the morning service, it precedes the Mussaf service. Psalms 95–99, 29, 92, and 93, along with some later readings, comprise the introduction (Kabbalat Shabbat) to the Friday night service. Traditionally, a different "Psalm for the Day"—Shir shel yom—is read after the morning service each day of the week (starting Sunday, Psalms: 24, 48, 82, 94, 81, 93, 92). This is described in the Mishnah (the initial codification of the Jewish oral tradition) in the tractate Tamid. According to the Talmud, these daily Psalms were originally recited on that day of the week by the Levites in the Temple in Jerusalem. From Rosh Chodesh Elul until Hoshanah Rabbah, Psalm 27 is recited twice daily following the morning and evening services. There is a Minhag (custom) to recite Psalm 30 each morning of Chanukkah after Shacharit: some recite this in place of the regular "Psalm for the Day", others recite this additionally. When a Jew dies, a watch is kept over the body and tehillim (Psalms) are recited constantly by sun or candlelight, until the burial service. Historically, this watch would be carried out by the immediate family, usually in shifts, but in contemporary practice this service is provided by an employee of the funeral home or chevra kadisha. Many Jews complete the Book of Psalms on a weekly or monthly basis. Each week, some also say a Psalm connected to that week's events or the Torah portion read during that week. In addition, many Jews (notably Lubavitch, and other Chasidim) read the entire Book of Psalms prior to the morning service, on the Sabbath preceding the calculated appearance of the new moon. The reading of psalms is viewed in Jewish tradition as a vehicle for gaining God's favor. They are thus often specially recited in times of trouble, such as poverty, disease, or physical danger; in many synagogues, Psalms are recited after services for the security of the State of Israel. Sefer ha-Chinuch[65] states that this practice is designed not to achieve favor, as such, but rather to inculcate belief in Divine Providence into one's consciousness, consistently with Maimonides' general view on Providence. (Relatedly, the Hebrew verb for prayer, hitpalal התפלל, is in fact the reflexive form of palal פלל, to judge. Thus, "to pray" conveys the notion of "judging oneself": ultimately, the purpose of prayer—tefilah תפלה—is to transform ourselves.)[66] In Christian worship St. Florian's psalter, 14th or 15th century, Polish translation Children singing and playing music, illustration of Psalm 150 (Laudate Dominum) David is depicted as a psalmist in this 1860 woodcut by Julius Schnorr von KarolsfeldNew Testament references show that the earliest Christians used the Psalms in worship, and the Psalms have remained an important part of worship in most Christian Churches. The Eastern Orthodox, Catholic, Presbyterian, Lutheran and Anglican Churches have always made systematic use of the Psalms, with a cycle for the recitation of all or most of them over the course of one or more weeks. In the early centuries of the Church, it was expected that any candidate for bishop would be able to recite the entire Psalter from memory, something they often learned automatically[67] during their time as monks. Paul the Apostle quotes psalms (specifically Psalms 14 and 53, which are nearly identical) as the basis for his theory of original sin, and includes the scripture in the Epistle to the Romans, chapter 3. Several conservative Protestant denominations sing only the Psalms (some churches also sing the small number of hymns found elsewhere in the Bible) in worship, and do not accept the use of any non-Biblical hymns; examples are the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America, the Presbyterian Reformed Church (North America) and the Free Church of Scotland (Continuing). Psalm 22 is of particular importance during the season of Lent as a Psalm of continued faith during severe testing.Psalm 23, The LORD is My Shepherd, offers an immediately appealing message of comfort and is widely chosen for church funeral services, either as a reading or in one of several popular hymn settings;Psalm 51, Have mercy on me O God, called the Miserere from the first word in its Latin version, in both Divine Liturgy and Hours, in the sacrament of repentance or confession, and in other settings;Psalm 82 