Understanding the Map

Understanding the Map
Notes from Session One

Meaning of the Word “Bible”

The word “Bible” simply means “book.” The word is the descendent of the Greek word “biblios” which was the name given to the outer coat of a papyrus reed in Egypt during the eleventh century which was used to make paper. The term was soon associated with scrolls and collections of writings. The plural form “biblia” was pickup and by the second century A.D. Christians were using the word to describe their writings. When Latin came on the scene, the word “biblia” was transliterated and later, was again transliterated into Old French. The modern English word “Bible” is derived from the Old French with an Anglicized ending. The Bible is also referred to as Scripture, the Word, the Word of God, the Holy Bible, and the Old and New Testament.

Origin of the Bible - The Reliability of Ancient Manuscripts

Remarkably, there is widespread evidence for absolute reliability. There are more than 14,000 existing Old Testament manuscripts and fragments copied throughout the Middle East, Mediterranean and European regions that agree dramatically with each other. In addition, these texts agree with the Septuagint version of the Old Testament, which was translated from Hebrew to Greek some time during the 3rd century BC. The Dead Sea Scrolls, discovered in Israel in the 1940's and 50's, also provide phenomenal evidence for the reliability of the ancient transmission of the Jewish Scriptures (Old Testament) before the arrival of Jesus Christ. The Hebrew scribes who copied the Jewish Scriptures dedicated their lives to preserving the accuracy of the holy books. These scribes went to phenomenal lengths to insure manuscript reliability. They were highly trained and meticulously observed, counting every letter, word and paragraph against master scrolls. A single error would require the immediate destruction of the entire text.

The manuscript evidence for the New Testament is also dramatic, with over 5,300 known copies and fragments in the original Greek, nearly 800 of which were copied before 1000 AD. Some manuscript texts date to the early second and third centuries, with the time between the original autographs and our earliest existing copies being a remarkably short 60 years. Interestingly, this manuscript evidence far surpasses the manuscript reliability of other ancient writings that we trust as authentic every day. Look at these comparisons: Julius Caesar's "The Gallic Wars" (10 manuscripts remain, with the earliest one dating to 1,000 years after the original autograph); Pliny the Younger's "History" (7 manuscripts; 750 years elapsed); Thucydides' "History" (8 manuscripts; 1,300 years elapsed); Herodotus' "History" (8 manuscripts; 1,300 years elapsed); Sophocles (193 manuscripts; 1,400 years); Euripides (9 manuscripts; 1,500 years); and Aristotle (49 manuscripts; 1,400 years). Homer's "Iliad", the most renowned book of ancient Greece, has 643 copies of manuscript support. (Norman L. Geisler and William E. Nix, A General Introduction to the Bible, Moody, Chicago, Revised and Expanded 1986, p. 367). All of the New Testament except eleven verses can be reconstructed from the writings of the early church fathers in the second and third centuries. (A General Introduction to the Bible, Ch. 24.)

Origin of the Bible

The origin of the Bible is God. It is a historical book that is backed up by archeology, and as a prophetic book, it has lived up to all of its claims thus far. The Bible is God's letter to humanity collected into 66 books written by around 40 divinely inspired writers over a period of over 1,500 years. The Old Testament contains 39 books which were written in Hebrew with a few chapters and verses written in Aramaic, and the New Testament contains 27 books which were written in Koine(Common) Greek. The claim of divine inspiration may seem dramatic (or unrealistic to some), but a careful and honest study of the biblical scriptures will show them to be true. Powerfully, the Bible validates its divine authorship through fulfilled prophecies. An astonishing 668 prophecies have been fulfilled. God decided to use prophecy as His primary test of divine authorship, and an honest study of biblical prophecy will compellingly show the supernatural origin of the Bible. Again, no other holy book comes even close to the Bible in the amount of evidence supporting its credibility, authenticity and divine authorship.

