The Relationship Between The Divine Author And Human Writers
A key biblical passage that clarifies the ultimate divine authorship of Scripture in relation to the human dimensions of the biblical writers is 2 Peter 1:1921: And we have the word of the prophets made more certain, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophets own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit .
Several related points are developed in these verses. Verse 19 underscores the trustworthiness of Scripture: it is the prophetic word made more sure. In verse 20, we learn why this is so: because the prophecy is not a matter of the prophets own interpretation that is, the prophet does not intrude with his own interpretation. Verse 21 elaborates on this point: prophecy does not come by the thelemathe initiative, the impulse, the willof the human agents the prophets are not communicating on their own. Rather, the Bible writers were prophets who spoke as they were moved, carried along, even driven by the Holy Spirit.
What Was The First Bible Ever Written
Bible #1. The oldest surviving full text of the New Testament is the beautifully written Codex Sinaiticus, which was discovered at the St Catherine monastery at the base of Mt Sinai in Egypt in the 1840s and 1850s. Dating from circa 325-360 CE, it is not known where it was scribed perhaps Rome or Egypt.
Start With One Book And Read It Completely
Pick one book at a time. For example, The Gospel of Matthew and read one chapter or a few verses every day until you finish it. Read every verse according to context.
Ask questions such as who is the author, what does the author want to say, who is he writing to, what was happening at that time, is it a poem or prophecy or actual history, etc.
Theres no need to read the whole book in one go. Read the chapters slowly and meditate on the verses.
Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal the truth. If you have questions dont hesitate to ask a fellow Christian for help or your local church.
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More Reasons To Trust The Gospel Accounts Of Jesus
Four of the writers of the New Testament each wrote their own biography on the life of Jesus. These are called the four gospels, the first four books of the New Testament. When historians try to determine if a biography is reliable, they ask, “How many other sources report the same details about this person?”
Here’s how this works. Imagine you are collecting biographies of President John F. Kennedy. You find many biographies describing his family, his presidency, his goal of putting a man on the moon, and his handling of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Regarding Jesus, do we find multiple biographies reporting similar facts about his life? Yes. Here is a sampling of facts about Jesus, and where you would find that fact reported in each of their biographies.
| 24:1-53 | 20:1-31 |
Two of the gospel biographies were written by the apostles Matthew and John, men who knew Jesus personally and traveled with him for over three years. The other two books were written by Mark and Luke, close associates of the apostles. These writers had direct access to the facts they were recording. At the time of their writing, there were still people alive who had heard Jesus speak, watched him heal people and perform miracles.
So the early church readily accepted the four gospels because they agreed with what was already common knowledge about Jesus’ life.
Sample of what is presented in one of the Gospels…
She came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak, and immediately her bleeding stopped.
Who Was Jesus Did He Really Exist
Most scholars agree that Jesus, a first-century religious leader and preacher, existed historically. He was born in c4 BC and died reportedly crucified on the orders of the Roman prefect Pontius Pilate in cAD 3033. Then, for around 40 years, news of his teachings was spread by word of mouth until, from around AD 70, four written accounts of his life emerged that changed everything.
The gospels, or good news, of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are critically important to the Christian faith. It is their descriptions of the life of Jesus Christ that have made him arguably the most influential figure in human history.
We cant be sure when the gospels were written, says Barton, and we know little about the authors. But the guess is that Mark came first, in the 70s, followed by Matthew and Luke in the 80s and 90s, and John in the 90s or early in the second century.
In general, Matthew, Mark and Luke tell the same story with variations, and hence are called the synoptic gospels, whereas John has a very different style, as well as telling a markedly different version of the story of Jesus. Matthew and Luke seem to be attempts to improve on Mark, by adding more stories and sayings from sources now lost. John is a different conceptualisation of the story of Jesus, portraying a more obviously divine figure.
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The Bible Today Is The Same As What Was Originally Written
Some people have the idea that the Bible has been translated “so many times” that it has become corrupted through stages of translating. That would probably be true if the translations were being made from other translations. But translations are actually made directly from original Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic source texts based on thousands of ancient manuscripts.
The accuracy of todays Old Testament was confirmed in 1947 when archaeologists found The Dead Sea Scrolls along today’s West Bank in Israel. “The Dead Sea Scrolls” contained Old Testament scripture dating 1,000 years older than any manuscripts we had. When comparing the manuscripts at hand with these, from 1,000 years earlier, we find agreement 99.5% of the time. And the .5% differences are minor spelling variances and sentence structure that doesn’t change the meaning of the sentence.
Regarding the New Testament, it is humanity’s most reliable ancient document.