is found in the Book of Common Prayer as a funeral recitation.Psalm 137, By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down and wept, the Eastern Orthodox Church uses this hymn during the weeks preceding Great Lent.New translations and settings of the Psalms continue to be produced. An individually printed volume of Psalms for use in Christian religious rituals is called a Psalter. Furthermore, psalms often serve as the inspiration for much of modern or contemporary Christian worship music in a variety of styles. Some songs are entirely based on a particular psalm or psalms, and many quote directly from the Book of Psalms (and other parts of the Bible).[68] Eastern Orthodox ChristianitySee also: KathismaOrthodox Christians and Greek-Catholics (Eastern Catholics who follow the Byzantine rite) have long made the Psalms an integral part of their corporate and private prayers. The official version of the Psalter used by the Orthodox Church is the Septuagint. To facilitate its reading, the 150 Psalms are divided into 20 kathismata (Greek: καθίσματα; Slavonic: каѳисмы, kafismy; lit. "sittings") and each kathisma (Greek: κάθισμα; Slavonic: каѳисма, kafisma) is further subdivided into three stases (Greek: στάσεις, staseis lit. "standings", sing. στάσις, stasis), so-called because the faithful stand at the end of each stasis for the Glory to the Father .... At Vespers and Matins, different kathismata are read at different times of the liturgical year and on different days of the week, according to the Church's calendar, so that all 150 psalms (20 kathismata) are read in the course of a week. During Great Lent, the number of kathismata is increased so that the entire Psalter is read twice a week. In the twentieth century, some lay Christians have adopted a continuous reading of the Psalms on weekdays, praying the whole book in four weeks. Aside from kathisma readings, Psalms occupy a prominent place in every other Orthodox service including the services of the Hours and the Divine Liturgy. In particular, the penitential Psalm 50 is very widely used. Fragments of Psalms and individual verses are used as Prokimena (introductions to Scriptural readings) and Stichera. The bulk of Vespers would still be composed of Psalms even if the kathisma were to be disregarded; Psalm 119, "The Psalm of the Law", is the centerpiece of Matins on Saturdays, some Sundays, and the Funeral service. The entire book of Psalms is traditionally read out loud or chanted at the side of the deceased during the time leading up to the funeral, mirroring Jewish tradition. Oriental ChristianitySeveral branches of Oriental Orthodox and those Eastern Catholics who follow one of the Oriental Rites will chant the entire Psalter during the course of a day during the Daily Office. This practice continues to be a requirement of monastics in the Oriental churches. Roman Catholic usageSee also: Responsorial psalmodyThe Psalms have always been an important part of Catholic liturgy. The Liturgy of the Hours is centered on chanting or recitation of the Psalms, using fixed melodic formulas known as psalm tones. Early Catholics employed the Psalms widely in their individual prayers also; however, as knowledge of Latin (the language of the Roman Rite) became uncommon, this practice ceased among the unlearned. However, until the end of the Middle Ages, it was not unknown for the laity to join in the singing of the Little Office of Our Lady, which was a shortened version of the Liturgy of the Hours providing a fixed daily cycle of twenty-five psalms to be recited, and nine other psalms divided across Matins. The work of Bishop Richard Challoner in providing devotional materials in English meant that many of the psalms were familiar to English-speaking Catholics from the eighteenth century onwards. Challoner translated the entirety of the Little Office into English, as well as Sunday Vespers and daily Compline. He also provided other individual Psalms such as 129/130 for prayer in his devotional books. Bishop Challoner is also noted for revising the Douay–Rheims Bible, and the translations he used in his devotional books are taken from this work. Until the Second Vatican Council the Psalms were either recited on a one-week or, less commonly (as in the case of Ambrosian rite), two-week cycle. Different one-week schemata