How we got the Bible

I had a conversation this week with one of my younger friends (that's beginning to be everybody). He had been asked about how we got the scriptures and those asking apparently had some expertise of their own. However, it seems most of the knowledge of such things in the general public comes from verbal tradition, such as Uncle Bob once said.. or from movies and books. One that had a lot of impact on public information was the Davinci Code.

This book/movie took historical realities such as the Council of Nicea and attached a story to that occasion. It is very deceptive in this way because there really was a Council of Nicea, but it was not convened to come up with a Bible. It was concerned with orthodoxy, what we should believe, so authoritative Christian writings were an important issue but let's take a look at some of the development of the New Testament.

Most of the writings of the New Testament were complete by the late 60's A.D. By about 100 A.D. the last of what we have as our New Testament had been written. As early as the mid 100"s we hear reference from the Church fathers' writings regarding the books they read as authoritative. Justin Martyr refers to the Memoirs which are a reference to what we know as the Gospels (you know the memoirs of Jesus, kinda neat, huh?) These were read regularly in the Church meetings. In about 150 A.D. there was a man named Marcion who was considered a heretic, who rejected all the apostolic writings except for 10 of Paul's letters and the Gospel of Luke. His reference to these let's us know that already in the Church there were several letters that were being regarded as authoritative. Some that he rejected.

The Gospels gained their authority from the fact that they recorded the sayings and message of Jesus. Irenaeus in the late 100's used the 4 gospels, Acts, Paul's letters, I Peter, I & II John and Revelation along with the Shepherd of Hermas (definitely a Book you should read sometime). The Shepherd of Hermas was used a lot in the early Church, but didn't have the same connection to the Apostles as the other writings.

Tertullian around 200 first used the term New Testament and accepted all current New Testament books except James, I Peter, 1-2 John, and Jude. Origen of Alexandria accepted a similar list in the early 200's. In all the Church the Books that were considered authoritative then are the ones we have now in our New Testament. The only additional Book in the early Church was The Shepherd of Hermas in some communitites.

In the early 300's when persecution began against the Church and the scriptures were being burned Christians had to decide which books were worth dying for. This began to crystalize in the Church which books should be finally recognized as the New Testament. In 367 Athanasius of Alexandria published a list of Books considered Divine which included our current 27 N.T. books along with the Old Testament. Jerome in 385 recognized the same and the Councils at Hippo in 393 and Carthage in 397 officially accepted our current N.T. (Much of this information I am taking from the writings of David Hubbard.)

Popular thought espoused through The Davinci Code was some people got together in the 320"s for the Council of Nicea and "created" the Bible. That's just not the truth.

What the New Testament scriptures give us are the words of Jesus and the teachings of the Apostles. The scriptures do not give us life. Jesus said, "You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is these that bear witness of Me." John 5:39 The Bible is not a book to be worshipped. It is revered as God's revelation to us. The greater revelation of God comes through meeting the One the scriptures bear witness of and that is Jesus. I love to read the Bible and can often feel the presence of the Lord as I read, because they are leading to that very One.

We don't have the very original letters written by the Apostles, but we have so many copies that as we look and compare you can find a very reliable source that has power in it to lead you to Jesus and that is the goal.

During the reformation period the scriptures of the New Testament were scrutinized again. Some of the leaders of the reformation, such as Luther, brought up the questions about some of the books that were not fully accepted by some during the early 200's and Luther also questioned Esther in the O.T. Esther it might be noted never mentions God, but if you didn't know that fact, it's hard to believe His Name is not in there when you read it.

Did men write the Bible? Yes, inspired by the Holy Spirit. The Old Testament books are almost all connected to or written by Prophets who had incredible revelations of God. The New Testament books were accepted on the basis of Apostolic connection, with the possible exception of Hebrews whose authorship is not absolutely known. Everyone else was an Apostle or had direct connection with the Apostles.

One last note, the Apocrypha, which is a compilation of writings that are questionable as to their Divine authority for use in matters of doctrine, are included in some Bibles, including the 1611 King James Bible. These were included in many Bibles in the early Church not as part of the accepted scriptures, but as readings that could be edifying or helpful. The Maccabees for example provide some good history of the time between the 2 testaments.

I may come back to this topic. Got a question? Let me know.