The Old Testament: Various Schools Of Authors
To explain the Bibles contradictions, repetitions and general idiosyncrasies, most scholars today agree that the stories and laws it contains were communicated orally, through prose and poetry, over centuries. Starting around the 7th century B.C., different groups, or schools, of authors wrote them down at different times, before they were at some point combined into the single, multi-layered work we know today.
Of the three major blocks of source material that scholars agree comprise the Bibles first five books, the first was believed to have been written by a group of priests, or priestly authors, whose work scholars designate as P. A second block of source material is known as Dfor Deuteronomist, meaning the author of the vast majority of the book of Deuteronomy. The two of them are not really related to each other in any significant way, Baden explains, except that they’re both giving laws and telling a story of Israel’s early history.
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Archaeological And Historical Research
Biblical archaeology is the archaeology that relates to and sheds light upon the Hebrew Scriptures and the Christian Greek Scriptures . It is used to help determine the lifestyle and practices of people living in biblical times. There are a wide range of interpretations in the field of biblical archaeology. One broad division includes biblical maximalism which generally takes the view that most of the Old Testament or the Hebrew Bible is based on history although it is presented through the religious viewpoint of its time. It is considered to be the opposite of biblical minimalism which considers the Bible to be a purely post-exilic composition. Even among those scholars who adhere to biblical minimalism, the Bible is a historical document containing first-hand information on the Hellenistic and Roman eras, and there is universal scholarly consensus that the events of the 6th century BCE Babylonian captivity have a basis in history.
Confession And The Gift Of Gods Grace
While confession is necessary for sinners to receive forgiveness, Jesus made a point about the gift of grace versus the honor Pharisees believed was their due. Neither the adulteress or the Prodigal Son was given the opportunity to confess, perhaps in order to emphasize the gift.
Perhaps, Jesus was bringing to light another minute detail of Jewish law, recognizable to the religious rulers: self-incrimination was unacceptable testimony. Two or more witnesses were required to testify against any accused person. Furthermore, a wrongdoer is incompetent as a witness, being presumed to be unjust and untruthful, Encyclopedia Judaica stated.
Dr. Barriers article pondered the desperate state the adulteress was in, too, and Encyclopedia Judaica noted, Melancholy and depressed persons must be prevented from confessing to crimes which they have not committed so as to be put to death. She may have wanted her life to be over.
In a court of Jewish law, confession was not the path to freedom as it is with believers for the one who confesses and renounces finds mercy .
His older brother believed he had earned these kinds of rewards, but they were for the father to give. No one is entitled to grace, but one must understand their need to fully appreciate the gift.
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Who Wrote The Gospel Of Luke
The early church credits the Gospel of Luke to Pauls companion, Luke. Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, Origen, and others all list him as the author. Luke is mentioned throughout Pauls letters , where we learn that he was a doctor.
At the beginning of Luke, the author appears to claim not to be an eyewitness to the ministry of Jesus, but rather, someone who has spoken to eyewitnesses and investigated their claims.
Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. With this in mind, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I too decided to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught. Luke 1:14
Church tradition tells us that Luke was a converted Gentile, which scholars suggest is the reason Paul introduces him separately in Colossians 4:1114, introducing his Jewish companions first:
Being a Gentile would also explain why the author takes such an interest in how Gentiles respond to the gospel. Given his familiarity with the Hebrew Scriptures, however, some scholars speculate that Luke may have been a God-fearera Gentile who worshiped the God of Israel.
For three main reasons, almost all scholars believe the Gospel of Luke was written by the same person who wrote Acts:
What Is The Bible
Before we discuss how the Bible was assembled, we should understand what the Bible itself actually is. Because of the way Bibles are published, it is often seen as a singular book. However, the Bible itself is a collection of writings. With many different styles of writing and genres, the Bible is better understood as an anthology of writings that tell a singular and grand overarching story .
Specifically, the Bible contains 66 distinct books under two major divisions. The first 39 books of the Bible were mostly written in the Hebrew language and are commonly referred to as the Old Testament. The second set of 27 books was originally written in the Greek language and is called the New Testament. These 66 books span stories that occurred over at least 4,000 years of human history, with as many as 40 different human authors. Diverse cultures, backgrounds, writing styles, and genres were used to write the Bible.
So how did this all come together? How were the writings of 40 different authors over thousands of years gathered into one book?
