What is the Bible
From Standout Studios.Net
The Bible is the account of God's action in the world and his purpose with all creation. The writing of the Bible took place over sixteen centuries and is the work of over forty human authors. It is a quite amazing collection of 66 books with very different styles all containing the message God desired us to have.
[edit] The Old Testament
The transmission of the Old Testament text is a great example of how God cared in making sure His people got His Word as He meant. Each phase goes very smoothly so that the content is not changed. It remains consistent. As the Bible states, the men through whom God wrote His Word put it down in word or written form. Moses, for example, received the Law on Sinai and wrote it down. He also learned the earliest history of our world and his nation as God directed. He includes this in his writings. Later we see that Joshua, Samuel and Ezra wrote the history of Israel like any historian would do. However, their writings were guided by The Holy Spirit so that their writings would be without any error.
During the time these men wrote the history, God was calling prophets to preach His word to His people. Some scholars have speculated for years on how these prophet's messages came to be in the form of manuscripts as we have them today. Jeremiah probably gives the best explanation of that process. In Jeremiah 36 we see the Lord telling Jeremiah to write a book containing all that he had preached against Israel. In other words, Jeremiah was told to write a sermon book. We are told that he did this through the scribe named Baruch. Baruch then would read them to the people and the king, who destroyed it. God then told Jeremiah to write the book again, and he did, adding "many like words" to it.
Here is how many of the books of the Old Testament came to be in the form which we have today. The author of a particular book would dedicate his message to a scribe. As the material would accumulate over the course of his ministry, it would be compiled and edited by the writer. As additional material was accumulated, it too would be compiled, edited and then added. Following this pattern, the books of the Old Testament came into existence.
These books were evidently kept and revered from Moses onward. Joshua added his words to the book of the law that Moses had written. Micah's works were used and remembered over a century after his death. Here again Jeremiah provides this information. In Jeremiah 26 the prophet was accused of treason because he spoke against the temple and Jerusalem, but some of the elders quoted Micah to prove Jeremiah's innocence. This is important because Micah's work was known so long after his death. In that relatively short period of time, his work had become authoritative and binding on the people. Evidently the works of the prophets were accepted as the very words of God soon after htey were written, if not in the time when they were preached.
Therefore, from the first, the books of the Old Testament had a loose association that gradually became fixed by the time of Alexander the Great's Conquest (c. 300 B.C.). By that time, the Jews thought of the Holy Scriptures in their present three divisions: the Law (Torah), the Prophets, and the Writings. The Jews of Jesus' day evidently considered all of what we know to be the Old Testament as authoritative because Jesus quoted from the Psalms and called it scripture (Mark 12:10,11). Jesus also quoted extensively from the Prophets and the law.
Throughout this time, though, writing materials caused the greatest problems for those who wished to record the Word of God permanently. Stone, although durable, was not very portable, nor was it easily stored. On the other hand, parchment and papyrus were both portable and convenient, but they were not durable; therefore they wore out quickly. This meant that manuscripts had to be copied over and over again. Anyone familiar with the rigors of transcription knows the difficulty of duplicating written materials by hand. The Jews realized this, and their love of the scriptures forced them to take strict precautions against mistakes. They set the text and fixed its form so that there would be no additions or deletions. The text was written only in consonants. The scribes who copied the manuscripts determined how many lines should be in a column, the exact middle of every book, and the exact length of every column. If a manuscript contained even one error it was considered second rate. If one contained three or more, the papyrus was burned! The form of the text was so important that even when the Jews introduced vowels, they would not violate the actual words, but rather marked the vowels with dots and/or dashes above or below the consonants.
The Jew's respect for the manuscripts has caused a great deal of difficulty to those who have tried to study the Hebrew text itself. When a manuscript became to old or fragile to use, instead of throwing it away, the Jews burned it with great ceremony. This practice of burning manuscripts made original and early manuscripts impossible to find. The earliest available dated scrolls were ninth century A.D. Skeptics ridiculed and accused these manuscripts of being "error filled."