were employed: most secular clergy followed the Roman distribution, while Monastic Houses almost universally followed that of St Benedict, with only a few congregations (such as the Benedictines of St Maur[citation needed]) following individualistic arrangements. The Breviary introduced in 1974 distributed the psalms over a four-week cycle. Monastic usage varies widely. Some use the four-week cycle of the secular clergy, many retain a one-week cycle, either following St Benedict's scheme or another of their own devising, while others opt for some other arrangement. Official approval was also given to other arrangements[Notes 1] by which the complete Psalter is recited in a one-week or two-week cycle. These arrangements are used principally by Catholic contemplative religious orders, such as that of the Trappists.[Notes 2] The General Instruction of the Liturgy of the Hours, 122 sanctions three modes of singing/recitation for the Psalms: directly (all sing or recite the entire psalm);antiphonally (two choirs or sections of the congregation sing or recite alternate verses or strophes); andresponsorially (the cantor or choir sings or recites the verses while the congregation sings or recites a given response after each verse).Of these three the antiphonal mode is the most widely followed.[citation needed] Over the centuries, the use of complete Psalms in the liturgy declined. After the Second Vatican Council (which also permitted the use of vernacular languages in the liturgy), longer psalm texts were reintroduced into the Mass, during the readings. The revision of the Roman Missal after the Second Vatican Council reintroduced the singing or recitation of a more substantial section of a Psalm, in some cases an entire Psalm, after the first Reading from Scripture. This Psalm, called the Responsorial Psalm, is usually sung or recited responsorially, although the General Instruction of the Roman Missal, 61 permits direct recitation. Protestant usage A singing and dancing David leads the Ark of the Covenant, c. 1650. Psalm 1 in a form of the Sternhold and Hopkins version widespread in Anglican usage before the English Civil War (1628 printing). It was from this version that the armies sang before going into battle.Following the Protestant Reformation, versified translations of many of the Psalms were set as hymns. These were particularly popular in the Calvinist tradition, where in the past they were typically sung to the exclusion of hymns. John Calvin himself made some French translations of the Psalms for church usage, but the completed Genevan Psalter eventually used in church services consisted exclusively of translations by Clément Marot and Théodore de Bèze, on melodies by a number of composers, including Louis Bourgeois and a certain Maistre Pierre. Martin Luther's Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott is based on Psalm 46. Among famous hymn settings of the Psalter were the Scottish Psalter and the paraphrases by Isaac Watts. The first book printed in North America was a collection of Psalm settings, the Bay Psalm Book (1640). By the 20th century, they were mostly replaced by hymns in church services. However, the Psalms are popular for private devotion among many Protestants and still used in many churches for traditional worship.[69] There exists in some circles a custom of reading one Psalm and one chapter of Proverbs a day, corresponding to the day of the month. Metrical Psalms are still very popular among many Reformed Churches. Anglican usageAnglican chant is a method of singing prose versions of the Psalms. In the early 17th century, when the King James Bible was introduced, the metrical arrangements by Thomas Sternhold and John Hopkins were also popular and were provided with printed tunes. This version and the New Version of the Psalms of David by Tate and Brady produced in the late seventeenth century (see article on Metrical psalter) remained the normal congregational way of singing psalms in the Church of England until well into the nineteenth century. In Great Britain, the 16th-century Coverdale psalter still lies at the heart of daily worship in Cathedrals and many parish churches. The new Common Worship service book has a companion psalter in modern English. The version of the psalter in the American Book of Common Prayer prior to the 1979 edition is the Coverdale psalter. The Psalter in the American Book of Common Prayer of 1979 is a new translation, with some attempt to keep the rhythms of the Coverdale psalter. IslamMain article: ZaburAccording to the Islamic Holy book, the Qur'an, God has sent many messengers to mankind. Five universally acknowledged messengers (rasul) are Abraham, Moses, David, Jesus and Muhammad,[70] each believed to have been sent with a scripture. Muslims believe David (Dāwūd) received Psalms [71] (cf. Q38:28); Jesus (Īsā) the Gospel; Muhammad received the Qur'an; Abraham (Ibrahim) the Scrolls of Abraham; and Moses (Mūsā) the Torah.