The Bible
What does the Bible say about itself?
- 2 Timothy 3:16, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness…”
- Isaiah 30:8, “Go now, write it on a tablet for them, inscribe it on a scroll, that for the days to come it may be an everlasting witness.”
- Hebrews 4:12, “For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”
- 2 Samuel 22:31, “As for God, his way is perfect; the word of the LORD is flawless.”
- Isaiah 40:8,” The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever.”
- Deuteronomy 8:3, “…man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.”
- Luke 11:28, “He (Jesus) replied, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.”
- Ephesians 6:17, “Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”
- 2 Peter 1:21, “For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.”
- Matthew 22:29, “Jesus replied, “You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God.”
- John 5:39, “You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me,”
- John 10:35, “…and the Scripture cannot be broken…”
- 2 Peter 3:15-16, “Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.”
- Romans 15:4, “For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.”
Quick Bible Facts:
-The Bible was written by about 40 men over a period of about 1600 years dating from 1500 B.C. to about 100 years after Christ.
- The Bible was penned by these men under the inspiration of God. (2 Timothy 3:16)
- The Bible is made up of the Old & New Testaments, 66 books altogether, 39 books in the Old Testament, and 27 in the New Testament.
- The word “testament” means “covenant”.
- The Bible was written in three different languages, Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek.
- The disciples of Jesus wrote the New Testament in Koine Greek.
- Though we do not have the original documents, we do have around 6,000 copies of the Greek manuscripts that were made very close to the time of the originals.
- The manuscripts we do have, agree with each other with an almost 100% accuracy.
- Statistically, the New Testament is 99.5% textually pure.
- The differences that are found in the text are spelling errors, and minor word alteration, nothing that would change the actual meaning of the text.
- When the Bible is translated, it is done so from the Original language. So there is the same source for all bible translations into any language.
- The Bible is still the best selling book in the world.
The Bible is God’s book. The men who wrote the Bible were moved by God’s Holy Spirit to write exactly the revelation God intended for us to receive and understand. It was written so that we may know the God who made the heavens and the earth and all that is in it. God wants us to know about the great love He has for us, and how He has suffered long to bring us to Himself—namely He put up with our great sin throughout the ages, so that in the end we might believe in His Son and be saved before the ages are over. The Old Testament unfolds for us the amazing plan of God to bring forth a Son, to save not only the Jewish people, but the entire gentile world. The New Testament is the fulfillment of that plan, and reveals the depth of the love of God, in that He so loved the world that He gave up His only begotten Son, so that who ever might believe in Him, would not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16) We pray that God would open your eyes to believe His rich promise for those who would humble their hearts and believe His Word.
_______________________________
Notes
- When the Bible mentions “scripture” it is always speaking of the Old Testament, this is why 2 Peter 3:15-16 is so important to us because it is there that we see Paul’s letters being equal to “scripture”.
- The 66 books that make up the Bible were always considered authoritative, the Bible was never “canonized” per se, the books that make up the New Testament were considered authoritative since the time of the Apostles. It was an early church father named Athanasius who in A.D. 367, sent around a letter to all of the churches listing the twenty-seven books of the New Testament—again, not as to approve them only to conclude that they had always been approved. Most likely this was done because there were so many “false gospels” flying around by this time, that the church needed to define in no uncertain terms where she stood.