What is the Bible? Law Prophets Writings Gospels/History Epistles (Letters) Prophecy

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1 Bible Overview What is the Bible? Collection of books that make 1 book 66 Books o 39 books in the 1 st Testament Law: Genesis - Deuteronomy Prophets: The former which are Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings; and the latter which are Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the 12) Writings: Psalms, Job, Proverbs, Ruth, Song of Songs, Esther, Daniel, Ezra/Nehemiah, and Chronicles **These are the exact same books that we have today, but in a slightly different order** Is there any Biblical support for this order? Is there any Biblical support for the fact that the OT is finished at this point? The answer to both questions is yes. In Luke 24:27 Jesus explains all that Moses and the Prophets said regarding himself (see also verse 44). Jesus appealed to a fixed body of evidence that was known to Him and these Jewish men. In Matthew 23:35, Jesus is teaching about persecution and he mentions all the righteous blood spilled from Abel to Zechariah, martyrs from the book of Genesis and Chronicles respectively. As the Greek language became the Language of the Day the Jews decided to translate the Hebrew Scriptures into everyday Greek. The translation was completed and is referred to as the Septuagint. This marked two small changes for the Hebrew canon. First, the order of books was changed from the original order to a categorical order. That is prophets were all put together, poetry, wisdom, history, Law, etc. (This is the order that we have today.) Second, some other writings were included, which we call the Apocrypha. It is important to note that these books were not canonical These were just other writings that were translated with the rest of the OT canon. Keep in mind that a book, bound along one edge, like we think of won t be invented for many years to come. This was essentially a collection of translated scrolls, so the Apocrypha was worthy of translating but not Canon. o 27 books in the 2 nd Testament Gospels/History: Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts Epistles (Letters): Pauline Romans Philemon; Other Hebrews Jude Prophecy: Revelation 40+ authors from every walk of life kings, peasants, fisherman, poets, etc. 1500: written over a span of ~1500 years (1 st Testament: BC; 2 nd Testament: AD) 3 Languages

2 o Hebrew Majority of the 1 st Testament o Aramaic Parts of Daniel, Ezra, and a few other places; ~250 verses o Greek 2 nd Testament 3 Continents o Asia o Africa o Europe 1 Story o Harmony and continuity from Genesis to Revelation. One unfolding story of God chasing after his wayward children and redeeming them in the person and work of Jesus Christ. o John 5:39 o Luke 24:25-27; How Did We Get It? What does the Bible say about itself? o Jer. 2: 2 ( Thus says the Lord over 400 times); 2 Tim. 3:16; 2 Peter 1:16-21; 3:16; Lk. 4:16-21; Mt. 19:4-6 o What can we learn from these passages? 1. That the Bible is from God. It is his revelation of Himself to man. IT IS NOT man writing about God! 2. It is more sure than Peter s own eyewitness account of Jesus transfiguration. 3. It is not a matter of our own interpretation. Scripture already has a meaning and we must apply that to our life. 4. It is for our own good light in a dark place, for teaching, reproof, training in righteousness. 5. Scripture was already being seen as authoritative by the 1 st century church 6. Jesus himself attributed God as the author of the 1 st Testament How did we get the Bible into what it is today? o Canon - We call our Bible the canon, meaning a rule or standard, and so we refer to the books in the Bible as being canonical. o 1 st Testament 1. Moses wrote (Deut. 31:24). 2. Joshua added (Josh. 24:26). 3. Samuel added his writings (I Sam. 10:25). 4. Prophets were collected (Dan. 9:2; Zech. 7:12; Note: Later prophets often quote earlier ones). The OT Canon was the Bible affirmed by Jesus (Mt. 23:35; Luke 24:27, 44); the Jewish canon was Jesus canon. o 2 nd Testament Three criteria for canonicity: Conformity/Orthodoxy The basic shape of the main tenets of Christ and his work came to be referred to as the rule of faith (cf. Jude 3). It was this understanding of the message of Jesus and its implications that became the standard by which

