Ideas for teaching about the origins of the Bible, please

[LaBelleDameSansPatience]

Hi. I have a year 5 class learning about the Bible. They generated questions and most were of the 'who wrote the bible?', 'when was the bible invented?' type.
I want them to understand that the bible is a collection of writings from different sources. I have thought of splitting them into groups and giving them activities to help them actually experience this ...
Group 1: Discover cuneiform tablets (salt dough) in the sand pit
2: Retell the story of Noah's ark to each other
3: Copy out bible verses in the style of a hand-written illuminated bible
4: Discover letters written on 'parchment' in Greek (but hidden where?)
5: ?
6: ?
There are 30 children in the class.
Has anyone got any other ideas? I keep trying google but getting stuck in American sites discussing why the bible is Completely True, which is not the point I am trying to get over at all.

[Mostlyjustaluker]

I am a secondary re teacher so I am not great with learning activities for younger students. If it was my class I would want them to know that the bible is not a book but a collection of books, the difference between the old and new testament, how it relates to the Torah and the different roles of the books eg history, prophecy, gospels and messages to early Christians ect.

Maybe try the tes website for teaching ideas.

[Lovelydiscusfish]

Sorry, this isn't a very well thought out and developed ideas, but I was wondering if you could choose maybe 5 short but very contrasting excerpts from different parts of the Bible (maybe a story for the OT, at story about Jesus from the NT, a psalm, a bit of one of Paul's letters and some of a Proverbs, or something?), look at them and discuss similarities and differences in groups, from a Type, Audience and Purpose sort of perspective? Sorry, a bit rubbish and not very exciting.

[LaBelleDameSansPatience]

I both those suggestions ... I will use them in later lessons. Was planning to use the idea of making 66 books out of cereal boxes, colour coding them according to type, etc.
But I wanted to get over the idea of some of the material found on cuneiform tablets, some oral histories, some letters, some stories, etc ... I have NO idea who first compiled it into a book ... does anyone know ... and when ...?

[LaBelleDameSansPatience]

I mean, I LIKE both .... trying to plan my lessons while supervising DD's homework marathon ... and make a cake for the cake sale ...

[niminypiminy]

You could also have them make scrolls and look at Jewish Torah scrolls, as most the the Bible would originally have been written on scrolls. You could, for example, try getting them to write down the rules of your classroom on a scroll.

The word 'bible' comes from the Latin for library. That might be a helpful way in.

You could get them to write a biography of someone -- what things in their life is it important to cover? If they all write biographies of the same person where are the differences, where are the similarities?

Re the collection of the books of the Bible, the majority of the Old Testament was collected during the exile in Babylon. The exiles brought with them various writings from the Temple in Jerusalem which had been destroyed by the Babylonian invaders. During the time they were in exile, they collected, edited, re-wrote and re-ordered these writings into the Torah/Pentateuch (Genesis, Exodus, Deuteronomy, Numbers Leviticus) and the Histories (Joshua, Judges, 1 & 2 Samuel, 1 & 2 Kings, 1 & 2 Chronicles) -- they wrote them into a history of Israel up until the exile, a history which focused on God's relationship with the people of Israel. They also added the Psalms and the Proverbs and some other writings. The post-exilic prophets were added quite a lot later.

The New Testament took quite a long time to be finalised, with Revelation being the last book to be recognised as part of the canon in the 4th century, although the four gospels and Paul's letters were recognised as scripture quite early on.

[combust22]

2: Retell the story of Noah's ark to each other

Nice- the story of mass genocide and how jolly it was. So god is a genocidal maniac and we love him. Good luck with that.

[LaBelleDameSansPatience]

Nimminy, thank you for the explanation of the OT ... so in the early years, the bible would have been a collection of scrolls, basically? And so on until maybe in the fourth century ... between the help I have got on here, and google (now I have some clues where to look), I am beginning to get a picture of how to teach this ..
Any more ideas, anyone, please share!
Combust, I am not responsible for the content of the Bible and Noah's ark is part of our general cultural heritage. I am not telling the children 'we love him'; I am telling them facts about the Bible and Christian and Jewish belief. They will at some point make up their own minds.

[niminypiminy]

Christians were among the very first to embrace the new technology (ie new in the first couple of centuries CE/AD) of the book! So, yes, the Hebrew scriptures were a collection of scrolls, and it was Christians who transferred these writings into books.

You might get them to think about the differences between scrolls and books:
-scrolls can go in any order
-books the order is fixed
-scrolls more difficult to move back and forth
-books you can move around a text more easily
-scrolls tend to be just writing
-books give you a convenient space for decorating
-scrolls need to be protected by a case
-books have their own protection in their cover

[sashh]

I have NO idea who first compiled it into a book ... does anyone know ... and when ...?

Well it's been done several times. Not all Christians use the same Bible.

What about getting a group of 4 to watch a Bible story on DVD, then they have to tell the story individually to another 4 who write it down. You could use this to show the differences between the Gospels.

Do you have any ESOL students who could writs something in their first language?

Have a look at some different Bibles and get them to select which chapters/books they would put in their own Bible. Maybe a children's Bible vs a good news or even King James, depending on ability.

[LaBelleDameSansPatience]

Wow! So many things I had never thought of ... of to find paper to make scrolls.

[niminypiminy]

Well it's been done several times. Not all Christians use the same Bible.

Not quite true, Sassh. Christians agree about the vast majority of the Bible; Orthodox Christians and Roman Catholics also include a number of other books in the Old Testament (Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, 1 &2 Maccabees, Esdras, Tobit, and a few others) which are 'deutero-canonical', that is, later additions to the canon, while for protestants these books a 'apocryphal', not part of the canon of the Bible but still associated writings.

[cheapskatemum]

OP the British Museum has an amazing collection of original cuneiform artefacts, worth a visit if at all possible. If not, maybe there are some on their website?

[LaBelleDameSansPatience]

Ooh, taking another class there next month ... maybe I can escape for 10 mins to have a look ....

[cheapskatemum]

I bet they've got some stuff on translating cuneiform as well. Lucky you! Wish I could pop back there, but it's a 200 mile round trip for me. Enjoy!

[LaBelleDameSansPatience]

Quite a long way for me too ... going to take the class by train and take the day.