Where Did the Bible Come From

18 February 2011

Where did the Bible come from? Week 4 (about lice)

Jim Devotional and Bible, Ministry glimpses 0

This past Tuesday was the fourth week of the new study (there will be seven weeks altogether). In a dramatic change of pace, we found ourselves discussing the story of Javier the louse.

It’s taken me quite a while to wrap my mind around how the Bible has been transmitted to us through centuries of copying. Sometimes this is presented to us as a bad thing, as if something was being copied and recopied to the extent that we no longer have any idea what the original really was.

In reality, that’s not the case at all. In fact, I made the case that this was a brilliant way for God to preserve His Word. Far better than it would have been if He had given us the New Testament in the age of photocopiers, cameras, and the internet. And far better than it would have been if we had a series of copies where no errors had ever been made.

Instead of trying to explain it, I tried to show it.

It went all right – I think the idea needs some refining, but it worked. For some odd reason I completely left out the last 10 minutes of my talk, though – I guess I’ll tack some of it on next week!

What I did essentially was actually create an imaginary manuscript history. I wrote a page of a story about Javier the louse, then gave it a complex history of being copied (similar to the New Testament manuscript history), which included 3 locations, various different "errors", and even intentional alterations to the story. 600 years of manuscripts were created, some complete, some fragments, a whole bunch almost completely missing from one area (due to severe louse persecution, I suppose). So three groups ended up with … I forget, maybe 50 manuscripts and fragments.

Then they had to see if they could figure out what the original said.

If it didn’t help anyone else, it did help me to see just how hard it was to actually corrupt the text when it was being transmitted and copied the way the New Testament text was. And here I was making many more constant, intentional errors than would have been made in real life.

Of course I won’t take the time to explain it all here – but hey, maybe sometime if I’m in the area I can try it at your church. It’s an interesting way to see exactly how God providentially spread His Word over a couple of millenia.

Over the next three weeks, I hope to pull things together so that people can really remember and use what they’ve learned. But there’s a lot to be done still. Next week’s topic is the canon. You know, that index of Bible books that there’s been so much discussion about.

Incidentally, except for one group that just ran out of time, no one had trouble getting to the original text about Javier the Louse in a very short period of time. So we really can know the real Javier. 😉

1 February 2011

Tonight – Week 3 – Where did the Bible come from?

Jim Devotional and Bible, Ministry glimpses, Prayer and Praise 0

We’re starting the third week of our study tonight. Today we’re talking about the Old Testament.

El Antiguo Testamento

It’s a bit of a challenge to focus on how we got our Bible, without getting carried away with all the evidence for the Bible. Of course, we’re talking about a lot of that evidence, but only just touching on some of it to show why we trust that what we have has come to us in a reliable way over the centuries.

Anyway, after talking a lot about the Resurrection, and then the four Gospels last week, we’re very interested in what Jesus had to say about the Old Testament. He held it in pretty high regard, as you know if you’ve read the Gospels. Check out a very important passage – Luke 24:44-47. And a very interesting hidden prophecy in Luke 16:27-31.

For a bit of a test case, we’re going to talk about who wrote the books of Moses. We’ll talk about how the books of the Old Testament were accepted as Scripture very early (I’ve really been a bit surprised to learn how early most of the books of the Bible seem to have been recognized as Scripture).

The picture above (courtesy of KOREphotos) is of the Isaiah Scroll, found among the Dead Sea Scrolls. It’s hard to imagine now the shockwaves this find sent through the community in biblical studies.

And, of course, we’ll talk a bit about why the Roman Catholics and Protestants have Old Testaments of different lengths.

We’ll finish by reading some amazing words from Isaiah.

Lots of information this week. Actually, I’m really looking forward to study #4. It’s Lord willing going to be very fun and hands-on, and we’re going to learn a lot more about the transmission of the books of the Bible.

But that’s not for two weeks. I’ll let you know more when the time comes! Thanks for your prayers. 🙂

25 January 2011

Study Week 2 – The Four Witnesses

Jim Ministry glimpses 0

Tonight was part two of the new study – Where did the Bible come from?

