111. The Gothic Bible did not contain books of 1 Kings or 2 Kings. The reason was that Ulfilas, the missionary who brought the Gospel to the Goths of northern Europe in the mid-300s, didn't think the war-loving Gothic people should be reading about all the wars perpetrated by the Jewish kings. It's important to note, however, that the Goths had no written language at the time. In translating the Bible into the Gothic language, Ulfilas invented a Gothic alphabet so that the people could read the Good News for themselves.
112. The Bug Bible was published in 1535 and was known more by its real name, The Coverdale Bible. it was dubbed the "Bug Bible" because of its rendering of Psalm 91:5 "Thou shalt not need to be afrayd for eny bugges by night."
113. The Breeches Bible, or the Geneva Bible as it was better known, appeared in 1560. Genesis 3:7 reads that Adam and Eve "sowed figge-tree leaves together and made themselves breeches."
114. The Placemakers Bible was the 1562 edition of the Geneva Bible. The word "peacemakers" in Matthew 5:9 was changed to "placemakers" to read: "Blessed are the placemakers."
115. The Tryacle Bible came out in 1568 and was officially called the Bishops' Bible. The word "tryacle" was used in place of the word "balm" in Jeremiah. One instance can be found in Jeremiah 8:22: "Is there no tryacle in Gilead?" (Tryacle is a bit of a double entendre. It means "an antidote to poison," "a sweet dessert," and is sometimes used as a perjorative for anything cloyingly sweet.)
116. The King James Version (first edition) was completed by Robert Barker, the official printer of King James I, as early as 1611. Scholars call this a "He" Bible because it renders Ruth 3:15 as "...He went into the city" Instead of"...She went into the city." Different copies of the KJV published between 1611 and 1614 contain either he or she, indicating that two presses were producing the Bible at that time. Later editions accepted "she" as the proper wording.
117. The Wicked Bible, or Adulterous Bible, was printed in 1632. The word "not" was accidentally left out of the seventh commandment: "You shall commit adultery" (Exod. 20:14).
118. The Unrighteous Bible was the Cambridge edition of 1653. The word "not" was left out of Corinthians 6:9, which made it appear as: "The unrighteous shall inherit the Kingdom of God." Another mistake from this version was found in Romans 6:13-the word "righteous" was substituted for "unrighteousness"-"Neither yield ye your members as instruments of righteousness unto sin."
119. The Vinegar Bible was an Oxford edition from 1717. The heading for the segment of Luke 20 now known as the "parable of the tenants" was known in editions of that time period as "the parable of the vineyard." The word vinegar was mistakenly used in place of vineyard.
Wednesday, June 17, 2015
Tuesday, June 16, 2015
Polar Ice And Global Warming
Antarctica is a continent about one and a half times the size of the United States, which lies mostly south of the Antarctica Circle. About 98 percent of it is covered by a thick continental ice sheet thousands of feet thick, and immense glaciers form ice shelves along half of its coastline. Antarctica contains 90 percent of the ice on earth. The Arctic (the North Pole) is much smaller, but it, too, is crucial to the welfare of the planet. Most worrisome for us human inhabitants, both have shown signs that they are getting smaller because global warming is making them melt.
Some of the ice shelves in the northern part of the continent, known as the Antarctic Peninsula, have been collapsing over the last few years and warming of 4.5 degrees F has been recorded since 1945. The 770-square-mile Larsen A shelf collapsed suddenly in 1995, and in 1998 and 1999 two more ice shelves, with a combined area of 1,150 square miles, fell into the sea. Scientists are worried that if the large West Antarctica ice sheet disintegrates, it could raise the sea level worldwide by as much as 20 feet.
In the Arctic, a series of NASA studies in 2002 found that "perennial" sea ice (ice that remains all year round) is melting at a disturbing rate of 9 percent per decade. Ice also reflects the sun's light. So at both poles, the less ice there is, the less of the sun's rays are reflected, and global warming accelerates.
But scientists cannot agree on one important consequence of these global changes: whether the climate will get hotter or colder. At the moment our planet is in an interglacial period-the ice has retreated to the poles, so how could global warming lead to the next ice age?
