introduction to the bible

Introduction to the Bible

Contact Information

It was great meeting you! If you need to reach me, here’s the contact information. Be sure to let me know if you have any questions about the material in this power point or about the course.

• 443-5428 (c) or 775-3170 (h)

• Email: [email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

Psalm 19

• Psalm 19.• David’s message.• God’s two books:

• God’s first book: Creation.• God’s second book: Scripture.

Psalm 19

God’s First Book:

Creation

19:1-6

Beautiful places you have visited

Psalm 19

God’s Second Book:

His Word; the Bible

19:7-11

Psalm 19David’s description of the

Word

perfectsurerightpurecleantruerighteous altogether

Psalm 19David’s description of the

Word’s “actions”

restoring the soulmaking wise the

simplerejoicing the heartenlightening the

eyesenduring forever

• More desirable than gold• Sweeter than honey

Have you

experienced these truths?

Psalm 19

NASB:

Psa 19:11 Moreover, by them Your servant is warned; In keeping them there is great reward.

The Message:

Psa 19:11 There's more: God's Word warns us of danger and directs us to hidden treasure.

Psalm 19

God’s Word is amazing and it—accompanied by the ministry of the Spirit—accomplishes amazing things,

including:

The realization of sin (19:12).

The desire to live pure, pleasing to God in action (19:13), word,

(19:14) and thought (19:14).

“O LORD, my rock and my Redeemer.”

Psalm 19

Can you pray from Ps. 19:14 from the heart? Think about it.

“May the words of my mouth and the

meditation of my heart be pleasing in

Your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my

Redeemer.”

Nuts’n Bolts

• SyllabusAny questions?

• HomeworkCollege-level.Electronic by NOON the next

day.Don’t hesitate to email

w/questions.Remember: “I can’t grade

nothing.”

My presupposition.The Bible is God’s Word.

The leap of faith. “Leap of Faith” ----------by Kaylin Keith

The exercise of the gift of faith.Eph. 2:8,9

I cannot but believe.

Honest Questions

1. What is the Bible?2. How did we get the Bible?3. How do we know that the books in the Bible truly belong there?4. Which translations are appropriate

to use?5. What is in the Bible?6. How should we study the Bible?7. What constitutes good preaching? 8. How else should we use the Bible?

What is the Bible?An unbeliever’s perspective.

A fable.

A fabrication of men for the purpose of promoting either interesting stories or morals.

A religious book for enlightenment.

A book or collection of books written to deceive and enslave converts to Christianity.

What is the Bible?An observer’s perspective.

“The Bible is a collection of books that have been considered authoritative by the Christian church and have been used to determine its beliefs and doctrines.”

The Journey from Texts to Translations: The Origin and Development of

the Bible, Paul D. Wegner, Baker Academic, 1999.

What is the Bible?A believer’s perspective.

How would youdefine “the Bible”?

What is it?

The Three Big “I’s”

Inspiration

Inerrancy

Infallibility

How The Christian Bible Came to Be

Orthodox Christianity denies:

That Scripture is inspired in the same sense of Shakespeare or Twain’s texts.

That—except in rare occasions such as Moses’ reception of the Ten Commandments—God dictated words and sentences to the authors.

“Read Demosthenes [Louis L’amour] or Cirero [Tom Clancy]; read Plato, Aristotle, and others of that tribe [John Grisham, JK Rowling]. They will, I admit, allure you, delight you, move you, enrapture you in wonderful measure. But betake yourself from them to this sacred reading [Bible]. Then, in spite of yourself, so deeply will it affect you, so penetrate your heart, so fix itself in your very marrow, that, compared with its deep impression, such vigor as the orators and philosophers have will nearly vanish.”

John CalvinThe Institutes of the Christian

ReligionI.VIII.1

Inspiration:

The mysterious act by which God breathed out His perfect Word through imperfect men who were intimately led by the Spirit of God.


“But know this first of all, than no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.”

2 Peter 1:20,21


“All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.”

2 Timothy 3:16,17


“God ensured by his Spirit that everything they wrote was exactly what he wanted them to write. Just as the Lord Jesus was both fully human and fully divine, so the Bible is both a human and a divine book. It is God’s Word: he is the ultimate author.”