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Why Didnt More Of Jesus Disciples Write Books Of The New Testament
Q. How come only five disciples of Jesus Christ wrote books in the New Testament? My theory is that for one thing John and Peter were closer to Jesus. Matthew was a Levite from the priestly tribe of Levi, making his role that of writing on Christs priesthood. Christ redeemed the priesthood of Levi back unto himself and redeemed Matthew the tax collector from what was considered a disgraceful and corrupt profession. But I dont know about the others.
I think your question actually contains a good start on its own answer. But first, let me say that if we accept the traditional understandings of authorship, only three of Jesus disciples wrote books in the New Testament. You mention John, who is traditionally credited with the Gospel of John, the three letters of John, and the book of Revelation. Two letters that Peter wrote are in the New Testament. And then there is Matthew.
But the James who wrote a book in the New Testament is not the James who was a disciple of Jesus. Rather, he was one of Jesus brothers. So was Jude, who wrote another book. Luke and Paul, the other remaining authors whose identities we know, were similarly not among the original twelve disciples. We dont know who wrote the book of Hebrews, but many things about it suggest that this was someone from the Jewish community in Alexandria, Egypt , so its author was likely not one of the disciples either.
Who Wrote The Bible: The New Testament
Wikimedia CommonsA depiction of Jesus delivering the Sermon on the Mount.
Finally, the question of who wrote the Bible turns to the texts dealing with Jesus and beyond.
In the second century B.C. with the Greeks still in power, Jerusalem was run by fully Hellenized kings who considered it their mission to erase Jewish identity with full assimilation.
To that end, King Antiochus Epiphanes had a Greek gymnasium built across the street from the Second Temple and made it a legal requirement for Jerusalems men to visit it at least once. The thought of stripping nude in a public place blew the minds of Jerusalems faithful Jews, and they rose in bloody revolt to stop it.
In time, Hellenistic rule fell apart in the area and was replaced by the Romans. It was during this time, early in the first century A.D., that one of the Jews from Nazareth inspired a new religion, one that saw itself as a continuation of Jewish tradition, but with scriptures of its own:
Wikimedia CommonsPaul the Apostle
While the writings attributed to John actually do show some congruity between who wrote the Bible according to tradition and who wrote the Bible according to historical evidence, the question of Biblical authorship remains thorny, complex, and contested.
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Don Stewart : : Did Jesus Write Anything
The New Testament gives the account of the life of Jesus Christ written by His disciples. The question is often asked about Jesus is, “Why don’t we have anything in writing from Him?” Would He have been able to write? If so, then why didn’t He leave us with any written record?Jesus Could Read And Write The New Testament informs us that Jesus could both read and write. The Gospel of Luke tells us of an incident where Jesus read from the prophet Isaiah.
And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up and as was his custom, he entered the synagogue on the Sabbath, and stood up to read. And the book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. And he opened the book, and found the place where it was written, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, Because he anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives, And recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are downtrodden, to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.” And he closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant, and sat down and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed upon him. And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing” .
From this passage we can see that Jesus had the ability to read. He found the place in the scroll where He wanted to read and read the desired portion.Jesus Wrote Something On The Ground There is a passage in John’s Gospel that demonstrates Jesus had the ability to write:
Who Wrote The Bible: The First Five Books
Wikimedia CommonsMoses, as painted by Rembrandt.
According to both Jewish and Christian Dogma, the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy were all written by Moses in about 1,300 B.C. There are a few issues with this, however, such as the lack of evidence that Moses ever existed and the fact that the end of Deuteronomy describes the author dying and being buried.
Scholars have developed their own take on who wrote the Bibles first five books, mainly by using internal clues and writing style. Just as English speakers can roughly date a book that uses a lot of thees and thous, Bible scholars can contrast the styles of these early books to create profiles of the different authors.
In each case, these writers are talked about as if they were a single person, but each author could just as easily be an entire school of people writing in a single style. These biblical authors include:
Wikimedia CommonsA depiction of the destruction of Jerusalem under Babylonian rule.
