Showing posts with label The New Way. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The New Way. Show all posts

Friday, August 19, 2011

Is The Bibel Reliable ?


"A Reliable Bible".  we tend to have the perception that the Bible's that are around
are not reliable ,we think because they are so old that they can not  be accurate anymore because of the Translations. How ever this assumption is not really accurate,
because since the Bible is the Foundation of Western Civilisation, there where
no effort spared in investigating this book, there is surely no other Book
in this world, that is so well studied as the Bible, specially in the last 100 years
it has been scrutinised.
Many think the Bible is false because its written in English , Dutch, or German.
and that the Original has been lost, or was written Century's latter.

Sure it has been translated and sure if one would want to know precisely
what the Original text has said then one would need to learn Greek,



(just like if you want to know exactly how Rumi wrought his poetry you would need to learn Farcy--- how ever you don't need to learn Farcy to appreciate his genius, only
if you want to study it in deepest sense)
And that's why All Theologian's and Priest have to learn Greek in order to study
the Original text of the Evangelium deeper.





Some people ask why Greek,  thay say that Jesus spoke Aramaic and not Greek
so the Gospel should be in Aramaic. But just like i am writing this Blog
in English, so the Gospel was written in Greek ,because everyone in this region of the world knew Greek, just as we now know English.It was a Hellenistic ( Greek Culture)that dominated then just like now the English speaking culture dominates.

The Letters that in the Early Church circulated where all written in Greek so that all could understand,

in the same way as when you or i wright a forward massage to all of our friends
we wright it in English, So Greek is the Original Language of the Gospel or the New Testament -- the Evangelium.
The Bible, the Gospel and the Evangelium  we say is meaning is the same, while Bible means " The Book " Gospel and Evangelium means "The Good News"
Evangelium which means good news which we can find in the Holly Bible.


The Evangelium consists of Letters that where written by the Disciples of Christ
in the First Century , so the First Generation of Christians, this letters
where Circulated in the Early church and read aloud in front of the Congregation.


These Qumran scrolls are generally dated at the same time as Christ Lived
and are confirming the accuracy of the Bibel. 
(Click on Image to view details)


File:Psalms Scroll.jpg




The cave at Qumran where the scrolls where found:





Qumran_Cave_4_interior_51-31tb_wr.jpg (400×301)


The Place where one of the Earliest Complete Bibel was found


Catherine's Monastery ,Sinai


Katharinenkloster in der Wüste Sinai (Foto: Jürgen Gottschlich,  Rechte: Christoph Links Verlag)
  

































Below : A picture of the Codex Sinaiticus found in Saint Catherine Monastery.
Image




As an comparison, the first Fragment of a
 text's from the teaching of the Buddha,
the Lotus sutra can be found only
 500 to 600 Years after Buddha,

Bark text fragment









this is the earliest Buddhist text we can find.
http://www.buddhanet.net/e-learning/history/s_scripts.htm

Both the Old and New Testaments are strongly supported by manuscript evidence (the evidence of early hand written copies). The famous Dead Sea Scrolls are one example of the Old Testament evidence. These documents came from the “library” of a settlement founded at Qumran before 150 B.C. and abandoned about 68 A.D. Some of the manuscript copies were made during that period, and some were written earlier (third century BC) and brought to the settlement. Ignoring spelling-oriented (orthographic) changes and similar small differences, the Dead Sea Scrolls match the Hebrew text behind today’s Old Testament, in spite of the passage of over 2,000 years (where one would expect errors to creep in).
Over 20,000 known manuscripts document the New Testament text. This makes the New Testament the most reliable document of antiquity (a document written before the printing press). These manuscripts vary in size from a part of a page to an entire Bible (Old and New Testaments). The earliest New Testament manuscripts date from the second century (100-199) AD These manuscript copies were written in different languages by people of different nationalities, cultures, and backgrounds. In spite of all those differences between them, the New Testament texts all agree. (That is, those differences that we do observe between these hand written documents are occasional changes in the spelling of names or isolated cases of missing or changed words. Still, since we have so many copies, it is obvious to anyone but the hardened skeptic can that they all represent the same text.)




