"Bible" Article - Table of Contents

A. INTRODUCTION

Part 1. The Bible - Introduction. Testament.
The Bible - Introduction. The Word "Testament".

B. OLD TESTAMENT

Part 2. Struggle and Progress of Spiritual Religion. Priests, Prophets, etc.
Religion of Israel. Priests and Prophets. False Views of Prophesy. The Prophets and the Law. Rise of a Sacred Literature. Popular Religion.

Part 3. Close of the Old Testament Development. Formation of the Canon.
The Exile and Restoration. Reformation and Law Book of Ezra. Second Canon. Third Canon. Close of Canon. Number of Canonical Books. Alexandrian Canon.

Part 4. Historical Books of the Old Testament.
The Chronicles. Genesis to Kings: A Single History. Duplicate Histories. Composition of the Pentateuch. Priestly, Prophetic and Popular Narratives. The Laws of the Pentateuch. Deuteronomy. Fusion of Several Elements into One Narrative.

Part 5. Poetical Books of the Old Testament.
Characteristics of Hebrew Poetry. Landmarks in the History of Hebrew Lyric: The Psalms. David. Parallelism or Sense of Rhythm. Lyrical Drama. Poetical Wisdom: The Mashal. Proverbs. Ecclesiastes. Job. Jonah. Esther. Freedom Taken by Copyists.

Part 6. Prophetical Books of the Old Testament.
Literary Activity of Prophets. Prophesies are Often Anonymous. Internal Evidence of Date. Titles. Northern Prophets. Assyrian Prophets. Chaldean Period. The Latest Prophets. Daniel.

Part 7. Further History of the Old Testament Canon in the Jewish Church.
(a) The Text of the Old Testament. The Consonantal Text. Plurality of Recensions. Received or Massoretic Text. Vowel Points.
(b) Jewish Versions. Septuagint. Targums.

C. NEW TESTAMENT

Part 8. Relation of the Earliest Christianity to the Literary and Intellectual Activity of the Age.
The Scribes. Popular Apocalyptic. Hellenism. Jesus and the Scribes. Paul and the Judaizers. Christian Prophesy and Apocalyptic. Hellenistic Thought in the Church.

Part 9. Motives and Origin of the First Christian Literature.
The Epistles. Synoptic Gospels. Papias. Tübingen School. External Evidence. The Fourth Gospel. The Tübingen Theory.

Part 10. The Christian Canon of the Old and New Testaments.
Christian Canon - Old Testament. New Testament Canon. Antilegomena.

D. TRANSMISSION AND DIFFUSION OF THE BIBLE IN THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH BEFORE THE INVENTION OF PRINTING

Part 11. The Original Text.
Text of the Old Testament. Text of the New Testament - External Features. Various Readings. The MSS. Uncial Copies.

Part 12. The Christian Versions.
Greek Versions. Origen's Hexapla. Syriac Versions. Latin Versions. Other Eastern Versions. Later Western Versions.

E. THE PRINTED TEXT

Part 13. Transmission and Diffusion of the Bible in the Printed Form.
Printed Hebrew Bibles. Printed Text of New Testament. Recent Versions.

F. FURTHER READING

Part 14. Further Reading on the Bible.



The above article was written by William Robertson Smith; joint editor of the Ninth Edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica; Professor of Oriental Languages and Old Testament Exegesis, Free Church College, Aberdeen, 1870-81; one of the Old Testament Revisers, 1875; Lord Almoner's Professor of Arabic at Cambridge, 1883; University Librarian, 1886; author of Kinship and Marriage in Early Arabia and Lectures on the Religion of the Semites.