OPINION: Robin Schumacher,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Love it or hate it, no book rocks the world like the Bible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Guinness World Records organization\u00a0says,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\u201cThe best-selling book of all time is the Christian Bible. It is impossible to know exactly how many copies have been printed in the roughly 1,500 years since its contents were standardized, but research conducted by the British and Foreign Bible Society in 2021 suggests that the total number probably lies between 5 and 7 billion copies.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
Around 80 million copies are sold each year, with it also being the most translated book in the world, available in hundreds of languages. That\u2019s pretty good for something that was written over a period of 1,500 years and is a compilation of 66 individual works (39 in the Old Testament; 27 in the New) by 40 authors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You don\u2019t hear the word used much anymore, but Scripture is referred to by theologians as the \u201ccanon,\u201d which means \u201cmeasuring rod,\u201d \u201cstandard,\u201d and \u201crule\u201d. The Canon doesn\u2019t just represent the collection of books that passed tests of authenticity and authority, but practically to believers, it also means that those books are our rule of life, both in this world and the next.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If that sounds heavy to you, it should. Betting your life on what a book tells you signifies that you should have a really good understanding of how it came to be and why you should trust it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Most of us, though, are in the dark on how the Bible came to be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And here\u2019s the thing: if you don\u2019t have a good handle on that, you\u2019ll be troubled by the peppering comments skeptics will send your way on the Bible\u2019s construction. For example, in his book The Da Vinci Code<\/em>, Dan Brown puts these words in one of his characters\u2019 mouths: \u201cThe Bible did not arrive by fax from Heaven \u2026 The Bible is the product of man, my dear. Not of God. The Bible did not fall magically from the clouds. Man created it as a historical record of tumultuous times, and it has evolved through countless translations, additions, and revisions. History has never had a definitive version of the book.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To that, I say Au Contraire<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
How the Bible came to be<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Allow me to take a stab at a short-and-sweet version of how Scripture was put together. If you want a detailed understanding of the Bible\u2019s compilation, I\u2019ll direct you to Dr. Neil R. Lightfoot\u2019s work,\u00a0How We Got the Bible: Factual Answers to Questions about the History of the Bible.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
When it comes to the Old Testament, Jesus Himself drew the boundaries around the 39 books that makes it up when He said: \u201cFrom the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who was killed between the altar and the house of God; yes, I tell you, it [judgment] shall be charged against this generation\u201d (Luke 11:51). Abel\u2019s death is found in Genesis and Zechariah\u2019s in 2 Chronicles, which is the last book in the Hebrew Bible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Moses is credited with writing the first five books of the Old Testament, which were kept in the Ark of the Covenant for a time (Deut. 31:24). Although challenges to their Mosaic authorship have been made, Scripture itself credits Moses as the author (e.g.,\u00a0Mark 12:26) as well as software analysis that\u2019s shown, from a statistical standpoint, the first five books of the Bible were written by a single individual.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As other books were written and added, Scripture states that David eventually put them in his treasury (1 Kings 8:6), with them being overseen by the Levitical priests (2 Kings 22:8). The Old Testament was scattered during Israel\u2019s exile in the 6th\u00a0century but was restored by Ezra who added the remaining texts, which were stored in the ark for the second temple and then meticulously copied.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When it comes to the Old Testament\u2019s divine nature, R. C. Sproul is correct when he says:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\u201cWhether the Bible is actually the Word of God comes down to one thing \u2014 the matter of Christology\u201d. What he means is, if Jesus is who He claimed to be (and His resurrection proves that He is,\u00a0Rom. 1:4), then Jesus settles the matter of Old Testament divinity when He makes statements like, \u201cthe Scripture cannot be broken\u201d (John 10:35) and \u201csanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth\u201d (John 17:17).<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
And answering critics who claim this is circular reasoning, it\u2019s not; it\u2019s linear. If the writers of the New Testament accurately recorded Christ\u2019s words and events, then the conclusions on the Old Testament\u2019s character naturally follow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Regarding the New Testament, the official list of the 27 books we have today was officially settled at the Council of Carthage in A.D. 397. However, the majority of the New Testament was accepted as authoritative much earlier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A first attempt at its compilation was made by\u00a0Marcion of Sinope\u00a0in A.D. 140, that had Luke\u2019s Gospel and some of Paul\u2019s letters. Then came the\u00a0Muratorian Canon\u00a0that contained most of the New Testament books of today. The final New Testament Canon was first identified by the Church father Athanasius in A.D. 367 and ratified 30 years later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When the Council\u2019s decision was being made as to what books were canonical, the Church used the Latin term recipemus<\/em>, which means \u201cwe receive\u201d vs. \u201cwe decide.\u201d This was done to emphasize that they were not making a text authoritative, but rather recognizing the books as authoritative, coming from God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If the fourth century seems late for that to have happened, you should know that the circulation and confessed authority of the New Testament was much earlier. Just one proof of the New Testament\u2019s early dating exists in writings from early Christian leaders such as Clement (c. A.D. 95), Ignatius (c. A.D. 107), Polycarp (c. A.D. 110), Justin Martyr (c. A.D. 133), and others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You can reconstruct the entire New Testament from these early church fathers’ citations, except for 27 verses, most of which come from 3 John. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
You also have testimony of early recognition even during the writing of the New Testament itself, such as when Peter refers to Paul\u2019s letters as Scripture:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\u201cAnd regard the patience of our Lord as salvation; just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also\u00a0the rest of the Scriptures<\/em>, to their own destruction\u201d (2 Peter 3:15-16, my emphasis).<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
St. Jerome\u2019s Latin Vulgate, completed around A.D. 400, is considered one of the first to contain all of the 66 books we have today. Again, there\u2019s more to the story, but I\u2019m out of room for now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Again, love it or not, Scripture has earned the first-place prize awarded to it by Guinness for importance and published copies of a book. It\u2019s just one small testimony to what Christians already know: \u201cThe grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever\u201d (Is. 40:8).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
About the Author:<\/strong> Robin Schumacher is an accomplished software executive and Christian apologist who has written many articles, authored and contributed to several Christian books, appeared on nationally syndicated radio programs, and presented at apologetic events.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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