The Papyrus Rylands Greek 475 
 also known as p52
. is a fragment of the Gospel of John
 that dates from around AD 135. 













There are thousands of partial and complete handwritten
 manuscript copies of the Old and New Testament.
 These manuscripts are on display today in places like the Smithsonian Institute,
 the Cambridge University Library, the British Library, etc. 
These manuscripts have allowed scholars to verify that the Bible 
we have today is the same Bible the early church possessed 
2,000 years ago.





Tests to see if the Bibel is an accurate Translation


there are many ways to see if the Bible is accurate. One of this tests
have been made by the Germans scholars they have gone true all available ancients
Texts from the first 3 hundred years...they have found Thousands
of early quotes from the Bible,because everyone quoted the bibel
at that time ,Church Fathers ,Historians, opponents of the Church everyone quoted the Bible.
 So what they did ,they have copied all reverences
that this texts made to the Bible on a paper, then tehy have 
checked this text's written in the first 3 hundreds years with the
Greek text that we use today to translate from .
and they have found that this early text's mach the text's that we use
now to a remarkable high degree , in fact they found the only dissimilarity's
where minore mistakes like a coma forgotten or a grammar mistake.

So even if the First COMPLETE assembled BIBLE has been found 
from the year 300 after Christ,the First individual Text's where much ealryer
nameli 20 A.D  Because the First time ( 300 A.D ) this text's
where put together and the disciples have identified what all Christians
should and must read to understand the Massage our Lord has brought.*
non the less by looking at the quotes that are around in the First 300 years we can Guaranty that the text's where around before and not only around but that they are exactly as they are today
in the Greek text's we use to translate from.

This argument is so strong, that, if we deny the authenticity of the New Testament we may with a thousand times greater propriety reject all the other writings in the world.


source http://www.christianity.co.nz/bible-3.htm
find more Information here:
http://www.everystudent.com/features/bible.html



"The New Testament text is far better attested to than any other ancient writings"

A further source of valuable information is found in the numerous quotes from early Christian writers from the end of the first century onwards. As a result of recent research done at the British Museum, we are now able to document, in early Church writings, 89,000 allusions to passages in the New Testament. For instance, Polycarp, who was personally acquainted with the apostle John, quotes from the New Testament in his letter to the believers in Philippi. So does Ignatius in the seven letters he wrote while awaiting execution about AD 115. Clement of Rome cites numerous passages in a letter to Corinth about AD 95. Three hundred and thirty allusions have been documented from Justin Martyr; 1,819 from Irenaeus; 2,406 from Clement of Alexandria; 7,258 from Tertullian; 1,378 from Hippolytus and 17,922 from Origen. These are all from the 2nd and early 3rd centuries. Not all these are direct quotations. However, it would be possible to construct the whole of the New Testament, apart from about eleven verses, from these writings alone, even if we had no others.






 



So the Bibles you find today are  the same
there are minore differences of course you will find Bibles that try to translate
the Greek text, into a modern Street English but the meaning of the text stays the
same even though stile may be different.

Even if you take a Bible from the Jehovah's Witness it still can be used for reading because also them they didn't manage to change it so dramatically because the old text's are still with us .

The differences in the Bible's that are around today. are differences
that Theologians can see and make some differences in the Theological
apologies that result from interpreting this text's . But on a day to
Day level there are literally very very minimal differences.The essence is the same in
all available Bible. The standard Bible that is being used today is the
"King James Bible"  but there are also Catholic Bibles etc, but they are all
more or less the same.

How ever the Interpretation of the Bible, Now that's a different Mather
this differs widely but this we will leave for a other Blog.



Talking about the Qumran Text's it should be said that 

Ancient Books Discovered In The Holy Land Close To Where Dead Sea Scrolls Were Found…




If genuine, it seems clear that these books were, in fact, created by an early Messianic Jewish sect, perhaps closely allied to the early Christian church and that these images represent Christ himself.







Discovery: The impression on this booklet cover shows what could be the earliest image of Christ
Discovery: The impression on this booklet cover shows what could be the earliest image of Christ



Astonishingly, one of the booklets appears to bear the words ‘Saviour of Israel’ – one of the few phrases so far translated.



