Rhett Talks - Jennifer Knust - Is There a Bible at All?

By katcorn (14)

From Rhett Talks on September 16, 2014

A description is as follows: “The Bible” is a highly fluid collection of books, not a stable text that stands apart from human history. Codex Sinaiticus, one of the most ancient surviving Bible [...]manuscripts, makes the point: Rediscovered in the 19th century, this 4th century manuscript serves as an important basis both for modern editions of the Greek New Testament and for the English language Bibles used in classes here at BU. Its Old Testament, however, which is in Greek, is important chiefly to scholars; since the Reformation, Protestants have read their Old Testament in Hebrew and by tradition Catholics have preferred the Latin Vulgate. In fact, Sinaiticus’s collection of books, its book order, and the very material from which it is made are strikingly different from what is found in modern Bibles, irrespective of who is reading them. But how can this be? Doesn’t everyone know what “the Bible” is? And doesn’t the Bible stay the same? This Rhett Talk begins with the premise that there is no Bible, not really; instead there are distinctive Bibles that change, sometimes radically, along with the human communities that produce them. The communal character of Bibles, however, does not mean that there can be no god, no faith, and no religion. On the contrary, a recognition that people make Bibles challenges us to ask who is making them and why, opening up new possibilities for understanding across cultures, peoples, places, and times.
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