The Jewish Bible and the Christian Bible: An Introduction to the History of the Bible

576 Pages·1998·40.85 MB·English

by  Julio C. Trebolle Barrera

The Jewish Bible and the Christian Bible

Julio Trebolle Barrera
Jewish Bible
The
Christian Bible
and the
AN INTRODUCTION TO THE
HISTORY OF THE BIBLE
Translatedfrom the Spanishby
Wilfred G.E. Watson
BRILL EERDMANS
Leiden Grand Rapids, Michigan
New York Cambridge,U.K.
Knln
This bookhas been translatedwiththe financial assistanceofthe DireccionGeneraldel
LibroyBibliorecasofthe MinisteriodeCultura, Madrid,Spain.
Originaltitle: LaBibliajudEayfaBibliacristiana,Copyright© 1993by EditorialTrotta
SA, Madrid,Spain.
EnglisheditionCopyright© 1998by KoninklijkeBrill NV, Leiden,The Netherlands.
Publishedjointly 1998byBrillAcademicPublishers
P.O.Box 9000,2300PA Leiden,The Netherlands,and
Wm. B.EerdmansPublishingCompany
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Printedin the UnitedStates ofAmerica
Brill ISDN 9004 108882(cloth)
Brill ISBN 9004 108890(paperback)
EerdmansISBNC802838308(cloth)
Eerdrnans ISBNC80284473 I (paperback)
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
TrebolleBarrera,JulioC.
[LaBiblia judia ylaBibliacristiana,English]
TheJewishBibleand the Christian Bible:anintroductionto the
historyofthe Bible/ byJulioTrebolleBarrera;translated by
WilfredG.E. Watson.
p. em.
Includesbibliographical referencesand index.
Brill ISBN900410888 2(cloth:alk. paper)
Brill ISBN9004 108890(pbk. :alk. paper)
EerdmansISBN0802838308(cloth:alk. paper)
EerdrnansISBN° 80284473 1(pbk. :alk.paper)
1. Bible-History. I.Title.
BS445·T6813 1997
220'.09-dc21 97-23769
CIP
DieDeutscheBibliothek- CIP-Einheitsaufnahme
TrebolleBarrera,Julio:
TheJewishBibleand the Christian Bible:an introduction to the
historyofthe Bible / byJulioTrcbolleBarrera.Trans!' by WilfredG.
E.Watson.- Lcidcn;NewYork; Koln:Brill, 1997
Einheitssacht.: LaBibliajudiaylaBiblia cristiana<span.>
ISBN9°-°4-10888-2
Design:BertArts IlNO
Contents
NotetotheRevised English edition
Translator'sNote 5
Foreword 7
Introduction: 27
Topical QuestionsandApproaches 29
Chapter I:
Bibleand Book in theAncient \¥Iorld 53
1. TheLanguagesof theBible 58
2. WritingintheAncient World and inthe Bible 80
3. Written and OralTransmission 94
4. Schoolsand Scribes 109
5. Translationin theAncientWorld and theTranslation oftheBible 121
6. The SacredBook 128
7. TheSchool of Alexandria and its Philology 137
Chapter II:
Collectionsof Biblical Books. Canonicaland Non-CanonicalBooks 147
1. The Literary History of theCanonof BiblicalBooks 148
2. TheSocialHistory of theBiblicalCanon 208
3. Early Christian Literature:Collectionsof Canonicaland Apocryphal
Books 236
Chapter III:
History ofthe Text and Versionsofthe Oldand New Testament 259
1. Introduction 264
2. TheHebrew Text of theOldTestament 268
3. TheGreekSeptuagint Version 30T
4. AramaicVersions ofthe OldTestament.TheTargumim 324
5. TheGreekText of the New Testament 333
6. Ancient Versions of theBible:Oldand NewTestaments 348
3
ChapterIV:
Textual Criticism ofthe Oldand New Testament 367
1. Textual Criticismof the OldTestament 370
2. Textual Criticism of the NewTestament 405
3. Canonical Criticism. The Text and the Canon 416
ChapterV:
Hermeneutics. Textand Interpretation 423
1. Introduction 428
2. The OldTestamentInterprets Itself 430
3. The Interpretationof the OldTestamentinthe GreekSeptuagintVersion 436
4. The Interpretation of the Old Testament in the Aramaic Versions or Tar
gumlm 439
5. The Interpretationof the OldTestamentinApocryphical Literature.The Ex
egetical Characterof Apocalyptic Literature 444
6. The Interpretation of the OldTestament in the Qumran Writings 452
7. The Interpretation of the Old Testament in Hellenistic Jewish Literature.
Philo of Alexandria and Flavius Josephus 460
8. Rabbinic Hermeneutics 468
9. Christian Hermeneutics 490
10.Modern Hermeneutics 545
Abbreviations 565
Subject Index 567
Note
Each chapterinthis book ispreceded by its own detailed table of contents.
4 Contents
Note tothe RevisedEnglishEdition
This translation includes a revised and updated version of the text for the
sections with the headings «The Dead SeaScrolls» and «Developments of
the canon outside the canon: Parabiblical litcrarure». I would like to thank
Professor Florentino Garda Martinez (Groningen) for the text he made
available to me earlier, now published as «Literatura exegetica» and «Liter
atura parabiblica» in Literatura judia intertestamentaria, eds., G. Aranda
Perez- F.Garda Martinez- M. Perez Fernandez, Estella 1996, 87-192.
JULIO TREBOLLE BARRERA
Translator'sNote
This project has taken two years to complete and includes a considerable
amountof new and correctedmaterialsupplied by the author.Inowwishto
thank Brill for theirfriendly cooperation over this period and in particular,
ProfessorJulio Trebolle, who invited me to Madrid for aweek of intensive
translation work, which was interpersed with more leisurely activities in
cludingamemorablevisit to Toledo.
WILFRED G. E. WATSON

