Year 5: Investigating the bible

Introduction

Here children investigate the meaning of some biblical passages by looking at several different versions. The activity makes use of a wide range of internet resources.

What will the children learn?

What prior experience do the children need?

Children would benefit from having knowledge of the Bible and being able to find biblical references.

Equipment

The Lesson

Show the children a Bible. Tell them that the Bible was written over many years. Ask the children if they know in what languages the Bible was originally written. Show the pictures from this webpage which show how snippets of the Bible have been found.

Tell the children that the Old Testament was written in Hebrew. Show the children what the Bible looks like in Hebrew. This is the first chapter of the Old Testament:

Play an extract from the Gen01h.mp3. Discuss how listening to it makes you feel.

You may like to show the children the following website which has the Hebrew and English alongside each other.

Tell the children that the New Testament was written in Greek. Show the children what the Bible looks like in Greek.

This is the first chapter of the New Testament: http://website.lineone.net/~nt.in.greek/greeknt/f01-matt.html

Play an extract from the MAT01G.mp3. Ask the children how hearing it in its original language makes them feel.

Tell the children that over the years there have been a number of different translations of the bible made into English. Translators have chosen different words and these can change the meaning of the passages. Select Item 8: ‘The Lord Is My shepherd’ from the comparisons section at http://www.innvista.com/culture/religion/bible/versions/neb.htm. This shows twenty-nine different versions of this psalm. Read a couple such as the King James Version and the New English Bible and note the differences and similarities. Which version do you and the children prefer and why?

In pairs or small groups, remind the children about safe use of the internet and ask them to connect to an online Bible such as http://bible.gospelcom.net/ and look at some verses of the Bible in different translations. What do they say and what do they mean?

Verses to investigate can include:

The children could cut and paste different versions into a word processing document and highlight the differences/similarities and write about what they think the passages mean.

Why are we using ICT?

ICT provides effective pictures and sound clips to support this lesson. You can find Biblical verses really quickly online and the opportunity to compare with so many versions supports the lesson objective very well.

References

QCA Schemes of Work ICT Unit 6D: Using the internet to search large databases and to interpret information
http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/schemes2/it/?view=get

QCA Schemes of Work RE Unit 5C Where did the Christian Bible come from?
http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/schemes2/religion/?view=get

5-14 National Guidelines for the Curriculum in Scotland: *Religious Education 5-14 Roman Catholic Schools, Christianity – Sacred Writings, Stories and Key Figures , Level D – D3.1 ad D3.2
ICT, Searching and researching; Creating and presenting,
http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/5to14/guidelines/index.asp
* RC guidelines were selected because they contain more detail than the guidelines for non-denominational schools.

Where do we go next?

Arrange a talk from a visitor about the Bible as the ‘word of God’ and why Christians continue to read the Bible. Discuss the children’s findings about the verses in the different translations and ask what these passages mean to this person today.

Differentiating the activity

Some children could be given specific translations of the Bible to use. Others could be allowed free choice.

Reflecting on their work

Discuss the children’s findings and opinions. Which translations do they like best and why? Are any of the translations difficult to understand, why? Why do the children think some of the versions are so different to others?