Historical Evidence Concerning The Author Of 1 John
Early allusions to the Johannine letters
Some scholars have suggested allusions to 1 John and/or 2 and 3 John in a number of non-canonical Christian works dating mostly from the second century a.d. These possible allusions have been grouped into categories according to the probability that they actually reflect some knowledge of the Johannine Epistles.
Unlikely allusions: These are works which some have suggested may contain allusions to the Johannine Epistles, but which probably show similarities only because they come from the same general background of early Christian thought. These works include the First Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians , the Epistle of Ignatius to the Ephesians , and the Didache .
Possible allusions: These are works which may indeed contain allusions or indirect references to 1 John and/or 2 and 3 John. They include the Epistle of Barnabas , the Shepherd of Hermas , the Second Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians , both the Apologies and the Dialogue with Trypho of Justin Martyr , and another early apologetic work of uncertain authorship, the Epistle to Diognetus .
Early direct quotations from the Johannine letters
These works contain the first clear and generally undisputed direct quotations from the Johannine letters. They are:
Tertullian quotes 1 John numerous times, referring to it as the work of John the Apostle.7
The Holy Bible Was Written By God
C.S. Lewis was not only the extraordinarily gifted writer of now-classic works such as Mere Christianity but one of the greatest medieval English literature scholars of his time, serving at both Oxford and Cambridge. In one of his essays, he wrote that the Bible was different from all the other books in the world. The other sacred texts that we read and theres no reason that we shouldnt read them to learn more about what others believe come off as something more akin to mythology. Mythology was a considered study of Dr. Lewis. In fact, the Chronicles of Narnia come out of C.S. Lewis command of the mythological genre, as well as C.S. Lewis faith. Lewis told the reader to consider the Bible alongside other sacred texts and folklore.
The Bible reads nothing at all like mythology. To be sure some of those books called the Apocrypha have a decided ring of fable. There is important historical content to be considered but the Apocrypha lacks the authenticity of the sixty-six books of the Bible. Thus, that collection of 15 books did not make it into the Canon of Scripture, recognized by the Church as divinely inspired. And that last phrase, divinely inspired, leads us to answer the question, Who Wrote the Bible. We are back to the original answer and that reply that you assumed I would give: the Holy Bible, containing sixty-six books was written by God.
Who Was King David
The first wave of scribes may, its been suggested, have started work during the reign of King David . Whether thats true or not, David is a monumental figure in the biblical story the slayer of Goliath, the conqueror of Jerusalem. David is also a hugely important figure in the quest to establish links between the Bible and historical fact, for he appears to be the earliest biblical figure to be confirmed by archaeology.
I killed king of the house of David. So boasts the Tel Dan Stele, an inscribed stone dating from 870750 BC and discovered in northern Israel in the 1990s. Like the Merneptah Stele before it, it documents a warlords victory over the Israelites . But it at least indicates that David was a historical figure.
The Tel Dan Stele also suggests that,no matter how capable their rulers, the people of Israel continued to be menaced by powerful, belligerent neighbours. And, in 586 BC, one of those neighbours, the Babylonians, would inflict on the Jews one of the most devastating defeats in their history: ransacking the sacred city of Jerusalem, butchering its residents, and dragging many more back to Babylonia.
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The Authors Of The New Testament
With such a long history of authors and books and stories combined in the Old Testament, the New Testament covers less time in history but includes events that were foretold prophecies from the Old Testament and changes in law for people to follow.
It all starts with the first gospel written by Matthew, Mark, Luke , and John . Each man of God came from a different profession to follow Jesus and share His story of salvation to the world.
- Matthew was a tax collector.
- ‘s profession is unknown.
- Hebrews
Who Compiled The Old Testament
Compiling and ascribing divine inspiration of the Old Covenant Scriptures occurred over time, by consensus, by evidences of unity, self-attestation, personal spiritual devotion, and by liturgical usage in communities. There are theories of canonization of selected books by councils . However, much of this is reliant upon commentary . The sacred texts, preserved by Israel as Gods Word to them, were more formally recognized, particularly, after the Babylonian Captivity. By the time of Jesus, the texts that Jesus affirmed as being the Word of God were complete. God is sovereign over all things including His Word.
