Bible - One Big Story, Origins

THEOLOGY FOR EVERYONE

God, the Bible, and Man       Wk 2 - The Bible: One Big Story, Origins

1. What is the Bible?

-God’s revelation of himself to man

-A collection of books that tells one story

-What is the story?

-What is the big idea?

2. Where did the Bible come from?

- Who wrote it?

--Depends on your presupposition

--2 Tim. 3:16 - God

--2 Pet. 1:21 - Men carried along by the Holy Spirit

--Authors - [Handout]

-Old Testament

--God directly authors initial words and they are stored in the Ark of the Covenant (Deut. 10:4-5)

--Moses authors book of Law and has it placed beside the Ark of the Covenant (Deut. 31:24-26)

--Joshua adds to the book of Law of God (Josh. 24:26)

--As God continues to speak to his prophets he has them continue to record their work (Jer. 30:2)

--Books are always written in a time prophets are present (Moses - Malachi = 1440 - 440 BC)

--Apocrypha - additional books written after 400 BC (Esdras, Maccabees, Sirach, etc.) admittedly written without prophets (1 Maccabees 4:45b-46, etc.)

-New Testament

--Jesus promises the Holy Spirit will guide apostles (John 14:26; 16:13-14)

--Apostles claim authority equal to prophets (2 Pet. 3:1-2) and that they too are writing God’s Words (1 Cor. 14:37)

--Apostles call each other’s works “scripture” (1 Tim. 5:17-18; 2 Pet. 3:16)

--Attributes of New Testament Scripture

---Authored by an Apostle or under his authority

---Accepted by church community

---Consistent with the rest of Scripture

--Athanasius compiles formal 27 book list (AD 367), rest of church formally agrees (AD 397).

--Other books (1 Clement, Didache, other “gospels”) were not added to NT because they did not have attributes of Scripture

-Can we trust the Bible that we have?

--Translations

---Original languages (Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek)

---Modern translation spectrum (Thought-for-thought to Word-for-Word) [Handout]

---Is Word-for-Word/Literal always the best?

---Examples of struggles:

----Philemon 7 - bowels or heart?

----1 Corinthians 7:21-24 - bondservant, servant or slave?

----Ephesians 1:3-10 - one sentence or multiple?

--Copies

---Do the copies we have of the Bible contain errors?

---Available Evidence is enormous and continues to grow [Handout]