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- Herausgeber: IVP
- Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
- Sprache: Englisch
While Christians generally acknowledge that the Bible is God's Word, many of us lack robust confidence in the reality of its trustworthiness. We may not be sure if we really believe what we read. But the more we understand how Scripture came to be, the more we discover its power and truth. Historian Susan Lim unpacks how the history of the Bible bolsters our faith and anchors us through the changing tides of time. The story of Scripture, while messy and complicated at times, is also the story of how God shepherded his people throughout the centuries in and through these writings. Lim explains how Christians came to accept certain documents as inspired and not others, and how the books we now call the Bible came to be assembled and canonized as authoritative. The same Spirit of God who oversaw the writing of Scripture continues to be at work actively in us in our receiving and reading of it, to grow us in faith and maturity. Those of us who confess that Jesus is Lord can also confess with confidence that Scripture is God's Word. As the church through the ages has received and passed down the sacred Scriptures, so too can we receive for ourselves the living Word that God still speaks through today.
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DEDICATED TO BRIAN,
LIGHT BEARER
Contents
Introduction
LOVING GOD’S WORD
OUT OF GOD’S MANY GOOD GIFTS, salvation is primary. There is another gift, however, that’s a close second: the gift of believing the Scriptures. Without the first, we cannot know God and be with him forever. Without the second, we cannot experience God as we should in the here and now.
Sometimes these gifts are given at once or in close succession. But for others, like me, there is a significant gap in time. I accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior when I was a teenager, but then it took me over fifteen years to accept the Scriptures as God’s Word. These first and second gifts are not automatically linked, and many Christians are unaware of this disconnect. My deepest prayer is that this book will help bridge this divide and cultivate our love and reverence for Jesus, who is both the Son of God and the Word of God.
Love is at the core of both gifts. Salvation means we receive God’s love and love him in return; the same is true of the Scriptures. The second gift becomes our own when we read God’s covenant of love to us and then wholeheartedly believe in and love the Word of God.
I fell in love with the Bible through an unexpected means: history. My historical research of the Scriptures blew my mind as I discovered how the dates, locations, and people in the Bible lined up with historical data. I marveled at ancient literature and archaeological finds that corroborated the Old and New Testament stories. The impact of these discoveries on my heart was equally seismic. My heart bowed in worship over and over as knowledge metabolized into faith and God’s Word became living and active in me.
My discoveries, both academic and personal, are recorded in this book. I hope these facts and stories provide light for your spiritual journey.
FROM DARKNESS TO LIGHT
Darkness covered most of my childhood—the kind of darkness that leaves you scared and disoriented. Abuse, loneliness, and neglect were familiar companions, and I often cried myself to sleep. One night when I was twelve years old, I was drowning in tears, when out of nowhere a strange peace entered into the room. A transcendent love unlike anything I’d ever known wrapped around my soul. This feeling was more than a feeling. It was pure love. It was pure light. And I knew somehow at that moment that God was real.
My parents were Buddhists so my childhood understanding of God was tethered to their faith. We went to temple on weekends when my parents had time. The monk was warm and inviting, and he kindly answered all of my questions about life and spirituality. He even taught me some chants and rituals. But the more I learned about the Buddhist ways, I was certain that the God whom I had experienced was way bigger than anything that the monk described.
Despite this incredible experience of love and light, my day-to-day changed little. As I got older, I searched for acceptance in all the wrong places and found myself in more trouble and heartbreak than imaginable. Then one day, a friend invited me to join her high school youth group at a Presbyterian church. I disobeyed my parents and attended secretly, disregarding the ominous warning that the Christian “spirits,” as my mom termed it, would bring bad luck to our Buddhist family. Little did I know then that the Christian “Spirit”—the Holy Spirit—would do more than any of us could have imagined.
I look back to that fateful night and the decades since, and I can mark two distinct moments when the Holy Spirit forever changed my course. The first was the moment of salvation. This was when the Holy Spirit opened my spiritual eyes and heart to wholeheartedly accept Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. Fifteen years later, the Holy Spirit led me to a second pivotal moment where I wholeheartedly accepted the entire Bible as the very words of the living God.
The first moment is what Christians throughout church history have sometimes called “the great confession” or “the good confession.” In Matthew 16:15-16, Jesus asks his disciples, “Who do you say I am?” And Peter responds with the great confession: “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” Also, 1 John 4:13-15 states that those who abide in God have confessed that Jesus is “the Son of God” and “the Savior of the world.” Likewise, the apostle Paul states in Romans 10:9, “If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ . . . you will be saved.” These all refer to the same good and great confession that Christians make when we come to believe that Jesus is Lord. That’s what I call the “first confession.”
But someone can believe that Jesus is Lord without understanding that the entire Bible is the Word of God. Even though I was a Christian, it took me years to fully accept Scripture for what it claims to be: God-breathed (2 Timothy 3:16) and the Word of God ( John 1:1). To do so is also a miraculous working of the Holy Spirit. So when my heart and mind accepted the truth and authority of the Bible, it was a second transformative moment in my Christian life. I call this moment my “second confession,” because it is almost as important as the first. First we confess “Jesus is Lord,” and second we also confess “The Bible is the Word of God.”
