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Do you know …
what the word "Bible" means
The English word "Bible" is derived from the Greek biblia, meaning "books". The early Christians called their writings "biblia", referring to the various scrolls that together formed their collection of Scriptures. This is an accurate term for the book we know as the Bible. Although it is bound and used as a single book, the Bible is actually a collection of 66 books in one volume. So, the Bible you are holding in your hand is actually a kind of mini-library!
how the Bible is compiled
The Bible is made up of two main sections called the Old Testament and the New Testament. The word "testament" is a translation of the Hebrew berith and the Greek diatheke, both of which refer to a "covenant" or solemn treaty. The Old Testament is seen by Christians as the Old Covenant that God made with the Israelites. The history of Israel and the laws of Moses as contained in the Old Testament serve to prepare humanity for the New Covenant that is foretold in Jeremiah 31:31-34. Jesus Christ officially instituted the New Testament or New Covenant at the Last Supper He had with his disciples (Matthew 26:28). The two Testaments together consist of 66 books – 39 in the Old and 27 in the New Testament.
old testament
The Old Testament, which is also the Jewish Bible, was originally written in Hebrew and Aramaic. It contains the history of the Israelites and God's dealings with them, as well as prophecies preparing the way for the coming of the Messiah, the Saviour whom God promised. In the Jewish tradition it is divided into three main parts: the Torah (the first five books of the Bible), the Prophets and the Writings. The Christian Old Testament contains exactly the same books, but they are arranged in a different order, following an ancient Greek translation.
new Testament
The New Testament was originally written in Greek. The four Gospels in the New Testament reveal that Jesus Christ is the Saviour whom God promised, and tell of his life and teachings. They were written by four of Jesus' disciples, each telling the same story from his individual perspective. The word "Gospel" comes from the Old English word godspell, meaning "good news". This word was used to translate the Greek euangelion which also means "good news". In the Acts of the Apostles we find an account of how the first Christians lived and spread their faith throughout the known world of the time. The Epistles are letters written by various authors (including the apostles Paul and Peter) to specific churches, groups or individuals. The Epistles address actual problems experienced by the people to whom they were written, and they also explain the teachings of the Christian faith and encourage Christians to live according to that faith. Revelation, the final book of the Bible, is a vision describing the consummation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
chapter and verse numbers
The Bible wasn't originally written with chapter and verse numbers. These were added much later to help the reader find his or her way to any specific scripture more easily. The English theologian and biblical scholar Stephen Langton introduced the chapter divisions as we have them in the English Bible early in the 13th century. Verse divisions were used much earlier in the Jewish Bible or Old Testament, approximately by the 6th or 7th century AD. This system was introduced into the Bible by the famous French printers Henri and Robert Estienne in the 16th century.
when the Bible was written and by whom
The Bible is a remarkable Book! Consider this: it took a wide variety of authors – from shepherds to kings – at least 1 200 years to write it down, and yet it contains one and the same central message and understanding of who God is and what He is like! The Old Testament prepared humanity for the Gospel of Jesus Christ as told in the New Testament, and so it can be said that "the New is in the Old contained, and the Old is in the New explained" (W. Graham Scroggie).
Long before the earliest events described in the Old Testament came to be written down, in fact, long before the art of writing developed (4th millennium BC), they were handed down by word of mouth from generation to generation by parents, elders and storytellers. At some stage these accounts were written down by scribes. Because the writing materials they used, such as papyrus scrolls, were perishable, the text had to be copied many times over in the course of time. The process of writing down and copying the books of the Old Testament continued for many centuries. Exactly when some of these books were written is a question to which we don't know the answer, and probably never will. There are, however, a number of books on which scholars agree concerning their date of writing. The books of the Old Testament were for the most part collected and edited by the Jewish exiles in Babylon during the 6th century BC. By the end of the 1st century AD, the collection of books that make up the Old Testament had been established, and it has remained as it is up to the present day.
Being much more recent, most of the books in the New Testament can be dated fairly accurately. They were written down mainly in the second half of the 1st century AD. The Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles are eyewitness accounts that include reports derived from persons other than the authors. Unlike the hundreds of years that it took to write down the Old Testament books, no more than half a century elapsed between the actual events described in the New Testament and their being recorded. Within a century of their being written, these books were regarded as authoritative by the general Christian community, and by the end of the 4th century AD, the books of the New Testament as we have it today were officially declared to be authoritative by the church.
the authors
A wide variety of human authors were involved in the process of writing the biblical books. These include prophets like Moses, Daniel and Isaiah, scribes like Ezra, kings like David and Solomon, and apostles of Jesus Christ like Peter and Paul. As a result of the variety of authors, the reader of the Bible "hears" the Word of God coming to him or her through many different styles and voices, and from various perspectives. The fact that such a large number of different people could write a collection of books over such a long period of time, and that these books should all have one and the same central message and understanding of who God is, can only be seen as a divine miracle. The Bible is truly an awesome Book – in fact, it is the Word of God to people of all ages and nationalities!
why we can trust the Bible
Some people doubt the integrity and authenticity of the Bible as we have it today. Christians believe that the Bible is the Word of God, and that God Himself inspired human authors to write the books contained in it. Apart from the Bible's own claim that it is the divinely inspired Word of God (see for example 2 Timothy 3:16), there are numerous other facts that can be mentioned to support this belief. The scribes, both Jewish and Christian, who copied the Scriptures through the ages were meticulous in their job, and the accuracy of their work is seen from the large number of biblical manuscripts that have been discovered.
Although the original manuscripts of the books of the Bible are no longer in existence (due to the perishable nature of the ancient scrolls made from papyrus), we still have access to tens of thousands of Old Testament manuscripts and fragments of manuscripts that originated in many different places in the ancient world. The Dead Sea Scrolls, dating from the 3rd century BC to the 1st century AD, are a good example of these ancient manuscripts confirming the reliability of the Old Testament text.
More than 5 000 manuscripts and fragments of manuscripts of the New Testament have been discovered to date. Like the Old Testament manuscripts, these were also discovered in many different places in the ancient world. Some of the copies available were written a little more than a century after the composition of the original manuscripts. Faced with this overwhelming evidence of the integrity and authenticity of the biblical text, one can echo what Sir Frederic Kenyon so aptly said: "The Christian can take the whole Bible in his hand and say without fear or hesitation that he holds in it the true word of God, handed down without essential loss from generation to generation throughout the centuries."
Despite heavy persecution of the Christians and their faith, and attempts to destroy all existing Bibles (for example the attempt by the Roman Emperor Diocletian from about 302-305 AD), as well as vehement scientific, psychological and philosophical academic attacks against it, the Bible still remains the most widely published book in the world today. The lives of millions of people have been influenced by this Book through the centuries. Even today, people are still touched and changed by the divinely inspired message of the Bible. Many, including some of the New Testament writers, have died a martyr's death for their faith in the God of the Bible.
Ultimately, however, believing and understanding the message of the Bible is a step of faith. Our prayer is that God Himself, the Divine Author of this Book, will give you a heart of faith that you may grasp and believe His personal message to you.
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