The Bible

God’s Grand Story: Act 3Week 4

What is the Bible?

The Bible is not a book for the faint of heart - it is a book full of all the greed and glory and violence and tenderness and sex and betrayal that benefits mankind. It is not the collection of pretty little anecdotes mouthed by pious little church mice - it does not so much nibble at our shoe leather as it cuts to the heart and splits the marrow from the bone. It does not give us answers fitted to our small-minded questions, but truth that goes beyond what we can even know to ask.

from Thoughts and Reflections by Rich Mullins

What is the Bible?

• A working definition:

A collection of writings containing the record and revelation of God’s interaction with man.

… of God’s interaction with man.

• Actual people• Actual places• Actual problems• Actual encounters• Actually God

New TestamentBook Date Book Date

JamesGalatiansThessaloniansMarkMatthewCorinthiansRomansLuke ActsColossiansEphesians

45-49495150-6050-6055-586061616161

PhilippiansPhilemon1 Peter1 TimothyTitusHebrews2 Peter2 TimothyJudeJohn1,2,3 JohnRevelation

6363-6463-6663-6664-68666768-8085-9085-9090-95

Early Church Fathers

• Clement of Rome (95-97)• Polycarp (110-135)• Justin Martyr (165)• Ireanaeus (130-202)• Clement of Alexandria (150-

215)• Jerome (340-420)• Augustine (354-430)

MARTIN LUTHER

• Augustinian monk• Ninety-Five Theses (1517)• Translated Bible into German• Study Notes

William Tyndale

• English Scholar (1517-1521)• Translated the Bible into English• Directly from Hebrew and Greek

Texts• Introduced New Words in English

– Jehovah– Passover– Scapegoat

• Made popular - Atonement

Biblical Criticism

• Scientific approach to the Bible

• Divided into two approaches– Higher Criticism – composition

and history– Lower Criticism (literary) –

original or “correct” readings

Biblical Criticism

• Old Testament– Masoretic Text – Hebrew Text – 7-10

AD– Septuagint – Greek OT – 3 BC

• New Testament– Vulgate – Latin Translation of Bible –

4 AD– Papyri– Codices– Minuscule – Byzantine Lectionaries

Summary

• The Bible is a collection of writings containing the record and revelation of God’s interaction with man.

• We can trust God and His revelation.