GRANDE IDEIA
Learning to value and understanding how to apply the Bible are essential parts of being a follower of Jesus.
LEITURA
2 Tim. 3:16; 2 Pet. 1:20–21
PENSAMENTOS
Opening the Bible
If you open the Bible to the first few pages, you’ll find a table of contents. You’ll see two parts: the Hebrew scriptures (Old Testament) and Christian writings (New Testament). Of the sixty-six books, thirty-nine are in the Old Testament and twenty-seven in the New.
The Bible was first written in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Koine Greek. We have a variety of English versions because translators took a different approach in each.
There are literal “word for word” translations such as the NKJV, NASB, RSV, and ESV. There are dynamic equivalent translations that translate the text thought for thought, such as the NIV, NEV, and NLT. Some versions are more the personal interpretations of the translators, called paraphrases, such as The Message and the Living Bible.
How Did We Get the Bible?
Old Testament
The first part of the Bible is composed of the Hebrew writings. They’re included in scripture based entirely on the Jewish community’s acceptance of them as authentic and their careful transmission over the centuries.
The Hebrew writings were initially written in Hebrew and Aramaic by forty authors over a thousand years on wood, stone, clay, papyrus, and parchment. Scribes meticulously and accurately hand-copied these early texts. Today, there are thousands of copies available in different languages from various locations and eras. While there are minor transmission errors, overall the Old Testament demonstrates a high level of preservation consistency.
Historians suggest that the Old Testament was assimilated and compiled during four significant periods: after the exodus, at the introduction of kings, during the fall of Jerusalem, and when those exiled returned to Jerusalem under Ezra and Nehemiah. During each of these periods, leaders applied an early test to determine if God inspired the writing.
In Deuteronomy 18:22, the test is outlined. If a person’s predictions came true, and there was an external supernatural sign that the community recognized, then the words were considered divine. If prophets failed, then people should realize that the person was not speaking for God. Also, all the authors of the books held the divinely appointed office of judge, prophet, priest, or king.
O Novo Testamento
Within twenty years of Jesus’s life, several dozen books and teachings about Him began to appear. There were also many contradictory reports of His teachings that began to circulate.
Jesus’s inner circle (called Apostles) and their apprentices began to record what He had done and said. Jesus had commissioned them to do so and promised to divinely speak through them (Matt. 10:11–20, 28:18). Even though some of the Apostles were professionally trained in tachygraphy and could easily tran- scribe all Jesus said exactly, there was a feeling that God was supernaturally guiding all they were writing (John in Rev. 1:1–3; Pe- ter in 2 Pet. 3:15–16; Paul in Acts 9, 1 Cor. 14:37–38, Gal. 2, 1 Thess. 2:13).
In addition to the Hebrew writings, the Apostles’ writings were also copied and circulated in local churches. Each week they would read passages from both the Old and New Testament in their gatherings (Col. 4:16; 1 Thess. 5:27; 1 Tim. 4:13; Rev. 1:3). The early copies came in a codex format for reading rather than Greco Roman artistic form. Early church fathers such as Ignatius (30–107 AD), Clement (30–100 AD), Polycarp (65–155 AD), Papias (70–155 AD), Irenaeus, (120–202 AD), and Justin Martyr (110–165 AD) all quoted from the entire collection. The council of Nicaea (325 AD) and the council of Constantinople (381 AD) later affirmed this early tradition.
Together
While the Bible existed in Koine Greek, the entire Old and New Testament were first combined and translated into another language (Latin) around 400 AD by St. Jerome. Other similar transla- tions emerged as well.
John Wycliffe completed the first English translation of the Bible in the late fourteenth century. Scribes were commissioned to make copies until the advancement of the printing press in Europe in 1460, when entire copies of the Bible were available for everyone.
New translations depended on the availability of much older Hebrew and Greek copies. Today we have over 5,500 complete or fragmented Greek manuscripts, 9,000 Latin manuscripts and 9,000 manuscripts in Armenian, Coptic, Ethiopian, Slavic, and Syriac.
What about My Questions?
The way you see the Bible will determine how you approach it. If you see it as myth, then you’ll approach it as a collection of fairy tales. If you see it as a book of great ideas, then you will approach it as self-help advice. If you see it as a story, you’ll approach it as narrative history.
Many people have concerns with the Bible. Some point out textual contradictions between different verses, whether it’s simple facts like Jehoiachin and Ahaziah’s age when they became king, the number of stalls Solomon had for horses, the number of animals in the ark, or differing genealogical records.
Some wonder how much is literal and how much is symbolic. Was the entire world created in seven days, or through a process over millions of years? Did the worldwide flood happen, or was
it only local? Was there an exodus out of Egypt through the Red Sea? Do miracles happen, or is there a way to easily explain them away?
Some have a challenge reconciling modern values with an- cient directives. How do we understand Old Testament law? How do we deal with ancient slavery and the treatment of women? How do we consider gender identity and sexuality? How do we approach capitalism, socialism, nationalism, globalism, pacifism, gun control, environmentalism?
Some have a problem reconciling the life and message of Jesus with how the Old Testament portrays God. How do we approach a book representing a loving God in one section and a God who gets violent in other spaces? Is God any different than ancient pagan gods and goddesses? What part does God play in natural disasters?