[72] Psalms in the Rastafari movementThe Psalms are one of the most popular parts of the Bible among followers of the Rastafari movement.[73] Rasta singer Prince Far I released an atmospheric spoken version of the psalms, Psalms for I, set to a roots reggae backdrop from The Aggrovators. Psalms set to music Verse from Psalm 66 at the Grand Canyon, Arizona.Multiple psalms as a single compositionPsalms have often been set as part of a larger work. The psalms feature large in settings of Vespers, including those by Claudio Monteverdi, Antonio Vivaldi, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who wrote such settings as part of their responsibilities as church musicians. Psalms are inserted in Requiem compositions, such as Psalm 126 in A German Requiem of Johannes Brahms and Psalms 130 and 23 in John Rutter's Requiem. Psalmi Davidis poenitentiales (6, 32, 38, 51, 102, 130, 143) by Orlande de Lassus—1584Melodie na psałterz polski by Mikołaj Gomółka—c. 1600Psalmen Davids (1619), Symphoniae sacrae I (1629) and Becker Psalter (1661) by Heinrich SchützChandos Anthems by George Frideric Handel—1717–18Zwei englisch Psalmen (1842), Sieben Psalmen nach Lobwasser (1843), Elijah (1846), and Drei Psalmen (1849) by Felix MendelssohnEighteen Liturgical Psalms by Louis Lewandowski—1879Biblické písně by Antonín Dvořák—1894Le Roi David by Arthur Honegger—1921Symphony of Psalms (38, 39, 150) by Igor Stravinsky—1930Chichester Psalms by Leonard Bernstein—1965Tehillim by Steve Reich—1981Four Psalms (114, 126, 133, 137) by John Harbison—1998Individual psalm settingsThere are many settings of individual psalms, which are generally mentioned in the article devoted to the particular psalm. They include: Psalms 100, 121 and 124 by Loys Bourgeois (c. 1500–1559)Psalm 38 and Levavi oculos meos (Psalm 121) by Orlando di Lasso (1532–1594)Psalms 112 and 137 by Marc-Antoine Charpentier (1643–1704)Beatus vir (Psalm 112), Dixit Dominus (Psalm 110) by Antonio Vivaldi (1678–1741)Psalm 126 In convertendo Dominus by Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683–1764).Psalm 130 by Jan Dismas ZelenkaPsalm 100 (in Utrecht Te Deum and Jubilate) and others by George Frideric Handel (1685–1750)Psalm 148 by William Billings (1746–1800)Psalm 111 by Samuel Wesley (1766–1837)Psalm 23 by Franz Schubert (1797–1828)Psalms 13, 42, 91, 95, 98, 100, 114 and 115 by Felix Mendelssohn (1809–1847)Psalms 13, 18, 23, 116, 129 and 137 by Franz Liszt (1811–1886)Psalm 150 by César Franck (1822–1890)Psalms 23, 113, 116, 147 and 150 by Anton Bruckner (1824–1896)Psalm 13 by Johannes Brahms (1833–1897)Psalm 18 by Camille Saint-Saëns (1835–1921)Psalm 148 by Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872–1958)Psalm 148 by Gustav Holst (1874–1934)Psalms 14, 24, 25, 42, 54, 67, 90, 100, 135 and 150 by Charles Ives (1874–1954)Psalms 121 and 150 by Zoltán Kodály (1882–1967)Psalm 126 In convertendo Dominus, Psalm 137 Super flumina Babylonis and others by Jules Van Nuffel (1883–1953)Psalm 121 by Darius Milhaud (1892–1974)Psalm 24, 129 and 130 by Lili Boulanger (1893–1918)Psalm 121 and Psalm 150 by Howard Hanson (1896–1981)Psalms 147, 148 and 150 by Roger Sessions (1896–1985)Psalm 121 by Henry Cowell (1897–1965)Psalm 150 by Roy Harris (1898–1979)Two Motets (including Psalm 121) by Gerald Finzi (1901–1956)Psalm 29 and 92 by Eric Zeisl (1905–1959)Psalm 28 by Alan Hovhaness (1911–2000)Psalm 29 by Hugo Weisgall (1912–1997)Psalm 150 (1962, op. 67) by Benjamin Britten (1913–1976)Psalm 150 by George Rochberg (1918–2005)I Was Glad (Psalm 122) by Daniel Pinkham (1923–2006)A Psalm (13) and a Proverb by Ned Rorem (b. 1923)A Psalm of David (Psalm 13) by Robert Starer (1924–2001)Psalms 24, 40, 121 and 150 by