E 'for some time that I felt the desire to do a little reflection on the Old Testament. The argument in question, I refer to the Torah (the first five books), starts from creation, through the story of the great patriarchs and after the great exodus, culminating in the arrival promised land. But first things first: how the Pentateuch was formed and who wrote it?
ancient times - they tell us the historical scholars - the stories of the Bible were handed down orally, historians indicate the group that left Egypt and the desert who faced the likely start of the oral tradition (XIII century BC.). The oral tradition on the biblical narratives developed and spread among the various tribes Israilite, to give the people a historical memory, usually older people were in camps around the fires that recounted the youngest companies in the great patriarchs. In turn, young people were asked to do so when their time would come. X sec.aC around a group of scholars close to the world of the scribes, probably of the tribe of Judah picked up the oral material passed down and put it in writing, thus creating the tradition Jahwista. This ancient tradition, whose center is represented by the events of Exodus, tells the story of the people of Israel from creation to arrival in the promised land. It followed the tradition of Eloista (eighth century BC.) From the north of the country and that of Deuteronomy (VII BC) under the reign of King Josiah.
These traditions were taken at the time of exile from the priestly class that not only united, but added new elements, thus giving life to the priestly tradition. The fusion of traditional J + E + P (priestly ), led to the first four books of the Torah. Finally, in (IV sec.aC) at the time of the scribe Ezra be the final draft of the entire Torah, even with the inclusion of traditional Deuteronomy (The Pentateuch: Gen. No. Eg Lev. Deut.).
The people back from the Babylonian exile was given the law on which to build a new nation (Nehemiah 8), which was an expression of justice but also of the Old Covenant between God and the people. So it took 300 years before you switched from an oral tradition to written and well 900 to bring everything together in a single work of editing!
This suggests that the priests of the temple must have been truly monumental undertaking, namely to collect and make with all the writing and oral tradition, with all the difficulties that entails, because its oral transmission by its nature has a lack of communication: word of mouth of collective memory among the different generations, in fact means that this is inevitably transformed, enriched or loaded with charming details and then deformed. Therefore obvious - if I may-as a source from the historical point of view, can not and should not be taken too seriously.
The reason therefore for which the 'Old Testament is being presented today to the younger generations, justified by the fact that Scripture is the Christian roots of our distant, and as such should be considered and respected.
When we look at a tree we appreciate the size, strength of stem, the majesty of the crown or the goodness of fruit, but difficult to appreciate its roots because we do not see them, yet they get the sap that gives life and maintains all 'whole plant. Notwithstanding that, though - thank God - we are Christians and we are called to understand and respect the traditions of our older brothers in the light of the event Messianic. Then the image blurred and fleeting, of a just God the Father, but able to kill innocent people (the firstborn of the Egyptians) who takes revenge of the Pharaoh (sending the plagues on Egypt), or that you show towards exterminating the idolaters (killing Ball of priests), we superimpose a picture more consistent and truthful, that of a merciful God the Father has given us his Son, who died on the cross for a love-mad love for man, God the Father whose face shining with light "who sees me sees the Father, Jesus says," illuminates the whole of humanity, leading a life that until then had been characterized by the shadows of darkness. This - there is no doubt - is our God, the Father who awaits the return of the patient on the doorstep of their children (the prodigal son), and respecting the will and human freedom, asks for nothing more than to be loved! So a God who is not imposed, but aims!
In support of this, it is worth dwelling on what was instead the writing of the Gospel texts of the NT is' widely accepted - by contemporary historians - that the synoptic Gospels, but Paul's letters were written a few dozen years after the death of Jesus on the cross, and therefore were contemporaries who had known him personally.
By finding dating to 1947 in the village of Qumran, located on the shores of the Dead Sea, were found fragments of papyrus inside some caves, I refer in particular to the finding (7Q5) whose title refers to the number of cave and the number of fragments of papyrus found. The Jesuit Father José papyrologist O'Callaghan, Professor of Papyrology the well-known Biblical Pontifical University, has no doubts about the fragment written in greek belong to the Gospel of Mark and has been dated to around AD 50, when only 20 years after the crucifixion!
Always the same period, ie prior to 70 AD - word of Prof. Peter Thiede - three small pieces of ten lines of chapter 26 of Matthew's Gospel, found in northern Egypt near Luxor, and stored in University College Oxford.
