Canonicity of The Bible

When I wrote last week about the origins of the Bible, my friend Metin asked these important questions which I will try to answer:

1. How and when and where was the Bible changed (or adjusted)?

Since I am a Protestant Christian I can only speak of what the Protestant branch of Christianity sees as authoritative or as the Biblical canon. Canon is a Greek word meaning "measuring rule" or "standard," and the test of canonicity for Protestants is whether the books in the Bible were inspired by God. Protestants believe that the Bible is the complete, infallible word of God to humanity.

The Old Testament books were seen as inspired by God if they were written the prophets, were referred to in the Talmud, were mentioned by Jesus and in His apostles' writings, and were referred to as inspired by God by early church figures like Origen and others and by historians like Josephus.

What was accepted as the New Testament canon were books that were known early on to have been written by Jesus' apostles and were read regularly in the early church. Early church leaders quoted liberally in their writings from both the Old and New Testaments. This is also proof. There have been disputes over the centuries by various fringe Christian groups, but generally the majority of the books that make up the Protestant Bible has been accepted from the beginning of the church.

2. Wasn't there a commission years after Jesus' death to keep certain things and to delete yet others??

There were a number of so-called lost books of the Bible that were never fully accepted by the church. If one reads the Bible and some of these books, which I have done, there is a vast difference in tone and plausibility between these false books and the Bible. There were various councils (commissions) over the centuries especially in the eastern church, but not in the Protestant.

3. And how do we know it's the word of God?? Is it because no man is capable of writing such a book?

As Christians the only way we know the Bible is God's word is through faith. With faith one has to decide to believe even though all concrete evidence may not be available. People have believed in the Bible over the centuries, however, not just through faith but also by miracles and blessings that happen in their lives and others. I personally know the good feelings I have whenever I read the Bible. I can be hurt and discouraged, and an actual reading gives me courage and strength to go on. This has happened many times to me.

Executable Outlines summarizes better what I have attempted to explain here.

The Bible's Origin(s), Part II

What became The Old Testament of the Bible was originally written in Hebrew and Aramaic on a type of writing paper called papyrus which is a reed and also on parchment which was made from animal skins. Both papyrus and parchment were joined together to make a long roll called a scroll. None of the original copies of the Bible on these types of materials have survived. In about 280 B.C. The Old Testament was translated into Greek by seventy men and became known as the Septuagint referring to the seventy who did the task of translating.

The second half of The Bible, The New Testament was written completely in Greek. In the 4th century one of the early church leaders, Jerome translated The Bible into Latin which became known as the Vulgate. The Vulgate became the official version of The Bible for western Europe for over a millenium.

As time passed and fewer and fewer people had knowledge of Latin except church clergy, an Englishman John Wycliffe decided that the common people should be given the opportunity to read The Bible in their own tongue, so he and his followers set about the task of translating the entire Bible into English. Wycliffe's project was limited, however, due to the fact that during his time, the 1300s, the printing press had not been invented. Therefore, all of his volumes had to be done by hand. By the time of William Tyndale in the 1500s, the printing press had become available, so Tyndale did his own translation of The New Testament from the Greek to English, and his version was the first to be mass produced.

King James of both England and Scotland had a committee translate the Bible in 1611 creating the most authoritative and best loved versions of the Bible, the King James or Authorized Version.

The Bible's Origin(s), Part I

This is part one of an explanation of the origin(s) of the Bible.

The Bible is the holy book of Christians. It is an amazing work and one of the masterpieces of world literature. It is also inspired, but not by human thought, but by the Holy Spirit which is the third person of the Godhead (Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost/Spirit).

The Bible which means 'book' is one book which is made up of 66 books which were written over a 1500 year period by various authors from different walks of life who lived in various places in portions of what we call today the Middle East and the Mediterranean. The authors came from a broad range of social strata: kings, prophets, fishermen, tax collectors.

The 66 books of the Bible are divided into two parts, The Old and New Testaments. The Old Testament is made up of 39 books. Both Christians and Jews accept The Old Testament as God's word and their religious canon. The Old Testament begins with the story of how the world and humanity were created. It covers the history of God's chosen people beginning with the patriarch Abraham and his descendants the Hebrew people, and their rise and fall through sin. Throughout the Old Testament there are allusions to and direct promises by various prophets of God that eventually He would send the Messiah to rescue humanity from the devastation of sin.

The second half of the Bible is the New Testament which is made up of 27 books. This portion of the Bible is accepted only by Christians. The New Testament tells the story of the coming of the Messiah, Jesus Christ, His birth, life, death, and resurrection. It continues with the story of the early church and ends in a final complex, sometimes frightening, mysterious prophesy of the future of all humanity with a promise of a second return of Jesus Christ to the earth.