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List Of All Books Of The Bible And Their Authors
Humanly speaking, the Bible was written by approximately 40 men of diverse backgrounds over the course of 1500 years.
If you ever ask your pastor or Sunday school teacher, Who wrote the Bible? you would probably get one of two responses:
Ultimately, above the human authors, the Bible was written by God. Second Timothy 3:16 tells us that the Bible was breathed out by God. God superintended the human authors of the Bible so that, while using their own writing styles and personalities, they still recorded exactly what God intended. The Bible was not dictated by God, but it was perfectly guided and entirely inspired by Him.
See The Names Of All Bible Authors From Genesis To Revelation
Bible Authors And Their Occupations
Inspired men of God wrote a total of 66 books of what we have come to know as the Bible. Of course, anyone who believes in God knows that the Bible is authored by God through the human help of those who had a close relationship to God and were willing to pen their encounters, stories, and reflections on life according to whatever they were led by God to record.
This is especially true in terms of Creation, foretold prophecies, and ceremonial laws. In that way, the Book is a living source of relationshipstheirs and God’sand how they link to us today.
The Bible is the most widely discussed and disputed book in history.
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The Authority Of The Bible
Of the vast literature that circulated in ancient Israel and in the early Christian church, only a small number of works came to be included in the Bible. Those that were eventually chosen make up what is called the canon of the Hebrew Bible and of the Old and New Testaments. This meant that there was a consensus in Judaism and in Christianity concerning the authoritative books of their respective religions. The word canon came from a Greek term for a cane used as a measuring rod it came to also mean a rule or standard.
Getting into the canon was not automatic. The books were accepted only after extensive usage over long periods of time and after much debate. The formation of the canon and the origin of the great number of different texts were two separate matters.
The Man Who Wrote The Bible
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WHEN I was a child, I thought as a child and firmly believed that the Bible was literally written, or at least dictated, by God: The Creator, in the voice of Orson Welles, gravely intoned “Let there be light” and an enraptured priest or prophet set down the words on some kind of parchment. Having put away childish things, if only for the moment, I now know that the author of the Bible was in fact a man named William Tyndale.
For most of us the words of God and the prophets, Jesus and his disciples, resound most powerfully in the Authorized or King James Version of the Scriptures. Generally acclaimed as the greatest work ever produced by a committee, this 1611 Bible in fact builds largely on the work of William Tyndale , the first translator, into English, of the New Testament from the Greek and of about half the Old Testament from the Hebrew. In a broad way, historians and theologians have long recognized Tyndale’s importance, but, according to Renaissance scholar David Daniell, they have unconscionably failed to honor him sufficiently. Here, after all, is the man who gave us such phrases as “Am I my brother’s keeper?”, who made Christ speak an English of sublime simplicity — “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” — and who established prose rhythms that stir us to our very marrow: “But the serpent was subtler than all the beasts of the field which the Lord God had made, and said unto the woman …”
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Who Is The True Author Of The Bible
James is traditional because he works for God and falls under the stewardship of Jesus Christ himself said Dr. Paul. Though James serves the same function asHebrews by being just a letter, its design of Greek text would indicate that it has unlikely happened, since it is never actually written by Jesus brother.
How Did We Get The Bible
The Bible sits on the desk, nightstands, and bookshelves of millions of people. Passed down from generation to generation, the Bible is the bestselling book of all-time, and generally respected even by people of other religions. In our modern society, the accessibility of the Bible has increased all the more, being fully available online and through digital apps on our smartphones and tablets.
Considering the prominence and accessibility of the Bible today, one would be right to ask where this book came from. Unlike just about any other book, we cant simply call up the publishers public relations department or send an email to the author. But like other books, the Bible we hold in our hands today had an origin and development. Although we would be fully accurate in saying that the Bible came from God, its also accurate to say that the Bible was written by human authors. The formation of the Bible is an amazing process.
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None Of The Bible Authors Were Writers By Trade
Curiously enough, none of the men who wrote books of the Bible wrote for a living . In fact, they all held other occupations, which makes the act of their writing so concisely that much more Divinely inspired.