The answer lies with the Gulf Stream, the current that takes warm water from the West Indies to the North Atlantic, without which Europe would be at least five degrees colder with bitter winters. The Gulf Stream is part of a larger system of currents called the North Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (MOC), but the basic mechanism runs something like this: salty cold water in the Atlantic sinks because it is dense. As it sinks more water flows north to replace it. This thermohaline circulation (from the Greek words for heat and salt) is a crucial factor in the climate of the earth.
The problem with melting ice is that it is fresh water. When it flows into the Atlantic, it makes the ocean less salty and therefore less dense, so the flow would sink less rapidly, and the Gulf Stream would slow down. Samples of ice (ice cores) show evidence of dramatic climate changes in the past and that thermohaline circulation have been responsible.
One thing is certain: the climate is changing, and in ways that may not have been experienced in several million years.
Some of the ice shelves in the northern part of the continent, known as the Antarctic Peninsula, have been collapsing over the last few years and warming of 4.5 degrees F has been recorded since 1945. The 770-square-mile Larsen A shelf collapsed suddenly in 1995, and in 1998 and 1999 two more ice shelves, with a combined area of 1,150 square miles, fell into the sea. Scientists are worried that if the large West Antarctica ice sheet disintegrates, it could raise the sea level worldwide by as much as 20 feet.
In the Arctic, a series of NASA studies in 2002 found that "perennial" sea ice (ice that remains all year round) is melting at a disturbing rate of 9 percent per decade. Ice also reflects the sun's light. So at both poles, the less ice there is, the less of the sun's rays are reflected, and global warming accelerates.
But scientists cannot agree on one important consequence of these global changes: whether the climate will get hotter or colder. At the moment our planet is in an interglacial period-the ice has retreated to the poles, so how could global warming lead to the next ice age?
The answer lies with the Gulf Stream, the current that takes warm water from the West Indies to the North Atlantic, without which Europe would be at least five degrees colder with bitter winters. The Gulf Stream is part of a larger system of currents called the North Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (MOC), but the basic mechanism runs something like this: salty cold water in the Atlantic sinks because it is dense. As it sinks more water flows north to replace it. This thermohaline circulation (from the Greek words for heat and salt) is a crucial factor in the climate of the earth.
The problem with melting ice is that it is fresh water. When it flows into the Atlantic, it makes the ocean less salty and therefore less dense, so the flow would sink less rapidly, and the Gulf Stream would slow down. Samples of ice (ice cores) show evidence of dramatic climate changes in the past and that thermohaline circulation have been responsible.
One thing is certain: the climate is changing, and in ways that may not have been experienced in several million years.
Monday, June 15, 2015
The Bible Into Translation ll
96. The Rheims-Douay Version was completed in 1610 by Roman Catholics who had escaped from England during Queen Elizabeth's reign. They settled in France and published the New Testament in Rheims in 1582 and the Old Testament in Douay in 1610. It is mainly a translation of the Latin Vulgate.
97. While Gutenberg's Bible was the first printed Bible, it was done in Latin, so was limited to a scholarly audience. But in 1522 the church in Spain produced the Complutensian Polyglot, the first Bible with the Old Testament in Hebrew and the New Testament in Greek.
98. In 1603, James VI of Scotland became King James I of England and began a program of peacemaking between hostile religious factions of Great Britain. That same year Dr. John Reynolds, the Puritan spokesman at a meeting of religious leaders at Hampton Court, proposed that a new English translation of the Bible be issued in honor of the new king. The 1768 revision is what most people now know as the King James Bible.
99. The King James Bible, which was originally named the Authorized Version, was first suggested by the Puritans in 1604. James, who disagreed with the Calvinist leanings of the Geneva Bible, wanted a version that supported the right of kings to rule over people. He appointed fifty-four scholars, divided into eight teams, and demanded they examine all earlier English versions to aid in translation. Produced in 1611, the translation is marked by beautiful language, an accurate translation, and modesty when faced with embarrassing language and situations.
100. The First Native American translation of the Bible, completed in 1663, was made into the language of the Algonquin tribe, whom the Puritan colonists then promptly wiped out.
101. Stephen Langton, who was Archbishop of Canterbury in the thirteenth century, created chapter divisions for the Bible. He died in 1228, and his work remains visible in the Bibles of today.
