The Origin Of The Bible

From where did our Bible come? How did the specific 66 books become known as “the Bible?” Were other books considered and excluded? If so, why?

In the early years after the resurrection of Christ there was no need for written records. Those who evangelized and taught were eye witnesses. They had seen and heard our Lord act and teach. There was no need for verification by written records. As more and more eyewitnesses died it became apparent written records were needed. Confusion was sure to occur if some permanent written record was not secured. This necessitated the codifying of reputable and reliable written texts.

Almost all the books of the New Testament were written within thirty years of the resurrection. The books of James and Galatians, written around 45-50 A.D. were likely the first.

The books gathered were called the “canon.” It comes from the Greek KANON, which comes from the Hebrew QANEH. The Hebrew means a reed or measuring rod. It came to mean the “rule of faith.” As applied to Scripture, it means the standard by which a volume was considered worthy of inclusion in the Bible.

Had not God been involved in the formation of the cannon some valid books might have been omitted or some erroneous ones included. As God used human beings to originate the books, so He used human beings to organize them. The church was the child of the Word not the mother. The result has prompted one historian to say it was NOT AN AUTHORIZED COLLECTION OF BOOKS, BUT A COLLECTION OF AUTHORIZED BOOKS.

The word Bible comes from the Greek word for “papyrus plant” (biblos) because the leaves of the plant were used for a paper product.

The Bible is divided into the Old and New Testaments. The word “testament” comes from the Latin word TESTAMENTUM, meaning covenant.

The Old Testament was formulated four hundred years before Christ. It was the Synod of Jamnia, in A.D. 90, that confirmed the 39 books of the Old Testament as the official cannon.

All the books of the New Testament were revered by the early church even before the formation of the canon. Around 200 A.D. Tertullian, Bishop of Carthage, was among the first to use the term New Testament.

Political events motivated the church to formalize the canon. The Roman Emperor Diocletian bitterly persecuted the church between 302 and 305 A.D. One of his edicts called for the burning of all Scripture. Christians had to decide which books were worth dying for. Diocletian was so sure he had destroyed all texts and eradicated Christianity he erected a monument inscribed: “The name of Christian is extinguished.”

Many other efforts were made to discredit and destroy the books that came to be the New Testament canon. Celsus tried by his sagacity to stifle it. Porphyry by means of his deep philosophy endeavored to eradicate it. Lucien with his keen satire tried to destroy it.

The ancient prophet said it well: “The grass withers, the flower fades: but the word of God shall stand forever” (Isaiah 40:8).

As a Roman Emperor had tried to destroy the Scriptures so an emperor, Constantine, was used of the Lord to give occasion for it to be codified. In 312 A.D. the Emperor Constantine was converted to Christianity. The following year he ended persecution of the church by declaring Christianity legal in the empire. In 325 A.D. he convened the Council of Nicea out of which came the Nicene Creed, a statement of Christian beliefs based on Scripture.

As a sidebar to the primary thesis of this writing spurious claims regarding the Council of Nicea need to be addressed. In Dan Brown’s book The DiVinci Code he writes, “All descriptions of…documents…in this novel are accurate.” Then speaking of the Council of Nicea he asserts, “Until that moment in history Jesus was viewed by his followers as a mortal prophet…a great and powerful man, but a man nonetheless.”

Brown has his facts reversed. The earliest friends and devotees of Christ accepted Him as the man/God-God/man. Only later did leaders of false cults and renegade religious rebels make up stories discrediting this fact. Primary among these was a man named Arius.

The Apostle John was a disciple of Jesus for three years. He wrote from his first person perspective the concept of Christ from a contemporaries point of view: “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” (John 20:31).

John wrote of His eternal nature. “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 regarding the Word of life” (I John 1:1).

In addition to His preexistent nature John wrote of Him as creator. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…. Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made…. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” (John 1: 1,3,14).

“Word” translates the Greek word “Logos.” A way to understand the meaning of a word is to observe how it was used at the time of use. Philo in his writing of the time used “Logos” meaning “all that is known or knowable about God.”
This Logos, Jesus Christ, was the logic, the genius, who used His divine power to design and create the universe.

John and other gospel writers declared the deity of Christ long before the Council of Nicea. Those attending the council used the Bible as the basis for formulating their creed.

In the first two centuries of the emerging church various books now in our New Testament were considered divinely inspired and widely read in the churches. They existed as individual books during this time, not as a canon. The people came to be perceive of and confirm the self-revealing qualities of these books as possessing canonical qualities.

Though the various books that now comprise the New Testament were recognized by different Christian communities it wasn’t until 367 A.D. that the 27 books of the New Testament were listed in an Easter letter written by Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria.

