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FAQ
Of course there are questions ? We have here a few and there might be an answer for you.
Topic 1
Question 1: Who wrote the Bible ?
Answer:
A Better question is How the Bible Came to Us !
The Bible is a general name given to the literature accepted by the Christian church as revealing God's purposes for the world. The term Bible comes from the Greek word biblion(book). The New Testament uses the phrase "the
scriptures" to specify the Old Testament either in part or as a whole. In one New Testament reference, the writings of the apostle Paul are included in that designation (II Pet. 3:16) Paul added the prefix holy when he said that from
childhood Timothy knew the "holy scriptures which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Jesus Christ (II Tim. 3:15)."
The designations Old Testament and New Testament to characterise the
Bible's two divisions came into use in the late second century (II Cor. 3:14). The word testament means "covenant." The Christian addition to the earlier
Hebrew volume contrasts the "new covenant" prophesied by Jeremiah (Jeremiah 31:31f) with the former one (Hebrews 8:13). Christ is the mediator of the new covenant (Hebrews 8:6f; Hebrews 10:9)
Compilation
The Bible is a composite of 66 books, 39 in the Old Testament and 27 in the New Testament. The various writings of the Old Testament appeared at first as
separate scrolls in the Hebrew language. It is not known just how and when they were gathered into one volume. By Jesus' time, however, the Old Testament
was clearly a completed collection: its threefold division into the Law (of Moses), the Prophets, and the Writings (the Psalms and other books of
"wisdom literature") was generally accepted, as is reflected in the words of Luke 24:27, cf. 16:29, and Matthew 5:17, etc.). The ultimate bringing together
of the scattered writings that make up the Old Testament took place under the superintendency of God. Christ authenticated it as "the word of God" and as
divine scripture which cannot be broken (John 10:35).
The authenticity of the Old Testament text as we now have it can be confirmed from a number of external sources. Beyond that, the Jews were exceedingly
meticulous on this score. If a single error was discovered in a manuscript, or some kind of blemish after use in public worship, the manuscript was promptly
destroyed and the whole retranscribed. There is reasonable certainty, therefore, that the text of the Old Testament manuscripts that we now have
preserves with substantial accuracy the biblical word from Israel's earliest times.
The New Testament stands to the Old Testament in a relationship of promise to fulfilment . The first Christians saw in the former Testament a disclosure of
God's dealings with his chosen people, Israel. The Old Testament prophecies and word pictures of the Christ to come were set in the context of God's choice
and preservation of Israel until the time should fully come (Gal. 4:4). The Old Testament records what God spoke in times past by the prophets concerning
the Messiah (Hebrews 1:1; cf. I Pet. 1:11). The New Testament records God's final word in his Son (Hebrews 1:2), the Word become flesh (John 1:14)
The initial destinations of the various writings that make up our present New Testament were widely scattered. Some, like the Gospel of Luke and the book
of Acts, were written to single individuals. Most of Paul's letters were addressed to specific Christian communities; some of them, written before the
four Gospels, are among the earliest New Testament writings. Of the Gospels-Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John-Mark is thought to be earliest.
According to an ancient source, it reflects the preaching of the apostle Peter. Mark's first readers were mainly Greek, so he found it necessary to translate
specific Hebrew words, e.g., Boanerges (Mark 3:17), Talitha koum (Mark 5:41), and Abba (Mark 14:36), and to explain Jewish customs (Mark 7:3; Mark
14:12) background. Matthew's audience was mainly Christians of Jewish background. He therefore appealed to the history of Israel and Old Testament
prophecy as fulfilled in Christ (e.g., Matthew 4:4-12 cf. Deuteronomy 8:3; cf. Psalms 91:11; cf. Deuteronomy 6:16, etc.)
Matthew traced the genealogy of Jesus to Abraham and David, and left specific Jewish ideas unexplained (e.g., "Son of David," "end of the age"). The
third Gospel was written by Luke to give a man named Theophilus an accurate account of the ministry of Jesus "until the day in which he was taken up" (Acts 1:1).
Mark, Matthew, and Luke are called the Synoptic Gospels because, in spite of their differences, when "seen together" (sunopsis) they follow the same
general pattern. The fourth Gospel has a more theological and spiritual perspective.
Although all of the New Testament writings had a precise destination they soon became the common property of the scattered Christian communities. Paul's
letter to a specific church was passed on for reading in others (cf. Col. 4:16). Copies began to multiply. In the course of time the original writing was either worn out or lost so that no actual autograph now exists. By comparing existing
manuscripts-and there are very many-scholars can bring to light with almost a hundred percent certainty what was on the first parchments. One famous
manuscript, the Codex Sinaiticus (Alpha), discovered by Tischendorf in 1844, contains the full New Testament in Greek. The Codex Alexandrinus (A), now in
the British Museum, has both Testaments in Greek. The Codex Vaticanus (B), in the Vatican Library, contains the Old Testament in Greek and the New
Testament as far as Hebrews 9:14. Exactly when the writings were brought together to form the New Testament as we have it today cannot be determined,
but it was early. The process was well under way by the end of the first century.
Holy Scriptures and Sacred Canon
"Holy Scriptures" means "writings that have been set apart." The synagogue and the church considered them different from secular literature because they
believed them to have been inspired by God. "Sacred canon" represents a further stage at which a list of such holy writings were drawn up as a closed
collection, not to be added to, subtracted from, or altered in any way.
"Canon," from an ancient Semitic word meaning "reed," came to mean an authoritative standard by which other things are measured. As applied to the
Bible, the word means that in this particular collection of writings-as against other writings-the Divine purpose and will for all are to be found.
Question 2: What are Canons ?
