Historical facts about the Greek Holy Bible
The Greek Bible version,the Septuagint Crystal Bible®
(copyright LuxNanoGraphics 2006-2013)
A pioneer in the field of nanotechnology, Nanographx (LuxnanoGraphics) has managed to numerize 1400 pages on a small rectangular crystal approximately 8 x 35 mm (0.30 x 1.22 in) in size or a round crystal 20 mm (0.79 in) in diameter, to create the first world's smallest edition of the entire original Septuagint Holy Bible written in ancient Greek. Nanographx (LuxnanoGraphics) is the first publisher of the worlds’ smallest version of the Septuagint version using a submicronic writing process from nanotechnologies.
The Septuagint Crystal-Bible®, also known as the Septuagint , NANO Bible®, comes with the complete Old and New Testament texts reduced x550 from letter sized pages.
Definitions:
The word «Bible» comes from the Greek word biblia which means papyrus rolls, volumes or books, or literally: brochures. The first Christian Greeks called the Scriptures « Ta Biblia », meaning «THE Books», the supreme books.
The word « testament » stems from the Greek word διαθηκη (diathiki, meaning testament, agreement) and translates into Latin as testamentum (testament, testimony). The Greek term has a broader meaning (agreement) than the Latin one, and some prefer to translate it as alliance.
Originally, the Bible was not one book, but a series of books and brochures, during the constitution of its canon. The notion of the Bible as a unique book is a rather modern one, despite the fact that it was assembled as a codex (book or compilation) during the 2nd century A.D. In the 4th century A.D., the Bible was still referred to in Latin as "Bibliotheca Divina", the Divine Library.
The Old Testament:
The old testament is made up of 70 books, 43 of which are written in Hebrew or Aramaic [39 according to the traditional classification, which counts 1 book for the Psalms instead of 5: the 1st (1 to 41), the 2nd (42 to 72), the 3rd (73 to 90), the 4th (90 to 109), the 5th (107 to 150)], and 27 of which are written in Greek.
According to Aristea’s letter (2nd century B.C) the Bible known as "Septuagint" was created upon the initiative of Demetrios of Phalera, founder of the Library of Alexandria. He suggested to King Ptolemea II Philadelphe (-285 / - 246) to request from the Great Priest of Jerusalem to gather "competent scholars and experts in their Law” to translate it into Greek. There were supposed to be 6 Jewish scholars from each of the 12 tribes of Israel, totaling 72 scholars; Flavius Joseph and various Fathers, however, seem to say there were 70 experts. From there, it is believed, came the denomination of "the Septuagint translation" (in reference to the 70 people translating it), which then became simply the Septuagint marked with the Roman numerals LXX. The Septuagint was elaborated around the 3rd century B.C., largely before the birth of Christ.
Legend says that the 70 experts each translated the whole Bible separately, and that when they compared their respective work, the authors were astonished to see that all 70 translations were identical.
The Septuagint is closer to the authentic version than Masoretic’s text (ba'alei Masorah) (IX century AD).
The Septuagint includes not only the Greek translation of the Hebraic Scriptures, but also original scripts. It is a comprehensive Biblical production differing significantly from the Hebraic texts known as “the original” texts.
The Septuagint Bible in Greek is the oldest version or translation of the Hebraic texts. Its creation constitutes the first translation of the bible texts from Hebrew into another language. Since the beginning of creation until today, the Septuagint constitutes the Old Testament for Christians, especially Christians in the East.
Today, the most readily-available English translation of the Septuagint is Brentons', edited in the 19th century.
The New Testament:
The New Testament, also known as “the New Alliance” (in Greek Ή Καινὴ Διαθήκη: I Keni diathiki), is the second part of the Holy Bible. It tells the story of Jesus’ life (the 4 Gospels), and the life of the first Christians (Acts of the Apostles), and includes letters for the edification of the Christian faith. From the moment it was written, the New Testament was written in Greek (κοινή: “Koine Greek”, common language in those days), which was certainly the best language for it to be written in, because it was flexible and widely understood. However, it is almost certain that Jesus did not speak Greek! (One mustn’t forget that the authors of the New Testament were relying on the Septuagint: in order to understand the meaning of a word, it was crucial to look it up in the Septuagint and to know its equivalent in Hebrew).
Later in history, Greek versions were substituted by Latin ones.
The New Testament is made up of 27 Scriptures accepted today by all Churches (be it Catholic, Protestant or Orthodox) as founding texts. These include:
The four Gospels called " canonical "
The Acts of the Apostles
Many Epistles attributed in their major part to Saint Paul
New Testament Apocacrypha according to Saint John
The order in which the Scriptures are organized in the New Testament is not chronological (according to their date of creation, which is not precisely known), but relies on a more logical progression:
Teachings of Jesus, reported by four Apostles
History of the early primitive Christian church
Epistles, brought by the first Apostles (particularly Saint Paul) to the first Christian congregations: these letters provide teachings, advice, and enlightment on this new religion
The Apocalypse (from the Greek ἀποκάλυψις: Apocalupsis = Revelation), which is still wrongly considered by many as a prophecy of the end of times.
From then on, Christians believed that for the Bible to be called that, it needed to be constituted of both the Old Testament (Scriptures dating before Jesus) and the New Testament.
Information about the "Vulgate" Bible in Latin:
At the dawn of the Christian era, Latin had become the universal language. A priest named Jeremiah (or Jerome), known both for his moral qualities and intellectual capabilities, was chosen to translate the Bible into Latin, a task which he finished in 405 AD. The resulting text was a Bible in Latin known as the Vulgate. The word “Vulgate” and the word "vulgarization" have the same Latin Roth "versio vulgata" or “common translation”, and reveal the purpose for which this language was chosen: to make the Biblical texts available for anyone to read, or at least to those who could read Latin.
However, Jeremiah’s task was to translate all the Scriptures of the Septuagint Bible, particularly those that neither the Jews nor he considered to be a part of the Scriptures. Yet it was he who named these unrecognized Scriptures "Apocryphal" (from the Greek ἀπόκρυφος, which means "hidden", as in hidden from the believers in the synagogues because these were not recognized) and who warned the Vulgate readers by means of an explanatory header, which was reproduced faithfully until the Trent council 1000 years later! This council came to decide that these Scriptures were a legitimate part of the Holy Scriptures. Therefore, until today, all Bible versions edited by authority of the Roman Catholic Church include additional books not taken into account in to the Old Testament text approved by the Jews and the Protestants.
That is why the Old Testament of the "Septuagint” constitutes the basis and absolute reference for the Bible.
Categorization of the Septuagint texts (Old Testament) according to churches:
Books and Bible parts accepted by both Jews and Christians as canonical:
Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel, 1 kings, 2 kings, 1 Chronicles, 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi.
Apocrypha / Anaginoskomena / Deuterocanonical books, accepted as canonical by eastern Orthodox and (for the most part) Roman Catholics, but not recognized by Protestants and Jews:
Esdras, Prayer of Manasseh, Wisdom of Solomon, Wisdom of Sirach / Ecclesisaticus, Judith, Tobit, Baruch, epistle (letter) of Jeremiah, "Old Greek" LXX version of Daniel, Song of the Three Holy children / Prayer of Azariah, Susanna and the Elders [Theodotion], Susanna and the Elders [Old Greek], Bel and the dragon [Theodotion], Bel and the Dragon [Old Greek], 1 Maccabees, 2 Maccabees, 3 Maccabees, 4 Maccabees, The Odes, Psalms of Solomon, Psalm 151.
Crystal Bible® & Nano Bible® are registered trade mark
and is a copyrighted-registered product.
