The Bible that you hold in your hand is an amazing book.It is a book that has been preserved and unchanged through the centuries. Forty different authors from different walks of life, different vocations, different social standings and from different geographical areas were the human instruments God used to write the Bible. Their lives covered a span of over 1400 years and most did not know each other. Yet the stories and prophesies they wrote had one unifying thread running throughout, from the first verse of Genesis to the Amen of Revelation. It is the story of a loving Father who seeks the redemption of a fallen and lost mankind by sending His Son as the one and only way of salvation.
Moses was likely the first human author of the Bible. But the stories he wrote and recorded in the Book of Genesis were events that happened long before he was born. So, how did he know about these events, i.e., the account of creation, the creation of the first man and woman and their fall from innocence in the Garden of Eden, the events of Noah and the flood, the call of Abraham, the birth of the patriarchs, and so on?
These stories were handed down word-by-mouth and carefully preserved
through the centuries. Moses through the guidance and inspiration of God carefully recorded these stories in written form; that of course being the first book of the Bible, the Book of Genesis (the book of beginnings). He also wrote the next four books from events he personally lived and experienced: Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. All five make up what is known by Bible students as the Pentateuch or simply ‘the five books’. Jews refer to these same five books as the Torah or the written law.
It was not just any story that God included in His Book, nor was it just any person He chose to record those stories. God chose those events and stories that told of His redemptive purpose and His self-revelation to mankind whom He created and loved. Those whom He chose to write those events were godly men, those whom He could trust to faithfully record His divinely inspired Word–II Timothy 3:16a “All Scripture (Bible) is inspired by God.”
Who were those men God called to write His Word? Some were prophets, men like Samuel, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezra and Daniel. God spoke in a special way to His prophets; revealed to them the message that He in turn wanted them to relay to His people, the Israelite’s. Sometimes those messages were delivered to the King or leader of Israel and at times directly to the people themselves.
At times the prophet’s message was God’s word of warning to a sinful and rebellious people, imploring them to turn back to Him. Sometimes He spoke words of comfort to a hurting and distraught nation through His prophet.
The prophets’ message covered prophesies that dealt with the present, past and future events. For example, Isaiah’s word about the suffering servant in Isaiah 53 accurately describes the suffering of Jesus as our perfect substitute, using a grammatical tense to describe it as though it had already happened. Isaiah’s prophecy was recorded 700 years before the birth of Christ. Ezra, Daniel and Joel were some of the other prophets who spoke of future events.
The prophet’s words were always true. All that they prophesied always came to pass, because it was not their own message; it was God’s. He spoke through them. There are two major divisions of the prophets in our Bible: Major and Minor Prophets.
Other human authors of the Old Testament included Kings, i.e., David and his son Solomon. David wrote many of the Psalms, while his son wrote Proverbs plus Ecclesiastes and the Song of Solomon. Other authors were poets, farmers, statesmen; even a cup-bearer by the name of Nehemiah who served in the court of the Persian King, Artaxerxes.
The messages each of these men recorded that ultimately became the Word of God were not on their own accord or of their own making. Each wrote as he was inspired and moved by the Holy Spirit of God. It was not dictation; it was inspiration–II Timothy 3:16-17 & II Peter 1:20-21.
It is interesting that even though God gave direction and inspiration for the writing of His Word, He never inhibited the men’s own abilities and personalities. As one reads the Scripture, he/she can see a difference in writing styles and affects of the authors, and yet all is still the Inspired Word of God.
Moses is not the only one whom God chose to record events after they had already happened; events from the past that were passed down to them. The Gospels are a good example. they were most likely written long after Jesus died. Luke, for example, notes that He wrote His Gospel after extensive research and interviews (Luke 1:1–4). We trust that all that they wrote was fully truthful and accurate, because we know that Scripture is not man’s creation, but rather the very breath of God Himself (2 Tim. 3:16–17).
The New Testament is made up of the Gospels, two of which, Matthew and John were written by Apostles. Luke, who wrote the Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts was a physician. Mark was a close friend to Peter, the Apostle.
Paul, called to be an Apostle by Jesus wrote thirteen letters; each written to an existing church. John wrote some other books of the New Testament other than the Gospel; I, II and III John and Revelation. The Book of Hebrews was written by an unknown author. Other authors of the New Testament were Peter, Jude and Titus. Another human author was James, the half-brother of our Lord whose writing in the New Testament bears his name, the Book of James.
These events and stories were carefully recorded and collected in scrolls and later found their way into book form called a codex (a collection of pagers and stories) and divided into two major categories: The Old Testament and
the New Testament. The Old Testament was Largely written in Hebrew. It consists of 39 books. The Old Testament looks forward to the sacrificial death of Christ on the cross. The New Testament was mostly written in Koine Greek (common language of the people)and consists of 27 books. The New Testament records the Incarnation of Jesus, His teachings, His death, burial and resurrection and the establishment and early history of the Church.
These 66 books, spanning a history of over 4000 years, written by 44 different authors have become what Bible Scholars call the “Canon”, the authoritative Word of God. It is a Word we can trust and know that it was divinely inspired by God. It accurately records His redemptive purpose and the revelation of Himself to mankind.
In our next article, we will look at how the “canon” or the 66 books were selected. Was it random or did God superintend over the choice of the 66 books that make up His Holy Word, the Bible?