Answer:
Overview of the Canonical Criteria
The Old Testament Criteria
1. Attestation as holy scripture by Jesus Christ and apostles.
2. Consistency of message regarding God's redemptive plan for mankind and God's attributes.
3. Statements regarding appointment of human writers as God's spokesmen.
4. Israelite and Jewish history and tradition.
5. Determination and preservation of scripture by Israelite and Jewish leaders, as well as by the Christian church.
6.The writings of rabbis, other Jewish scholars, the early "Church Fathers" and other Christian scholars.
7. Historical and archaeological corroboration.
The New Testament Criteria
1. Authorship by an apostle or by one intimately associated with an apostle.
2. Consistency of the sermons in the book of Acts and the messages in the Epistles and Revelation with the teachings of Jesus Christ in the Gospels.
3.The nature of the principles contained in the New Testament message.
4. Acceptance, use and preservation by early Christians; writings of the early "Church Fathers" and writings of Christian scholars.
5. Consistency with and use of Old Testament by Jesus and New Testament writers.
6. Church decrees of Council of Hippo and Council of Carthage (A.D. 393-397).
8. Continuous acceptance by Christians to the present time.
9. Historical and archaeological corroboration.
The Formation of the Old Testament Canon
The Old Testament canon varies in Jewish, Greek, Roman Catholic, and Protestant Bibles. Over and above the contents of the Jewish Bible, there are
some fifteen books or portions of books that were accepted as in some sense authoritative by Greek-reading Jews of around the time of Jesus. Protestants
have sometimes included these as an appendix to the Old Testament, under the label "Apocrypha," or excluded them altogether. Roman Catholics accept
twelve of these as "deuterocanonical" and include them in various places in the test of the Old Testament. It is important to remember that the Hebrew Bible
consists of three sections: the Law or the Torah (the Pentateuch), the Prophets, and the Writings.
Recent studies of the formation of the biblical canon (by J.A. Sanders, B.S. Childs, and others) have resulted in the conclusion that the canon was not
formed primarily by official decisions of authoritative persons or councils at particular moments of history. Rather the canon resulted mainly from a long
process in the Hebrew and Christian communities in which people of later generations read, heard, accepted, and applied to themselves and their
situation written records of God's words to and dealings with chosen people and communities of the past.
The canon, therefore, was not something imposed on others by arbitrary authority but something freely accepted by people who opened their eyes and
ears to the story of the past and who sought to apply that story to the needs and circumstances of the moment. Because this story spoke with a word of clarity
and power about who they were (identity) and what they should do in the world (lifestyle), it was treasured and passed on to subsequent generations as authoritative tradition.
And only those books were passed on that had continuing meaning for the life of the community. The rest (like the Book of Jashar [Josh. 10:13], the Books of
the Wars of Yahweh [Num. 21:14], the Pseudepigrapha, apocryphal gospels, etc.) simply dropped by the wayside.
While canonization was primarily a process, there were moments in which the process was caught up and fixed by official declarations and policies. These
moments were marked by special circumstances and needs: personal and national guidance in times of political-religious crisis (the break-up of the
Assyrian empire and Josiah's decision to go it alone in the late 7th century B.C.); the return from the Babylonian exile and the need for guidance in the
reconstitution of national and religious life in hostile surroundings; the fall of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 and the threat to Judaism of extinction, in part by the rise
of Christianity and its literature; the spread of Gnosticism in the church before and during the time of Marcion in the second century. These were times when
the community officially reaffirmed its effective traditions (those that were adaptable to the continuing needs of its life) and waived aside those that were meaningless and even a threat to its existence.
The stages of fixation are relatively well marked, but the more or less fluid process behind them is not so easily recoverable.
Stages in the Fixing of the Old Testament Canon
1. The Recognition of the Authority of Deuteronomy
Upon discovery of this book (or part of it) in the temple in 622 B.C., King Josiah recognised its authority as the word of Moses and of God and based a sweeping reform on its law (II Kings 22:3-23:25).
2. The Exaltation of "the Law" (the Torah, the Pentateuch)
The Pentateuch in its present form seems to have been completed in the fifth century B.C. and accepted officially as God's word for the nation by Ezra and
his contemporaries in the fifth or early fourth century (Neh. 8:1-10:39). Some bodies of material (sources) of the Pentateuch certainly were drawn together
much earlier than this and undoubtedly possessed authoritative status in the community that used them, altered and added to them, and passed them along.
Conservative scholars today believe that the Pentateuch was essentially complete by about 1000 B.C. but was revised in minor ways until the time of
Ezra (La Sor-Hubbard-Bush). Liberals do not grant so early an essential completion; but most of them admit the relative antiquity of traditions and
sources contained in it. Most scholars today agree that Ezra fixed the completed Pentateuch as the basis of the life of the nation around 400 B.C.
3. The Fixing of the Canon of the Prophets
We have no knowledge here. It cannot have occurred before the time of Malachi (about 450 B.C.), since Malachi is included, and may have occurred
as late as about 200 B.C. The apocryphal book Ecclesiastics (the Wisdom of Jesus the Son of Sirach) of the second century B.C. refers in a clear-cut way to
"the law and the prophets" as well as to "the other books of our fathers."
What the historical circumstances of the fixing of the prophetic collection were is unknown. Was it the threat of Hellenism following upon the conquests of
Alexander the Great and his successors, with its own emphasis on oracles, sibyls ("inspired" prophetesses), and Sibylline books, that made necessary a demarcation of approved literature?
Many of the books of both Former and the Latter (Later) Prophets undoubtedly had been recognised as authoritative for a long time before the closing of the
collection. Disciples of the prophets gathered together their masters' teachings, added to them, and promulgated them in their respective communities, where they were heard and applied to ongoing life.
Topic 2
Question 1 You give us more questions and we will answer them here.
Answer:
Question 2
Answer:
Topic 3
Question 1
Answer:
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