An Episcopalian’s Guide to the Bible
What is the Bible, and what do we do with it?
May 4: Is the Bible a book?
- the physical books we have
- what’s inside those covers
- discussion questions handout (pdf)
Extra resources
- Star Wars and Scripture: Canon, Continuity, and Community (Earth and Altar magazine article)
- Two Feminists Annotate the Bible on the Apocrypha (podcast)
- “For Freedom Christ Has Set Us Free”—Article VI: On the Reading of the Holy Scriptures, Which Contain All Things Necessary for Salvation (blog post from the 39 Articles Project)
- The New Oxford Annotated Bible Introduction to the Apocrypha (pdf)
May 11: What does the “original” say?
- Biblical languages/culture
- finding the original manuscripts
- discussion questions handout (pdf)
Extra resources
- Tedx talk on some problems with English Bible translations. (video and article)
- And God Said (book by Joel M. Hoffman, who gave the TEDx talk above)
- A translator of Homer on translating Ancient Greek into English (video)
- Dr. Robert Alter on translating the Hebrew scriptures (interview)
- How to use an interlinear English/Greek Bible (online interlinear Bible)
- Bible Study Tools (a translation comparison site with study notes)
- Nestle-Aland Greek New Testament (the version of the NT text that scholars use)
- A reading of John 1 in Koine Greek (video)
- Bart Ehrman on why the authorship of the Pauline epistles matters (article)
- Some (partially sensationalist) theories on who wrote which books of the Bible (listicle)
May 18: How did we get the Bible(s) we have today?
- how translations happen in theory
- the “best” Bible translations
- discussion questions handout (pdf)
Extra resources on translation theory
- Radiolab podcast on translation – if you only have a short amount of time, listen to the first segment, “100 Flowers”.
- A professional (secular) translator talking about language (video)
- Bible translators at work (video)
- What is translation? Meaning vs. Music (video)
- Ken Liu on translating The Three Body Problem from Chinese to English (article)
Extra resources on choosing a Bible translation
- New Testament scholar/translator Daniel B. Wallace on different Bible translations and translation theory (article)
- PBS Documentary on the history of the English Bible (video)
- Recent discovery of a draft of the KJV sheds light on the process of translation (NYT article – may be behind a paywall)
- NPR segment on the influence of the KJV on the English language (radio, also transcript)
- Choosing a Bible translation (video)
- A chart with basic information about a variety of translations (website)
May 25: Why do we read the Bible?
- who has the authority to say what it means?
- what intentions do we have when we read the Bible?
- discussion questions handout (pdf)
Extra resources
- The 39 Articles of Religion (cf. Article VI)
- Interpreting the Bible in a Non-Biblical World (Sermon by The Rev. Wil Gafney, Ph.D.)
- I’m a rabbi who was arrested protesting Trump’s Travel Ban. It was a holy act. (article by Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg – one Jewish perspective on what to do once you’ve read the Bible)
- Lectio Divina: How to Pray through the Bible (video and article)