MY FIRST CONFESSION
I made my first confession during the spring of my senior year in high school. I was desperate for love and desperate for peace, and a friend had told me that there is a God, whose name is Jesus, who could provide both. It sounded too good to be true, and I wondered if this was a cult or some money-making scam. But my friend seemed genuine, so I followed her to church on a Friday night to attend a youth rally. The songs, the raising of hands, and the emotions all intrigued and, to some extent, worried me. Were these people delusional or making it up? Regardless, I stayed, observing the preacher, who spoke with passion about Jesus who can heal broken hearts and make all things new. My heart was shattered when I was seventeen, leaving me feeling irreparably broken and discarded. So I listened closely, hanging on to every word about this Jesus, who through his death and resurrection, offers new life in exchange for marred ones. These were the very words I needed to hear, but how could these promises be true?
After the sermon, small groups met to discuss the content and raise questions. I sat silently for most of the small-group session, but toward the end, the leader asked, “Who would like to invite Jesus into their hearts?” At that moment, God whispered into my heart, “That was me. And my name is Jesus.” I knew implicitly that Jesus was referring to that encounter with light and love when I was twelve years old, and I believed everything that was shared about Christ that night. In that moment, the Holy Spirit convicted me of these eternal truths: I am a sinner. I needed a Savior. Jesus provided himself as the perfect sacrifice for all my sins. He resurrected from the dead. He claimed victory over death. And he calls me his own.
I cried rivers of tears that night, as if the years of abuse and sadness would be washed away in that torrent. And Jesus has indeed given me a new and resurrected life.
That night, however, no one told me that Jesus, who was now my Lord and Savior, was the fulfillment of prophecy or that there are four Gospel accounts to convey his truths. I was also unaware that there are sixty-six books in the entire Bible, thirty-nine in the Old Testament and twenty-seven in the New Testament. No one told me about the Council of Nicaea in AD 325, the Arian controversy, or the role of the church fathers regarding the compilation of the Bible. Did I need to know these facts to make the first confession? Absolutely not. My salvation was sealed that evening when I accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior.
Perhaps your experience of salvation was similar. The experience and power of the Holy Spirit were more real than anything tangible. Like me, you might have made the first confession without a solid understanding of the Scriptures. You’re not alone. That was my story and the story of countless others. A nuanced knowledge of the Scriptures is not a prerequisite for salvation.
The first and second confessions, however, are inextricably linked because Jesus, who is Lord and Savior, is also the Word of God. The God of our salvation is the God of the Scriptures. Jesus built his ministry on the Scriptures, and we believe in his death and resurrection as told in the Scriptures. God, in his divine wisdom and kind grace, has made himself accessible to humankind by donning human flesh and by revealing himself through words penned by humans.
Yet those who believe in the incarnation and resurrection of Christ might not know that the sixty-six books of the Bible are the true Word of God. In pews across the world, many genuine followers of Jesus do not believe that the entire Bible is the Word of God. The catch, however, is that many are unaware of this unbelief.
MY SECOND CONFESSION
Our first confession is typically accompanied by baptism and celebration. But our second confession largely goes unexamined. For me, the first and second confessions were not automatically linked. More importantly, I was unaware of their disconnect.
I spent over fifteen years as a Christian quoting, memorizing, studying, and teaching Scripture. At one point, I even wrote out the entire Bible by hand. But deep in my heart was an unbelief that festered without my knowing, and my unbeknownst secret came to light one random morning in 2007.
I was reading the Bible when the Holy Spirit stirred my soul and made me pause at the familiar verses. The Spirit convicted me of my unbelief in a gentle but firm manner by whispering into my spirit: “You don’t believe what you’re reading.”
I remember saying out loud in response, “You’re right . . . these words sound nice, but I don’t believe that they’re from you. How can they be? Written by men on parchment, handed down from generation to generation. And some of the stories in here . . . I just can’t.”
These words, this confession, tumbled out, and I hadn’t even realized that they had taken residence in my soul. Had it not been the conviction of the Spirit, I would have vehemently denied my heresy! But here I was, telling God that the Bible was a sham.
The journey from that fateful morning in 2007 to now is a roadmap of sorts for this book. Your journey might look different, but I hope the lessons I’ve learned can clarify mysteries that shroud our understanding of God’s Word. I’m a skeptic—that’s just how I’m wired, and maybe that’s how you tick. If that’s the case, this book is for you. Christians are asked to base their entire lives on the Bible, but so few of us know how it was formed or what it declares.
Before someone buys a house or enters employment, the contract should be reviewed thoroughly. Christians are asked to trust in the Scriptures, yet many haven’t read God’s covenant in full before professing faith. While a comprehensive understanding of the Scriptures is not a prerequisite for salvation, it is nonnegotiable for sanctification.