Foreword
Afterwritingalmostexclusively research studies with only avery restricted
readership, I have felt the need and above allhave had the great pleasureto
write a book which attempts to be in the nature of a «textbook»or «refer
enceboob, and alsoin largemeasure abookwith wide circulation, intend
edfor amore general public. This workarisesfrom thatresearch which sug
gested many ramifications thatare developed here.
I ignored the advice of a friend and colleague who warned me: «Don't
write abooklikethis, least of allfor students». In recentyears, especially in
theuniversitiesoftheUnitedStates,universityteaching and largecirculation
have beensacrificed on the altar of pureresearch, which givesthe professor
more prestige and allowshim greater accessto the funds required to secure
academic work. Fromthisperspective,writing booksfor studentsor for the
general publicistime wasted orat least timestolenfrom research.
The professorhasoftenceasedto beaprofessor. He becomes aresearcher
who at most imparts to his doctoral students the methods and results of his
research.If, at the behest of the administration, he is required to givemore
general courses, he focuses his attention on very specific topics, leaving the
studentto acquire for himself the generalinformationto befound incurrent
«Introductions» and in the monographs available. As a result this has grad
ually led to the basicformation of the universitystudentat the intermediate
level being abandoned.Some American universities have become aware of
this mistake and now attemptto remedy it, reinstatingthe role of the teach
ingprofessor.
The viewwhich the research scholarhasof the Bible and of biblical texts
can be extremely incomplete. Professor Goshen-Gottstein of the Hebrew
University ofJerusalem,whodied in 1991,hasleftinwritingharsh criticism
of the present situation of biblical studies, in what was his first public ap
pearance, afewyears after having survived adeep coma for several months.
Goshen-Gottstein criticised the current fragmentation of biblical studies,
separatedintoseveraldisciplines or specialties,with no communicationpos
sible or foreseenamong thespecialistsand among the associations or publi
cations of each specialised field: Masoretic text, Greek version, ancient ver-
Foreword 7
sions, apocryphal or pseudepigraphical books, texts from Qumran, Targu
mic texts, inscriptions, Ugaritic texts, etc.'Study of the biblical books, both
OT and NT, also proceeds along very different and unconnected paths, de
pending on method and analytical approach:textual criticism, source criti
cism, tradition criticism, redaction criticism, comparativephilology and lit
erature, historical and sociological study, history ofreligion and of exegesis,
biblical theology, etc.Thevery trendswhichclaim to representaglobal and
«holistic»approach,focusing, for example, on stylistic and structural analy
sisof the biblical books or on study of the Bible in terms of the canon asa
whole, end up creating new schools and specialisations under the guidance
of new authorities. Teaching experience shows, however, that it is difficult
for the studentand readerto gain asystematicandglobalvision of the many
aspects offered by studyof biblical literature.
This book attempts to build bridges between fields of study which used to
be connected at the beginning of modern criticism butwhich the demands
of specialisation have increasingly separated. It will come asagreat surprise
thatasingle bookdiscusses inthe same breaththe more practicalmatters of
textual criticism and the approaches of highly theoretical hermeneutics.
Study of the Bible requires the cooperation of epigraphers and palaeogra
phers atone extreme and of historians of biblical religion and ofJewishand
Christian thought at the other.Today there are many problems which need
interdisciplinary discussion.
Throughoutthe wholeofthisbookand for the sakeofobjectivity,allper
sonal opinion concerning facts, arguments and conclusions of current re
search isavoided.However, the overall approachofthe bookand the choice
ofmaterial presentedaswell asthe opinionsdiscussed, consistently match a
personal vision of all the questions discussed and the serious intention of
providinganew vision of the studyof «BiblicalLiterature».This Foreword
and the Introductionaresuitableplacesfor showingthe author'spreferences
and the perspectivefor problems debated throughout the book.
1. In thefield oflinguistics, the trilingual Bible requires a new dialogue in
stead of the old remoteness among scholars of Hebrew, Greek and Latin.
The Hebrew-Aramaic-Arabic trilingualism in which the Jewish masoretes,
grammarians and exegetes of the Arabian East and of MuslimSpain operat
ed should not forget the assistance of Arabic for understanding the gram
maticaland exegetical tradition accompanying the transmission of the bibli
calHebrew text. The discovery in modern times of the Semitic languages of
the ancient Near East has given riseto anew form of trilingualism made up
of the language trio Hebrew/Aramaic-Ugaritic-Akkadian, which helps to
explain many questions either badly posed or inaccurately resolved in the
past with the sole aid of textual criticism or the witness of the versions. It
1. M.H.Goshen-Gottstein,«TheHebrewBibleintheLightoftheQumranScrollsandtheHe
brewUniversity Bible»,CongressVolume-Jerusalem1985,Leiden1988,42-53.
8 Foreword