102. The Aitken Bible was the first Bible printed in the United States. Congress authorized its publishing in 1781.
103. The Revised Version was begun in 1870 in order to update the King James Version. The effort included both English scholars as well as American ones, and also included various denominations of believers. The English was completed in 1885.
104. The American Standard Version grew out of the Revised Version, which was worked on by Americans and the English. The English advisors had the decisive vote on differences in translation. The Americans agreed not to publish any editions for fourteen years. After that time period was over, the American Revision Committee produced an edition with American preferences in 1901.
105. The Red Letter Bible first appeared in 1928, when an American printer decided to put the direct quotations of Jesus in red ink. The idea caught on, particularly with Catholic printers, who still rely on red letters to note things of importance. The practice led directly to the phrase "red-letter-day" to denote an important day in someone's life.
106. The Revised Standard Version came out by 1952 and deserves mention because it was a modernization of the King James Version using current Biblical scholarship to determine the underlying Greek and Hebrew texts.
107. The Jerusalem Bible (1966), popular among Roman Catholics, contains about a dozen books that Jews and Protestants don't consider part of the Holy Scriptures.
108. The Good News Bible of 1976 became a best-selling version quickly and remains a popular modern version throughout churches today.
109. The New International Bible came out in 1978 and remains one of the most popular versions used today.
110. There are complete Bibles in more than forty European languages and 125 Asian and Pacific Island languages. There are also Bible translations in more than one hundred African languages, with another five hundred African-language versions of some portions of the Bible. At least fifteen complete Native American Bibles have been produced.
97. While Gutenberg's Bible was the first printed Bible, it was done in Latin, so was limited to a scholarly audience. But in 1522 the church in Spain produced the Complutensian Polyglot, the first Bible with the Old Testament in Hebrew and the New Testament in Greek.
98. In 1603, James VI of Scotland became King James I of England and began a program of peacemaking between hostile religious factions of Great Britain. That same year Dr. John Reynolds, the Puritan spokesman at a meeting of religious leaders at Hampton Court, proposed that a new English translation of the Bible be issued in honor of the new king. The 1768 revision is what most people now know as the King James Bible.
99. The King James Bible, which was originally named the Authorized Version, was first suggested by the Puritans in 1604. James, who disagreed with the Calvinist leanings of the Geneva Bible, wanted a version that supported the right of kings to rule over people. He appointed fifty-four scholars, divided into eight teams, and demanded they examine all earlier English versions to aid in translation. Produced in 1611, the translation is marked by beautiful language, an accurate translation, and modesty when faced with embarrassing language and situations.
100. The First Native American translation of the Bible, completed in 1663, was made into the language of the Algonquin tribe, whom the Puritan colonists then promptly wiped out.
101. Stephen Langton, who was Archbishop of Canterbury in the thirteenth century, created chapter divisions for the Bible. He died in 1228, and his work remains visible in the Bibles of today.
102. The Aitken Bible was the first Bible printed in the United States. Congress authorized its publishing in 1781.
103. The Revised Version was begun in 1870 in order to update the King James Version. The effort included both English scholars as well as American ones, and also included various denominations of believers. The English was completed in 1885.
104. The American Standard Version grew out of the Revised Version, which was worked on by Americans and the English. The English advisors had the decisive vote on differences in translation. The Americans agreed not to publish any editions for fourteen years. After that time period was over, the American Revision Committee produced an edition with American preferences in 1901.
105. The Red Letter Bible first appeared in 1928, when an American printer decided to put the direct quotations of Jesus in red ink. The idea caught on, particularly with Catholic printers, who still rely on red letters to note things of importance. The practice led directly to the phrase "red-letter-day" to denote an important day in someone's life.
106. The Revised Standard Version came out by 1952 and deserves mention because it was a modernization of the King James Version using current Biblical scholarship to determine the underlying Greek and Hebrew texts.
107. The Jerusalem Bible (1966), popular among Roman Catholics, contains about a dozen books that Jews and Protestants don't consider part of the Holy Scriptures.
108. The Good News Bible of 1976 became a best-selling version quickly and remains a popular modern version throughout churches today.
