Can I trust the Bible? -- Part 3

Day 71

OT Reading: Deuteronomy 17-19

NT Reading: Mark 14:1-25

Over the last couple days I've been dealing with a lot of the big questions and hesitations most people offer when considering whether or not to trust the Bible. I see today's topic as a more informative one than persuasive one. Yet since I often get this question I figured here may be the best place to deal with it.

How exactly did we get the Bible?

As we've stated, the Bible was penned by over 40 authors residing on three different continents over a period of 1500 years. And contrary to what some believe, it did not descend from heaven in a nice, leather-bound study edition with the words of Jesus in red-lettering. But instead took a much, much longer journey.

The Old Testament

Depending on the date of the exodus from Egypt, the actual writing of the Old Testament took somewhere between 800-1100 years. It is generally believed that Moses was the one to pen a majority of the first five books of the Old Testament and that he had received his information either from God himself (I mean...Moses did spend a lot of time talking with the Guy up on those mountains) or through oral tradition. These writings were the beginning of a practice writing down the teachings, instructions, history and prophecies that occurred in Israel that continued for centuries until the writing of Malachi around the year 400 B.C.

Regarding the Old Testament, there really was not a lot of debate as to which ones were accepted and which were not. For centuries the Israelites understood their "Bible" to consist of:

The Law: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy

The Prophets: Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and the 12 minor prophets

The Writings: Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Song of Solomon, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther, Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, Chronicles

To the Hebrews, this wasn't a debated issue, it was an accepted issue about which books had been passed down from generation to generation and were deemed part of their canon (a big fancy theological word meaning the books they accepted as inspired). There was one council in 90 A.D. in a city called Jamnia to discuss whether the canon was closed (i.e. no new books) or open (i.e. we welcome new books). Scholars disagree on the level of importance this council actually held, but from this council did come a decree that the Jewish scriptures were in fact "closed."

The New Testament

The New Testament, however, was written in a much more abbreviated amount of time. While Jesus in fact lived from about the year 4 B.C. (yes...seriously but I can discuss that another time if you like :-) ) to around the year 29 A.D., the apostles began to pen the words of the gospels and letters several years later. Our best estimates place the earliest letters written around 50 A.D. with the last letter (Revelation) being penned around the year 95 A.D, and the gospels being written in the 60's.

The New Testament is much more of a hot-button topic. Turn on the History Channel or walk through the aisles of your local bookstore and you'll likely hear about the "lost books of the Bible" or the ones that "were not accepted by the church." Well in the years following Jesus' death and the growth of the New Testament church, there came an influx of writings about Jesus. Some were legitimate, some were falsified, most were given the name of some already-known biblical character (Thomas, Barnabas, Mary Magdalene, etc.) So who decided what made the cut?

Well, to make it into the canon, a writing had to pass the following tests:

1. Can we verify it was written by someone close to Jesus?

One may think that this refers to just those works written by the apostles, except that several letters and books were written by non-apostles. People like Luke, Mark, James and Jude all had direct contact with the work and life of Jesus and therefore their writings were considered authoritative.

2. Does it fit an appropriate timeline to have been written by those connected to Jesus?

Can we trace this work back to the time of the apostles or did it show up a couple hundred years later (as many of the works did)?

3. Is this writing Christ-centered?

The Bible is about Jesus. If a writing was not focused on Him, it did not belong.

4. Is this writing consistent with the Jesus that we know?

In one of these writings is a story about Jesus creating clay pigeons and bringing them to life...mainly because he was bored. I'm not saying Jesus couldn't do that. But in every situation I understand, Jesus' miracles are for a reason. Along these same lines, it was quite common for people to write stories about Jesus acting or teaching certain things, to support their own positions and philosophies (not that anyone would ever do that).

That's by no means an exhaustive criteria, but I think you get the point. While several independent groups created their own lists, in 325 A.D. the council of Nicea declared what we have in our New Testament today to be the final, authoritative message from God.

I hope discovering that the Bible was not delivered by an angel or discovered in a field in a never-before-heard-of-language does not shake your faith in what you read. As we saw yesterday each decision was not made hastily, but instead with a great amount of thought, discussion and prayer before coming to a final determination.

There is a great deal more that could be said, but considering my eyes are crossing already and I believe it's time for me to wrap up this post for the night. Yet I want you to know that I welcome any further questions about this or any topic we may cover. I in fact know of several angles in each of the last three posts that I intentionally did not cover due to space and time. But I hope that through understanding the thought, care, concern and attention to detail that has been dedicated to this very book for the last 3,500 years, you can come to see it as an accurate, reliable witness and testimony to the Truth that is Jesus Christ. But perhaps even more than that, you can see the power the story of Jesus carries even to this day and how drastically someone's life can change by the reading and understanding of the Bible. That, my friends, is the most convincing evidence that I can offer.