Old Testament Textual Analysis

This weeks reading covered the introduction to the Old Testament, the different types of languages it was written in and the different types of language used such as poetry. Then the archeology of the Old Testament and the geography and information about early civilizations from the Fertile Crescent to Palestine. Reading also included canonization of the Old Testament, the various translations that have arisen from different sources, the textual criticism that lead to these different translations, the geography of the Old Testament and the different periods of time from the ancient near east to the Roman Empire. The part of this reading that I found most interesting is how fluid the translation and canonization of the Bible is. Starting with …show more content…
Also, sometimes words are translated with the same English meaning when the text actually calls for a different definition. Part of this is inertia where people want to stay with what they know rather than change a meaning in a particular area. Translating the Bible into English has lead to the Bible being very widespread, however I wonder how much has been lost to time and translation due to the biodegradability of the original documents, the copying of these document. Fortunately with the help of archeology and the discovery of things such as the Dead Sea scrolls people have been able to put together and paint the picture of the Bible as we know it today. Because of all the difficulties in the development of the Bible it is a miracle that we have it