The director of Jordan’s Department of Antiquities, Ziad al-Saad, has few doubts
these booklets are genuine and artefacts of the early Christian church.
 
He believes they may indeed have been made by followers of Jesus in the few decades immediately following his crucifixion.


‘They will really match, and perhaps be more significant than, the Dead Sea Scrolls,’ he says. ‘The initial information is very encouraging and it seems that we are looking at a very important and significant discovery – maybe the most important discovery in the history of archaeology.’
If he is right, then we really may be gazing at the face of Jesus Christ.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1372741/Hidden-cave-First-portrait-Jesus-1-70-ancient-books.html#ixzz1VSjzozz4





Thursday, August 18, 2011

Was Martin Luther really the First to translated the Bibel into the German Vernacular ?













Was Martin Luther the First to Translate the Bibel into  vernacular ?

Ulfilas (ca. 381)
The earliest Germanic version of the Bible was Ulfilas' Gothic translation from Latin and Greek. From Ulfilas came much of the Germanic Christian vocabulary that is still in use today. Later Charlemagne (Karl der Große) would foster Frankish (Germanic) biblical translations in the 9th century. Over the years, prior to the appearance of the first printed German Bible in 1466, various German and German dialect translations of the Scriptures were published. The Augsburger Bibel of 1350 was a complete New Testament, while the Wenzel Bible (1389) contained the Old Testament in German.     




Älteste Denkmäler Der Deutschen Sprache Erhalten in Ulfilas Gothischer Bibelübersetzung (German Edition)
           by Ignaz Gaugengigl                                                   

                          
  Ulfila explaining the Gospels to the Goths 
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wulfila
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulfilas                             







                                     Ulfilas Bibel, the Earliest 
                                     translation of the bibel into a 
                                     Germanic language 350 AD.
                                     The Roman Catholic Feast Ulfilas 26. August

                                            (Click on it to enlarge)





                                     




First Printed Bible in German (1466)
Before Martin Luther was even born, a German-language Bible was published in 1466, using Gutenberg's invention. Known as the Mentel Bible, this Bibel was a literal translation of the Latin Vulgate. Printed in Strassburg, the Mentel Bible appeared in some 18 editions until it was replaced by Luther's new translation in 1522.
source :  

 The first bible in what can be considered more


or less modern German was the Gutenberg Bible


 (1455)


also other Vernacular Translations happend in other places such as:
1500 The first Spanish Bible.

1506 Jacobus Sacon of Lyons, France                 prints his first edition of the Latin Bible.         

1512 Epistles and Gospels published in             Spanish by Ambrose de Montesian

1514 -18 First Polyglot Bible, Cardinal                  Ximenes' Complutensian Polyglot;                Printed at Alcala de Henares by De            Brocar;  contains only noble style of Greek employed between the invention of printing and recent times; contains first Hebrew Bible           published by Christians, and first           separately printed Greek New                 Testament.

1515 Latin translation 'after the Hebrew' of the Psalter by Felix Pratensis.  (additional info courtesy Dick Wursten of Antwerp, Belgium)

1516 First Polyglot portion of Bible, the Genoa Psalterium (Book of Psalms)

1516 Desiderius Erasmus' (1466-1536) first Greek New Testament.  Printed and published by Froben in Basel; said to have had greater influence on Tyndale than either the Vulgate or Luther.

1517 First Biblia Rabbinica (Venice), printed by Daniel Bomberg, and included the Targum and other traditional explanations.

1518 First separate complete Greek Bible, printed and published in Venice by Aldus Manutius, being the Greek text of the Septuagint, translated by Erasmus.

1522 Latin Paraphrase New Testament (Erasmus)

1522 First Dutch New Testament

1522 Wolff's  Bibliorum

1522 Martin Luther (Wittenberg)






                                   (click on it to see details)               Dutch Old Testament.
                             Delft: Jacob Jacobszoon van der Meer and Mauricius Yemantszoon, 10 January 1477.
The first book printed at Delft, this two-volume Old Testament was the first edition of any part of the Bible in Dutch. Its text was based on a fourteenth-century translation. The hand-written annotations were added in 1477 by the original owner, Cornelius Aernoldszoon, a member of the Brethren of the Common Life who resided at Eemsteyn, near Dordrecht.
                        