All ancient manuscripts were written on papyrus, which didnt have much of a shelf life. So people hand copied originals, to maintain the message and circulate it to others.
Few people doubt Platos writing of The Republic. Its a classic, written by Plato around 380 B.C. The earliest copies we have of it are dated 900 A.D., which is a 1,300 year time lag from when he wrote it. There are only seven copies in existence.
*McDowell, Josh. The New Evidence that Demands a Verdict , p. 55.
The Bible Records The Word Of The Lord
Sometimes that message came in a direct form, introduced by such phrases as, the word of the Lord came to me. One Bible researcher counted more than 3,800 times when the writers of Scripture used some variation of the phrase, the word of the Lord came to me, saying . In other words, the prophet stated with clear authority that God, the Creator of the universe, actually communicated His message personally to the prophet.
For example, Isaiah records: And the word of the LORD came to Isaiah, saying, Go and tell Hezekiah, Thus says the LORD, the God of David your father: I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears surely I will add to your days fifteen years .
In other cases prophets described their own experiences and offered different perspectives on the same event. They presented the message of God in different styles and languages, and yet the Holy Spirit guided their thoughts and minds to present Gods divine truth and not merely their own humanly devised message.
Some writers claimed to see God and speak to Him face to face . Hundreds of thousands if not millions heard His voice giving the 10 Commandments . It was so powerful and frightening the people said, Let not God speak with us, lest we die .
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What Are The 14 Books Removed From The Bible
This book contains: 1 Esdras, 2 Esdras, The Book of Tobit, The Book of Susanna, Additions to Esther, The Book of Judith, Wisdom of Solomon, Ecclesiasticus, Baruch, The Epistle of Jeremiah, The Prayer of Azariah, Bel and the Dragon, Prayer of Manasses, 1 Maccabees, 2 Maccabees, Book of Enoch, Book of Jubilees, Gospel of
Want To Read More About The History Of The Bible Take A Look:
Article by David Peach
David Peach has been in full time missions work with the Deaf since 1994. He has started several deaf ministries in various countries and established a deaf church in Mexico. David now works as Director of Deaf Ministries for his mission board.
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- Joel
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Well done sir!Recently, I think its already been 2 months that I and my friend also make a list of the books in the bible. We make in to columns of 4. We named each columns, 1st Book, 2nd Name of Authors, 3rd Approximate Covered Years the book was written and the last 4th columns is for the Category My friend asked me this for his School of Leaders training in their church and it is useful for us. I will review my lists and make a revision if I have missed ones in my lists. Thank you sir this wonderful lists.
- HATEGEKIMANA DANIEL
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Dear Joel,
Could you please share with me that table that you elaborated , it will be much valuable to me?
Thank you
- Joel
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Sir David,Just want to ask if what is the appropriate to say for Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. In our lists we categorized it as History. In your list you say its a GOSPEL. I beleive that I have so much learn from you sir. Thanks! in Christ, Joel
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Structure Of The Bible
In Judaism, the scriptures are called the Tanakh and are recognized as comprising 24 books divided into three categories: The Pentateuch , The Prophets, and The Writings. Christianity, which appropriated the Tanakh and claimed it as their own early theological history, call it the Old Testament. Early Christian writers, years after the probable date of the death of Jesus, penned the gospels and The Book of Acts. Paul the Apostle wrote most of the epistles which make up the 27 books of the Christian New Testament and whose theology informs the gospels. The Book of Revelation, attributed to John of Patmos, is the last book of the Christian Bible.
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When Was The First Bible Written And By Whom
The Christian Bible has two sections, the Old Testament and the New Testament. The Old Testament is the original Hebrew Bible, the sacred scriptures of the Jewish faith, written at different times between about 1200 and 165 BC. The New Testament books were written by Christians in the first century AD.
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Old Testament: The Single Author Theory
The Old Testament, or Hebrew Bible, narrates the history of the people of Israel over about a millennium, beginning with Gods creation of the world and humankind, and contains the stories, laws and moral lessons that form the basis of religious life for both Jews and Christians. For at least 1,000 years, both Jewish and Christian tradition held that a single author wrote the first five books of the BibleGenesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomywhich together are known as the Torah and the Pentateuch . That single author was believed to be Moses, the Hebrew prophet who led the Israelites out of captivity in Egypt and guided them across the Red Sea toward the Promised Land.
Yet nearly from the beginning, readers of the Bible observed that there were things in the so-called Five Books of Moses that Moses himself could not possibly have witnessed: His own death, for example, occurs near the end of Deuteronomy. A volume of the Talmud, the collection of Jewish laws recorded between the 3rd and 5th centuries A.D., dealt with this inconsistency by explaining that Joshua likely wrote the verses about Moses death.
