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Mission and Identity Programs

Bible Study Outline

Everything You Wanted to Know About the Bible… but were afraid to ask
Xavier University Center for Mission and Identity – Fall 2019
presented by Joe Shadle

 

Week 1: October 10: How the Bible Came to Be: Old Testament

How was the Bible has been transmitted over time?

  • Oral Tradition
  • Scrolls
  • The invention of the codex
  • Incunabula
  • Printing
  • Digital (biblegateway.com, etc…)

 How did the Old Testament come to be and how do we know it is accurate?

  • The Biblical material is created
  • Some of the material gathered together
  • The Jewish scriptures at the time of Jesus
  • The Septuagint tradition
  • Who were the Masoretes (and why should I care?)
  • Finding the Dead Sea Scrolls

 Who Decided What Would Be in the Bible?

  • Marcion’s attempt at a canon
  • The Muratorian Canon
  • Athanasius’ Easter Letter
  • Council of Hippo and Third Council of Carthage
  • Jerome and the Vulgate
  • Difference between a “Catholic” and “Protestant” Bible
    • Luther and the Council of Trent
    • Eastern Orthodox and other Christian canons

 

Week 2: October 17: How the Bible Came to Be: New Testament

When Were The Gospels Written?

  • The period of Jesus’ ministry
  • The period of the Apostles’ ministry and Writings of St. Paul
  • The period of the writing of the Gospels

Who Wrote the Gospels and for whom?

  • Dating
  • Authorship
  • Audience
  • Composition

 What is the Diatesseron and who used it?

 The Acts of the Apostles

  • Dating
  • Authorship
  • Audience
  • Composition

 The Letters of Paul and Deutero-Pauline Letters

  • When were they written?
  • Who did Paul write them for?
  • What “letter form” did Paul use?

 Luther’s Order of the New Testament

 The Book of Revelation

  • Dating
  • Authorship
  • Audience
  • Composition

 

Week 3: October 24: 
Why are there so many different translations of the Bible?
How should I choose which Bible to buy?
What else can help me study the Bible?

 What are the purpose of having different modern translations of the Bible?

  • King James Bible
  • New King James Bible
  • Revised Standard Version
  • New Revised Standard Version
  • New American Bible
  • New International Version
  • Contemporary English Version
  • The Good News Bible

 What are paraphrased Bibles?

  • The Living Bible
  • The Message
  • The Reader’s Digest Bible

Why are there so many editions of a single translation of the Bible?

  • (New) King James Bible w/ and w/o apocrypha
  • (N)RSV in its many forms
  • New American Bible in its many forms including the Catholic Study Bible
  • Good News Bible in its many forms

 What resources are there that will help me study the Bible?

  • Table of Contents
  • Sub-titles within chapters
  • Chapter and Verse Numbers
  • Footnotes
  • Cross-reference Guides
  • Glossaries / Dictionaries
  • Maps
  • Articles in the front of the Bible
  • Articles in the front of each book of the Bible
  • Commentaries
    • Collegeville Bible Commentary
    • New Jerome Biblical Commentary
    • And more….

Week 4: October 31: Why are these versions of the Bible so important?
* (we will get to see copies of some of them up close from Xavier’s Special Collection!)

  • Wycliffe’s Bible (1348)
  • The Textus Bible (1486)*
  • The Gutenberg Bible (1455)*
  • The Jenson Bible (circa 1478)*
  • Martin Luther’s New Testament (1522)
  • Tyndale’s Bible (1525)*
  • Martin Luther’s Old and New Testament in German (1534)
  • The Geneva Bible (1560)
  • The Rheims New Testament (1582)*
  • The Douay Old Testament (1609)*
  • King James Bible (1611)*
  • The Wicked (Adulterous Bible or Sinner’s Bible) (1631)
  • The Douay-Rheims Challoner Revised Bible (1749-1752)

 

 Week 5: November 7

 Additional questions and addressing anything yet not covered