Samuel Adler (b. 1928)Psalm 95 by Kamilló Lendvay (b. 1928)Psalm 143 by Yehudi Wyner (b. 1929)Psalm 4 by Alexander Goehr (b. 1932)Psalms 67, 150 by William Mathias (1934–1992)Psalm 8 by John Corigliano (b. 1938)Psalms 1–48, 51, 55, 57, 92, 109, 110, 112, 121, 126, 137 and 144 by Mark Alburger (b. 1957)I Was Glad (Psalm 122) by Howard Goodall (b. 1958)House of God, Forever (Psalm 23) by Jon Foreman (b. 1976)Psalm 73 by BarlowGirlPsalm 40 and Psalm 116 by U2Psalm 50 by UnderoathPsalm 63: 2–3 by MatisyahuPsalm 23 (Shadow of Deth) by Megadeth[74]The Hope (Psalm 27) by Frederik MaglePsalm 23 by Dan Nichols"23rd Psalm" by Debbie FriedmanBachJohann Sebastian Bach used lines from psalms in several of his cantatas, often in the opening chorus: Psalm 19:1,3 in Die Himmel erzählen die Ehre Gottes, BWV 76Psalm 22:26 in Die Elenden sollen essen, BWV 75Psalm 29:1 in Bringet dem Herrn Ehre seines Namens, BWV 148Psalm 38:4 in Es ist nichts Gesundes an meinem Leibe, BWV 25Psalm 50:23 in Wer Dank opfert, der preiset mich, BWV 17Psalm 75:1 in Wir danken dir, Gott, wir danken dir, BWV 29Psalm 103:2 in Lobe den Herrn, meine Seele, BWV 69aPsalm 104:28–29 in Es wartet alles auf dich, BWV 187Psalm 130 in Aus der Tiefen rufe ich, Herr, zu dir, BWV 131Psalm 149:1 in Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied, BWV 190Psalm 150:4,6 in Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied, BWV 190Bach treated complete psalms in German paraphrasing as chorale cantatas: Psalm 124 inWo Gott der Herr nicht bei uns hält, BWV 178 (1724)Wär Gott nicht mit uns diese Zeit, BWV 14 (1735)Psalm versesCarl Nielsen set in Tre Motetter three verses from different psalms as motets for unaccompanied chorus, first performed in 1930. See alsoBible portalPsalm 51's use in Benefit of clergyExclusive psalmodyHistory of music in the biblical periodPenitential PsalmsPsalm 90 (Ives)Psalm of communal lamentSelahThey have pierced my hands and my feetZaburGenevan PsalterPesherRoizl Fishels Martin Luther OSA (/ˈluːθər/;[1] German: [ˈmaʁtiːn ˈlʊtɐ] (About this soundlisten); 10 November 1483[2] – 18 February 1546) was a German professor of theology, priest, author, composer, former Augustinian monk,[3] and is best known as a seminal figure in the Protestant Reformation and as the namesake of Lutheranism. Luther was ordained to the priesthood in 1507. He came to reject several teachings and practices of the Roman Catholic Church; in particular, he disputed the view on indulgences. Luther proposed an academic discussion of the practice and efficacy of indulgences in his Ninety-five Theses of 1517. His refusal to renounce all of his writings at the demand of Pope Leo X in 1520 and the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V at the Diet of Worms in 1521 resulted in his excommunication by the pope and condemnation as an outlaw by the Holy Roman Emperor. Luther taught that salvation and, consequently, eternal life are not earned by good deeds but are received only as the free gift of God's grace through the believer's faith in Jesus Christ as redeemer from sin. His theology challenged the authority and office of the pope by teaching that the Bible is the only source of divinely revealed knowledge,[4] and opposed sacerdotalism by considering all baptized Christians to be a holy priesthood.[5] Those who identify with these, and all of Luther's wider teachings, are called Lutherans, though Luther insisted on Christian or Evangelical (German: evangelisch) as the only acceptable names for individuals who professed Christ. His translation of the Bible into the German vernacular (instead of Latin) made it more accessible to the laity, an event that had a tremendous impact on both the church and German culture. It fostered the development of a standard version of the German language, added several principles to the art of translation,[6] and influenced the writing of an English translation, the Tyndale Bible.[7] His hymns influenced the development of singing in Protestant churches.[8] His marriage to Katharina von Bora, a former nun, set a model for the practice of clerical marriage, allowing Protestant clergy to marry.[9] In two of his later works, Luther expressed antagonistic, violent views towards Jews and called for the burnings of their synagogues and their expulsion.