The Bible is one book made up of many books. These were written over many centuries by authors with vastly different backgrounds and cultures. Many authors are well known: Moses, David, Solomon, Ezra, Paul. Such men are not only the leading characters in the Bible, they are also its leading producers. A surprisingly large number of the biblical authors, however, are nameless. Who wrote 1 and 2 Kings, for example, or the book of Hebrews?
Fortunately, the answer to questions of this nature is of no major consequence in understanding the Bible. Who doesn't know and appreciate an old Hollywood movie from the 30s and 40s? Yet how many know about Irving Thalberg of MGM or Jack Warner of Warner Brothers Studios? These were the men who made or produced the movies; they were the "authors" of those films. But we know the movies by watching them, not by learning about their authors and producers. Similarly, we know the Bible and the books of the Bible by reading them.
Some kinds of books (e.g., a diary) require some information about its author before it can be properly understood. Other books, like works of literature and history, are written so that you don't have to know the author to understand and appreciate them. What you need to know is given to you as you read the text. The Bible is that way: It is written simply to be read.
This may sound obvious, but many biblical scholars disagree. The Bible is often approached today as a book so different from other books and so distant from our world that we need to learn all about its world before we can understand what it says. Though there is some merit to that process, it ignores the fact that the Bible was written with a general audience in mind. Their authors were sensitive to the limitations of time and culture that future readers might encounter. They thus took these limitations into consideration when they wrote their books.
If there was a particular historical or cultural item they felt needed explanation, they did so (see 1 Sam. 9:9). What they didn't feel needed explaining was general knowledge (like what the moon is) or unimportant items (like the color of Sarah's eyes). For the most part, they allow the readers to fill in the blanks of their stories. We, of course, often fall back on popular conceptualizations. But whether Moses looks like Charlton Heston in DeMille's The Ten Commandments or Michelangelo's Moses does not affect our understanding of Exodus.
The Bible Is the Word of God
Although the Bible shares features with many other kinds of books, it is a unique book. It is the Word of God. We should say something here about what this statement means. Basically it means two things: (1) The Bible is divine revelation, and (2) the Bible is divinely inspired.
The Bible teaches that God has left signs of his existence and power in his work of creation. From the world around us and from within our own selves we can see evidences of God's glory. For example, from the world around us we see that he is a powerful and wonderful God; from within our own consciences, that he is a personal and holy God. But there is a limit to what can be known about God in that way. Apart from the Bible, for example, we cannot know God's will or God's love for us. We may know from within ourselves that we need God's grace and mercy, but without God's personal speaking to us we cannot know how to receive it. In the Bible God has made known his will for us.
But how does God speak to us in the Bible? It does so like any other book-with letters, words, sentences, and paragraphs. The Bible is a written text. If we can read, we can read the Bible. This all sounds elementary, but it is important. Sometimes the idea is cast about that the Bible is nothing more than human thoughts and aspirations about God. The Christian idea of revelation is much more than that. The Bible may be human words, but those words express the very words that God wants us to know.
How can human words express God's will? The answer to that question leads to the notion of inspiration. The books of the Bible were written by human beings who were "carried along" in their writing by the Holy Spirit (2 Peter 1:21), but the Bible never gets more specific than that. It does not tell us how the Holy Spirit moved these writers to express God's will. We can safely say that God did not dictate the words of the Bible to the writers, nor did he merely give them suggestions on what to write. In the clear statement of Scripture, its written words are "God-breathed" (2 Tim. 3:16). What the human writers wrote, God intended to say to us.
The Canon of Scripture
It is one thing to talk about the Bible in general terms, but just exactly what Bible are we talking about? Isn't there some disagreement on what books are even in the Bible? The answer, of course, is that there is disagreement, but not as much as one might think. The standard for what books are in the Bible and what books are not is called the canon.
For the Old Testament, the standard was determined long before the birth of Jesus. We have little direct knowledge of the process that brought this about, but we can say with certainty that the Old Testament we have today is the same Scriptures that Jesus used. It was the accepted standard of the Jews in the first century.