109. The New International Bible came out in 1978 and remains one of the most popular versions used today.
110. There are complete Bibles in more than forty European languages and 125 Asian and Pacific Island languages. There are also Bible translations in more than one hundred African languages, with another five hundred African-language versions of some portions of the Bible. At least fifteen complete Native American Bibles have been produced.
Saturday, June 13, 2015
The Bible Into Translation I
81. The Vulgate was written by Jerome (340-420) in A.D. 382. It was a translation in Latin from the original Old and New Testaments' original languages (Hebrew and Greek). The Vulgate has long been the Roman Catholic Church's authorized version.
82. The Synod of Toulouse in 1229 forbade everyone except priests from possessing a copy of the Scriptures. At that gathering Pope Gregory IX asked Dominican friars to question suspects and prosecute heretics, making the friars a powerful force and keeping the Bible out of the hands of laypeople.
83. John Wycliffe (ca. 1328-1384) was a reformer who wanted to make the Christian Scriptures accessible to common people. In the Middle Ages it was common for only officials in the church to be able to read or even have access to the Scriptures. Wycliffe's work is considered the most historically significant in the effort to make the Bible available to all people.
84. The Wycliffe Bible was translated from the Vulgate Bible into English by John Wycliffe in 1384. The Vulgate Bible was a Latin translation composed by Jerome. The Catholic church denounced Wycliffe as heretical for doing this as it was a forbidden act to translate the Bible into English at the time.
85. The invention of movable type by Johannes Gutenberg was recently hailed as the most important technical advancement of the last millennium. Gutenberg, a printer in Mainz, found a way to make many copies of a page by using letters made of lead. By 1456 he and his fellow printers had created nearly two hundred copies of Jerome's Vulgate Bible. Prior to that time, all books were hand printed on papyrus sheets or animal skin, making them expensive, time-intensive, and rare. Consequently, few people could read, and even fewer owned any books. Within twenty years of Gutenberg's first printed Bible, the printers of Mainz had created more Bibles than had been produced by hand in the previous fourteen hundred years.
86. The printing press not only allowed for the dissemination of the Scriptures but also for the spread of critical, sometimes satirical, examinations of the church's excesses. These writings fit the growing mood in Europe that the Roman church was out of touch with common people's lives.
87. The first copy of the Gutenberg Bible took three years of constant printing to complete. It was finished in 1455. It was done in two volumes, with 1,284 pages total. Nearly two hundred original Gutenberg Bibles were printed, and forty-eight still exist.
88. William Tyndale (ca. 1494-1536) believed the Bible should be read by everyone, not just the few who understood Latin, the language of the church. So he set out to translate the Bible into English.
89. Accused of perverting the scriptures, Tyndale was forced to leave England, and his New Testament was burned as an "untrue translation." Arrested and imprisoned as a heretic, Tyndale was executed in Antwerp by strangling. His body was then burned at the stake in October 1536.William Tyndale is now honored as the "father of the English Bible." The Tyndale New Testament was published in 1526 from the ancient Hebrew and Greek texts. This version, too, was condemned by the church.
90. An English Bible was prepared by Miles Coverdale at the same time the Tyndale Bible was being written. the English Bible was published in 1535, though it was translated by a man who was not versed in Hebrew and Greek. Coverdale drew from the Vulgate, some early German versions, and partly from the Tyndale Bible. This was the first Bible that placed the Apocrypha in a separate section, under the title of "noncanonical."
91. The Matthew Bible was published in 1537 as an English Bible. It claimed to be "truly and purely translated into English by Thomas Matthew." In fact John Rogers wrote the Bible, which was a compilation of the English Bible and the Tyndale Bible.
92. The Taverner Bible was written just two years after Coverdale finished Bible. In reality it was only a revision of the Matthew Bible.
93. The Great Bible (1539) was the first widely popular English translation of the Scriptures to be owned and read by the common people. Produced by Miles Coverdale and John Rogers, it was based on translations from the Latin Vulgate, with additional notes from the writings of Martin Luther and Ulrich Zwingli. It was a significant improvement over the earlier Coverdale and Matthew Bibles due to its readability and understanding of poetry.
