How Old is the Bible?

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NotWorthy said:
Remember, only parts of it are that old. There are parts of the Old Testament that are only 200-300 years older than the New Testament.
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Good point. Thanks Guys. I think this will give myself and others a rock of a reference.šŸ˜‰
 
BTW, isnā€™t the book of Job said to be one of the most ancient of the books?
 
My bible is copyrighted 1992, so it isnā€™t as old as your versions are.
Wow, It must have cost a lot to get them that old, did you get them at amazon, or on ebay? I know Powells deals in used books, but I have never seen any bibles any old.
 
savedsinner said:
My bible is copyrighted 1992, so it isnā€™t as old as your versions are.
Wow, It must have cost a lot to get them that old, did you get them at amazon, or on ebay? I know Powells deals in used books, but I have never seen any bibles any old.
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:confused:

Maybe God has a printing press and pops them on to bookshelves directly from Heaven, by a miracle ā€¦ šŸ˜›
 
Probably a few years younger than Adamā€™s sons. Think about it.

Matthew
 
savedsinner said:
My bible is copyrighted 1992, so it isnā€™t as old as your versions are.
Wow, It must have cost a lot to get them that old, did you get them at amazon, or on ebay? I know Powells deals in used books, but I have never seen any bibles any old.
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Very funny Sinner.šŸ˜› :rolleyes:
 
drafdog said:
Probably a few years younger than Adamā€™s sons. Think about it.

Matthew
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Matthew, I was trying to understand some level of written documentation, for those Agnostics and non-believers we all run into from time to time.šŸ˜‰
 
I can only answer the question you ask, not the one you meant to ask.

One theory I came across said that there was no written Hebrew until after the Egyptian servitude. So any written materials which were later codified into what we now call the bible would date from the period following the exodus.

Matthew
 
drafdog said:
I can only answer the question you ask, not the one you meant to ask.

One theory I came across said that there was no written Hebrew until after the Egyptian servitude. So any written materials which were later codified into what we now call the bible would date from the period following the exodus.

Matthew
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This would seem a little out of kilter. If they didnā€™t have it until after their servitude to Egypt, then whom did they get it from, for the Egyptians used pictures, instead of letters, right? At that point, it seems they either invented one themselves or got it from someone else, which seems to be unlikely for the xenophobic Israelites.
 
NotWorthy said:
This would seem a little out of kilter. If they didnā€™t have it until after their servitude to Egypt, then whom did they get it from, for the Egyptians used pictures, instead of letters, right? At that point, it seems they either invented one themselves or got it from someone else, which seems to be unlikely for the xenophobic Israelites.
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The semetic peoples had several kinds of writing ā€“ presumably, the Hebrews learned the ā€œtrickā€ and invented their own ā€“ just as the Cherokee did.
 
vern_humphrey said:
The semetic peoples had several kinds of writing ā€“ presumably, the Hebrews learned the ā€œtrickā€ and invented their own ā€“ just as the Cherokee did.
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Well, people donā€™t tend to dedicate too much of their time learning to read and write until after theyā€™ve overcome all the other needs for survival. Israel was still working on eradicating the Promised Land of all those pesky inhabitants and consequently wouldnā€™t seem too inclined to learning this new artform.
 
NotWorthy said:
Well, people donā€™t tend to dedicate too much of their time learning to read and write until after theyā€™ve overcome all the other needs for survival. Israel was still working on eradicating the Promised Land of all those pesky inhabitants and consequently wouldnā€™t seem too inclined to learning this new artform.
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The Israelites were slaves in Egypt. The idea of having a written language was completely familiar to them. I donā€™t know how or when the Hebrew language developed, but I have no doubt that Moses could read and write in Egyptian, and other languages as well, in order to have diplomatic communications with other nations in the region. (Remember, he was thought to be the second son of Pharoah, and he would have been trained up from childhood in the arts of diplomacy and war, including reading and writing in a variety of languages.)
 
jmcrae said:
The Israelites were slaves in Egypt. The idea of having a written language was completely familiar to them. I donā€™t know how or when the Hebrew language developed, but I have no doubt that Moses could read and write in Egyptian, and other languages as well, in order to have diplomatic communications with other nations in the region. (Remember, he was thought to be the second son of Pharoah, and he would have been trained up from childhood in the arts of diplomacy and war, including reading and writing in a variety of languages.)
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Well now, this I understand and find plausible. Although Egyptians wrote in hieroglyphics (or pictures, right?), the palace officials would have had to have learned other languages.

But what has been proposed in this thread is that the Israelites developed the Hebrew language either while they were strolling through the desert (learning how to write over a piping hot manna quiche) or struggling through the Judges period. I have a little trouble accepting that.
 
NotWorthy said:
Well now, this I understand and find plausible. Although Egyptians wrote in hieroglyphics (or pictures, right?), the palace officials would have had to have learned other languages.

But what has been proposed in this thread is that the Israelites developed the Hebrew language either while they were strolling through the desert (learning how to write over a piping hot manna quiche) or struggling through the Judges period. I have a little trouble accepting that.
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Perhaps the Hebrew writing started out as a communication code? You know how many generations it take to develop a fully functional written language from scratch?šŸ˜‰
 
GratefulDad said:
Perhaps the Hebrew writing started out as a communication code? You know how many generations it take to develop a fully functional written language from scratch?šŸ˜‰
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George Gist (Sequoya) developed the Cherokee sylabary (which is more efficient and easier to learn than our alphabet) from scratch and taught it to the Cherokee people in a few years.
 
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