3 any document was measured. If documents like the Gospel of Thomas or Gospel of Judas were written from the first century, the fact that their contents were out of step with the Rule of Faith made it clear they were authoritative for the faith. Apostolicity For a document to be considered authoritative it had to either be written by an apostle or by someone closely associated with one. Of the 27 New Testament documents, only four were not written by an apostle: Mark, Luke, Acts and Hebrews. Universality A document could not reach authoritative status if it was only recognized in one region. Only those documents that were widely distributed and recognized in a wide variety of regions within the churches scattered throughout the world were recognized as authoritative. (Official canon was compiled and officially recognized because of heresy; the church did not arbitrarily choose which books to include and exclude; they simply recognized which books were already seen as authoritative) From the very beginning, there was a distinction between the writings/teachings of the followers of Jesus and the writings/teachings of those who were outside of their circles (e.g., Gnostics). There never was any question that the Gnostic writings were not faithful to the teachings of Jesus Christ (regula fide) because they reinvented the story without regard for the facts (the Gnostics were not eyewitnesses, came much later, and rejected the teachings of those who were with Jesus). Is It Reliable? Is What We Have What the Authors Wrote? o 1 st Testament The oldest whole copy of the OT that we have dates to roughly AD That is 2400 years after it was first written, so how can we be so sure? First of all we have the Dead Sea scrolls. Most of these scrolls date to BC and they agree with the manuscripts that we have from AD Secondly, the scribes left detailed notes of their work and they knew how many letters were in each book, what the middle letter of a book was, etc. If any of these numbers were off in a new copy, the scroll was burned. Israel has a partially burned codex from Egypt that was being destroyed because of its age. o 2 nd Testament ~25,000 Manuscripts : According to our best estimates, there are nearly 5,700 Greek manuscripts of the New Testament ranging in size from a few verses to complete copies of the Old and New Testaments. The earliest of these manuscripts are from the beginning of the second century, less than 100 years after the New Testament documents were written. If you add in additional copies of the New Testament in Syria,

4 Archaeological Evidence o o Latin, Coptic and Aramaic, the total jumps to over 24,000 manuscripts. With this many copies from different geographic regions one can cross check; 99.5% accuracy of Bible s today; Remaining portions are minor variants w/ no doctrinal compromise To give you some sense of how this compares to other writings from the ancient world, let s look at the runnerup Homer s Iliad. There are about 2,500 manuscripts in existence today. The earliest of these is from 400 B.C., which sounds great until you realize that Homer wrote the Iliad around 900 B.C., a gap of 500 years! Quotation by Early Church Fathers If all of our manuscripts of the New Testament disappeared tomorrow, we could still reconstruct almost the entire New Testament from the writings of the early church fathers. The New Testament is the best attested collection of writings from the ancient world. Hands down. It s not even close. Archaeological discoveries that debunked false allegations against the Bible Tel Dan Stele Lysanias inscription (tetrarch of Abilene) Ebla archive Hittites (City of Hattusa) King Sargon Pool of Siloam Sir William Mitchell Ramsay Archaeological discoveries that substantiate the Biblical account Nebo-Sarsekim (chief officer of Nebuchadnezzar) Sennacherib s Campaign Against Judah Quotes concerning archaeology and the Bible 1. Donald J. Wiseman, archaeologist & Bible scholar: the geography of Bible lands and visible remains of antiquity were gradually recorded until today more than 25,000 sites within this region & dating to Old Testament times, in their broadest sense, have been located. 2. Nelson Gleuck, specialist in ancient literature: It can be categorically stated that no archaeological discovery has ever controverted a biblical reference. 3. William Albright, a world renowned archaeologist & professor at John Hopkins states, There can be no doubt that archaeology has confirmed the substantial historicity of the Old Testament tradition. Textual criticism o 400,000 variants sounds bad, until you start thinking about the facts: 99% of these variants are meaningless (e.g., letter difference, word order, etc.)

5 Of the remaining 1%, many of these do not impact the translation of the text Of the remaining fraction of variants that do impact the meaning and translation of the text, many of them are not viable Of the remaining fraction of variants that are meaningful and viable, none of these add any new doctrine, and can probably trace their origin to a simple copying error such as including marginal notes into the text or other unintentional scribal errors. The truth is that many variants due to the free proliferation of the text in various regions of the world means that no one could really falsify these documents! Variants actually prove that no one corrupted the Bible! Why Study It? Window God s word is a window that reveals Himself to us like we can see no place else (1 Sam. 3:21; Ps. 19:8; John 1:1; Hb. 1:1-3) Mirror God s word is a mirror that gives us an accurate picture of ourselves and our need for a Savior (Ps. 19:7; Rom. 3:23; Eph. 2:1-10; Hb. 4:12) Compass God s word is the ultimate standard of truth giving us direction in this broken world (Ps. 119: 105; John 17:17; 2 Tim. 3:16) Two Ways to Study It Familiarity Getting a grasp of the whole of Scripture; big and wide Intimacy Getting more familiar with the God of Scripture; narrow and deep Resources The Bible Canonicity: Kostenberger, A.J. and Kruger, M.J. The Heresy of Orthodoxy. Wheaton: Crossway, Bruce, F.F. The New Testament Documents: Are They Reliable? Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, Bock, D.L. The Missing Gospels. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, Bock, D.L. Breaking the DaVinci Code. Nashville: Nelson Books, The Bible Textual Criticism: Bock, D.L. and Wallace, D.B. Dethroning Jesus. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, Other:

6 McDowell, J. The New Evidence That Demands a Verdict. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1999.