Two Major Sections – Old Testament and New Testament

The Bible is one book that is divided into two parts called testaments. The Hebrew word for testament is “berith” which means covenant or compact between two parties. The idea of covenant is special to us as Christians because it relays the idea that we have a special agreement and relationship with the God of the Bible. The Old Testament was first called the covenant in Moses’ day (Ex. 24:8). Later, Jeremiah tells us that God would make a “new covenant” with His people no longer a covenant written on stone as the Law but one that is written upon the hearts of His people by grace (Jeremiah 31:31-34). When Jesus came, he claimed to have fulfilled this at the Last Supper (Matt. 26:28, 1 Cor. 11:23-25, Heb. 8:6-8). And so, as Christians, we recognize the former part of the Bible as the Old Covenant (Testament) and the latter part as the New Covenant (Testament). St Augustine, one of our early church fathers, said, “…the Old Testament revealed in the New, the New veiled in the Old …” Or, “The New is in the Old contained, and the Old is in the New explained.”

Background of the Jewish Scriptures

The historical record of the LORD’s interaction with His chosen people is recorded in the Old Testament or the Hebrew Bible which includes The Law (Torah), the Prophets (Nebiim), and the Writings (Ketubim). Taking the first letter of these Hebrew words gives us T,N,K which form the name of Hebrew Bible – the Tanakh. The Tanakh is the Hebrew canon of Scripture also referred to as the Masoretic text. Some of the historical records and events were past down in an oral tradition and were eventually penned on stone, leather scrolls, and papyrus. The authors, which God inspired, came from a variety of backgrounds; some were kings, prophets, shepherds, political leaders, military leaders, and others. The first five books are called the Law or the Torah and were written and/or edited primarily by Moses.
Although the Jewish Scriptures were copied by hand, they were extremely accurate copy to copy. The Jews had a phenomenal system of scribes who dedicated their lives to copy the Scriptures and who developed intricate and ritualistic methods for counting letter, words, and paragraphs to insure that no copying errs were made. These scribes dedicated their entire lives to preserving the accuracy of the holy books. A single copy error would require the immediate destruction of the entire scroll. In fact, Jewish scribal tradition was maintained until the invention of the printing press in the mid-1400's AD. As far as manuscript accuracy, the recent discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls has confirmed the remarkable reliability of this scribal system over thousands of years.

The Bible Speaks About Itself

Jesus often quotes the Old Testament, declaring that he did not come to destroy the Jewish Scriptures, but to fulfill them. In Luke 24:44, Jesus proclaims to his disciples, "all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me." Also, in Luke 24:27; John 5:39; and Hebrews 10:7, Jesus says that what was written about him in the Old Testament would come to pass. Romans 3:2 and Hebrews 5:12 refer to the Old Testament as the Word of God. We read in 1 Corinthians 2:13, "This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit." This is confirmed in 2 Timothy 3:16. In 1 Thessalonians 2:13, Paul when referring to that which he had written says, "...you accepted it not as the word of men, but as it actually is, the Word of God..." Peter speaks of the inspiration of Paul's writings in 2 Peter 3:15-16, where he maintains that, "...Paul also wrote to you with the wisdom that God gave him. He writes the same way in all his letters..." Earlier, in 2 Peter 1:21 Peter writes, "For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along [moved] by the Holy Spirit." And then finally in Revelation 22:18,19 the writer John, referring to the book of Revelation states, "...if anyone adds anything to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book. And if anyone takes words away from this book of prophecy, God will take away from him his share in the tree of life..." The Bible sees itself as a unified writing with authority and inspiration from God.

Charles Wesley said, "The Bible must be the invention either of good men or angels, bad men or devils, or of God. However, it was not written by good men, because good men would not tell lies by saying 'Thus saith the Lord;' it was not written by bad men because they would not write about doing good duty, while condemning sin, and themselves to hell; thus, it must be written by divine inspiration" (Josh McDowell, Evidence That Demands a Verdict, 1990:178).