Vaughan Roberts, 16-17


Inerrancy:

“The inerrancy of Scripture means that Scripture in the original manuscripts does not affirm anything that is contrary to fact.”

Wayne GrudemSystematic

TheologyZondervan, 1994


“Sanctify them in the truth; Your Word is truth.”

John 17:17

“The law of the Lord is perfect…”

Psalm 19:7


Infallibility:

The infallibility of Scripture means that Scripture in the original manuscripts is incapable of affirming anything that is contrary to fact.


“Forever, O Lord, Your word is settled (stands firm) in heaven.”

Psalm 119:89

“‘But the Word of the Lord endures forever’” (quote from OT [Is. 40:8]) And this is the word which was preached to you.”

1 Peter 1:25


Canon of Scripture

Canon: “rule, measuring rod.”

The Protestant Canon:

The sixty-six books of the Bible.

Canonicity: The process by which the Scripture (the collection of God-breathed out books) was officially recognized (not determined).


In 100 A.D., Jewish scholars at the Council of Jamniah recognized the current 39 OT books as given by God.


In 170 A.D., Melito, Bishop of Sardis, wrote a letter in which he specifically mentioned all of the books of the Old Testament with the exception of Esther.

Why are peoplepickin’ on Esther?


In 367 A.D., Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria, mentioned all of the books currently in our Bible except Esther.


Councils

Carthage (A.D. 397) The Western Church agreed with the Eastern Church and approved the same list of books (the current 66 books found today in the Bible).


Review

My important presupposition: I am convinced that the Bible is the Word of God.

God’s Word is better than God’s world (Ps. 19 [more desirable than gold, sweeter…).

The Bible is inspired in a supernatural manner (the Holy Spirit using holy men).

Because the Bible is God’s Word, it is, by necessity, inerrant and infallible.

The Protestant canon and early church councils (Eastern and Western Church

agreed that the 66 books belong in the Bible @ the Council of Carthage in A.D. 397).


Criteria:

(1) Authorship.(2) Content.(3) Early recognition and usage.


Criteria: Authorship

“A prayer of David” (Ps. 17 inscription)“The Proverbs of Solomon, son of David” (Prov.

1:1)“The word of the Lord that came to Hosea”

(Hos. 1:1)“Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus” (Rom. 1:1)“Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ” (1 Pet. 1:1)“Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ” (Jude 1:1)“John to the seven churches” (Rev. 1:4)


Criteria: Content

Did it compliment or contradict what was already known regarding the person and works of God?

Did it compliment or contradict what was already recognized as Scripture?

Was any new information genuinely “believable”?


Criteria: Early Recognition& Usage

Did The Church recognize the Divine Imprintation on the work (the book, letter)?

Was The Church using the text as Scripture?


“…and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation; just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand…

2 Peter 3:15,16


“…which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction.”

2 Peter 3:15,16

Peter labeling

Paul’s letters“Scripture”


Criteria:

(1) Authorship.(2) Content.(3) Early recognition and usage.(4) Church-wide acceptance.

Was it being used by everyone? Yep.

Did the divided church come together to acknowledge the text? Yes—

Carthage.


My wrestling match.

Leap of faith.

My logical clincher:

If God is big enough to lead imperfect men to write His perfect Word, He is big enough to guide other men to recognize which of the circulating texts have divine authorship.

Honest Questions

1. What is the Bible? (I)2. How did we get the Bible? (I)3. How do we know that the books in the Bible truly belong there? (I)4. Which translations are appropriate

to use? (I)5. What is in the Bible (II)?6. How should we study the Bible? (III)7. What constitutes good preaching?

(III)8. How else should we use the Bible?

(IV)

The Three Big “I’s”

Inspiration

Inerrancy

Infallibility

Review

How do we know the Bible is inspired?Autograph Evidence

It declares itself to be truth.

Manuscript EvidenceThe amount; complimentary not contradictory

Apostolic EvidenceThe guys died to teach it.

Archeological EvidenceConfirming what is proclaimed.