It doesn’t mean that none of them were artistically bentthink about someone like Moses, whose writing reflected his years of experience in a leadership role, or King David, who expressed his praise through verse, song, and dance.
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Who Wrote The Bible
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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Who Wrote The 27 Books Of The New Testament
The original 12 apostles were not Paul as a prominent contributor to the New Testament, he was one of its primary supporters. A total of 13 or fourteen New Testament books are attributed to Paul, but only 7 of these Pauline epistles by St. James deem them authentic and based on their style and writing.
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Joshua: Commander Of The Israelite Army
After the death of Moses, Joshua was next appointed to lead the people. As the next book of the Bible that bears his name, Joshua’s occupation was as commander of the Israelite army. He eventually led them into Canaan and allotted them different areas of land according to their tribes.
The book of Judges moves further along in time to the era when the people started to decline morally after the death of Joshua and fall into enemy hands therefore, God appointed judges to rescue them from the groups of invaders who kept vying for Israel’s land. Some of the most recounted personalities of the Bible are recorded hereOthniel, Ehud, Deborah, Gideon, Jephthah, and Samson.
Although the actual writer of the book is a mystery, there is the tradition that the prophet and priest Samuel penned it, as well as the last part of Joshua, and perhaps the book of Ruth, and part of 1 Samuel.
There is also another mindset is that each of these works was all or in part done by King Solomon, who also wrote Proverbs and Ecclesiastes. Contrary to popular belief, it is not 100% known whether King Solomon actually wrote Proverbs or Song of Songs .
In between the books of Ruth and Song of Songs, however, is a wealth of other stories written by many other writers. The prophet Isaiah wrote where Samuel left off, completing 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel, 1 Kings, 2 Kings, and the book of Isaiah.
Moses: Prince And Shepherd
Moses was born during a time when Egypt ruled the land, making the Hebrews their slaves. And with the real fear of Hebrews one day over-throwing Pharaoh’s power and rebelling as the Hebrews grew in number, Pharaoh initiated the edict to have male Hebrew babies killed. Yet, God was with them because the midwives had compassion for those children and allowed them to live .
When Pharaoh asked why they weren’t following his orders, they declared the Hebrew women were giving birth quicker than they could get there to assist with the births. So Pharaoh’s solution was to have “every Hebrew boy…thrown into the Nile . . . ” .
Moses’ parents did indeed place Moses in the Nile, but not to dierather, to perhaps have Divine intervention, for why else would they have taken great care to secure him in a water-sealed basket to float down the river? As the story goes, Moses gained the attention of Pharaoh’s daughter, who rescued him and raised him as her own.
Certainly, he would have lived the life of a prince. And though it’s not clear, he must also have been aware of his Hebrew beginning, especially since his mother and sister were instrumental in his care during infancy. Had that not made an impact on him, he wouldn’t have been so angry to slay an Egyptian who was harming a Hebrew slave and risk becoming a fugitive.
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The Authorship Of 1 John
It is important to begin with a discussion of authorship, in light of the christological controversy which permeates the three Johannine letters. It makes a significant difference if the author was in fact an eyewitness to the earthly ministry of Jesus Christ and if he stands along with other apostolic eyewitnesses against the innovative christology of the secessionist opponents mentioned in 1 John 2:18-19.
It should be noted that the problem of determining the author of 1 John is a somewhat different one from the determination of the authorship of 2 and 3 John, because in the case of 1 John the letter is anonymous no author is specified within the work itself. The only other New Testament letter which makes no reference to the authors name is the Epistle to the Hebrews. The second and third letters, however, designate the author as the Elder, and it has been long debated whether this individual is or is not to be identified with the author of the first letter and/or the Apostle John.
Who Were The Old Testament Authors
There are 39 books or collected documents in the Hebrew Bible, the Old Testament, written mostly by Moses, and then, prophets, Kings David and Solomon, priests, and scriveners or scribes. The Tanakh (an acronym based upon the division of the ancient Hebrew Scriptures by genre: Torah , Nevim , and the Ketuuvin .
Old Testament Authors Listed:
- other psalmists and proverb writers
- unknown authors
- possible authors: Samuel, Nehemiah, Mordecai
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