Christian Scriptures

TaNaKh

Torah + Nevi’im + Ketuvim - the Hebrew Bible (24 books)

Septuagint (LXX)

Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible (3rd-2nd C.BC); Bible of the early Church, includes the Apocrypha

Masoretic Text (MT)

Standard Hebrew text with vowel pointing added by Masoretic scholars; based on the Leningrad Codex (1008)

Papyrus 52 (P52)

Earliest surviving NT manuscript fragment (-AD 125), a piece of John 18

Dead Sea Scrolls

Oldest Hebrew manuscripts (3rd C BC -1st C AD), found in 1946, consonantal, pre-Masoretic

Council of Trent (1546)

RCC officially affirmed the Deuterocanonical books as canonical

Testament

Means “Covenant” - Old covenant (Moses/Sinai), New covenant (Jesus/Last Supper)

Tohu va bohu

“Formless and empty” - the initial condition before creation (Gen 1:2)

Enuma Elish

Babylonian creation myth - polytheistic violent, humans made as slaves from a god’s blood

‘ezer kenegdo

“A helper corresponding to him” - the woman in Gen 2, an equal complementary partner

YHWH/ Tetragrammaton

Personal, four- letter name of God (“the LORD”), used in Gensis 2’s more intimate account

Temptation → Sin → Punishment → Grace

Recurring pattern in Gen 3,4,6-9, and 11

Noah Covenant

Universal covenant after the flood - no more flood judgement; sign = rainbow

Primeval vs. Ancestral

Gen 1-11 (whole world) vs Gen 12-50 (Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph)

Abrahamic Covenant (3 parts)

Descendants, land, and blessing (Gen 12:1-3)

Genesis 17 covenant sign

Circumcision- sign of the “everlasting covenant”

Cuneiform

Earliest known writing, developed by Sumerians in Mesopotamia ( - 3300 BC)

Merneptah Stele

Earliest known non- biblical reference to Israel, from ancient Egypt