11 I have stored up your word in my heart,
that I might not sin against you. – Psalm 119:11
Bible Questions
No Christian would deny the importance of being a student of the Word, but many people, Christians and non-Christians alike, have questions about the Bible. How did we get it? Who wrote it? When was it written? How do we know we can trust it (i.e. is it accurate and reliable)? In addition to questions such as these, people want to know about Bible translations, Bible study methods, study aids, etc. I am far from being an expert on any of these topics, but I have been advised that it may be helpful from time to time to use this platform as a means of offering practical advice to those that struggle with these questions or topics. So….
In The Beginning
The first five books of the Bible, known as the Pentateuch (literally “five scrolls), were recorded by Moses who lived between 1500-1300 BC, making them roughly 3500 years old. In total the Old Testament is comprised of 39 books written by roughly thirty different contributors, all of whom were inspired by God. The last Old Testament book, recorded by Malachi, was written around 450 BC. So, if I am doing my math correctly, the Books that comprise the Old Testament were written over a period of roughly one thousand years. Except for a few verses written in Aramaic, almost all of the Old Testament was written in Hebrew.
After the Book of Malachi was written, no books that would be added to the Bible were written for a period of over five hundred years. However, during this period of time separating the two Testaments, Alexander the Great was conquering most of the civilized world. As Alexander conquered nations, he would introduce the Greek language. This is important for our discussion because the Hebrew language would become “replaced” by Greek and Aramaic. The popular languages during the days of Jesus.
Jesus and New Testament
Around 6-4 BC, Jesus was born in Bethlehem. The Messiah that the Hebrew Old Testament had prophesied about had at last arrived. He opened our eyes to the Old Testament and fulfilled the Law. After His death and resurrection (around 27-29 AD), God inspired men to write the books of the New Testament. These books were written during the last half of the first century with the Book of Revelation being the last written, around 80-95 AD. As alluded to, the New Testament was written in Greek which was the scholarly language of the time. This was helpful because by this time many Jews could no longer read Hebrew. The New Testament was not only written in Greek, but it was written in common (Koine) Greek instead of classical (think Aristotle and Plato), so more people could read it. Many of the so called scholars of the day scoffed at this, but its wisdom has been “fleshed out” with the passage of time. In fact, because of the popularity of the Greek language and the demise of Hebrew, between 300-200 BC, the Old Testament was translated into a Greek translation, called the Septuagint. As strange as it may sound, the Septuagint became popular in many Synagogues. Perhaps it might sound sacrilegious if you were a Jew, but what a great evangelism tool to have the Word of God in the language of the people!! Why wouldn’t God want His Word accessible to everyone?
While the Old Testament was codified and embraced by the Jewish people as God inspired for years, the New Testament by contrast, went through a more “colorful” process of Canonization. The word canon is associated with a reed used for measuring, sort of like a yardstick. Hence, when used in reference to the Bible, the process of Canonization refers to the process of determining which books were divinely inspired and should thus be accepted as part of the New Testament. During the canon process, the Council was concerned with authorship, doctrine, attestation, and acceptance. The 27 Books we recognize as the New Testament had been commonly accepted for years, but over time “impostors” began to muddy the waters. So at the Synod of Hippo (393 AD) the Church officially “recognized” the 27 Books that comprise our current New Testament.
Support & Transmission
While we don’t have any of the original Bible manuscripts, we do have thousands of copies. The oldest copies we have of the Old Testament are the famous Dead Sea Scrolls discovered in 1947. The first of these scrolls were found in caves in Qumran, 20 miles east of Jerusalem, by a shepherd whose goat had gone astray. Following his stray goat back to the herd, the young shepherd threw a rock into one of the caves along the sea-cliffs and heard something break. Little could he have known that when he broke that ceramic pot, he launched perhaps the greatest archaeological discovery ever. When the archaeologists converged on Qumran, they discovered not only a wealth of Jewish history, but irrefutable evidence of the accuracy of God’s Word. The Dead Sea Scrolls were not only very old, dating back to the first century BC, they were also very complete, containing copies of every Old Testament book besides Esther. As important as the Dead Sea Scrolls are, they have plenty of other support.
The thousands of copies that we do have of the Bible manuscripts were made with great care as the texts being copied were considered sacred. Amazingly, these hand copies, when compared with one another, agree on over 98 percent of the text. There is no other ancient writing than even comes close to this amount of support or this degree of accuracy. The term for this process of preserving the Scriptures over the course of history is known as transmission. By anyone’s standard, the transmission of the Bible is phenomenal, protected by the Providence of God, who wants to be known and worshiped by all people.
Which begs the question, what are we going to do with it?
3 Declare his glory among the nations,
his marvelous works among all the peoples! – Psalm 96:3