Wikimedia CommonsKing Josiah
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Development Of The New Testament Canon
The process of canonization of the New Testament was complex and lengthy. In the initial centuries of early Christianity, there were many books widely considered by the church to be inspired, but there was no single formally recognized New Testament canon. The process was characterized by a compilation of books that apostolic tradition considered authoritative in worship and teaching, relevant to the historical situations in which they lived, and consonant with the Old Testament. Writings attributed to the apostles circulated among the earliest Christian communities and the Pauline epistles were circulating, perhaps in collected forms, by the end of the 1st century AD.
One of the earliest attempts at solidifying a canon was made by , c.140 AD, who accepted only a modified version of Luke and ten of Paul’s letters, while rejecting the Old Testament entirely. His canon was largely rejected by other groups of Christians, notably the proto-orthodox Christians, as was his theology, . Adolf von Harnack, John Knox, and David Trobisch, among other scholars, have argued that the church formulated its New Testament canon partially in response to the challenge posed by Marcion.
The Muratorian fragment, dated at between 170 and as late as the end of the 4th century , may be the earliest known New Testament canon attributed to mainstream Christianity. It is similar, but not identical, to the modern New Testament canon.
Who Wrote The Gospel Of John
Of all the gospels, John comes closest to revealing the identity of its author. At the very end of the gospel, the author begins referring to one disciple as the one whom Jesus loved, and eventually suggests this disciple wrote the gospel:
Peter turned and saw that the disciple whom Jesus loved was following them. When Peter saw him, he asked, Lord, what about him?
Jesus answered, If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You must follow me. Because of this, the rumor spread among the believers that this disciple would not die. But Jesus did not say that he would not die he only said, If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you?
This is the disciple who testifies to these things and who wrote them down. We know that his testimony is true. John 21:2024
The disciple whom Jesus loved is traditionally believed to be the apostle John. While this passage may seem to point to John, it isnt a closed case. Lets look at what we know about the writer of the Gospel of John prior to this passage.
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Inspired To Display Glory
Those are the human authors who wrote the Bible. But heres one of the most important things, and Ill end with this, which needs to be said.
Just as the heavens are telling the glory of God, so that we should be able to look at nature and discern in it the hand of God , and just as John said of Jesus Christ, We have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father , so that those who saw Jesus should have discerned that this is the Son of God, in the same way, the glory of God shines forth from his handiwork in the very word of God that he inspired the Bible through the human authors, so that we can say, in a similar way, that we have seen here the hand of God, the truth of God. This is his word.
Theories About Who Was The Disciple Whom Jesus Loved
Given these doubts, some scholars have proposed alternative possibilities for the disciple whom Jesus loved. Here are three other people the unnamed disciple could be:
1. A literary representation of a faithful follower. This is unlikely, since the text not only specifically identifies him as one of the people present, but connects the one whom Jesus loved to the author of the gospel in John 21:24.
2. Lazarus. Lazarus first appears in John 11:1, and two chapters later, the writer identifies someone as the disciple whom Jesus loved . The gospel also explicitly says Jesus loves Lazarus:
So the sisters sent word to Jesus, Lord, the one you love is sick. John 11:3
3. Thomas. The disciple Jesus loved saw the spear pierce Jesus side , and Thomas specifically asks to see Jesus side when hes resurrected . This encounter comes just before the gospels purpose statement.
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Relationship To Earlier And Contemporaneous Literature
Books that later formed the New Testament, like other Christian literature of the period, originated in a literary context that reveals relationships not only to other Christian writings, but also to Graeco-Roman and Jewish works. Of singular importance is the extensive use of and interaction with the Jewish Bible and what would become the Christian Old Testament. Both implicit and explicit citations, as well as countless allusions, appear throughout the books of the New Testament, from the Gospels and Acts, to the Epistles, to the Apocalypse.
Did Jesus Know How To Read And Write
- 1Mar 6 ’13 at 20:59
- Jesus is Son of God. God is who created all knowledge on earth.Jan 16 ’21 at 5:23
- He stooped down to write something on the ground. So he must have known how to write.
Luke 4:16-22 16 And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read. 17 And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written, …20 And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. 21 And he began to say to them, Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing. 22 And all spoke well of him and marveled at the gracious words that were coming from his mouth. And they said, Is not this Joseph’s son?
Jesus wrote on the ground:
John 8:6-8 6 This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. 7 And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her. 8 And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground.
In addition to the direct implications of these, we have less direct but still strong evidence in events such as his delivery of the Sermon on the Mount. . Also, if you are a Christian, you believe he co-authored the entire Bible .
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