The Bible
What is the Bible?
The Bible is the primary sacred text for Christians. The word, Bible, comes from the Greek, ta biblia, which means "the books." While many people regard the Bible as a single book, it is in fact a library of books which were written over a period of approximately 1500 years.
For Christians, the Bible tells how God was revealed to the Jewish people first, then to all people through Jesus Christ. Christians believe the Bible tells about how God acts in human history; it is the inspired Word of God.
Since the Bible is not one book, but a library of books, there are many different kinds of writing in it, e.g. prose, proverbs, parables, prophesy, prayers, poetry, narrative hymns, legends, legal documents, letters, sermons, songs, stories. In order to be able to understand a passage of the Bible one must be aware of:
- In what form it was written, e.g., prose, poetry, history, etc.
- Why it was written.
- When it was written.
- What the whole book is about
- What each word means
- How it fits with other parts of the Bible on the same subject
The languages in which the books of the Bible were written were Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek. Most of the Old Testament books were written in Hebrew.
For Christians, the Bible is divided into the Old Testament and the New Testament. The word, testament means covenant or agreement. The Old Testament is the first part of the Bible written and preserved by ancient Hebrews before Jesus Christ and the New Testament was collected and preserved by early Christians after the time of Jesus Christ.
The word, Gospel, comes from an Anglo-Saxon word and means "Good News." It means the good news proclaimed by Christ and captured in written form by Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
There are no original manuscripts of any books of the Bible in existence today, only copies. The oldest copy is the Book of Isaiah, which is in Hebrew and dates from about 100 BCE. It was found in a cave near Jericho in 1947 and is part of the Dead Sea Scrolls. The oldest New Testament manuscripts date from approx. 350 CE.
Development of the Bible
The contents of the Bible developed in three stages:
Oral Stage
Stories were told and shared between communities and from generation to generation by word of mouth. The more important stories were memorised to be retold on special occasions.
Writing Stage
As time went on, people began to write things down. Writing was difficult and very few people could read. For hundreds of years both the oral tradition and the written word existed side by side. Some parts of the Bible were written to meet a particular need of the community. Not all oral traditions were written down.
Editing Stage
Material was chosen which best represented the religious traditions of the people. The oral and written accounts could have differed slightly, so editing was done to bring unity between the two. The contents of the Bible came from this last stage. These three stages of development existed for the most part simultaneously, though the oral stage came first and the editing stage came last.
Many different human authors wrote the Bible over a period of approximately 1500 years. Christians believe God inspired these human authors. It was not the intention of these authors to write a book that would be entered into "The Bible," as we know it. The purpose was to preserve the traditions of how God interacted with humanity.