Who Wrote The Bible
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Scholars have investigated the issue for centuries, but many questions persist.
Over centuries, billions of people have read the Bible. Scholars have spent their lives studying it, while rabbis, ministers and priests have focused on interpreting, teaching and preaching from its pages.
As the sacred text for two of the worlds leading religions, Judaism and Christianity, as well as other faiths, the Bible has also had an unmatched influence on literatureparticularly in the Western world. It has been translated into nearly 700 languages, and while exact sales figures are hard to come by, its widely considered to be the worlds best-selling book.
But despite the Bibles undeniable influence, mysteries continue to linger over its origins. Even after nearly 2,000 years of its existence, and centuries of investigation by biblical scholars, we still dont know with certainty who wrote its various texts, when they were written or under what circumstances.
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Where Does The Bible Originate
Archaeology and the study of written sources have shed light on the history of both halves of the Bible: the Old Testament, the story of the Jews highs and lows in the millennium or so before the birth of Jesus and the New Testament, which documents the life and teachings of Jesus. These findings may be incomplete and they may be highly contested, but they have helped historians paint a picture of how the Bible came to life.
Perhaps the best place to start the story is in Sun-baked northern Egypt, for it was here that the Bible and archaeology may, just may, first collide.
For centuries, the Old Testament has been widely interpreted as a story of disaster and rescue of the Israelites falling from grace before picking themselves up, dusting themselves down and finding redemption. Nowhere is this theme more evident than in Exodus, the dramatic second book of the Old Testament, which chronicles the Israelites escape from captivity in Egypt to the promised land.
But has archaeology unearthed one of the sites of the Israelites captivity?
In this podcast, biblical scholar John Barton considers the historical background to the most influential book in western culture, exploring its creation and how it fits into the histories of Judaism and Christianity:
In fact, the best corroborating evidence for the Bibles claim that the Israelites surged into Canaan is Merneptahs Stele.
What is Merneptahs Stele?
Views About The Bible
People have different ideas about the Bible. Christians believe it is God’s Word to people. The Jews believe that only the Old Testament is from God. Protestants and Catholics believe that the Old and New Testaments are God’s Word. Catholics also believe that the books called Apocrypha or Deuterocanonical are part of the Bible. Sometimes different denominations disagree over exactly what the Bible means.
According to Islam, much of the Bible is true, but the Koran is better.
Atheists do not believe that gods exist, so the Bible is only an ancient book.
Deists believe in God, but they believe that the Bible written by people, so they don’t see it as important.
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How Did Christianity Spread Around The World
The Epistles, or letters, written by Paul the Apostle to churches dotted across the Mediterranean world which are our best source for the initial spread of Christianity confirm that Christianity started in Jerusalem, but spread rapidly to Syria and then to the rest of the Mediterranean world, and was mostly accepted by non-Jews, says John Barton, former professor of the interpretation of holy scriptures at the University of Oxford.
The epistles are our earliest evidence for Christianity, says Barton. The first date from the AD 50s, just two decades after the death of Jesus.
As Pauls letters to churches such as the one in the Greek city of Thessalonica reveal, the first Christian communities were often persecuted for their beliefs.
And its such persecution, particularly at the hands of the Romans, that may have inspired the last book of the New Testament, Revelations. With its dark descriptions of a seven-headed beast and allusions to an imminent apocalypse, Revelations is now widely believed to be a foretelling of the grisly fate that the author believed awaited the Roman oppressors of Christianity.
Versions of the Bible
King James Bible
On 24 March 1603, King James VI of Scotland was also crowned King James I of England and Ireland. His reign would usher in a new royal dynasty and a new era of colonialism . But arguably every bit as significant was his decision, in 1611, to introduce a new Bible.
Alphabetical List Of New Testament Authors
- James: The book of James
- John: Gospel of John, 1st John, 2nd John, 3rd John, Revelation
- Jude: Book of Jude
- Luke: Gospel of Luke, Acts of the Apostles
- : Gospel of Mark
- Matthew: Gospel of Matthew
- Paul: Romans, 1st and 2nd Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1st and 2nd Thessalonians, 1st and 2nd Timothy, Titus, Philemon
- Peter: 1st and 2nd Peter
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When Was The Bible Written
The Bible was not written in one specific year or in a single location. The Bible is a collection of writings, and the earliest ones were set down nearly 3500 years ago. So lets start at the beginning of this fascinating story.
The first five books of the Bible are attributed to Moses and are commonly called the Pentateuch .
