THE BIBLE
WHERE DID IT COME FROM?
"Thy
word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path"
Ps 119:105
The question we are examining is a broad
one which can be approached from several different viewpoints as
follows:
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AN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE
It is difficult to know precisely when the process of writing
the books of the Bible began, but conservative Christians
believe that Moses began the process of writing the books of
the Old Testament when he recorded what we now call the
Pentateuch, that is, the first five books of the Bible.
(Some scholars believe that Job may have predated the Mosaic
writings, but this is difficult to establish with any
certainty.)
In subsequent years, Jewish scholars, theologians, prophets,
poets and others recorded different historical, theological,
and devotional materials that reflected God's dealings with
Israel as he brought them out of Egypt and settled them in the
promised land of Israel.
These writings which Christians call the Old Testament reflect
God's unfailing love for his creation as He worked with them
through sin, rebellion, repentance, and restoration, leading
up to the coming of the promised Messiah who would bring final
and ultimate forgiveness, atonement, and hope.
Christians believe that Jesus Christ was the promised Messiah
and that God achieved the atonement of his creation through
the death and resurrection of Jesus, and the establishment of
his new Messianic community, the church.
Christians believe that the story relating to the salvation
God was working through Jesus is reflected in the four Gospels
of the New Testament, and that the remainder of the New
Testament reflects the growth and struggles of the church.
Thus historically, the Bible is the story of God's dealings
with his fallen creation, the working of His atonement that
was realized in Jesus Christ, and his instruction to man
regarding faith and religious practice.
Historically, the Bible was written by men inspired by God's
Holy Spirit as they experienced the working of God in their
lives, and that God's faithful people collected those writings
as they were recognized as being "inspired".
The process of writing the books of the Bible took over 1600
years. The process of finally recognizing the canonicity
of the Bible spread gradually over the period of writing, but
was finally recognized in regard in its present form sometime
in the 6th century AD. During this time individual books
were being collected and recognized by the faithful and
presented in collections we refer to as a
corpus of writings.
For instance, the four gospels were recognized by the church
as the only four reliable canonical Gospels sometime around
150 - 180 AD. Before this the individual Gospels were
treasured by churches in certain areas. As other
strange and heretical Gospels surfaced it became necessary to
sift out the strange heretical and establish the reliable.
This we call the process of canonization of the Gospels.
Through this same period of church history the writings of
Paul were collected into a Pauline Corpus to which the other
Epistles of the New Testament were gradually added.
Revelation was late in being fully accepted since it was the
favored theme of a radical heretical group.
Historically, then, the books of the Bible written over a long
period of history, were gradually gathered by communities of
faith, evaluated, treasured, and collected into first the Old
Testament (or Hebrew corpus), then the New Testament (the
Christian corpus), and finally the Bible (the Hebrew and
Christian corpuses).
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