What is the Bible?
A brief intorduction to the Bible..
A brief intorduction to the Bible..
It is, without doubt, the most remarkable book of all time, 2,000 years after its completion 10,000,000 copies will still be sold every year. Even in our day, most people will have heard of it, many will actually posess a copy and some will even read it occasionally. Although it is a single book, there are 66 different ‘books’ in it and a variety of different writers who made their contributions over a 1,500 year period. Some who wrote were kings and princes, others were farmers, fishermen, prophets or priests, a tax collector and a doctor. It contains history, poetry, prophecy and mystery, teaching and example. This, in essence, is the Bible - the most bought yet least read book in all the world. |
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How did this incredible book come to us ? How did all these different writings come together ? Who decided which writings went into it and which were left out ? Why is it in the order we now have it ? What authority does it have in a society far removed from the culture and times of those who wrote it ? We will attempt to answer these and other questions in a simple way in this booklet. The aim is to give us the information we need to understand the real nature of the Bible and also to get a picture of its structure in our minds so that we do not see it as a random, unrelated, conglomeration of books but a single, ordered, unified and powerful book that speaks to us today as the Word of God. We shall first turn to an amazing statement in Pauls second letter to a man called Timothy, chapter 3, verses 15 and 16: ‘... how from infancy you have known the Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God breathed.......’ |
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You might know that the Bible is divided into two major parts - and ‘Old Testament’ and a ‘New Testament’. We need to think about these two separately as their stories are slightly different. 1. THE ‘OLD TESTAMENT’ The Old Testament is a very mixed series of writings from Genesis to Malachi. If you look at the diagram on the opposite page it will help you see that they are divided up into sections which follow one after another in the Bible. The whole of the Old Testament can be described as being either the Law (books of Moses) or the prophets (other books of history and poetry and prophecy but written by those who were considered to be prophets). There are the five books of what is called ‘The Law’. They actually contain much history as well as the laws which God gave through Moses. They also deal with the creation of the world, the beginnings of the nation of ‘Israel’, their release from slavery in Egypt, through to the death of Moses. The book of Joshua takes up the history of Gods people ‘Israel’ after spending 40 years in the wilderness. The story of Joshua is about how they entered the land which God had promised to give them. The following books are records of the history of this great nation, showing their failings and God’s dealing with them and the surrounding nations of the world. You will find that there is some ‘overlapping’ and some stories are repeated from different perspectives - especially in the books of Samuel, Kings and Chronicles (in the same way that there are four gospels in the New Testament giving accounts of Jesus’ life from different perspectives). Some of the books contain accounts of great individuals (eg King David or King Solomon) whilst another contains the account of a relatively insignificant woman by the name of ‘Ruth’. There then follows a section generally headed ‘poetry’ or sometimes known as ‘The Writings’, beginning with the book of Job. Job is still considered by many to be the oldest book of the Bible and deals with the two basic questions of life ‘Who am I?’ and ‘Who is God?’ After seeing Job’s world fall apart, his own attempts and the attempts of others to come to terms with the seeming injustice of it, we learn that the answer to the second question (Who is God?) gives us the answer to the first (Who am I?). The book of Psalms gives us the writings of King David and others who set out for us the whole range of human emotions and experiences. Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Solomon are the writings of the great (and fallen) King Solomon. From Isaiah to Daniel we find the ‘Major Prophets’ - individuals who ‘spoke for God’. They all give details of their historical setting and we can clearly place them alongside the books of Law and History. Similarly we can do the same with the ‘Minor Prophets’ who spoke and wrote at different times during the history of the nation of Israel. They are only called ‘Minor’ because they have less to say - not because they are in any way less important! We know that Malachi had ‘the last word’ and that there was no further prophecy given for four hundred years until the birth of Jesus and the ‘New Testament’ began to be formed. All of these ‘books’ were written in Hebrew and meticulously kept and copied by the Jewish people so that we can be sure that the ‘Old Testament’ we have today is the same that Jesus found in use when He walked on earth. We know from discoveries like that of the ‘Dead Sea Scrolls’ in 1945 that the Old Testament we are reading today is the one that was being used even before Jesus’ time. What, then is the connection between all of these? How do we know that these books are ‘Scripture’ and that none have been missed out - or included when they shouldn’t have been ? Let us answer the second question first because we have the confirmation of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself that all was in order concerning the ‘Scriptures’ as they were in use in His time. All of the books described above had been meticulously kept and copied by the Jews who used them in their Temple worship. There were other books which claimed to belong to ‘Scripture’ but which they did not acknowledge and which Jesus never quoted from Himself. Jesus quoted often from the Old Testament and always endorsed it’s teaching. In addition to direct quotations He also referred to teaching contained in the Old Testament, confirming it’s authority as Gods own words. We will also see later that the other ‘New’ Testament writers quoted extensively from the ‘Old’ Testament - giving a ringing endorsement to it’s composition, teaching and origin as being from God Himself. When we have the confirmation of Jesus Himself as to these things, then we need not enquire further. As to the first question ‘What is the connection?’ that is also answered by Jesus. Read these statements of Jesus Himself: ‘Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the prophets and the Psalms’ 1 ‘These are the Scriptures that testify about me .... Moses wrote about me’ ‘Beginning with Moses and all the prophets He explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning Himself’3 The great theme of all the Old (and New) Testament books is Jesus - the Saviour from God. From the very first verse of Genesis to the very last verse of Revelation in the New Testament, there is one theme - the need for and the provision of a Saviour for mankind. 2. THE ‘NEW’ TESTAMENT Just like the Old Testament, the New Testament is a collection of ‘books’ or letters by different human authors and they are grouped in various sections. To begin with we have the four ‘Gospels’ or accounts of Jesus’ life and ministry. Each account is from a different perspective and has it’s own distinctive view of Jesus and His ministry. Sometimes the same incidents are repeated and some give particular incidents or accounts which the others do not, but taken together they give us as complete a picture of Jesus earthly ministry as we need to have - at the end of his ‘Gospel’ John writes ‘And there are also many other things which Jesus did, which if they were written in detail, I suppose even the world itself would not contain the books written’4 But even if those books were written, the only ones accepted as ‘Scripture’ are Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Then comes the book of ‘Acts’. This contains the remarkable history of the early church and the preaching of the good news to other parts of the world. After this we have a series of letters written by Paul to various churches - Romans to Thessalonians - and then a series of letters he wrote to individuals - Timothy, Titus and Philemon. It is interesting to note that there is obviously a ‘third’ letter to the Corinthians which Paul makes reference to but we do not have it in our Bibles. There then follows a series of letters by others - James, Peter, John and Jude. These are preceded by the book of ‘Hebrews’ and there are many opinions as to who the author might be but the letter itself does not say. Finally comes the book of Revelation which the apostle John wrote while he was in exile on the island of Patmos. It is a book full of symbolism and mysterious sayings which can be hard to understand but which nevertheless leads us back to the central theme of all the Scripture with it’s closing verses ‘Amen, come Lord Jesus. The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you all. Amen.’ 5 How did these ‘books’ come to be included in ‘Scripture’ ? We have seen that the ‘test’ for an Old Testament book was ‘Is it written by either Moses or one of the prophets?’ so the test for the New Testament books is similar - the question being ‘Is it written by one of the Apostles of the Lord Jesus?’ A simple check of the index of the New Testament will tell us that the majority of its contents were written by the Apostles of the Lord Jesus. We know that they had special powers and authority given them by the Lord Jesus and that their words or writings were to become ‘Scripture’ themselves. Indeed they often stated in their letters that they should be read to the churches and that their ‘commands’ were binding on the hearers6. Apostolic authorship covers every New Testament book except Mark, Luke, Acts, James Jude (and possibly Hebrews). These were not officially Apostles - so what reason do we have for accepting their writings? In the case of Mark and Luke (who also wrote Acts by the way) there is clear evidence that the early church regarded them as having written under the authority and direction of Peter and Paul respectively. James and Jude were the brothers of the Lord Jesus and they fulfilled the qualifications of Apostles in that they were people who had known and seen Jesus before and after His resurrection. Paul actually calls James an ‘Apostle’ in Galatians 1:19 and Jude is called an Apostle by an early Christian leader called Tertullian. The debate about the book of Hebrews continues and there are around eight contenders for its authorship - the most likely of whom were Apostles anyway. It is when we read this wonderful book that we see that it is perfectly in agreement with the rest of ‘Scripture’ and verse 23 of chapter 13 refers to ‘our brother Timothy’ which locks it into the right timescale and the right circle of writers for us to accept it without further question - as did the early church who certainly knew more about it’s origins than we do and who almost all accepted it as the work of Paul. There were many other writings around at the time that the Bible was being formed but these others were rejected because they did not fulfil these basic qualifications. In addition to this, these other writings clearly did not have the stamp and seal of God’s Spirit on them in the way that the accepted New Testament did. It is often thought that some form of committee sat down and sifted through all the available material and decided which books were ‘in’ and which ones were ‘out’ of ‘Scripture’. In fact as we have already seen, the work was completely done as far as the ‘Old Testament’ was concerned - the Jews had taken great care over that. As regards the New Testament being formed, the same applies in that the writings had to bear the unmistakable stamp of Apostolic authorship and be in complete harmony with the rest of ‘Scripture’. In other words, the Bible we have today is not the result of a human committees’ deliberations, but each part of it spoke for itself. There are those who say that the Bible isn’t all that God wants to say, that He still speaks through ‘prophets’ today. There are other books which claim to also be God’s revelation in addition to the Bible - so what do we do? Firstly we have seen that the Old Testament was ‘closed’ long before Christ came - we have said that Malachi had the ‘last word’ for four hundred years. Secondly, there are now no ‘Apostles’ for giving us New Testament revelation, as the qualification of an Apostle is someone who was a witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ - even Paul recognises that his ‘Apostleship’ was an unusual one requiring a special visitation of Jesus to him on the Damascus road (read Acts 9 and 1 Cor 15:8!). There are warnings throughout Scripture that we must never add to or take away from God’s word -see Deuteronomy 4:2, Proverbs 30:5 & 6, Revelation 22:18. |