94. The Geneva Bible (1560) was a product of the Calvinist movement in Northern Europe. Rather than simply relying on Roman Catholic translations, the English exiles in Geneva created prologues to each book of Scripture, added marginal notes to aid understanding, and spent considerable time recrafting the poetic elements of the various books. One outstanding feature that the translators developed was the numbering of chapters and verses-something that not only made it a popular Bible, but which has been copied by translators ever since.
95. The Bishops' Bible appeared in 1568 at the order of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Matthew Parker. The Geneva Bible was not given official endorsement by Queen Elizabeth. As a result a new edition was started shortly after the Geneva Bible was printed.
82. The Synod of Toulouse in 1229 forbade everyone except priests from possessing a copy of the Scriptures. At that gathering Pope Gregory IX asked Dominican friars to question suspects and prosecute heretics, making the friars a powerful force and keeping the Bible out of the hands of laypeople.
83. John Wycliffe (ca. 1328-1384) was a reformer who wanted to make the Christian Scriptures accessible to common people. In the Middle Ages it was common for only officials in the church to be able to read or even have access to the Scriptures. Wycliffe's work is considered the most historically significant in the effort to make the Bible available to all people.
84. The Wycliffe Bible was translated from the Vulgate Bible into English by John Wycliffe in 1384. The Vulgate Bible was a Latin translation composed by Jerome. The Catholic church denounced Wycliffe as heretical for doing this as it was a forbidden act to translate the Bible into English at the time.
85. The invention of movable type by Johannes Gutenberg was recently hailed as the most important technical advancement of the last millennium. Gutenberg, a printer in Mainz, found a way to make many copies of a page by using letters made of lead. By 1456 he and his fellow printers had created nearly two hundred copies of Jerome's Vulgate Bible. Prior to that time, all books were hand printed on papyrus sheets or animal skin, making them expensive, time-intensive, and rare. Consequently, few people could read, and even fewer owned any books. Within twenty years of Gutenberg's first printed Bible, the printers of Mainz had created more Bibles than had been produced by hand in the previous fourteen hundred years.
86. The printing press not only allowed for the dissemination of the Scriptures but also for the spread of critical, sometimes satirical, examinations of the church's excesses. These writings fit the growing mood in Europe that the Roman church was out of touch with common people's lives.
87. The first copy of the Gutenberg Bible took three years of constant printing to complete. It was finished in 1455. It was done in two volumes, with 1,284 pages total. Nearly two hundred original Gutenberg Bibles were printed, and forty-eight still exist.
88. William Tyndale (ca. 1494-1536) believed the Bible should be read by everyone, not just the few who understood Latin, the language of the church. So he set out to translate the Bible into English.
89. Accused of perverting the scriptures, Tyndale was forced to leave England, and his New Testament was burned as an "untrue translation." Arrested and imprisoned as a heretic, Tyndale was executed in Antwerp by strangling. His body was then burned at the stake in October 1536.William Tyndale is now honored as the "father of the English Bible." The Tyndale New Testament was published in 1526 from the ancient Hebrew and Greek texts. This version, too, was condemned by the church.
90. An English Bible was prepared by Miles Coverdale at the same time the Tyndale Bible was being written. the English Bible was published in 1535, though it was translated by a man who was not versed in Hebrew and Greek. Coverdale drew from the Vulgate, some early German versions, and partly from the Tyndale Bible. This was the first Bible that placed the Apocrypha in a separate section, under the title of "noncanonical."
91. The Matthew Bible was published in 1537 as an English Bible. It claimed to be "truly and purely translated into English by Thomas Matthew." In fact John Rogers wrote the Bible, which was a compilation of the English Bible and the Tyndale Bible.
92. The Taverner Bible was written just two years after Coverdale finished Bible. In reality it was only a revision of the Matthew Bible.
93. The Great Bible (1539) was the first widely popular English translation of the Scriptures to be owned and read by the common people. Produced by Miles Coverdale and John Rogers, it was based on translations from the Latin Vulgate, with additional notes from the writings of Martin Luther and Ulrich Zwingli. It was a significant improvement over the earlier Coverdale and Matthew Bibles due to its readability and understanding of poetry.
