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Apologetics
21. Questions about the Bible in General
(An
Introductory Overview)
A
series that helps consider the foundations for faith
Contents:
Introductory
Comments
•
Defining
our aims
1.
Why is the Bible so important to the Christian?
•
Tells of
Jesus, teaches, is God speaking, is testimony, helps change us
2.
What actually is the Bible?
•
An overview
3.
Why can we Trust It?
•
What others
have said about it
4.
So why isn't it always easy to Read and Understand?
•
The difficulties
to be overcome.
5.
How did the present books come to be in the Bible?
•
A brief synopsis
to be considered in detail later.
6.
Further Questions for Consideration
•
Some other
things to be considered in detail later.
This
page simply introduces us to the Bible.
It
merely starts opening up the areas for consideration which will
be dealt with in following pages.
Here
we will look at why the Bible is important to Christians, what
it actually is, why it is not always easy to read, and how it
came to be.
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| 1.
Why is the Bible so important to the Christian? |
a)
The News about Jesus
“The
truth of Christianity is that it is true to
what is there” Francis
Schaeffer in He is There and He is not Silent
In
other words the Bible brings to us the world as it is.
However, part
of it tells us all about Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the founder
of what we now call the Christian faith.
Without the
Bible, we would not know in detail who Jesus was and what he
has done and how it affects us – this is how important the Bible
is to us!
Speaking
of itself it says, recording the apostle Paul's verdict of
it:
“All
Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking,
correcting and training in righteousness, so that
the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work”
(2 Tim 3;16,17)
Thus
from this Christians consider it is useful for:
-
teaching
– imparting knowledge and understanding
- rebuking – tell off
or chiding – pointing out when we go wrong
-
correcting
– showing the right way to go
-
training
– bringing order and discipline into our lives.
c)
A Divine Origin Claimed
However,
perhaps the most important feature of those two verses was the
opening declaration that the Bible is ‘God-breathed.'
Many
times in the Bible itself we find the word, “God said,” or similar
indications of God's involvement.
In
the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets
at many times and in various ways, but in these last days
he has spoken to us by his Son.
(Heb
1:1,2)
The Bible is all about God speaking.
d)
Eyewitness Testimony
The
apostle Peter in his letter affirms that the Gospels are what
they saw and heard:
“We
did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told
you about the power
and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses
of his majesty. For he received honor and glory from
God the Father when the voice came to him from the Majestic
Glory, saying, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him
I am well pleased." We ourselves heard this voice
that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred
mountain.” (2 Pet 1:16
-18)
The
apostle John similarly affirms this:
“That
which was from the beginning, which we have heard ,
which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked
at and our hands have touched --this we proclaim concerning
the Word of life. The life appeared; we have seen it
and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life,
which was with the Father and has appeared to us. We proclaim
to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also
may have fellowship with us .” (1 Jn 1:1-4)
Similarly,
the historian, Luke, explains the carefulness with which he
has gone  about
the task of compiling his Gospel:
“Many
have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have
been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed down to
us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants
of the word. Therefore, since I myself have carefully investigated
everything from the beginning, it seemed good also to me to
write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus,
so that you may know the certainty of the things you have
been taught.” (Lk 1:1-4)
The
apostle John is quite open about why he writes and the extent
of what happened:
"Jesus
did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples,
which are not recorded in this book. But these are written
that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of
God, and that by believing you may have life in his name”
(Jn 20:30,31)
“Jesus
did many other things as well. If every one of them were written
down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room
for the books that would be written.”
(Jn 21;35)
In
these and in many other instances, the writers of the Bible
declare that God has spoken, and God has come!
In
addition, Christians will say of the Bible that:
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| 2.
What actually is the Bible? |
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a)
Generally
The
word Bible is derived from the Greek biblia, meaning
"books," and refers to the sacred writings of Judaism
and Christianity.
The
Bible consists of two parts:
It
is 66 ‘books' written by at least 40 different authors covering
a time span of about two thousand years.
It
is made up of history (narrative), teaching, prophecy and poetry.
It
sells about 44 millions copies worldwide every year
It
has been translated into over 2000 different languages
b)
Its Breakdown
The
canon, or officially accepted list of books in the Hebrew Bible,
consists of 24 books according to Jewish reckoning
and is divided into three parts:
-
The
Law - the Law (the Torah), often called the
Pentateuch, comprises five books, Genesis through Deuteronomy
-
The
Prophets - divided into three parts:
-
the
earlier prophets (Joshua, Judges, 1 and 2 Samuel, and
1 and 2 Kings);
-
the
later prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel);
-
twelve
books called the Minor Prophets because of their brevity.
-
The
Writings
-
The
11 Writings include three poetic books (Psalms, Proverbs,
and Job); the five scrolls (Song of Solomon, Ruth, Lamentations,
Ecclesiastes, and Esther); an apocalyptic work, Daniel;
and Ezra-Nehemiah and 1 and 2 Chronicles.
Christian
Bibles arrange
the books differently:
For
a detail of the history of that included in the Old Testament
see later pages.
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Answer:
In
general it is useful to see what authoritative persons said:
-
In
the twentieth century, theologian and renowned Christian
philosopher, Francis Schaeffer,
said the Scriptures were “complete
and sufficient” i.e. they do not tell us everything
there is to know about God but they tell us sufficient upon
which to base our well-founded faith.
Millions
of people can testify to how their lives have been changed by
it.
-
In
May 1928 Prime Minister, Stanley Baldwin
said: “The Bible is highly explosive.
But it works in strange ways and no living man can tell
or know how that book, in its journey through the world,
has startled the individual soul in ten thousand different
places into a new life, a new world, a new belief, a new
conception, a new faith.”
-
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
(of Ancient Mariner fame) wrote: “I
perused the books of the Old and New Testaments - each book
as a whole and also as an integral part. And need I say
that I have met everywhere more or less copious sources
of truth and power, and purifying impulses - that I have
found words for my inmost thoughts, songs for my joy, utterances
for my hidden griefs, and pleadings for my shame and my
feebleness”
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4.
So why isn't it always easy to read and understand?
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Answer:
There
is a variety of writing - history, poetry,
teaching, prophecy
- some
is meant to be taken literally, others not (e.g. poetry)
There
are different cultures to ours.
- imagine
an alien coming to our culture and needing explanations
It
is a different period in history to ours
- as
with any historical periods there are differences from ours.
It
was written in different languages to ours
-
therefore it has had to be translated and words differ in
meaning.
There
are many different styles of writing used
- as
with any literature, it needs understanding.
It
is spiritual and
we aren't always very spiritual!
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5.
How did the present books come to be in the Bible?
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Answer:
We
will look at this later in detail on the pages of how the Old
& New Testaments came to be.
Essentially,
the Old Testament books were venerated by the Jews and eventually
brought together and accepted for what they were in the centuries
before Christ.
The
New Testament collection process began in the 2nd century and
continued on through the next two centuries.
There
were strict rules as to what should be included, as we'll see
later.
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6.
Further Questions for Consideration
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What
we have considered here, has purely been for interest and as
a start towards thinking why we have the Bible, and its use
for us.
There
are of course many other questions we will need to look at as
well in the coming pages, for example:
- How do we know who wrote
it?
- How can we be sure what
we have is what they wrote?
- How can we be sure they
didn't just make it up
There's
a big field to consider!
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