Persistent EvidenceThe Bible is still here despite attacks.

Existential EvidenceMillions and millions of lives have been

changed.

Review

We believe.

We receive assurance for our belief from the sheer number of manuscripts that we have.

Rylands papyrus, 2nd

Century


We believe even if many others choose to disbelieve.

“Another century and there will not be a Bible on earth! “

Voltaire1694-1778


William Lane Craig answering the question: “Can we trust the Bible written 2000 years ago?”


John Piper answering the question: “Can we trust the 66 books of the Bible?”

Interesting figures in the history of the Bible

The Bible writers themselves!

Moses

Solomon Think about these guys--

very interesting folks!

Matthew Matthew makes my list

because of how he

Paul reacted to Jesus’ call

on his life (Luke 5).


Luke

Converted on one of Paul’s missionary journeys.

Acted like an investigative reporter in order to presenthis findings to Theophilus(Lk. 1:3 and Acts 1:1).


Jeromec. 340-420

A great scholar whochose the life of monk,living in Jerusalem.He called the Bible “the divine library” (bibliotheca divina).His Latin translation wasentitled The Vulgate. Jerome

1630, Peter Paul Rubens


John Wycliffe1324-1384He produced the first complete English translation of

the Biblein 1382 (from The Vulgate to English). The painting

aboveillustrates Wycliffe’s nickname “The Morning Star of

the Reformation.” He helped pave the way for Luther and

Calvin.


The church in Supai. This is where I preached when I flew via helicopter into the Grand Canyon in 2001. I met a couple working with Wycliffe, translating the

Bible into the Havasupai language for the elders of the tribe who cannot read English—Awesome!

Desiderius Erasmus1496-1536

A Roman Catholic scholar who first published (had printed and distributed) a

Greek New Testament.


Martin Luther1483-1546

Translated Erasmus’

Greek text into German as he lived in disguise

as “Knight George.”

Irony—The picture above was found at: allthingsbeautiful.com!


William Tyndale (1494-1536).Burned at the stake on October 6, 1536 because he dared to translate the Bible into English (from original languages to English). The Roman Catholic Church of the Day did not want the Bible to be read by the laity (the regular church members). The Vulgate was the only approved translation.


King James I1566-1625

Did not like the Geneva Bible

that the majority of Europeans were using. Employed fifty scholars to create the best English translation at the time.


Count Lobegott Friedrich Constantine von Tischendorf 1815-1874

Three visits (1844-1859) to the Monastery of Saint Catherine on Mount Sinai


Monastery of Saint Catherine, Egypt.


Tischendorf 1815-1874

He was the “Indiana Jones of Biblical Manuscripts.” Thanks to Tischendorf,we have Codex Siniaticus.


Codex SinaiticusMost of the OT; All of the NT. Earliest complete NT; dated middle 4th century.


Dead Sea Scrolls

A young Bedouin shepherd

looking for a lost goat found much, much more!

800-900 different original documents (scrolls; fragments; pieces) were found in more than ten caves.

Dead Sea

Scrolls were

discovered between 1947-1956.



Qumran Caves & Pottery

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/scrolls/images/pottery.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/scrolls/art2.html&h=625&w=640&sz=55&hl=en&start=17&tbnid=7HcM0QDIOGTbCM:&tbnh=134&tbnw=137&prev=/images%3Fq%3DQumran%26gbv%3D2%26ndsp%3D18%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN

Does anyone present read the Bible in the original Hebrew or Greek?

Bible Translations

Translations

• The point isn’t so much as to pick a certain translation and then die for it.

• The point is to pick an appropriate translation and use it.

• Appropriate = purpose.• Having said that, do

you have a preference?


Which of the following was the first Bible printed in the New World (America)?

a. KJVb. NIVc. Erasmus’ Greek Textd. None of the above

John Eliot1604-1690The Algonquin Bible


My final encouragement to you tonight:

That’s what Augustine heard children singing in the neighborhood. As he heard the song, he saw a Bible and he did it! He picked up the Bible, read it and it (God through the Spirit using the Word) changed his life!

introduction to the bible

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