94. The Geneva Bible (1560) was a product of the Calvinist movement in Northern Europe. Rather than simply relying on Roman Catholic translations, the English exiles in Geneva created prologues to each book of Scripture, added marginal notes to aid understanding, and spent considerable time recrafting the poetic elements of the various books. One outstanding feature that the translators developed was the numbering of chapters and verses-something that not only made it a popular Bible, but which has been copied by translators ever since.
95. The Bishops' Bible appeared in 1568 at the order of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Matthew Parker. The Geneva Bible was not given official endorsement by Queen Elizabeth. As a result a new edition was started shortly after the Geneva Bible was printed.
Wednesday, June 10, 2015
Birth Of Computers
The first freely programmable computer was invented in 1936 by Konrad Zuse, a German engineer for the Henschel Aircraft Company in Berlin. It was called the Z1 and was a mechanical binary calculating machine that had a memory and could keep track of intermediate results for use later. Zuse used it to develop key technologies that now form the basis of modern computing, including floating-point arithmetic and the yes/no principle (base 2). He used old movie film to store his data, because paper was scarce. In 1946 he even wrote the first programming language called "Plankalkul" and used it to write the world's first chess-playing program. Unable to secure funding from the Nazi government, he escaped to Switzerland and smuggled his final model-in-progress, the Z4, with him on a horse-drawn cart to Zurich.
While the Z1 was mechanical, the first electronic-digital computer was developed between 1939 and 1942 at Iowa State College by Professor John Atanasoff and graduate engineering student Clifford Berry. It was later named the ABC for the Atanasoff-Berry Computer. It weighed 700 pounds, was the size of a gaming machine, and contained over a mile of wire. It could perform one operation every 15 seconds (modern computers are about 200 billion times faster). Amazingly, while Atanasoff was working with the government on military and defense projects during the war, the computer was dismantled and destroyed by the physics faculty during a spring cleaning. Only a few parts of this important artifact remain.
The next breakthrough was the Mark series of computers, built for the United States Navy by Howard Aiken and Grace Hopper at Harvard University beginning in 1944. The Mark I filled a room-it was 55 feet long, 8 feet high, and weighed 5 tons. The ENIAC (Electrical Numerical Integrator and Calculator) was even bigger-it took up 1,800 square feet, weighed 30 tons, and cost $500,000. It required so much power to operate that when it was switched on, the city of Philadelphia experienced near blackouts. It was a thousand times faster than its contemporaries, but required weeks to program.
The invention of the transistor to replace vacuum tubes revolutionized computers and enabled them to begin shrinking. Then Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce came up with the idea of replacing the hundreds of miles of wiring by replacing all the components on a "chip" made of semiconductor material (germanium or silicon).
Today's computers use microprocessors, which were invented way back in 1971 by Intel Corp., but the next breakthrough will arrive in the form of quantum computers, which for the first time will be able to perform millions of calculations simultaneously, rather than linearly as they do currently.
While the Z1 was mechanical, the first electronic-digital computer was developed between 1939 and 1942 at Iowa State College by Professor John Atanasoff and graduate engineering student Clifford Berry. It was later named the ABC for the Atanasoff-Berry Computer. It weighed 700 pounds, was the size of a gaming machine, and contained over a mile of wire. It could perform one operation every 15 seconds (modern computers are about 200 billion times faster). Amazingly, while Atanasoff was working with the government on military and defense projects during the war, the computer was dismantled and destroyed by the physics faculty during a spring cleaning. Only a few parts of this important artifact remain.
The next breakthrough was the Mark series of computers, built for the United States Navy by Howard Aiken and Grace Hopper at Harvard University beginning in 1944. The Mark I filled a room-it was 55 feet long, 8 feet high, and weighed 5 tons. The ENIAC (Electrical Numerical Integrator and Calculator) was even bigger-it took up 1,800 square feet, weighed 30 tons, and cost $500,000. It required so much power to operate that when it was switched on, the city of Philadelphia experienced near blackouts. It was a thousand times faster than its contemporaries, but required weeks to program.
The invention of the transistor to replace vacuum tubes revolutionized computers and enabled them to begin shrinking. Then Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce came up with the idea of replacing the hundreds of miles of wiring by replacing all the components on a "chip" made of semiconductor material (germanium or silicon).