So, last week we talked about the resurrection – how these early Christians were obsessed with the real life, real death, and real resurrection of Jesus. For this faith they lived and died during the early years of the Church.

Symbols for Matthew, Mark, Luke and John; from the Book of Kells

This week we talked about the four Gospels. We started out talking about the claims made in Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code – that essentially the Christians were trying to choose from thousands of "gospels", and it wasn’t until the 4th century that they finally chose the four we know today – for political reasons, of course.

Well, that’s Dan Brown’s claim…

So, we actually read excerpts from four of these other "gospels" (the so-called gospels of Judas, Thomas, Peter, and Mary), and compared them with the four we know. We talked about how Matthew, Mark, Luke and John were accepted very early as Scripture. They were solidly and more or less universally accepted as the four, very soon after they were written. It sure didn’t take until the 4th century! And why? Well, there were some good reasons. Maybe if you come to the study you can find out what some of those reasons are! 😉

It’s obviously very important to know the real story about this man who claimed to be God – and then who proved it by rising from the dead! What did He teach? What did He do? And what did He have to say about the books of the Bible?

Well, next week we’re going to go back to the Old Testament to find out where it came from. Then… well, then I have a few days off. 🙂

18 January 2011

New Study Tonight – Where Did The Bible Come From?

Jim Misc 0

After lots of preparation, and a whole lotta help from my friends and family, a new study will be starting up tonight. The topic? Where did the Bible come from?

It all started at the suggestion of Mayra Fry, and is based in part on questions that people have asked me recently regarding the Bible. So, after reading books, listening to seminars, studying the Bible itself and doing other types of research, I’m (more or less) ready to teach the first study!

In some ways, this will be the opposite of the Chronological Bible Study, which was intended to be highly discussion-based. This will be much more taught, although Lord willing there will still be a lot of participation. Here are some of the questions we’ll be talking about:

The books of the Bible have been copied and copied and copied – is any of it still what was originally written?
Why do some Bibles have more books than others?
What did God’s people do before there was a Bible?
Who decided which books would be a part of the Bible (any why)?
Why all these different Bible translations?

The Victory of the Resurrection - Rome, circa 350 AD

A carving depicting the victory of
the Resurrection
With the chi rho or chrismon symbol
Rome, circa 350 AD

In some ways, we’ll be approaching the topic like a first century Greek might. If you were introduced to this strange new religion for the first time, what would you think? What questions would you have?

The early believers focused on something highly unusual – the Resurrection. And that’s the topic tonight. What were unbelievers at the time saying about this new religion (outside of the Bible)? What did the early believers have to say (inside and outside of the Bible)? Why this strange obsession with the resurrection itself? What was it that people were actually willing to die for?

In a short period of time, a religion focused around a man who had been crucified spread from Jerusalem to Rome, in spite of what we might call very un-marketable beliefs.

Getting into the mindset of the early believers will give us the keys we need to unlock the mystery of the Bible.

Thanks for your prayers! The study starts… NOW!

Where did the Bible come from? Promo poster

Promo poster courtesy of Samuel Valtierra

27 October 2010

Where did the Bible come from?

Jim Devotional and Bible 0

That’s the title of the new study I’m working on, which is going to be a lot of fun. I’ve been learning a lot as I’ve been preparing.

I just wanted to mention the book I recently finished reading – actually, in English and Spanish. My friend Antonio recommended the Spanish edition when we were talking about the study, so I got the Spanish version and later got the English version.

Anyway, it’s not a long book… but for it’s size it doesn’t do a bad job getting into the details of how the Bible comes to us through history. I’m not exactly taking the same approach as the book in the study, but the book will certainly be a good quick reference.

Anyway, the book is called (in English) How We Got the Bible by Neil R. Lightfoot. It’s also available for the Kindle. If you’re interested in the Spanish version, it’s called Comprendamos Como Se Formo la Biblia. It’s partly a translation of the English version by Lightfoot, but it’s actually totally revised to discuss how the Spanish Bible came to us. This revision comes from Dr. Juan Carlos Cevallos.

Check one out! 🙂

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