Can the Bible be Trusted? - In The Beginning Part 1

Scripture Reading

James 1:22 ESV

But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

Introduction

An unknown writer said, "This Book is the mind of God, the state of man, the way of salvation, the doom of sinners, and the happiness of believers. Its doctrines are holy, its precepts are binding; its histories are true, and its decisions are immutable. Read it to be wise, believe it to be safe, practice it to be holy. It contains light to direct you, food to support you, and comfort to cheer you. It is the traveler's map, the pilgrim's staff, the pilot's compass, the soldier's sword, and the Christian's character. Here paradise is restored, heaven opened, and the gates of hell disclosed. Christ is its grand subject, ...Read it slowly, frequently, prayerfully. It is a mine of wealth, a paradise of glory, and a river of pleasure. Follow its precepts and it will lead you to Calvary, to the empty tomb, to a resurrected life in Christ; yes, to glory itself, for eternity.

The Bible is the of God’s plan to rescue humanity

The number of bibles sold on average has more than doubled in the US since 1950 with:

20 million bibles sold each year

1.66 million bibles sold each month

384,615 bibles sold per week

54,945 bibles sold every day

2,289 bibles sold per hour

38 bibles sold per minute

6.4 bibles sold every 10 seconds

There are over 2,500 translations

The Greatest Library in the World

What is the Bible?

A collection of 66 books

Authored by 40 men over a period of 1600 years (based on the calculation that the Bible began to be written 3,500 years ago to the end of the first century AD)

And was written in three languages: Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek

The Bible was written on various materials: dried reed bark or treated animal skins as well as clay or wooden tablets

The name Bible is derived from the Greek word biblion, which was a reed that was dried and gummed together so it could used as writing material.

(Think of the Bible as a libary rather that one book)

OT & NT

The Bible is divided in two sections: OT (39) & NT (27)

the Old Testament, was finished about 330 years before the birth of Jesus Christ.

The second part of the Bible – the New Testament – focuses of Jesus’ life and the early Christian Church. It was finished around 90AD

The Old Testament

The OT is made up of 39 books that are grouped into 4 main sections:

The Pentateuch - the first 5 books authored by Moses

Followed by the Historial Books

The Poetic Books

And finally the Prophets

Tanak

The Bible OT was a later arranged as we know it today after Jesus and the apostles, but in ancient Jewish tradition the OT was written on three separate scrolls called the Tanak, which is an acronmyn:

T - Torah (first five book of the Bible - GELaND)

N - Nevi’im (prophets)

K - Ketuvim (writings)

Think of the Old Testament like a cousin to the Tanak. It includes the same books as the Tanak but arranged in a slightly different order.

It’s thought that the Jewish leader Ezra collected the various writings together after the Jewish people returned from exile in Babylon. The content of the Old Testament was agreed in 290 BC about 40 years after the last book was written, although there is evidence that the order of the books has changed a little.

Dead Sea Scrolls

For centuries, the oldest Old Testament manuscripts dated back to the 9th century AD. However, in 1947, ancient leather manuscripts from the 1st century BC were found in jars in a Qumran cave near the Dead Sea by a young Bedouin muslim shepherd by the name of Mohammad ed-Dhib (Muhammad Ahmed Al-Hamed). His discovery proved that the Holy Bible in Hebrew and Aramaic had not been changed in more than 2,000 years.

New Testament

The irony of the NT is that in the times of the apostolic church there was no NT. The church had no writings of their own until Paul started writing letters to the churches around 50AD, some 20 years after the cruxifixion of Jesus Christ and the gospels were not written until the 70s-90s AD, until then the stories about Jesus were communicated orally.

As false teachers began disrupting matters, the early church had to decide which writings to recognize as inspired by God.

They had Four basic tests for inclusion in the Bible:

1. Apostolicity

criterion dealt with authorship. The early church asked, “Who wrote the book?” If a book was written or endorsed by an apostle, then it was viewed as authoritative (Matthew 10:1-20).

2. Orthodoxy

Criterion dealt with content. Does the content of the book reflect the teaching of the undoubted apostolic writings? Does it correspond to the faith handed down through the churches? Is it consistent with the gospel? Does it exalt Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior?

3. Universality

Criterion dealt with universal acceptance. Was the writing recognized and used by the majority of churches? Or were only a few churches in a localized area using it? If it was confined to a region, rather than accepted by the whole church, it was rejected.

4. Antiquity

Criterion dealt with age. How old is the document? The further it was dated from Jesus’ life and the spread of the gospel, the less authoritative it became. Essentially, anything written later than the first century was excluded from consideration.

We find the first list of New Testament books that mirror our New Testament today in a letter written by Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria, in A.D. 367

The Council of Hippo & The Third Council of Carthage

the canonization (official list of books) of the New Testament was a gradual process that took place over several centuries, involving debates and discussions within the early Christian community.

The Council of Hippo (AD393) was the first time a council of bishops met to approve a biblical canon that closely resembles today’s Roman Catholic Bible.

The Council of Hippo identified the books of the New Testament as follows:

The [books of the] New Testament:

The Gospels (4 books)

The Acts of the Apostles

The Epistles of Paul (13 books)

Book of Hebrews

Peter (2 books)

John, apostle (3 books)

James

Jude

The Revelation of John

But the Council of Hippo’s list of Old Testament books included

Tobit

Judith

1 and 2 Maccabees

The Wisdom of Solomon, and Ecclesiasticus

The Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox Church, Oriental Orthodox Churches, and/or the Assyrian Church of the East consider these books as part of the Old Testament. However, Jews and Protestants see them as apocrypha (not belonging to the canon of scripture). Dating from 300 BC to 100 AD, before the Christian church separated from Judaism, these books are not directly quoted in the New Testament, but the apostles quoted the Septuagint (Greek OT - septuagint means 70 LXX).

Good Ole’ King James

Missionaries brought Christianity to Britain, but their Bibles were handwritten in Latin and accessible only to the educated.

7th Century

Bede, a monk and historian from Northumberland, first translated the Gospel of John into Old English

1384

John Wycliffe is the first person to produce a hand-written manuscript of the complete Bible in English.

1408

A new law banned anyone from translating or owning any part of the Bible in English without permission.

1526

William Tyndale undertook the translation of the New Testament. Tyndale's translation was the first printed Bible in English. Because of the ban his New Testaments were printed in Germany and smuggled into England in bales of cloth. But he was arrested by the authorities and eventually executed.

1538

When the Church of England was created under Henry VIII, he agreed to the printing of Bibles and commanded that every parish church have a whole Bible in English.

1603

Another significant step came after James 1st became king. It was decided that a new translation should be produced, building on the efforts of Tyndale. Fifty scholars worked on it. The result was the Authorised Version – or the King James Version. It is still available and widely held to be a great piece of literature.

1611

The Authorized Version made it’s first appearance and went through three editions within the year.

1885

The "English Revised Version" Bible; the first major English revision of the KJV.

1901

The "American Standard Version"; The first major American Revision of the KJV.

1971

The "New American Standard Bible" (NASB) is published as a "Modern and accurate word for word English translation" of the Bible.

1973

The "New International Version" (NIV) is Published as a "Modern and accurate phrase for phrase English translation" of the Bible.

1982

The "New King James Version" (NKJV) is published as a "Modern English version maintaining the original Style of the King James."

2002

The English Standard Version (ESV) is published as a translation to bridge the gap between the accuracy of the NASB and the readability of the NIV.

Conclusion

“The Bible is the sort of book that a man could not write if he would, and would not write if he could.”—David Marshall, The Battle for the Book, p. 234

Psalm 34:8a (ESV)

Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good!