An Introduction to the Bible

The bible is an ancient library bound together in one volume. It was written over a period of about 1100 years--from the time of King David in 1000 B.C., when Hebrew began to be written, to around the year 100 A.D. Some parts are much older than 1000 B.C., however, having been sung or told for generations before writing came to their language. The Old Testament is written in Hebrew with parts in Aramaic, a related Semitic language.

It was several hundred years before the Christian Church wrote and recognized all of the books now known as the New Testament. The process was similar to the formation of the Old Testament. The New Testament is written in Koine (Common) Greek, the language of Roman Empire.

Christian apostles (before and while the New Testament books were being written) used a Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures known as the Septuagint. It was made in Alexandria, Egypt by Jews for Jews who lived there before the coming of Jesus Christ. When a New Testament author quotes the Old Testament he invariably quotes the Septuagint rather than the Hebrew because Greek was then the common tongue.

The Canon of Scripture

The process of selecting the books of both the Old Testament and the New Testament took many years. The Hebrew 'People of God' recognized themselves in some books and not in others. The ones in which they recognized themselves gradually came together as the Bible (Biblia: literally, 'the books') through selection and liturgical usage. The process is today called canonization, and the collection of books is called the canon of Scripture. (A 'canon' in Greek is a measuring stick.) The books accepted into the canon 'measured up' as books in which the People of God recognized themselves. The canonization of the Old Testament (The Torah, the Prophets, and many of the Writings) was well underway but not completed when Jesus of Nazareth came on the scene.

Followers of Jesus, a Palestinian Jew of the first third of the first century A.D., were called 'Christians' because they accepted him as the expected 'Anointed One' or 'Messiah' or 'Christos' of the Jewish prophecies and expectations. Christians continued to accept all the books of the Hebrew Scriptures.

Later Jewish authorities rejected some of these books that the Christians were making use of, and used them no longer. Christians continued to accept and use them all for 1500 years until the Reformation, when most Protestant Christians also rejected them from their Old Testament canon. That is why the ancient Christian Churches -- the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic -- recognize more books in their Old Testament canon than do the churches of the Reformation. Our New Testament canons are identical, however, despite an effort to reject the Letter of James during the Reformation.

Human and Divine Authorship

The accepted books are considered inspired by God and containing revelation -- things that cannot be known by unaided reason. The entire bible is inspired but not all of it is revelation. That is to say that even portions that do not contain revelation are still inspired by God. Though all of the books had human authors who used their talents and gifts in writing, God himself is recognized as their divine author.

Archaeologically speaking, the New Testament is the best-attested ancient literature. There are more ancient copies of these New Testament books than for any other famous works, even those of Caesar, Livy, Cicero, Homer, Aristotle or Plato.

The Four Gospels

For Christians the most important books are the four Gospels. The oldest copies of the gospels have no titles. In the 4th Century A.D., educated guesses were made and they were given the titles: "The Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ according to Matthew" and "Mark" and "Luke" and "John." These titles do not have to be correct and are not part of the text of the gospels, but will probably for all time identify these books. Mark is probably the oldest. And the author of Mark probably invented the literary form of Gospel. (Our word 'gospel' is Old English, meaning 'Good News', exactly translating the Greek euaggelion.) Luke has the best chance of being the real name of the author of that Gospel.

The gospels are not biographies of Jesus, but works to help people come to faith and deepen their faith in Jesus. They were written by Christians for Christians.

The gospels went through a process: Jesus himself preached and taught and did things, but he wrote no books. The apostles and disciples preached and taught, handing on what Jesus had taught them. They remembered things he said and did and told others of him.

A generation after Jesus' death and resurrection and many years of apostolic preaching, 'Mark' wrote his gospel. A decade or so later 'Matthew' and 'Luke' wrote for different communities. They used Mark and other material to expand and sometimes to abridge what Mark wrote. They added completely new material from different sources. Around the turn of the century, still another community of Christians produced 'John' with a still different viewpoint. These four gospels, written by different people for different communities in different cities using sometimes different sources, were gradually collected together and the Christian community recognized itself in each of them and preserved each of them and assembled them together even though they are not identical. Each is unique, yet each is Good News of Jesus Christ.

How to Read the Gospels

Mark is the shortest. Read it first. Later read Matthew, then Luke, and then John. Try to read each in one sitting. Luke wrote a second volume called the Acts of the Apostles, which continues with the story of the developing church after Jesus' resurrection and ascension. Keep that in mind. Either read it right after Luke's Gospel or at a later time. But in any case, don't forget to read John's Gospel. It is quite different and expresses a different response to different conditions several decades after the other three gospels. He often has two stories going on at once: as he tells of Jesus he also tells of his community and the conditions at the end of the century.

Early attempts to reject the whole Old Testament now that Christians had the New Testament were roundly rejected. The Christian Church steadfastly kept and preserved the Old Testament as the background and basis of the Gospels. For Christians the Old Testament prepares for and supports the New Testament. The New Testament flows out of the Old Testament. To understand Jesus Christ more fully, read the different books of the Bible, but be aware of what you are reading. Most modern bibles have helpful scholarly introductions to give you some background and place each book and human author in his proper setting and circumstance. They will help you understand the different kinds of literature involved in the different books. It's good to know if what you are reading is history or a short story or a love song or a letter or a gospel -- before you start reading it. We always do that in a large modern library or bookstore. It is just that the books of the Bible do not have individual dust covers to tell us. The scholars past and present -- often the very scholars who translate the Hebrew and Aramaic and Greek into our language -- help us with that information in these modern introductions.

Recommended English Translations of the Bible

The New Revised Standard Version

(contained also in the New Oxford Annotated Bible) done by U.S. Protestant scholars with Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox and Jewish scholars consulted.

The New American Bible

done by U.S. Catholic scholars with Protestant and Eastern Orthodox and Jewish scholarly consultation

The New Jerusalem Bible

done by British Catholic scholars using the work of French scholars as well.

The New English Bible

Done by British Protestants

Good News for Modern Man

U.S. Protestants

Not Recommended

The Douay-Rheims Version

done by English Catholic scholars in exile in France 400 years ago. English has changed a lot during that time and some words have changed or reversed meanings in modern English and no longer correctly translate the biblical books.

The King James Version

(Also called the 'Authorized Version') done by Protestant scholars in England around 1600, not recommended for the same reasons as the Douay-Rheims above. (There is a New King James Version published which is really a new translation, but tries to keep felicitous phrases from the earlier work.)

The Living Bible

because it is not a translation, but rather a paraphrase and consequently is farther away from the original Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek than a translation. It is easy to read though. "It is like a mountain stream: clear and shallow." It was written by an American businessman for his grandchildren.

The New World Translation

because its translators never admitted who they were, and because many passages are doctored to fit modern doctrinal statements of the publisher.

---

Some Good Web Resources for Bible Study

The New American Bible

A complete Web version of the NAB.

The Four Gospels in Synopsis

The gospels arranged in frames for study of parallel texts.

Early Christian Writings

A very large collection of writings from the post-apostolic period.