Moses lived between 1500 and 1300 BC, though he recounts events in the first eleven chapters of the Bible that occurred long before his time .
These earliest accounts were handed on from generation to generation in songs, narratives, and poetry.
In those early societies there was no writing as yet and people passed on these oral accounts with great detail and accuracy.
The earliest writing began when symbols were scratched or pressed on clay tablets. The Egyptians refined this technique and developed an early form of writing known as hieroglyphics. The Bible tells us that Moses was educated in all the learning of the Egyptians, so he would have been familiar with the major writing systems of his time. We also read that God gave Moses two tablets of the Testimony, the tablets of stone inscribed by the finger of God. All this leads to the conclusion that the earliest writings in the Bible were set down around 1400 BC.
The New Testament was written during a much shorter period, i.e. during the last half of the first century AD.
What Is The Basic Timeline Of The New Testament
The New Testament timeline covers only about seventy years. Although the Gospels and the book of Acts give us a fairly good idea of the sequence of events, we do not have the exact years in which things happened. We do not even know for certain in which years Jesus was born and crucified. The Ministry of Jesus.
What is the Order of the Old Testament books?
The Bible is not arranged in chronological order because it is divided by the type of literature it includes. In the Old Testament, the order include the Books of Moses , the Books of History , the Wisdom Books , and the Prophets .
What are facts about the Bible?
Some facts about the Bible. The Bible is unique among Holy Books it is rooted in and intertwined with actual human history. The Bible claims to be the word of God. It records the interaction of God with historical people and nations. It reveals the meaning of life and the responsibility of human beings to their Creator.
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Stage : Collecting Written Documents
A millennium of Hebrew history is recorded in the Old Testament, which indicates the canonization process likely took a long time. Its also believed that these texts were rather comprehensive. Numerous ancient sources cited in the Old Testament remain unknown to modern scholarship .
Assembling the written records of the Hebrew experience with Yahweh into anthologies and books was partially a matter of convenience for the Israelite community, since it permitted easy access to documents and ensured their continued preservation. More importantly though, it signified the value, prominence, and authority of the writings collected for the religious life of the community. These books demanded special attention.
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How Did We Get The Old Testament
The Old Testament is thousands of years old, and contains accounts stretching back to the beginning of time. This ancient collection of books provides the foundation of both Judaism and Christianity.
So where did it come from? How did these age-old traditions, stories, and commandments make their way to modern times? These are important questions.
John Walton and Andrew Hill answer these questions in their Old Testament Survey online course. The following post is adapted from their unit on the background, history, archaeology, and formation of the Old Testament.
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Did Jesus Write Any Books In The Bible
These books are called Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John because they were traditionally thought to have been by Matthew, a disciple who was a tax collector John, the “Beloved Disciple” mentioned in the Fourth Gospel Mark, the secretary of the disciple Peter and Luke, the traveling companion of Paul.
When Was The New Testament Written
Since the New Testament books of the Bible are younger than the Old Testament collection, we naturally have more understanding about how the New Testament was written. The astounding feature of this knowledge actually helps us to understand how the Old Testament was collected and compiled. There is little difference in method. The books of the New Testament were recognized in time as the divine Word of God moving through His Apostles and disciples. From A.D. 33 until approximately A.D. 80, the Holy Spirit breathed out His Word in twenty-seven books and nine authors. Among the authors used by God were those who actually walked with Jesus and had seen Jesus in His post-resurrection form . The New Testament may be simply divided into Gospels and Epistles. Paul wrote most of the Epistles. These letters to churches were primarily concerned with clarifying doctrinal truths about Jesus and the way to be saved and ethical goals for the life of believers in the Church. Misunderstanding, contextualization problems, persecution, and false teachers became the forces that caused the writings and led to clarity, faithfulness, and further revelation about the mission of God in the world through Jesus Christ.
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Who Wrote Majority Of The New Testament
PaulPaul was not one of the original 12 Apostles of Jesus, he was one of the most prolific contributors to the New Testament. Of the 27 books in the New Testament, 13 or 14 are traditionally attributed to Paul, though only 7 of these Pauline epistles are accepted as being entirely authentic and dictated by St.
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The Sumerian Bible Translation
The Hebrew Bible says that the creation of Adam and Eve was the beginning. There are detailed records of all of the generations from Adam down through to Jesus. These records state how old each person was when they had their children. So, if you add up the dates in the bible, it clearly shows that the earth is a little older than 6,000 years old.