In some parts of the church, in the early centuries A.D., additional books were put alongside the canon of the Old Testament in some manuscripts of the Bible. These were popular works that were used in worship and devotion. Later on some of these works were accepted as part of the canon by the Roman Catholic Church and some Orthodox Churches, though not having the same authority as the Bible. These books (up to eighteen) are called the Apocrypha.
There is no dispute about the canon of the New Testament. At an early stage in the history of the church, the New Testament canon was closed, and no new books were added.
The basis for including a book in the canon of the Old and New Testament was twofold: (1) universal acceptance among God's people-Israel for the Old Testament and the church for the New Testament; (2) internal witness of the Holy Spirit-the Spirit of God bore witness to the early readers of Scripture that these books and no others were the inspired Word of God.
How do we know the early church accepted the right books and genuinely witnessed the Spirit's confirmation? For the Old Testament we have the confirmation of Jesus. Throughout his ministry, Jesus quoted and used the Scriptures as God's Word. To accept his authority is to accept the authority of the Old Testament. For the New Testament we have the confirmation of the apostles-the authoritative men who had received direct instruction from Jesus during his earthly ministry. Their acceptance and confirmation of the canon of the New Testament assures us of its authority in our lives today. In this way the authority of both the Old Testament and the New Testament is grounded in the authority of Christ.
What Is the Old Testament?
The Old Testament is also the Bible of Judaism, where it is called simply the "Hebrew Bible." To speak of an "Old" Testament acknowledges the existence of a "New" Testament. Unfortunately, calling it the "Old" Testament also may imply it has been superseded by the New Testament. That is not the case. The New Testament itself and the Christian church acknowledge the full authority of the Old Testament for the Christian life. By means of these Scriptures, Paul says, the Christian "may be thoroughly equipped for every good work" (2 Tim. 3:17).
Christianity shares the Old Testament with Judaism because Jesus was a Jew and because he saw the whole of his life as a fulfillment of the ancient Jewish prophets' hope in the coming Messiah. Christians believe Jesus is the Messiah long expected by the Old Testament prophets. The Old Testament is thus the basis of the New Testament. Without it the New Testament has little meaning. When John the Baptist, for example, saw Jesus, he said, "Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world" (John 1:29). Without the Old Testament notion of the sacrificial Passover lamb (Ex. 12:23) and the prophet Isaiah's messianic Servant of the Lord who was to give his life as a ransom for sin (Isa. 53:6), John's words cannot be understood.
Long before the birth of Jesus, Jews reverenced and searched their Hebrew Scriptures. They had a deep and sincere hope regarding God's faithfulness to his Word. God, for example, had promised David that a royal son would be born to his house who would rule in peace over Israel and all the nations (1 Sam. 7). Those who wrote the Old Testament had as one of their primary goals the preservation of that hope for generations to come.
Those who collected and preserved the various books of the Old Testament and grouped them into their present form were also motivated by an intense expectation of the coming Savior. The scribe Ezra had much to do with that process (e.g., Ezra 7:10). During his time, the greatest part of the work of collecting and shaping the books of the Old Testament occurred.
An ideal picture of the faithful Jew awaiting the fulfillment of the Old Testament promises can be seen in the old man Simeon, who waited at the temple "for the consolation of Israel" and who immediately recognized Jesus as the promised Savior (Luke 2:25-32).
The Unity of the Old Testament
The basic structure of the Old Testament canon is different in the Hebrew text than in our English Bibles. In the latter the historical books are placed together, as are the poetic books, the prophetic books, and so on. But in the Hebrew Bible, the books are arranged according to their content and central themes, with the following threefold order:
(1) The Law (Pentateuch). Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy
(2) The Prophets. Former: Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings Latter: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Twelve Minor Prophets
(3) The Writings. Psalms, Job, Proverbs, Ruth, Songs of Songs, Ecclesiastes, Lamentations, Esther, Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, Chronicles
The chief difference between this and the English Bible lies in the location of the prophetic books, the poetic books, and the later historical books (Ezra, Nehemiah, and Chronicles). Also, Daniel is not included among the prophetic books and Ruth is not in with the historical books.