These discoveries have opened up new vistas, the anchors are more difficult to insert into that mosaic that represents the whole NT
fact - if at that time the texts circulated among the Christian communities of the early Church, there were still many living witnesses who had known and lived the events described by the Evangelists themselves, they could possibly deny the truth. This has not happened since the evangelists, by real reporters, they told us the pure life story of Jesus and his famous saying, giving the nascent Christianity these truths to be found wide acceptance and confirmation from archeology and modern world history by Scientific and contemporary.
ancient times - they tell us the historical scholars - the stories of the Bible were handed down orally, historians indicate the group that left Egypt and the desert who faced the likely start of the oral tradition (XIII century BC.). The oral tradition on the biblical narratives developed and spread among the various tribes Israilite, to give the people a historical memory, usually older people were in camps around the fires that recounted the youngest companies in the great patriarchs. In turn, young people were asked to do so when their time would come. X sec.aC around a group of scholars close to the world of the scribes, probably of the tribe of Judah picked up the oral material passed down and put it in writing, thus creating the tradition Jahwista. This ancient tradition, whose center is represented by the events of Exodus, tells the story of the people of Israel from creation to arrival in the promised land. It followed the tradition of Eloista (eighth century BC.) From the north of the country and that of Deuteronomy (VII BC) under the reign of King Josiah.
These traditions were taken at the time of exile from the priestly class that not only united, but added new elements, thus giving life to the priestly tradition. The fusion of traditional J + E + P (priestly ), led to the first four books of the Torah. Finally, in (IV sec.aC) at the time of the scribe Ezra be the final draft of the entire Torah, even with the inclusion of traditional Deuteronomy (The Pentateuch: Gen. No. Eg Lev. Deut.).
The people back from the Babylonian exile was given the law on which to build a new nation (Nehemiah 8), which was an expression of justice but also of the Old Covenant between God and the people. So it took 300 years before you switched from an oral tradition to written and well 900 to bring everything together in a single work of editing!
This suggests that the priests of the temple must have been truly monumental undertaking, namely to collect and make with all the writing and oral tradition, with all the difficulties that entails, because its oral transmission by its nature has a lack of communication: word of mouth of collective memory among the different generations, in fact means that this is inevitably transformed, enriched or loaded with charming details and then deformed. Therefore obvious - if I may-as a source from the historical point of view, can not and should not be taken too seriously.
The reason therefore for which the 'Old Testament is being presented today to the younger generations, justified by the fact that Scripture is the Christian roots of our distant, and as such should be considered and respected.
When we look at a tree we appreciate the size, strength of stem, the majesty of the crown or the goodness of fruit, but difficult to appreciate its roots because we do not see them, yet they get the sap that gives life and maintains all 'whole plant. Notwithstanding that, though - thank God - we are Christians and we are called to understand and respect the traditions of our older brothers in the light of the event Messianic. Then the image blurred and fleeting, of a just God the Father, but able to kill innocent people (the firstborn of the Egyptians) who takes revenge of the Pharaoh (sending the plagues on Egypt), or that you show towards exterminating the idolaters (killing Ball of priests), we superimpose a picture more consistent and truthful, that of a merciful God the Father has given us his Son, who died on the cross for a love-mad love for man, God the Father whose face shining with light "who sees me sees the Father, Jesus says," illuminates the whole of humanity, leading a life that until then had been characterized by the shadows of darkness. This - there is no doubt - is our God, the Father who awaits the return of the patient on the doorstep of their children (the prodigal son), and respecting the will and human freedom, asks for nothing more than to be loved! So a God who is not imposed, but aims!
In support of this, it is worth dwelling on what was instead the writing of the Gospel texts of the NT is' widely accepted - by contemporary historians - that the synoptic Gospels, but Paul's letters were written a few dozen years after the death of Jesus on the cross, and therefore were contemporaries who had known him personally.
By finding dating to 1947 in the village of Qumran, located on the shores of the Dead Sea, were found fragments of papyrus inside some caves, I refer in particular to the finding (7Q5) whose title refers to the number of cave and the number of fragments of papyrus found. The Jesuit Father José papyrologist O'Callaghan, Professor of Papyrology the well-known Biblical Pontifical University, has no doubts about the fragment written in greek belong to the Gospel of Mark and has been dated to around AD 50, when only 20 years after the crucifixion!
Always the same period, ie prior to 70 AD - word of Prof. Peter Thiede - three small pieces of ten lines of chapter 26 of Matthew's Gospel, found in northern Egypt near Luxor, and stored in University College Oxford.
These discoveries have opened up new vistas, the anchors are more difficult to insert into that mosaic that represents the whole NT
fact - if at that time the texts circulated among the Christian communities of the early Church, there were still many living witnesses who had known and lived the events described by the Evangelists themselves, they could possibly deny the truth. This has not happened since the evangelists, by real reporters, they told us the pure life story of Jesus and his famous saying, giving the nascent Christianity these truths to be found wide acceptance and confirmation from archeology and modern world history by Scientific and contemporary.