Today's computers use microprocessors, which were invented way back in 1971 by Intel Corp., but the next breakthrough will arrive in the form of quantum computers, which for the first time will be able to perform millions of calculations simultaneously, rather than linearly as they do currently.
The Missing Part-The Apocrypha ll
74. Additions to Esther may be more authentic than the other books as many scholars regard these passages as true additions to the original Hebrew. Some even consider the real Book of Esther an abbreviated work. The apocryphal version includes much of the same story line as the canonical Book of Esther.
75. Wisdom of Solomon, though named after the wisest man who ever lived, was not written by him or even about him. It is believed to have been composed originally in Greek, and there is evidence of Greek philosophy and Platonic terminology. It is a historical account of how the Jews have been helped by wisdom.
76. Ecclesiasticus was written around 180 B.C. and is held in high esteem by both Jews and early Christians. It contains the sayings of Joshua ben Sira, who recommended observing the law carefully and maintaining a healthy, pious fear of God. The book also gives practical advice for daily living.
77. Baruch may have more than one author, but it is likely that Baruch, a scribe of the prophet Jeremiah, was involved. The book offers encouragement to the Jews in light of their exile to Babylon. It serves as a historical guideline for that time period as well.
78. Additions to Daniel comes out of the Septuagint. The book includes stories regarding falsely accused people and an even more in-depth writing of the three Christians' prayers and praises from the fiery furnace. Daniel is a prominent figure in this apocryphal book.
79. The Prayer of Manasseh is just what the title says it is-King Manasseh's prayer to God while he was in captivity, as described in 2 Chronicles 13. God allowed him to be captured because he had worshiped idols and been an evil king. The book is thought to be Jewish in origin.
80. First and Second Maccabees trace Jewish history between 175 and 134 B.C. The books describe the hero Judas Maccabees and his family, the Maccabees. The first book was translated from a Hebrew work in about 100 B.C. The second book is thought to have been taken from a work by Jason of Cyrene, a man little is known of. The first book is thought to be more accurate, though there are discrepancies between the two.
75. Wisdom of Solomon, though named after the wisest man who ever lived, was not written by him or even about him. It is believed to have been composed originally in Greek, and there is evidence of Greek philosophy and Platonic terminology. It is a historical account of how the Jews have been helped by wisdom.
76. Ecclesiasticus was written around 180 B.C. and is held in high esteem by both Jews and early Christians. It contains the sayings of Joshua ben Sira, who recommended observing the law carefully and maintaining a healthy, pious fear of God. The book also gives practical advice for daily living.
77. Baruch may have more than one author, but it is likely that Baruch, a scribe of the prophet Jeremiah, was involved. The book offers encouragement to the Jews in light of their exile to Babylon. It serves as a historical guideline for that time period as well.
78. Additions to Daniel comes out of the Septuagint. The book includes stories regarding falsely accused people and an even more in-depth writing of the three Christians' prayers and praises from the fiery furnace. Daniel is a prominent figure in this apocryphal book.
79. The Prayer of Manasseh is just what the title says it is-King Manasseh's prayer to God while he was in captivity, as described in 2 Chronicles 13. God allowed him to be captured because he had worshiped idols and been an evil king. The book is thought to be Jewish in origin.
80. First and Second Maccabees trace Jewish history between 175 and 134 B.C. The books describe the hero Judas Maccabees and his family, the Maccabees. The first book was translated from a Hebrew work in about 100 B.C. The second book is thought to have been taken from a work by Jason of Cyrene, a man little is known of. The first book is thought to be more accurate, though there are discrepancies between the two.
Tuesday, June 9, 2015
The Missing Part-The Apocrypha l
66. The word apocrypha originates from a Greek word that means "hidden." There are a number of books of Scripture that were not included in the Protestant Bible because their origins were not believed authentic. The apocrypha includes in particular the Old Testament books that are included in Roman Catholic versions of the Bible.
67. The word apocrypha refers to a small group of ancient writings whose "divinely inspired" status has long been the subject of debate and controversy. Some of these books may have originally been written in Hebrew but were only known to exist in their Greek versions-one of the reasons the rabbis rejected them as part of Hebrew Scripture. They were included in the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible that was used by the early Christian church.
