The Testament Of The Bible - 1431 Words

While Josephus and the rabbis ascribed the first five books (the Torah or Pentateuch) to Moses, scholars have shown that these texts were created over time, and that the Bible is a composite text written and edited by many scribes over the centuries. These scriptures were finally accepted as a Bible quite late during the Common Era. Different elements in the book of Genesis are evidence of how the Bible came into formation from several different texts and sources. The Bible was initially handed down generation in generation orally, eventually bringing it to be transcribed in several different scrolls. It wasn’t until the destruction of the First Temple in 586 B.C.E followed by the Babylonian exile, and the building of the Second Temple,†¦show more content†¦Starting from the Genesis a couple of things are immediately obvious. The text goes back and forth between addressing the only deity as God, or Elohim, a nomenclature typical of Northern Israel, the Kingdom of Isr ael and Lord God, or YHWH, a nomenclature typical of Southern Israel, the Kingdom of Judah. This distinction is important because, as will be clear in the examples below, the two different kingdoms will sometimes offer different narratives for certain passages in the Bible according to their own traditions and customs in the Temple. Starting from the very first chapters of the book Genesis, there is a noticeable discrepancy. (Gen. 1:1-2:3 portray a very different version of the story of the creation of the world, compared to the account presented in Gen. 2:4-2:25). Not only is the narrating style very different, but the content, chronology and succession of events in the story vary greatly. For example, in the account attributed to have been originally from Northern Israel (Gen. 1:1-2:3), the story begins with God creating the heavens and earth, light and darkness (day and night), sky, land and seas, vegetation, moon, sun and stars, sea creatures and birds, land creatures in this or der. Lastly, he made mankind made in â€Å"our image, our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all