Rembrandt van Rijn, painting of Moses Breaking the Tablets of the Law, 1659.
That’s one opinion among many, says Joel Baden, a professor at Yale Divinity School and author of The Composition of the Pentateuch: Renewing the Documentary Hypothesis. But they’re already asking the questionwas it possible or not possible for to have written them?
Why Did Solomon Write Ecclesiastes 3
King Solomon who wrote Ecclesiastes was a seeker on a quest for the meaning and purpose of life. So he began to search for the meaning and purpose of life under the sun, apart from God. In one sense we should be glad that he did. This is because he left us an account of the futility of life without trust in God.
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Who Wrote The Bible: Prophets
Wikimedia CommonsThe prophet Isaiah
The next texts to examine when investigating who wrote the Bible are those of the biblical prophets, an eclectic group who mostly traveled around the various Jewish communities to admonish people and lay curses and sometimes preach sermons about everybodys shortcomings.
Some prophets lived way back before the Golden Age while others did their work during and after the Babylonian captivity. Later, many of books of the Bible attributed to these prophets were largely written by others and were fictionalized to the level of Aesops Fables by people living centuries after the events in the books were supposed to have happened, for example:
Wikimedia CommonsThe prophet Jeremiah
When Was The Bible First Written And By Whom
The Christian Bible has two sections, the Old Testament and the New Testament. The Old Testament is the original Hebrew Bible, the sacred scriptures of the Jewish faith, written at different times between about 1200 and 165 BC. The New Testament books were written by Christians in the first century AD.
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Legacy And Impact Of The Bible
The sheer diversity of literature in the Bible is one of the secrets of its continuing popularity through the centuries. There is something for all moods and many different cultures. Its message is not buried in religious jargon only accessible to either believers or scholars, but reflects the issues that people struggle with in daily life. Despite their different emphases, all its authors shared the conviction that this world and its affairs are not just a haphazard sequence of random coincidences, but are the forum of God’s activity – a God who is not remote or unknowable, but a personal being who can be known by ordinary people.
Melvyn Bragg believes the King James version of the Bible, first published in 1611, has had a profound effect on human history over the last 400 years.
Disputed Spurious And Downright Heretical
Luther had issues with the book of James, which emphasized the role of “works” alongside faith, so he stuck James and Hebrews in the back of the Bible alongside Jude and Revelation, which he also thought were questionable. Combs says that in Luther’s original Bible, those four books don’t even appear in the table of contents.
Eusebius was a Christian historian writing in the early 300s who provided one of the early lists of which books were considered legit and which were borderline bogus.
Eusebius broke his list down into different categories: recognized, disputed, spurious and heretical. Among the “recognized” were the four gospels , Acts and Paul’s epistles. Under “disputed,” Eusebius included James and Jude the same books Luther didn’t like plus a few others that are now considered canon, like 2 Peter, 2 John and 3 John.
When Eusebius turns to the “spurious” and “heretical” categories, we get a glimpse into just how many other texts were in circulation in the second and third century C.E. Have you ever heard of the Apocalypse of Peter, the Epistle of Barnabas or the Gospel of Thomas? Combs says that there were hundreds of texts similar to those found in the New Testament and Old Testament that didn’t make it into the canon.
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The Bible Equals Not Just Contains The Word Of God
The self-testimony of Scripture is overwhelming and unequivocal: it not only contains, but equals the Word of God. In the Old Testament, there are about 1,600 occurrences of four Hebrew words that explicitly indicates that God has spoken: the utterance of Yahweh, 361 times Thus says the Lord, 423 times And God spoke , 422 times and the word of the Lord, 394 times. The equivalency between a prophets message and a divine message are recorded numerous times: the prophet speaks for God God puts His words in the prophets mouth the hand of the Lord is strong upon the prophet or the word of the Lord comes to the prophet . Jeremiah rebukes his audience for not listening to the prophets , which then equates with not listening to the Lord , and further equated with His words .
Summarizing the prophetic messages sent to Israel, 2 Kings 21:10 records, And the LORD said by his servants the prophets, and 2 Chronicles 36:15, 16 adds, The LORD, the God of their fathers, sent persistently to them by his messengers . . . but they kept mocking the messengers of God, despising his words, and scoffing at his prophets. The prophets messages are Gods messages. For this reason, the prophets often naturally switch from the third person reference to God to the first person direct divine address without any thus saith the Lord . The Old Testament prophets were sure that their message was in verity the message of God!