68. The Apocrypha was accepted as part of the Bible by Augustine in the late fourth century. Since much Roman Catholic theology is based on the writings of Augustine, Catholics accept the Apocrypha as part of the Word of God. However, neither the Jews nor Christians in Palestine ever accepted it as Scripture Protestants during the Reformation rejected it as part of the Canon, and it does not appear in Protestant Bibles.
69. Pseudepigrapha is a term for the many other Old and New Testament apocryphal books that have been rejected and are considered of doubtful authenticity. The apocryphal books are considered those "hidden" books of the Old Testament that are found in Roman Catholic versions, but excluded from Protestant Bibles.
The following books are included:
70. First Esdras gives the same historic account as the books of Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah. An additional story is added in, called the "Debate of the Three Youths." The story is Persian and involves King Darius and Zerubbabel, a governor.
71. Second Esdras comes from a Hebrew source, but it has changed and expanded with various Christian additions. The book is called "the Apocalypse of Ezra." The book explains seven different visions involving Ezra speaking on the people's behalf, salvation, Jerusalem and Rome, and a final vision concerning the sacred books Ezra is supposed to restore.
72. Tobit is a blind Jew in captivity in Nineveh. Tobit sends his son, Tobias, to collect a debt. Tobias falls in love with his cousin, Sara, along the way and has to defeat the demon Asmodeus in order to escape death unlike Sara's seven previous bridegrooms. Raphael helps him to do this. Tobias catches a fish in the Tigris River that eventually restores his father's sight.
73. Judith is a book about a beautiful Jewish widow of Bethulia. She plays the heroine of her book by saving her city from Nebuchadnezzar's forces. Beautiful Judith entices the general, Holofernes, into a drunken stupor after going to see him on the pretense of sharing military secrets. When he is asleep, she cuts off his head and brings it back to her city. The people pursue the fleeing enemy.
67. The word apocrypha refers to a small group of ancient writings whose "divinely inspired" status has long been the subject of debate and controversy. Some of these books may have originally been written in Hebrew but were only known to exist in their Greek versions-one of the reasons the rabbis rejected them as part of Hebrew Scripture. They were included in the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible that was used by the early Christian church.
68. The Apocrypha was accepted as part of the Bible by Augustine in the late fourth century. Since much Roman Catholic theology is based on the writings of Augustine, Catholics accept the Apocrypha as part of the Word of God. However, neither the Jews nor Christians in Palestine ever accepted it as Scripture Protestants during the Reformation rejected it as part of the Canon, and it does not appear in Protestant Bibles.
69. Pseudepigrapha is a term for the many other Old and New Testament apocryphal books that have been rejected and are considered of doubtful authenticity. The apocryphal books are considered those "hidden" books of the Old Testament that are found in Roman Catholic versions, but excluded from Protestant Bibles.
The following books are included:
70. First Esdras gives the same historic account as the books of Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah. An additional story is added in, called the "Debate of the Three Youths." The story is Persian and involves King Darius and Zerubbabel, a governor.
71. Second Esdras comes from a Hebrew source, but it has changed and expanded with various Christian additions. The book is called "the Apocalypse of Ezra." The book explains seven different visions involving Ezra speaking on the people's behalf, salvation, Jerusalem and Rome, and a final vision concerning the sacred books Ezra is supposed to restore.
72. Tobit is a blind Jew in captivity in Nineveh. Tobit sends his son, Tobias, to collect a debt. Tobias falls in love with his cousin, Sara, along the way and has to defeat the demon Asmodeus in order to escape death unlike Sara's seven previous bridegrooms. Raphael helps him to do this. Tobias catches a fish in the Tigris River that eventually restores his father's sight.
73. Judith is a book about a beautiful Jewish widow of Bethulia. She plays the heroine of her book by saving her city from Nebuchadnezzar's forces. Beautiful Judith entices the general, Holofernes, into a drunken stupor after going to see him on the pretense of sharing military secrets. When he is asleep, she cuts off his head and brings it back to her city. The people pursue the fleeing enemy.
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