Apart form Athanasius, Jerome, about 385 A.D., recognized the same 27 books in his translation of the Latin Vulgate. The councils of Hippo (393 A.D.) and Carthage (397 A.D.) independently acknowledge the New Testament as now known as Canonical. This was not done at the Council of Nicea as some popular writers indicate.

The convergence of these and other groupings served as convincing evidence the list was correct. Between 200 and 400 A.D. there were ten independent catalogues of Canonical books published. Six of these agree with our New Testament and three omit only one book. The point is, there was general acceptance of the books that were eventually formally accepted long before the canon was confirmed officially.

The compilation of the canon was not a conciliar decision. The church recognized the canon rather than defined it.

The criteria for inclusion was antiquity, inherent authority, apostolic authorship, and Christocentricity. When the era of apostolic authorship ended the canon was considered closed. Intrinsic authority was necessary for canonicity. This is one of the primary reason works known as the Gnostic Gospels were not included.

Apostolic authorship was a vital test for inclusion in the canon. Though some few authors were not actually apostles they were companions of the apostles. Mark was Peter’s protege. Luke was Paul’s associate, and James and Jude were members of the apostolic community in Jerusalem. Of such authors Jesus said, “you also shall bear witness, because you have been with me from the beginning” (John 15:27).

Antiquity was a significant factor in settling on the 27 books. Proximity to the event being written about is important. Consider these factors.

Writings regarding the Iliad by Homer consist of 643 early manuscripts. The earliest was written 500 years after the events.

Writings considered historical that relate to the Gallic Wars involving Julius Caesar number 10 and the earliest was written 1,000 years after the events. Aristotle wrote around 343 B.C. and only five manuscripts exist. The earliest is dated 1100 A.D., 1400 years later.

There are over 25,000 early manuscripts of New Testament books and the lapsed time of the earliest is 25 years after the events. Comparison of these texts verify the message as having historical accuracy that has not having changed. In 1611 the Authorized King James version of the Bible based manuscripts existing at the time was released. Around 1848, during the European revolution, more manuscripts older than those used in the King James translation were found. Since 1611 more than 5,000 manuscripts older than those from which the King James was translated have been found. Approximately 98% of the King James was proven to be clear and accurate. The 2% that was difficult to understand was strengthened and made more understandable by these older texts. They did not change the meaning, they simply made it more clear.

Long before the church had a canon it had a Lord and a theology. That theology was based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ and the earliest preaching of His followers. The New Testament writings are a codification of apostolic tradition. The books became canonical long after they were considered authoritative. As with Sir Isaac Newton, he did not invent gravity, it was there all the time, he merely identified it. So with the consistent canonical books, they were there and simply identified by various councils as such.

As the Christian era progressed a variety of literature related to Christ appeared. Some was written to promote special interests by various heretical groups. Some of these documents were likely well intended but factually inaccurate. An apparently disingenuous unit of such writings was designed to discredit Christ and the emerging Christian faith. Luke implied that a large body of fragmentary literature was circulating in his day.

“Inasmuch as many have taken in hand to set in order a narrative of those things which are most surely believed among us, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word delivered them to us, it seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write to you and orderly account…that you may know the certainty of those things in which you were instructed” (Luke 1:1-4). It had become apparent measures would have to be taken to separate the wheat from the chaff. This necessity resulted in the canon.

A grouping of spurious writings, the Gnostic Gospels, are based on works written nearly 200 years after the events. Only a few copies of each of these exist; some only one. Though some have been given names of Bible characters they were written after the deaths of the persons whose names they bear. Skeptics say these books were excluded because they did not agree with those book included. Precisely! They did not meet the criteria for inclusion nor was their content compatible with that of the broadly accepted works included.

Critics seek to discredit the four gospels on the basis some items are mentioned in only one of them and various ones give different details of the same events. The details do not conflict they merely give different aspects of the same event. By no means does this weaken the reliability on the Word. It indicates there was no collusion among the writers. Each presented his insight on the subjects.

Matthew, Mark, and Luke are called the Synoptic Gospels because they are somewhat parallel in their content. About 90% of the material in the gospel of John is not in the other three gospels. The four dovetail to give a four-way perspective of who Christ was, what He did and taught.

Parenthetically, the Bible’s chapter divisions were created in the early 1200s by Cardinal Hugo at the University of Paris. The current verse divisions were not fully developed until 1551 by Robert Stephanus. The awkward breaks in some verses might be explained in that he reputedly did much of his work riding on a donkey.

The Apostle Peter recorded insight regarding the reliability of Scripture (II Peter 1:15-21). He professed he and others “did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known … the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses” (Vs. 16).

In a court of law an eyewitness is considered to be a creditable witness.
He said he heard the voice of God say of Christ, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Vs. 17). In a court of law a witness who has heard a statement first hand is considered a reputable witness.

He then speaks of “the prophetic word made more sure” (Vs. 19).