Some biblical books have later additions attached to them that cannot be traced back to the original authors. The death of Moses, for example, is attached to the end of the Pentateuch (Deut. 34:5-10)-surely not added by Moses himself. An exhortation to watch for the return of Elijah was added to the end of Malachi (Mal. 4:4-6). These two additions include similar material. The end of Deuteronomy alludes the coming of a prophet "like Moses ... who did ... miraculous signs and wonders." Similarly, the end of Malachi speaks of the return of the prophet Elijah, who, we know from the historical books, did great signs and wonders like Moses. Elijah was a prophet like Moses, and Elijah was coming again!
These two additions are strategically located at the seams of the large sections of the Old Testament canon. Significantly, they also correspond to the additions placed at the beginning of the books of Joshua and Psalms. Joshua begins with an exhortation to meditate day and night on the Law of Moses; he who does so will prosper (Josh. 1:8). This is the same exhortation offered in Psalms 1:2-3, even using the same words!
Shaping of the Hebrew Canon
Such convergence of material suggests a deliberate shaping of the Old Testament canon. The Old Testament has been made into a single, unified book.
The Shaping of the Old Testament
The Old Testament received its present shape sometime after the return from Babylon (539 B.C.)-a crucial period in Israel's history. It was a time of severe testing for God's people, for their hope and faith in his promises had all but been dashed to pieces. It seemed as though those promises had not only not come about, but were less likely than ever to be fulfilled. Daniel, for example, waiting for the fulfillment of God's promises to the fathers and pouring over the prophetic books, wonders out loud why the prophetic words have not yet been fulfilled (Dan. 9:1-2). In reading Jeremiah, he understood Jeremiah to say that the Messiah and his kingdom would come at the close of the seventy years of the Captivity (see Jer. 25:11). But the Captivity had ended, and there was still no Messiah. Daniel cannot understand what went wrong.
God answered Daniel's prayer by sending the angel Gabriel to reveal the precise time of the coming of the Messiah. Gabriel told Daniel that the Messiah would not come at the conclusion the seventy years of Babylonian Captivity. Why not? Because, as Daniel's prayer of confession shows (Dan. 9:4-19), Israel had not remained faithful to God's covenant and thus was not ready for the Messiah. His coming would be delayed until their transgression was complete and their wickedness atoned (9:24), which would not happen until after sixty-nine "weeks" of years (9:25-26)-that is, after some 483 years. The traditional reckoning of years from Daniel's day to the coming of Jesus fits comfortably within that time frame.
In other words, the Old Testament Scriptures were collected and shaped during the darkest hour of Israel's history. The people needed renewed hope in the promises of God. Those who gathered and formed the various books of the Old Testament into the single collection we now possess were eagerly awaiting the coming of the Messiah. They read the Scriptures with that hope in mind, and their expectation is reflected in their work. At the same time, that expectation was a result of the themes inherent in the books they were shaping. Thus, the shape they gave to the final form of the Old Testament was a reading sequence that enabled its readers to see more clearly the picture of the Messiah.
What Is the New Testament?
The New Testament is the authoritative collection of God-breathed writings. Its books were written by the disciples of Jesus, the apostles, and its main teaching is that the Old Testament promise of the "new covenant [or testament]" (Jer. 31:31) was fulfilled in the death and resurrection of Jesus (Luke 22:20; 2 Cor. 3:6).
The New Testament is shaped around a fourfold purpose. (1) Its initial
purpose is to present, in narrative form, the birth, life, death, and resurrection
of Jesus Christ. The four "Gospels" each describe events in the life of
Jesus. They cite specific messianic prophecies that show how Jesus' life and
death fulfilled Old Testament promises.
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Excerpted from The Books of the Bible by John H. Sailhamer Copyright © 1998 by Zondervan. Excerpted by permission.
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