THE BIBLE

God's Indispensable Word To Man Part 2

In my previous blog post "THE BIBLE - God's Indispensable Word To Man", I quoted two verses in 2 Timothy 3:16,17 which bear repeating at the start of this blog, as a reminder of the vital importance the written Word of God is for the individual believer in Christ, as well as the wider Body of Christ.

"All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work."

Concerning the inspiration by the Holy Spirit of all the writers of the books of the Bible, the writer to the Hebrews says in chapter 1: God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son,whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds;

who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high; Hebrews 1:1-3.

As to the authorship of the thirty nine books of the Old Testament, the first five books, referred to as the Pentateuch, were written by Moses.

Some of the historical books from Joshua to Esther have question marks over them as to their human authors. King David penned nearly half of the Psalms; his son, Solomon, wrote all of the Proverbs save the last chapter, and most, if not all the major and minor prophets' books were written by the men whose book bears their name.

I find it interesting that there is real conjecture concerning the authorship of some of the Old Testament books, and also the Book of Hebrews in the New Testament. What it says to me, is that, in some ways, it does not really matter if we know for sure who physically wrote the books. The most important takeaway is that the Holy Spirit, the third member of the Godhead, provided the inspiration for whoever the human authors were, and it is to Him that all the glory goes for providing us with the outstanding revelation we have of our great God - our Saviour and Lord.

It is estimated that about forty writers were responsible for producing the sixty six books of the Bible, the apostle Paul in the New Testament, having written thirteen or fourteen (if he wrote the letter to the Hebrews) of the twenty seven books.

The people involved over a period of some 1500 years came from vastly differing backgrounds and occupations - such as traders, shepherds, fishermen, soldiers, preachers and kings. They served under different governments and lived within contrasting cultures and systems of philosophy - and yet, there is a common thread that binds all of the books of the Bible together as a unified whole, with the message of God's great love for humanity, His hatred of sin and rebellion, the remedy for sin and the unspeakable rewards, both in this life and in that which is to come, for those who repent of their sin.
Christ, God's provision for the redemption of fallen mankind, is pictured in every book of the Bible through prophecy and through character types in the Old Testament. Various websites can be readily accessed on the theme of Christ in Every Book of the Bible. Genesis 3:15 at the beginning of creation following the sin of Adam and Eve states:"And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; it shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel." The Lord, speaking to the serpent in the garden of Eden, spoke of His remedy for sin, already in His mind before the world began - that His only begotten Son, the Lord Jesus Christ would die on a Roman cross, the sinless Son of God dying in our place, that we might be restored to fellowship with Father God.
TO BE CONTINUED
In the meantime, if you would like to know more about becoming a Christian, or as a Christian you would like to access some encouraging Christian resources, a couple of suggested sites are: vision.org.au (the Vision Christian Media online portal) and livingwaters.com (the online site for access to evangelist Ray Comfort's excellent videos, audio messages and other evangelism tools).

THE BIBLE - God's Indispensable Word to Man

The Christian Bible is, without a doubt, the bestselling and most widely distributed book of all times. It is impossible to know how many copies of the Bible have been sold, but a survey by the Bible Society concluded that around 2.5 billion copies were printed between 1815 and 1975, but more recent estimates put the figure at more than 5 billion. Guiness Book of World Records concurs with a similar figure of around 5 billion.

In late April of 2015, Gideons distributed their historic two billionth Scripture. The distribution of the first of the first one billion Bibles and New Testaments spanned 93 years (1908-2001). The second billion was obtained in less than 14 years (2002-2015). Gideons International began distributing free Bibles in 1908. Members of Gideons International currently distribute over 800 million Scriptures annually, and the numbers are growing, especially in places such as Brazil, India and Asia.
The Bible consists of 66 books, divided into sections - the two most obvious being the Old Testament, containing thirty nine books, and the New Testament with twenty seven books.
The Old Testament is divided into further sections:
1.  The Pentateuch or the books of Moses, being the first five books,
2.  The Historical books being Joshua to Esther,
3.  The Poetical books being from Job to Song of Solomon,
4.  The Major Prophets, Isaiah to Daniel, and
5.  The Minor Prophets, being the twelve last books of the Old Testament, consisting of Hosea to Malachi.
The New Testament consists of twenty seven books:
1.  The Four Gospels - Matthew, Mark, Luke and John,
2.  The Book of Acts,
3.  Paul's Epistles of Letters to the Churches - Romans, 1&2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 7 2 Thessalonians,
4.  Paul's Pastoral Epistles - 1 & 2 Timothy and Titus,
5.  The Letter of Paul to Philemon, 
6.  The Letter to the Hebrews ( believed by many to have been written by Paul),
7.  The Epistle of James,
8.  1 & 2 Peter,
9.  1,2 & 3 John,
10.  The Epistle of Jude, and finally,
11.  The Book of Revelation (written by the apostle John).
As with all books, by their very nature, the Bible is made up of thousands - hundreds of thousands of words.
A little Bible trivia is: that there are 8,674 different Hebrew words in the Bible. There are 5,624 different Greek words, and 12,143 different English words in the King James Bible.
Although there are many English versions and various paraphrases of the Bible, with new ones appearing all the time - one of the more recent, which is receiving much positive response is The Passion Translation - it could be said that none of the translations from the Hebrew and the Greek are wholly inspired by the Holy Spirit to the last word.
The original texts, however, were wholly inspired by God, word by word. The apostle Paul, in writing to his son in the faith, Timothy, with instructions for ministry, says: All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. 2 Timothy 3:16,17
I remember having a book in my possession many years ago called "The Seal Of God" by Frederick C. Payne, which portrays God's incredible design in nature and in His Word. Much of the book was inspired by the study of a Russian mathematician, Ivan Panin, who is remembered for his work on collating clear evidence of Bible numerics, where in the original texts, there are very clear and irrefutable patterns in Scripture relating to numeric values.
The book "The Seal of God" is available online as a PDF download for those who are interested in further study. It is fascinating reading.
The Bible was penned by around 40 different authors over around a 1500 year period. The authorship of all of the books of the New Testament is clear, apart from the Book of Hebrews, which the King James Bible attributed to Paul. He is a strong contender for the author. However, there have been other suggestions, including Apollos, and even the suggestion that the author of Hebrews may have been in fact - wait for it - a woman, namely Priscilla, of Priscilla and Aquila fame mentioned in the Book of Acts in chapter 18, as a married couple, who travelled with the apostle Paul. He described them as his "fellow workers in Christ Jesus." Romans 16:3.
TO BE CONTINUED
In the meantime, if you would like to know more about becoming a Christian or, as a Christian you would like to access some encouraging resources: as a few suggestions, go to www.vision.org.au or livingwaters.com There are many trusted Christian websites I could recommend, but these are a few which may be helpful. God Bless!