Pre-Lutheran German Bibles


Page from the Wenzel Bible
There are still approximately 1,000 manuscripts or manuscript fragments of Medieval German Bible translations extant. The earliest known and partly still available Germanic version of the Bible was the fourth century Gothictranslation of Wulfila (ca. 311-380). This version, translated primarily from the Greek, established much of the Germanic Christian vocabulary that is still in use today. Later Charlemagne promoted Frankish biblical translations in the 9th century. There were Bible translations present in manuscript form at a considerable scale already in the thirteenth and the fourteenth century (e.g. theNew Testament in the Augsburger Bible of 1350 and the Old Testament in theWenceslaus or Wenzel Bible of 1389). There is ample evidence for the general use of the entire vernacular German Bible in the fifteenth century. In 1466, before Martin Luther was even born, Johannes Mentelin printed the Mentel Bible, a High German vernacular Bible, at Strasbourg. This edition was based on a no-longer-existing fourteenth-century manuscript translation of the Vulgatefrom the area of Nuremberg. Until 1518, it was reprinted at least 13 times. In 1478-1479, two Low German Bible editions were published in Cologne, one in the Niederrheinish dialect or West-Westphalian language and another in the Lower Saxon dialect or East-Westphalian language. In 1494, another Low German Bible was published in the Holsteinisch dialect of Lübeck, and in 1522, the last pre-Lutheran Bible, the Low German or Franconian language Halberstaedter Bible was published. In total, there were at least eighteen complete German Bible editions, ninety editions in the vernacular of the Gospels and the readings of the Sundays and Holy Days, and some fourteen German Psalters by the time Luther first published his own New Testament translation.




Needles to say all the people above Translating 
the Bibel where Catholics.


Gutenberg  printed the first Bible in 1455  The Protestant Reformation of Martin Luther followed 50 + years later.


Saint Jerome translator of the first bibel from Hebrew to
Latin (so that people of the 8 Century could read it ) Famously said

'Ignorance of the scriptures,is ignorance of Christ'                

[painting of Saint Jerome]

Also known as
  • Eusebius Hieronymus Sophronius
  • Girolamo
  • Hieronymus
  • Man of the Bible

Profile
Born to a rich pagan family, he led a misspent youth. Studied inRome. Lawyer. Converted in theory, and baptised in 365, 

                     
St. Jerome<br>Doctor of the Church
May true the Intercession of


Saint Jerome..


we be Vigilant in Prayer and gain


true and enlightened understanding


of  the Holly 


Bibel.

St. Jerome
Doctor of the Church     Pray for us

http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=10






A portion of St. Jerome, the translator of the Latin Vulgate, 
to Pope St. Damasus I.( Bishop of Rome from 366 to 384 )
 It is the preface of the Latin translations of the Gospels in Vulgate. The Latina Vulgata is the first Bible translated and collected in One Language - Latin, the most spoken language of those time.



BEGINNING OF THE PREFACE FOR THE GOSPELS OF SAINT JEROME THE PRESBYTER
   
To the blessed Pope Damasus,  from Jerome,

You urge me to make a new work from the old, and that I might sit as a kind of judge over the versions of Scripture dispersed throughout the whole world, and that I might resolve which among such vary, and which of these they may be which truly agree with the Greek. ...    ...  after the Seventy Translators, or to pour out revisions in the New; with the Scriptures previously translated into the languages of many nations...

.
Therefore, this present little preface promises only the four Gospels, the order of which is Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, revised in comparison with only old Greek books. They do not disagree with many familiar Latin readings, as we have kept our pen in control.

I wish that in Christ you may be well, and that you will remember me, most blessed Pope.
END OF THE PREFACE FOR THE GOSPELS OF SAINT JEROME THE PRESBYTER (BISHOP)


source:
http://www.ccel.org/ccel/pearse/morefathers/files/jerome_preface_gospels.htm