5.++Oral+Tradition+(print)

 The Bible grew out of the religious experiences of the people of Israel. It shows their developing understanding of their relationship with God. ** The Bible has three types of history: ** 1. Oral History -stories told, songs sung, history recounted and memorized  2. Written History -written stories, history recorded, instructions, guides  3. Edited History -selected the best of what was written and told  **All three types of history happened at the same time.  ** __The Oral Tradition __ **  <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">For hundreds of years before the stories of the Bible were written down on scrolls, the stories were shared around campfires. The history of the Hebrew people and their journey with God was very important, so before the writings came together in written form they were preserved by passing the stories on through the generations by ** word of mouth **. We refer to this as the ** oral tradition **.
 * __<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">How did the Bible develop? __ **

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">You may think that this is an unreliable method of preserving history through the ages and that like the game telephone, the message may change over time, but fortunately proof of the accuracy of Scripture was found. In 1945 a young boy found some jars in a cave near Qumran (near the Dead Sea). Archaeologists investigated these caves and found hundreds of jars containing scrolls of sacred writings. These writings are called the ** Dead Sea Scrolls ** and are now housed in a museum in Nag Hammadi in Eygypt.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"> ** <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">These scrolls are the oldest sacred writings ever found and they contain pieces of almost all the books of the Hebrew Scriptures. **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"> Interestingly, they proved that the oral tradition must have been very accurate, since the writings were almost identical to the later writings that were used. So how could people’s memory be so good? When you are trying to pass down important history, it is essential that the stories are memorized with a great deal of accuracy or the history will be lost. Consider people who are illiterate, they must rely on their memories and are not likely to make mistakes on remembering important things.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">**See page 226 in textbook. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"> ** // __<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">Check out these great You Tube videos... __ // ** ** <span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls:  ** <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hUpcG9_lZA&feature=related ** <span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">The Secrets of the Dead Sea: ** <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEArUTI7Moo&feature=related