Thus, he declares there is a witness more reliable than an eye and/or oral witness. The more sure witness is the Bible because he asserts “no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation” (Vs. 20). This expression does not refer to the reading of Scripture but rather its authorship. This is true because “prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit” (Vs. 21).

The use of the plural personal pronoun “we” makes it apparent this is applicable to the Old and New Testaments because they were written by holy men moved of the Holy Spirit who were eyewitnesses who had heard Christ teach. Only writings by such men were admitted to the New Testament canon.

The word “canon” means a measuring rod, a rule of faith. The Bible being such it is essential for believers to study it and live by it. It has been given to us by heaven and brought to us at great expense by those who penned and preserved it.

Read it to be inspired.
Believe it to be safe.
Practice it to be fulfilled.

Left Behind

The popular selling books in the “Left Behind” series have focused attention on the end times. Over 58,000,000 Americans, one out of seven, have read at least one of the books. That makes it the all time best seller, second only to the Bible.

The novels deal with the coming of Christ. Some of the themes are the Rapture, Tribulation, and Millennium.

The Rapture involves the coming of Christ in the air and the removal of all believers from earth. The Tribulation is a seven year period between the Rapture and the Millennium. The Millennium is a 1000 year period during which Christ is enthroned on earth.

Perhaps the most frequently asked question growing out of the books is will there be anyone saved during the Tribulation?

Let’s start with a direct answer and explain how it is derived at: yes, there will be people saved during the Tribulation, but who?

First, consider the Rapture of the church leaves Earth without one single Christian. If you think things are bad just wait.

However, with the dawning of the Tribulation there are 144,000 Jews saved who become evangelists (Revelation 7:1-8). That is a great host of evangelistic believers. Their evangelical efforts will result in “a great multitude which no one can number” being saved (Revelation 7:9).
It is during the Tribulation that the gospel will be preached to all people not prior to it as is commonly thought.

The issue is pressed further as to whether church members who have been left behind will be saved?

Presently there are a few persons familiar with the gospel who have deferred accepting Christ who say I will just wait and if He comes again trust Him them. Really? If persons under the present favorable conditions aren’t bold enough to trust Him are they likely to do so when being beheaded is the punishment for trusting Him.

Jesus said, “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him…” (John 6:44.)

II Thessalonians 2: 11 speaks of this period of time and notes: “And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie.”

Persons who have heard the gospel and rejected Christ before He comes and the Tribulation begins will not be saved during the Tribulation. Having refused the calling of the Father prior to His coming the Father will no longer call them.

The Last Supper: Who is That Woman in the Painting?

Bottom line —— that is not Mary Magdalene.

That idea never occurred to DaVinci. I have been there, seen the painting, and heard the lecture by the historical guides three times and they laugh at the idea of it being a woman. It is John who leaned on Christ chest according to John 13: 23 & 25. In his gospel John never uses his own name but refers to himself as the disciple “whom Jesus loved.”

It is not a woman in the painting but if it were the image would be contrary to Scripture. Then it becomes a matter of who are you going to believe the artist who wasn’t there or the apostle who was there? Luke 22: 14 plainly says of Christ “…He sat down, and the twelve apostles with Him.”

Those who assert Mary Magdalene was the person in the painting base it on “The DaVinci Code” novel.

They also refer to a “V” near this person which they say was the symbol for femininity. They fail to note there are two such “V” images. The other is some distance removed and is included simply for artistic balance. See other articles on this web site on “The DaVinci Code” and “The Gnostic Gospels” from which some of the author’s material is derived.

Jesus On The Issue Of Swords

Jesus spoke on several occasions regarding swords. It seems strange He would encourage His disciples to sell their cloak and if they didn’t have a sword buy one.

“…he who has no sword, let him sell his garment and buy one” (Luke 22: 36).

“Then they said, “Lord, look, here are two swords.’ And He said to them, “It is enough’.” (Luke 22: 38).

Yet, Christ rebuked Peter when he drew his sword and cut off the ear of one of the soldiers who came to arrest Him ((John 18:10).

To a casual reader this might sound contradictory. The explanation is found in the Greek word MACHAIRA translated “sword.” It did not refer to a large long Thracian weapon. It was a reference to a short curved bladed knife most men carried at all times like many do smaller pocket knives today. It was utilitarian. It was used to dress wild game, prepare it for cooking, and then served somewhat like a fork with which to eat. Persons traveling alone needed one. In the case of the disciples going together two were enough.

Christ wasn’t encouraging His disciples to prepare for combat but for open country survival.

On another occasion Christ said, “I did not come to bring peace but a sword” (Matthew 10: 34).

Jesus Christ is the Prince of Peace and gives individuals peace not obtainable elsewhere. However, He knew the world would violently reject Him. He knew people would be divided over Him. This is a figurative statement revealing that in society and even in some families members professing faith in Him will often be disowned or disinherited.