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3 WHY IS THE BIBLE SO IMPORTANT? For the answer to that question we need to go back to Pauls statement to Timothy found at the beginning of the booklet - the second half reads like this: ‘all Scripture is God-breathed’ Suddenly we are brought face to face with the true nature of the Bible. It is not just another very profound, moving and wonderful book, it claims to have been ‘breathed out’ by God Himself - these are the very words of God! This is sometimes called ‘inspiration’. Peter writes in 2 Peter 1:21, ‘for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God’. The fact is that God used many different men to set down in writing what He wanted us to know. He used their different characters and styles, backgrounds and even failings to bring to us a book which is without doubt His own. He overruled the process of writing so that each book or letter we have is not primarily the work of its human author, but rather of God Himself. If we are satisfied that we have the right ‘books’ in our ‘Scriptures’ then each one is Gods own word to us. That makes it the most incredible and important book in the world. It also means that we have to accept it’s truth, accuracy and claims as having come from God. If it comes from God Himself then it must be right in every aspect - for Gods word cannot fail or be wrong. That is why the Bible should be held in such honour - it is the voice of God to a sinful world. It is the only book which we can rely on to tell us the truth about God, Jesus, ourselves and the consequence of living a sinful life. That is why the writer of Hebrews was able to describe the Bible like this: Elsewhere, God says When we understand what the Bible claims for itself, we cannot overstate it’s importance - this book has the power of life and death for us - as the disciples said to Jesus ‘You have the words of eternal life’ and elsewhere Jesus said ‘You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free’9 We ignore this book at our peril - in fact it will be the case against us when we stand before God in the judgment day. |
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4 HOW CAN I TRUST THE BIBLE? That is a reasonable question - after all, if so much depends on this book, we must have confidence in it. We often hear people say ‘the Bible is full of myths’ or ‘the Bible is full of mistakes’. This would be very serious if it were true - but is it? Firstly, these things are most often said by people who have not even read the Bible - certainly nowhere near enough to have an opinion of it for themselves. It is much easier to dismiss something out of hand than to actually do some work and find out for yourself. As far as ‘myths’ are concerned what do they mean? If they mean that they have trouble believing some of the accounts that are in the Bible, then we have some sympathy with them. The amazing acts of God, the incredible power of the Lord Jesus Christ and the gifts given to the Apostles certainly defied explanation in the usual way but that does not make them ‘myths’ or fairy tales. The critics of the Bible have the problem that historically the Bible has always proved itself to be correct. In many areas where critics accused the Bible of being incorrect in detail or fact, subsequent discoveries have proved the Bible right and the archeologists and historians wrong. A trip to the British Museum will show us many of the things which feature prominently in the Old Testament which - to the embarrassment of historians - has proved to be a far more reliable history text book than their own works. We can see the ‘Cyrus cylinder’ which contains the proclamation of freedom by King Cyrus to the Jews in exile in Babylon9. For years, scholars said it was ridiculous even to think that it was possible that Cyrus should have allowed this to happen as the Bible said. The Bible was the only document which contained this piece of information about how the Jews were released from captivity and it was dismissed as pure fiction. The prism, in Cyrus’ own words, confirms the Biblical account. In Daniel 5:1 we read of a King named Belshazzar who was judged by God for his God-less life. Historians were scathing about this account as evidence was available to the effect that the King of that time was a man named ‘Nabonidus’. Belshazzar was therefore assumed and declared to be a figment of the writers’ vivid imagination. In 1854, however, a discovery was made of a clay cylinder - written by Nabonidus himself who spoke of ‘Belshazzar my eldest son’! In other discoveries we find that Belshazzar was also the Crowned Prince and ‘deputised’ for his father whilst the King was away. Once again the Bible was proved wiser than it’s critics. We can see the inscription from the tunnel (water conduit) which King Hezekiah built to prepare for the siege of Jerusalem (2 Kings 20:20, 2 Chronicles 32:3,4 & 30). We can see the elaborate carved ‘wallpaper’ of King Sennacheribs palace at Nineveh in which he depicts his assault on the city of Lachish on his way to besiege Jerusalem. His own account of the attempt can be read from the ‘Taylor prism’ which tells us that although he makes some boastful claims, his mighty Assyrian army never fired a shot at Jerusalem and left suddenly and unexpectedly without taking the city - if you want to know why he left in such a hurry, read 2 Kings 19:35,36! Interestingly enough, the stone wallpaper is heavily scorched by fire in places - perhaps it has something