[10] His rhetoric was not directed at Jews alone but also towards Roman Catholics, Anabaptists, and nontrinitarian Christians.[11] Luther died in 1546 with Pope Leo X's excommunication still in effect. Mengeringhausen is a village and a municipal district of Bad Arolsen in Waldeck-Frankenberg, in Hesse, Germany. Its population is estimated to be 3,800 people.[1] The was first mentioned as the town 'Stadt Mengeringhausen' in 1234.[2] The town was in possession of sovereign principality Waldeck (later Waldeck and Pyrmont). In 1974, Mengeringhausen was incorporated to the city Bad Arolsen. Mengeringhausen in 1655Notable peopleMengeringhausen is the birthplace of Conrad Goclenius (1490-1539), Renaissance humanist and friend of Desiderius Erasmus; Philipp Nicolai (1556–1608), Lutheran pastor, poet, and composer; 18th century theologian Ernst Friedrich von Ockel; and the Bavarian Lieutenant General and War Minister Wilhelm von Le Suire (1787–1852). Carl Theodor Severin (1763–1836), also born in Mengeringhausen, was an architect active in Mecklenburg. Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism that identifies with the teachings of Jesus Christ and was founded by Martin Luther, a 16th-century German monk and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic church launched the Protestant Reformation. The reaction of the government and church authorities to the international spread of his writings, beginning with the 95 Theses, divided Western Christianity.[1] During the Reformation, Lutheranism became the state religion of numerous states of Northern Europe, especially in northern Germany and the Nordic countries. Lutheran clergy became civil servants and the Lutheran churches became part of the state.[2] The split between the Lutherans and the Roman Catholics was made public and clear with the 1521 Edict of Worms: the edicts of the Diet condemned Luther and officially banned citizens of the Holy Roman Empire from defending or propagating his ideas, subjecting advocates of Lutheranism to forfeiture of all property, half of the seized property to be forfeited to the imperial government and the remaining half forfeit to the party who brought the accusation.[3] The divide centered primarily on two points: the proper source of authority in the church, often called the formal principle of the Reformation, and the doctrine of justification, often called the material principle of Lutheran theology.[a] Lutheranism advocates a doctrine of justification "by Grace alone through faith alone on the basis of Scripture alone," the doctrine that scripture is the final authority on all matters of faith. This is in contrast to the belief of the Roman Catholic Church, defined at the Council of Trent, concerning authority coming from both the Scriptures and Tradition.[4] Unlike Calvinism, Lutherans retain many of the liturgical practices and sacramental teachings of the pre-Reformation Western Church, with a particular emphasis on the Eucharist, or Lord's Supper, though Eastern Lutheranism uses the Byzantine Rite.[5] Lutheran theology differs from Reformed theology in Christology, divine grace, the purpose of God's Law, the concept of perseverance of the saints, and predestination. Blackletter (sometimes black letter), also known as Gothic script, Gothic minuscule, or Textura, was a script used throughout Western Europe from approximately 1150 until the 17th century.[1] It continued to be commonly used for the Danish language until 1875,[2] and for the German language until the 1940s. Fraktur is a notable script of this type, and sometimes the entire group of blackletter faces is incorrectly referred to as Fraktur. Blackletter is sometimes referred to as Old English, but it is not to be confused with the Old English language (or Anglo-Saxon), which predates blackletter by many centuries and was written in the insular script or in Futhorc. Along with Italic type and Roman type, blackletter served as one of the major typefaces in the history of Western typography.
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Binding: Loose Pages, Articles
Origin: European
Place of Publication: Frankfurt
Language: German
Special Attributes: 1st Edition
Region: Europe
Country/Region of Manufacture: Germany
Topic: Christianity, Bibles
Modified Item: No
Subject: Religion & Spirituality
Year Printed: 1567
Original/Facsimile: Original
