Summary Of Paul P. Zilonka The Bible As Book And As Library

Chapter Review; Paul P. Zilonka, ‘The Bible as Book and as Library’, in Scripture: An Ecumenical Introduction to The Bible and Its Interpretation, ed. Michael J. Gorman (p.1-21)
The chapter ‘The Bible as Book and as Library’ gives an understanding of the Bible, where it originated from and the many different forms it takes under the various religions. The chapter answers all the various questions one may ask when studying the Bible by looking at the Bible at an academic perspective but also a faith perspective. Many religions Many Religions have sacred texts but only Judaism and Christianity refer to theirs as ‘The Bible’.
To understand the Bible, you must look at it from various aspects and that is exactly what Zilonka does in these chapters;
It opened my mind to studying the bible as it gives a very good base to my knowledge, by taking a range of different angles. The Bible stemmed from being written on papyrus paper to millions of copies being sold worldwide, the same words that Jeremiah wrote after his first encounter and speaking with God, and texts after being written centuries ago sit on my desk as I write this. It opened my eyes to the many author’s and people behind the works of the bible. It gave an understanding of the bible that I had never thought of before, where it stemmed from and how it originated. I found it so interesting about the dead sea scrolls that survived nearly 2,000 years in clay jars, because now everything is so based on technology that it is so hard to believe anything written could last that long. I always wondered why certain branches of religion have a different number of books in their sacred texts and I learned that churches that followed the reformation use shorter canons for their translations. I had always just looked at the Bible as one book, even though being Catholic I knew there was much more than one book. Reading this chapter made me realise the thousands of years of work by many different people and writers that went into our sacred scripture. It gave enough detail that you weren’t bored reading it but also got a lot of helpful information. I feel as if I have a much greater understanding of how the Bible was written, when, where and why also. It showed me the historical development of the Bible which is something I would never have thought of before. What I mainly took from reading this chapter is you cannot judge a book by what’s on its cover, or have a knowledge of its contents by looking at the title. That you must be willing to put time and effort into studying such a book as the bible to understand what it holds. I will now know that careful preparation is needed in my study of the