to do with what Nahum said in his prophecy (Nahum 3:14 & 15) There are many other examples of archeological finds which have proved the Bibles’ integrity and thrown historical light onto some of it’s most incredible claims - indeed the Bible actually supplies us with historical information which is not available anywhere else. But what about those ‘mistakes’ in the Bible? By these we understand the occasions where there seems to be a discrepancy between accounts - especially where ‘family trees’ or numbers or dates are concerned. In fact, there are remarkably few of these supposed errors considering problems of translating the Bible books from their original languages - Hebrew (OT) and Greek (NT). In Hebrew the writing only used the consonants of a word (ie leaving out the vowels) and the words had no spaces between them - so in Hebrew the 1st verse of Genesis would look like this: NTHBGNNNGGDCRTDTHHVNSNDTHRTH There were additional problems with numbers, some of which were difficult to work out. Where there have been’ problems’ like this, it is invariably a problem of translation rather than an error in the original text. Other problems included the difficulty of distinguishing between Hebrew characters which were often very similar as the selection of letters from the Hebrew alphabet below clearly shows: No small wonder then that from time to time there were difficulties in working out exactly what the words were supposed to be - even before translating them into another language and copying complex characters by hand onto parchment! In fact, it is amazing that we have such accurate copies of the early texts from which to copy and translate. In any case, the supposed difficulties never affect the meaning of the text in any serious way and none of the things we very firmly believe as Christians is in any way affected by any controversial text or translation. |
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5 WHY ARE THERE SO MANY DIFFERENT VERSIONS? There is only one ‘Bible’ but there are indeed many translations. The different versions have come about from attempts to bring the language of Scripture ‘up to date’ so that everyone can read the Bible without having to come to terms with another language first. It is worth saying that there is a difference between a translation and a paraphrase. A translation literally exchanges the Greek or Hebrew word from the original and substitutes it for a word from the language into which the work is being translated- that is not as easy as it sounds as there are different grammatical rules in the different languages and in some cases the original word has several meanings or shades of meaning so the context has to be examined to see which is the probable meaning. Greek and Hebrew were such expressive languages that very often a single English word simply does not convey the richness of the original. Some translations are better than others, obviously, depending on the viewpoint of who is doing the translating, their qualifications and their intentions. Some of the translations which are acceptable to us as a church and which are suitable for public reading and private study are: The Authorised (King James) Version A paraphrase translates thoughts or ideas rather than individual words. These can be useful but should never be used for serious study as they are further removed from what God Himself has said. Some have been shown to have made serious errors in their paraphrasing. An example of a paraphrase would be the ‘Living Bible’ which is easy to read but accuracy is far more important than being easy on the eyes! What we need to be sure of, is that when we read our translations, we are reading what God has to say to us, not the thoughts of other men who have influenced the form of words to suit their own opinions. For example there is a version called the ‘New World Translation’ produced by the Jehovah’s Witnesses in which many texts have been altered or twisted to suit their own teachings, reading this Bible would lead you to think that Jesus is rather less than God and that the way to salvation is by joining the Watchtower movement and working hard for them. Therefore whilst we want to have a version that uses words and language we are familiar with, we also want to read the best translation possible. None of the translations are perfect but the ones mentioned above will each have their merits and will not lead us astray from the truth. Whenever we study to teach others, it is important to study the original word meanings so that we are as happy as we can be that our versions are correct in what they say. |
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6 WHAT IS THE BEST WAY TO READ THE BIBLE ? It does depend on what kind of person you are but the Bible is one of the few books where it is probably NOT best to start at the beginning and read through. Anyone who is coming to the Bible for the first time will quickly find that they have built up a whole set of questions and come across many things that they don’t understand before they are half way through Genesis. As the Bible is (in one way or another) all about Jesus, start with one of the gospels and find out about Him first, this will then give you the information you need to go to other Bible books and read them. Keep a list of any questions that you come up with and ask someone in the church to explain the parts you find hard to understand. There are many books and booklets which can guide you in your reading, give useful helps and explanations and there are Bible ‘handbooks’ which have useful time-lines and charts which help you put it all into perspective. There are also reading programmes which will ensure that you read through the whole Bible in a year and there are memory verse projects which will help you to remember key verses on important Bible teachings. Please ask the Pastor if you would like help in choosing which of these might be of most use to you. If you want to read more on this whole subject, then let me recommend Brian Edwards’ book ‘Nothing But The Truth’ published by Evangelical press - it gives much more detail about how the Bible came to us. |
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