This caused scholars a great deal of concern because they could not know how much the text had been altered, if any, during that time. But, in 1947, the Dead Sea Scrolls were found. These scrolls contained texts of virtually all of the Old Testament, and dated from the second century B.C. These manuscripts, along with the Septuagint and the Targums (Aramaic paraphrases of the Hebrew Old Testament), have allowed scholars to examine the Old Testament text. These examinations show that because of the painstaking care of the Jewish scribes through the years, we now have an Old Testament text free from any significant changes. Over the long course of years, God has Guarded His Word so that we today might be assured that what we read is accurate as His Word.
[edit] The New Testament
The New Testament came into being gradually a swell, although the books themselve s were wri tten in a compara tively short period of time (50-100 A. D.). The first books were simply letters penned by inspired men to different churches and individuals. Looked upon as authoritative writings, these letters were received with respect and read in public assemblies wherever Christians worshipped (I Ths. 5:27). Afterwards, the churches began interchanging the letters among themselves (Col. 4:16) , a !lowing different congregations to profit from apostolic instruction.
The nex t step wa s the laying down in writing of the central events in the life of Jesus. At first, oral accounts by eyewitnesses were adequate to fill the need; but a s the years pa s sed and the church grew, there were soon too few to speak to all the congrega tion s. Now the demand wa s for authoritative, written narrative s. In fulfillment of this need Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John sent out their witness to Christ (Lk. 1:1-4; In. 20:30-31). The logical outgrowth of the Four Gospels was Acts, the book that told the story of the primitive church. Revelalionwas a kind of climax to the whole New Testament, '.'lith its promise of a triumphant Christ. Thi s WCl s written near the close of the first century A.D. The result was that now a new group of people, just like those of the Old Covenant, had their own trea sured "Scripture."
Collectively, these sixty-six books were written over a period of sixteen hundred years. Penned by many different authors, with different purposes, the outline of our Bible can be seen on the following page.
Thus, today, our Bible is a collection of extraordinary Dooks--they are God-breathed. It did not "just happen," nor ha s it been preserved through the years by chance. Being of divine origin, God communica ted with men of old so that He could, in turn, communicate with His people today (I Pt. 1:19-21).
As it ha s been seen, the collection of inspired books that make up our Bible grew gradually. Similarly, the Biblical text that we hold and read today developed through years of scientific research, archaeological findings, and strenuous study. Practically all of this time and effort ha s been spent in dealing with the mechanical and physical origin of the Bible.
God inspired holy men of His choosing; they, in turn,penned the words of Godon a variety of materials, but usually on papyrus sheets. The Old Testament was originally written in Hebrew, while the New Testament wa s first laid down in Greek. The original copie s of the New Testament were called autoqraphs. Since papyrus wa s a fra gile wri ting material, it soon wore out. So, unfortuna tely, none of the original autograph s a re still with us. However, because the different New Te stament letterswere received with "the authority of heaver:," early Christians made many copies of these precious messages. Today we have about 5,000 New Testament copies or manuscripts. The greatest task has been to find and decipher the mostaccurate manuscripts and texts available.
The earliest known manuscripts date back to 300450 A. D. , with several papyrus documents reaching back even farther. They are actually the oldest Bibles in the world. Naturally, the older a manuscript is, the more value it possesses, because it dates closer to the original. Although they are the first and primary source of information in restoring the New Testament text, manuscripts are not the only basis that scholars have used. They have also explored the translations of early Christians into other languages, some of which date back to 150 A. D. By looking a t the writings of the early Church Fa thers who frequently quoted from their sacred writings, much more can be gleaned about the original texts. Using the se tool s, together with di s cre tion, it is, a s one writer said, " ... possible to come so near the original autographs that we can all but grasp them in our hands."
God's Word has stood the test of time. Through the years archaeologists, Biblical linguists, and historians have proven that we truly do have the Word of God with us today. Although this is important, it only proves the words of the inspired apostle Peter: "The gra s s withereth and the flower thereof falleth away; but the word of the Lord endureth for ever"