As a sword separates what it cuts so faith in Christ will result on occasion in believers being separated from nonbelievers.

Ask a young person being ridiculed and left out by non-Christian friends what the sword means.

Ask the rising young Christian in business who refuses to go along with the secularist who designs a scheme to cheat clients what the sword means.

Ask the individual believer who will not compromise morally and go along with worldly actions what the sword means. It means separation.

Faith in Christ separates His followers from the world.

Another figurative use of the word sword appears in the account of the elderly Simeon saying to Mary, “…a sword will pierce through you own heart” (Matthew 10: 35). It is a summary expression for extreme mental and emotional anguish. In the crucifixion this was fulfilled.

Jesus: Did He Descent Into Hell?

One frequently asked questions is: “Where was Jesus those three days His body was in the tomb?” Before relating to that, let’s establish one basic fact. Some interpretations of the passage before us imply people have a second chance to be saved after death. This is a cruel false deception designed by the devil. It is not a Scriptural principle that any person has a second chance after death.

Let’s make clear the one and only one chance any person has for salvation. I Peter 3:18, says that Christ died “that He might bring us to God” = PROSAGO. From PROSAGO two nouns are derived. One means “the right of access.” Through Christ we have the “right of access” to God. The other noun means “introducer” or “the giver of access.” Hence, Christ is represented as the one who gives us access to God. Earlier He had said, “I am the way… (John 14:6.) He is the only way of access to God.

Now consider the question regarding Christ during the days between the death and resurrection.

Many opinions are held by Godly people as to the exact meaning of Christ going and preaching to the spirits in prison I Peter 3:19). The Greek language in which the text was written used no commas or periods, no punctuation at all. By taking this into account and observing the verb tense used in the text, a clearer understanding can be obtained. This meaning is found in this reading: “By the spirit…” (vs. 18), “…he went and preached to the spirits which are now in prison…” When? “…in the days of Noah” (vs. 19).

Thus, He preached, by the Spirit, through Noah, to the disobedient spirits now in prison in the day of their disobedience.

By the same eternal Spirit by which He was made alive He went and preached to disobedient people in the time of their disobedience, which was in the day of Noah.

It is apparent this was not a proclamation offering anyone a second chance of salvation after death. The word translated “preached” is not the word for evangelize, euangelizo, but kerysso, meaning “to announce.”

It should be noted that the Greek word for “hell” is not used, but rather Hades, the place of all departed dead. So all the departed dead from the time of Noah had this announcement made to them in their lifetime.

Where was He then during those three days between death and resurrection? He was where He said He would be when He said to the thief on the cross, “Today, shalt thou be with me in Paradise…”

This passage does not imply there was a second chance for those who were in hell at the time of the crucifixion to be saved. Neither is there such a second chance for any persons.

“It is appointed unto man once to die and after the judgment…” (Hebrews 9:27.)

“He that believeth not is condemned ALREADY…” When? Here and now because they have refused to accept Christ’s “right of access.” They have rejected Him as “the give of access.”

Now there emerges a second superficial difficulty in this text. A study of it makes clear the meaning.

A casual reading of I Peter 3:21 makes it appear that baptism saves. What it really teaches is that baptism is not intended to wash away out spiritual filth any more than it is designed to wash away physical body filth. It is instead a beautiful pledge to God.

Baptism does not save us. It is a pledge of a “good conscience.” The resurrection saves us. Our response to the resurrected Christ is to be confirmed at baptism.
The term “the answer of a good conscience” translates EPEROTEMA. In business transactions, there is a question and answer making a contract legal and binding. The question, “Do you accept the terms of the contract, and bind yourself to keep them?” The pledge, “I do” is “the answer.”

Baptism is a pledge of commitment. Basically the question is, “Do you accept the terms of my service? Do you accept the privileges and promises, and will you undertake the responsibilities and demands of it?” Baptism is a resounding, “Yes!”

In a wedding, the ring is a sign or token of a covenant. The question is posed, “Do you…” The pledge, “I do.” The rings are the symbol of the commitment.

“We are buried together with Him in baptism” (Romans 6: 3,4). It is the grace of the resurrected living Lord that saves us.

This truth is paralleled by a statement regarding Noah. Noah was saved “by the water.” From what? He was saved from the flood tide of sin by the rising waters. The flood was the occasion for God delivering Him from the sinful world. Likewise baptism does not save us. It is associates with the occasion of the resurrection Christ saving us. Baptism is associated with the occasion of Christ saving us. It was the ark that delivered Noah. So it is Christ only that delivers us.

The ark is a type of Christ.
1. It was the Divinely chosen means. It was God’s idea.
2. It was the exclusive means.
3. The ark took the beating for those inside.
4. Entrance was voluntary.
5. Entrance was free.
6. Once people were in, God was in charge of their safety.