The Sumerian version includes the birth of the universe over 13.7 billion years ago. Our scientists now estimate this to be the approximate age of our universe. How could the Sumerians have possibly known this thousands of years before our Bible was even written? They clearly state that this was told to them by those who from the heavens came to earth, or the Anunnaki.
Scientists have estimated the age of the Earth to be 4.54 billion years . This age may represent the age of the Earths accretion, of its core formation, or of the material from which the Earth formed. This dating is based on evidence from radiometric age dating of meteorite material and is consistent with the radiometric ages of the oldest-known terrestrial and lunar samples.
Nibiru is in a 3,600 year elliptical orbit around our sun.
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New Testament: Who Wrote The Gospels
Just as the Old Testament chronicles the story of the Israelites in the millennium or so leading up to the birth of Jesus Christ, the New Testament records Jesuss life, from his birth and teachings to his death and later resurrection, a narrative that forms the fundamental basis of Christianity. Beginning around 70 A.D., about four decades after Jesuss crucifixion , four anonymously written chronicles of his life emerged that would become central documents in the Christian faith. Named for Jesuss most devoted earthly disciples, or apostlesMatthew, Mark, Luke and Johnthe four canonical Gospels were traditionally thought to be eyewitness accounts of Jesuss life, death and resurrection.
12th-13th century depiction of evangelists Luke and Matthew writing the Gospels.
DeAgostini/Getty Images
But for more than a century, scholars have generally agreed that the Gospels, like many of the books of the New Testament, were not actually written by the people to whom they are attributed. In fact, it seems clear that the stories that form the basis of Christianity were first communicated orally, and passed down from generation to generation, before they were collected and written down.
How Was The Bible Written
I suppose it would be good for us to begin by defining the Bible. When I use the term Bible I mean 66 books39 in the Old Testament and 27 in the New Testament. These 66 books are diverse and yet all tell one foundational storythe story of Jesus.
These books were originally written in three different languages. A majority of the Old Testament was written in biblical Hebrew with a bit of Aramaic . The New Testament was written in Koine Greek. We would be remiss to not also mention the pivotal role that the Septuagint played in the writing of the New Testament. The LXX is the Greek translation of the Old Testament. It was often a source for New Testament writers quotation of the Old Testament.
These 66 books also span a time period of around 1500 years . But its actually difficult to nail down when the book was actually written as much of the material likely survived through oral tradition. Its possible that a book like Job is as old as the time of Abraham but wasnt actually given pen to paper until a much later date. Most would place the oldest books to at least 1500 BCE and the last book of the New Testament written perhaps as late as 96AD.
It is also astonishing to think of all the ways in which the Bible was preserved. It began, quite likely, as oral tradition but eventually was given a written record. Some were scratched on potsherds, others used wax tablets, as well as stone, wooden, or clay tablets. The most common writing material was parchment and papyrus.
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Who Lived 1000 Years In The Bible
Having died at the age of 969, he lived the longest of all human figures mentioned in the Bible. According to the Book of Genesis, Methuselah was the son of Enoch, the father of Lamech, and the grandfather of Noah. Elsewhere in the Bible, Methuselah is mentioned in genealogies in 1 Chronicles and the Gospel of Luke.
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Top 10 Shortest Verses in the Bible
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Age Of Reason Revival And Progress
- A.D. 1663 – John Eliot’s Algonquin Bible is the first Bible printed in America, not in English, but in the native Algonquin Indian language.
- A.D. 1782 – Robert Aitken’s Bible is the first English language Bible printed in America.
- A.D. 1790 – Matthew Carey publishes a Roman Catholic Douay-Rheims Version English Bible in America.
- A.D. 1790 – William Young prints the first pocket-sized “school edition” King James Version Bible in America.
- A.D. 1791 – The Isaac Collins Bible, the first family Bible , is printed in America.
- A.D. 1791 – Isaiah Thomas prints the first illustrated Bible in America.
- A.D. 1808 – Jane Aitken , is the first woman to print a Bible.
- A.D. 1833 – Noah Webster, after publishing his famous dictionary, releases his own revised edition of the King James Bible.
- A.D. 1841 – The English Hexapla New Testament, a comparison of the original Greek language and six important English translations, is produced.
- A.D. 1844 – The Codex Sinaiticus, a handwritten Koine Greek manuscript of both Old and New Testament texts dating back to the fourth century, is rediscovered by German Bible scholar Konstantin Von Tischendorf in the Monastery of Saint Catherine on Mount Sinai.
- A.D. 1881-1885 – The King James Bible is revised and published as the Revised Version in England.
- A.D. 1901 – The American Standard Version, the first major American revision of the King James Version, is published.