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Sep 16, 2024 · The books of the Bible were written over a period of over a millennium and a half, with the oldest parts composed around 1500-1400 BC and the most recent books from the late first century AD.
- Jacob Edson
Almost all the earliest physical evidence for books and letters comes from scraps of papyri, for which I give dates. There are a few exceptions. In those cases, the earliest manuscript evidence we have is that of great Codex Sinaiticus, the earliest complete New Testament. This is dated to 325–360.
DateBookNotes45–521 ThessaloniansAuthentic letter of Paul. Written in ...54–56GalatiansAuthentic letter of Paul. Written in ...54–551 CorinthiansAuthentic letter of Paul. Written in ...552 CorinthiansAuthentic letter of Paul. Combination of ...Writing originated as a form of record-keeping in Sumer during the fourth millennium BCE[5][6] with the advent of cuneiform. Many clay tablets have been found that show cuneiform writing used to record legal contracts, create lists of assets, and eventually record Sumerian literature and myths.
- Gutenberg Bible – C. 1450 – 1455
- Book of Kells – C. 800 Ad
- St. Cuthbert Gospel – C. 7th Century Ad
- Garima Gospels – C. 330 – 650 Ad
- Nag Hammadi Library – C. 3rd – 4th Century Ad
- Codex Sinaiticus (Sinai Bible) – C. 330 – 360 Ad
- Pyrgi Gold Tablets – C.500 BCE
- Etruscan Gold Book – C.600 BCE
photo source: Wikimedia Commons Although the Gutenberg Bibleis not as old as other books that have survived throughout history, it is being included on this list for its significance as the first book to be printed using mass produced movable-type; and when people think of what a book traditionally is, the Gutenberg Bible is the oldest example of t...
photo source: Wikipedia The Book of Kellsor the Book of Columba, is one of Ireland’s greatest treasures as it is an illuminated manuscript dating back to about 800 AD. Prior to the recent dating of the book to about 800 AD, scholars believed that the book may have been the Great Gospel of Columba, an Irish monk from the 6th century. The book was na...
photo source: Wikipedia The St. Cuthbert Gospelis the oldest surviving European book and dates back to around the 7th century. The book is a copy of the Gospel of St. John and was named for St. Cuthbert, whose coffin the book was placed in sometime after his death in 687. It was rediscovered in 1104 at Durham Cathedral where St. Cuthbert’s coffin w...
photo source: Wikimedia Commons The Garima Gospels are two gospel books from the Abba Garima Monastery in Ethiopia and are the oldest known complete illuminated Christian manuscripts. Until the last decade, scholars had always believed that both books dated back to the 11th century, but recent carbon-testingshows that the books date back to between...
photo source: Wikimedia Commons The Nag Hammadi Libraryis a collection of thirteen codices buried in a sealed jar that were found in 1945 by a farmer named Muhammed al-Samman in the Egyptian town of Nag Hammadi. The writings found in the codices are mostly about Gnostic treatises, but also contain works belonging to the Corpus Hermitcum as well as ...
photo source: Wikimedia Commons Codex Sinaiticus, commonly called the Sinai Bible, is one of the world’s most important and treasured books. This is because it is the only early manuscript of the Christian Bible still largely intact. Thus, making the Codex Sinaiticus one of the oldest bibles of all time. The book is a handwritten copy of the Bible ...
photo source: Wikimedia Commons The Prygi Gold Tabletswere found during an excavation of the ancient port town of Pyrgi, Italy in 1964 and date back to around 500 BCE. Although the tablets aren’t exactly a book, each tablet has holes around the border suggesting that they were once bound together. The tablets are notable because they are written in...
photo source: BBC News Although not much is known about the Etruscan Gold Book, it is believed to be oldest book in the world as it dates back to around 600 BCE.The entire book is made out of 24 carat gold and consists of six sheets bound together, which have illustrations of a horse-rider, a mermaid, a harp, and soldiers. The book was found someti...
- It wasn’t the world’s first printed book. While the Gutenberg Bible helped introduce printing to the West, the process was already well-established in other parts of the world.
- Johannes Gutenberg didn’t make any money off the Bibles. Johannes Gutenberg has been called the most influential figure of the last millennium, yet he stands as one of the great question marks of history.
- The print run was surprisingly small. By studying the size of Gutenberg’s paper supply, historians have estimated that he produced around 180 copies of his Bible during the early 1450s.
- There are several different variations of the Gutenberg Bible. Most Gutenberg Bibles contained 1,286 pages bound in two volumes, yet almost no two are exactly alike.
Jul 2, 2024 · For centuries, Bible scholars examined two ancient texts to elucidate the original language of the Bible: the Masoretic Text and the Septuagint. The Masoretic Text is a traditional Hebrew text finalized by Jewish scholars around 1000 C.E.
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The earliest surviving written literature is from ancient Mesopotamia. The Epic of Gilgamesh is often cited as the first great composition, although some shorter compositions have survived that are even earlier (notably the “Kesh Temple Hymn” and “The Instructions of Shuruppak”).
