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Western Scriptures
| Hebrew Bible (Jewish/Christian) |
Hebrew/Aramaic | The Hebrew Bible of the Masoretes is the basis for all modern English translations of the Old Testament. The texts were faithfully copied for over 1000 years, with little variance from the texts found in Qumran, dating to before the Common Era. Its composition took place over at least 700 years--from the time of Solomon(?) To the time of the Seleucid Empire. |
| The Septuagint (Christian) |
Greek | A translation of the Hebrew Bible that was undertaken by Jews outside Judea around 165 BCE, the Septuagint is largely like but at times very different from the Hebrew Bible that has been passed down to the present. It is unknown whether the LXX translators added or simply translated Hebrew texts that later were dropped from the Hebrew text. |
| Apocrypha (Jewish/Christian) |
Greek | A collection of writings from before the time of Jesus, not included in the Jewish canon but included in the early Christian collections. Roman Catholic tradition holds them as "deuterocanonical"--a second collection. |
| Pseudepigrapha (Jewish/Christian) |
Hebrew, Greek, Syriac, Slavonic, Ethiopian, et al | A collection of documents from before the Christian era until the second century AD, these books are not considered canonical by any Jewish or Christian group. |
| New Testament (Christian) |
Greek | Written in various places of the Roman Empire by various authors, the documents of the New Testament were gathered into a single canon around AD 200. They include four narratives of Jesus' life and ministry, a narrative "history" of the early Christian movement, 20 letters, an extended sermon and an apocalypse. |
| The Mishnah (Jewish) |
Hebrew | Following the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 C.E., the center of Jewish life shifted in Palestine to the Galilee. There, the Sanhedrin continued to administer Jewish daily life. Around 200 C.E., the head of the Sanhedrin, Judah haNasi, commissioned a gathering and systemization of the oral legal tradition. They were arranged in six divisions, and varying (often conflicting) interpretations of many laws were presented. The resulting text created a new paradigm for Judaism. |
| The Talmud (Jewish) |
Hebrew/Aramaic | The Mishnah's literary structure required ongoing interpretation. The rabbinic communities in both Palestine and in Babylon continued to debate the positions, and attempted to interweave their arguments more closely to the biblical tradition itself. In the 5th and 6th centuries, the rabbinic commentary (called "Gemara") and the underlying Mishnah texts were published together. That collection is known as Talmud. The Talmud has, ever since, undergone continuous updating. |
| Vulgate (Christian) |
Latin | A translation by Jerome (ca. AD 400) of the Hebrew Bible and Greek NT doesn't add new material, but it becomes the dominant scriptural tradition of the Western Church until beyond the Reformation |
| Qur'an (Muslim) |
Arabic | This written text is the collection of hundreds of revelations that the prophet Muhammad received over the last 22 years of his life. There is no narrative ordering of the revelations, as they are understood not as literature but as immediate oral encounter with God. |
| Hadith (Muslim) |
Arabic | There are varying collections of the life and words of the prophet Muhammad, used to understand and interpret the revelations of the Qur'an. The first of these collections was gathered and published about a century after Muhammad's death. |