I would suggest that rather than embracing these questions as unanswerable, you begin a journey through the Bible’s pages, open to the possibility that the answers will emerge over time and that there is a reality behind the words you apply to your life.
I have learned as a finite human being living with other finite human beings that questions are simply an indication that there is much to learn. The answers are there. One needs to keep asking questions until a solution is found.
How Do I Approach the Bible?
For thousands of years, people have been asking questions about life, yet no matter how many experiences we’ve had, we’re all limited by space and time. No one has an advantage—no one past and no one present.
Most belief systems in the world rest on humans who claim to have figured out life. The big claim of Jesus is that He is the creator of all that we see. He claimed to be outside the universe, becoming human to help give us an outside perspective and live life as He designed it to be.
Jesus fulfilled hundreds of predictions by Jewish prophets who spoke over several hundred years. These prophets claimed that God was speaking to them. When Jesus fulfilled their prophecies, He validated their claims. Some have observed that the Old Testament has 456 predictions of Jesus with 558 supporting fulfillments (Click Here For More).
Yet more than this, Jesus validated other things they had written. Over sixty recorded times, Jesus validated the Old Testament as historically accurate and divine in authorship (Matt. 4:4, 5:17–18, 15:3, 22:31; Luke 24:25–53; John 17:17). Here are a few of the things that Jesus confirms.
- Moses as the author of the first five books of the Bible, and all that he wrote as true and not primarily mythical or symbolic (Matt. 5:17, 8:4; John 5:45–47).
- Hard-to-believe stories like creation (Matt. 19:4–5), the world- wide flood (Matt. 24:37–39), the destruction of Sodom (Matt. 10:15; Luke 17:32;), Israel’s deliverance from Egypt and wandering in the wilderness (Matt. 12:3–4; John 6:31, 7:22), and Jonah and the whale (Matt. 12:39–41).
- Key figures such as Abraham (John 8:56), Isaac and Jacob (Matt. 8:11), Moses (John 7:22), David (Matt. 12:3), Solomon (Matt. 6:29), Elijah (Matt. 17:11), Elisha (Luke 4:27), and Zechariah (Luke 11:51).
- The authorship of other books and stories, such as Daniel (Matt. 24:15) and Isaiah (Matt. 8:17; Luke 4:17-19; John 12:38–41).
As a result, followers of Jesus see these writings as inspired by God. Jesus also encouraged His first followers to pass on His life and message to the world (Matt. 28:18-20; Rev. 1:11).
For Jesus’s first followers, He was the point of scripture. Not only had He commissioned them to pass on His life and message, but He had also verified the Old Testament. Here are some of the ways they articulated their view of Scripture (Old Testament).
All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. 2 Tim. 3:16
Above all, you must realize that no prophecy in Scripture ever came from the prophet’s understanding or human initiative. No, those prophets were moved by the Holy Spirit, and they spoke from God 2 Pet. 1:20–21
This is how we got both the Jewish writings (Old Testament) and the Christian writings (New Testament). We can see that the Bible isn’t merely a book of things that people have said but a collection of the things that God has said through people.
The clear perspective they had was that the Bible is the very Word of God—not merely human in origin with divine influence but spoken by God through human beings. For the first followers of Jesus, God is the speaker; the Bible is His speech, and the people to whom He speaks are both past and present (Hebrews 1).
We believe the Bible is God’s Word. It’s our guide. It’s where we get our information about God and life. It’s how we know what is real and true. Rather than trusting ourselves as the source of what is true, we choose to put our faith in the God of the Bible, who speaks.
As you see the Bible as God’s Word, you will have a source to find the answers to the questions you’re asking. The Bible is not to be worshipped but read as a record of relationships with people. As you learn to read and interpret the Bible, it will change your life.
DISCUSSÃO
- Why is the history of the transmission of the Bible so important?
- What challenges do you have with the idea that the Bible is divinely inspired?
- If the Bible is what it says it is, how does that change how I ap- proach it?
PERGUNTAS E RESPOSTAS
HOW DO WE KNOW THE BIBLE WASN’T CHANGED ALONG THE WAY TO CONTROL THE MASSES?
Some people suggest that there have been different times since Jesus, that people in power changed the content of the Bible. That suggestion isn’t logical. The earliest biblical manuscripts were written in various languages and found in different parts of the world that no single political empire has ever had access to. It would have been much easier to burn copies of the Bible rather than rewrite entire manuscripts by hand. The existence of primary sources from different languages and cultures that align is evidence to the contrary.
IS THE APOCRYPHA PART OF THE BIBLE? WHY OR WHY NOT?
These books were written between 100 and 200 BC but were never accepted by the early Jewish leaders. The early Christian community varied on their views of the Apocrypha because of their authors, contradictions, and exclusion from the Hebrew version of the Old Testament. In some regions church councils accepted the books and in other regions church leaders did not. As a result of some in the Protestant reformation that rejected the works, the Apocrypha was formally canonized by the Roman Catholic church at the Ecumenical Council of Trent in 1546. Cur- rently, the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Church recognize the apocrypha as scripture and Protestant denominations do not.