Spiritual confusion and the high rate of deconversion, among other issues in the church, can be traced back to a lack of love and reverence for the Scriptures. Prior to my second confession, I failed to love or truly believe in the entire Bible. There were certain parts—such as the Gospels and the Psalms—that seemed more believable. But there were many (many) parts I did not believe or understand. I felt spiritually anemic, hoping that the next day would be better if I tried harder. I felt like I was groping in darkness and lost in my faith. But learning about the history of the Bible was like light dawning after a long and confusing season. So I share this light with all those who need encouragement in their faith journey.
HISTORICAL EVIDENCE
I’ve had the joy of teaching American history for over two decades. I fell in love with history as an undergraduate because understanding the past allows me to see the world today more clearly. I believe that’s true for all of us.
Several years ago, JD, my son who was seven at the time, asked me, “Mom, why are there so many Spanish-speaking people in California but not in Canada?” We live in Southern California and had recently visited Canada, so the question was befitting. I told him about the history of North America, trying to keep it brief. JD loves history, though, so we talked about Indigenous Americans, European colonization, Spanish missions, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, the Alamo, and the annexation of Texas.
His seven-year-old world became a lot more understandable because of historical context. It also taught him that the present cannot be divorced from the past. We can ignore the past intellectually, but we can never ignore it experientially. Not knowing the past easily leads to present-day confusion.
The same is true of knowing the history of the Bible. Knowing how God wove his Word through the ages serves as a light in our faith journey and rekindles our commitment to learning and living out the Scriptures. These chapters weave together primary sources, historical evidence, pivotal moments in church history, and second-confession stories.
Along the journey, we find that the history of the Bible is messy. This shouldn’t surprise us because the birth of the incarnate God was also messy. Jesus, the Son of God who is also the Word of God, used very human means in both instances to reveal himself. But like Jesus’ life on earth, the history of the Bible has God’s unmistakable and sovereign hand on it from Genesis to Revelation.
If we ever get lost in this journey, we must turn back to Jesus, who is the cornerstone of our first and second confessions. The parallels between the incarnate and written Word are not just beautiful analogies—they are the keys to understanding truth.
As believers in the divinity of Christ, we collectively begin at this point of faith in agreeing that God entered humanity about two thousand years ago through the most unsuspecting means. Perhaps a teenager getting impregnated by the Holy Spirit and giving birth to God’s Son in an obscure manger might seem as far-fetched as the Scriptures being birthed through the pens of men. And yet, knowing that that the former is true, there is much hope (and proof) that the latter is true as well.
1
The Scriptures and Salvation
HAVE YOU EVER ASKED GOD POINT-BLANK, “Is the Bible truly your Word?” This is one of the most important questions we can ask our Lord, and he will answer those who sincerely ask because that’s just who he is. He is a God of clarity and a God of revelation. His answer might not come in a euphoric epiphany or an emotional experience, but his answer will come to those who sincerely ask.
I asked God that question after that fateful revelation in 2007 about my hidden unbelief. God initially led me in the form of inquisitiveness. A million other questions suddenly surfaced, questions I had never voiced before. Who wrote these individual books? When were they written? How do we know they are still in their original form? Who decided that these books would be compiled into one big book called the Bible? Are there other writings that didn’t make the cut? Who translated them into other languages? The questions went on and on.
I realized that I had suppressed these questions mainly out of fear. I was afraid to ask these questions because I didn’t want other Christians to think I was questioning the inerrancy of God’s Word.1 I was afraid to voice my unbelief. I was a Bible study leader and a respected member of the church by this point. I felt like I had a lot to lose by sharing my confusion and doubts. I was also afraid to ask these questions because they could prove my doubts about the truth of God’s Word. It’s one thing to disbelieve the veracity of Scripture based on cursory knowledge, but what if a thorough examination led to hard and undeniable proof that God’s Word was a total fabrication? Then my faith would come tumbling down like a house of cards.
But it dawned on me that God wanted me to ask these questions. These questions did not offend or unsettle him. He invited and aroused these questions so I would know his Word better. So I would know him better.
EVEN SPIRITUAL GIANTS HAVE DOUBTS
Let’s say that a person professed faith in Christ and then learned that a book in the Bible (for example, Esther) never mentions God directly throughout the whole book. And let’s say this person doubts if Esther has a rightful place in the Bible, and then this person dies without resolving this query. Does this person get to spend eternity with Jesus? Absolutely. This person’s salvation has been secured, even if they had doubts about the rightful place of Esther (or any other book) in the Bible. Now, did this person miss out on understanding more fully God’s sovereignty and love for his people through the lives of Esther, Mordecai, Haman, and Xerxes? Absolutely, as well. But edification is separate from salvation.
This scenario was true of Martin Luther, the great sixteenth-century Reformer, with the book of James. Luther wanted to remove James from the Bible because he felt that it was “really an epistle of straw . . . for it has nothing of the nature of the Gospel about it” and believed that the “epistle of James gives us much trouble.” Luther was so frustrated with James that he called the author “Jimmy”! In Luther’s own words, he stated, “I almost feel like throwing Jimmy into the stove.”2 I am generally hesitant to disagree with Luther, but I must part ways with him on this one.3 I believe that the epistle of James highlights the gospel of Jesus with a nuance like none other. My main point is that few would doubt that Martin Luther is in God’s presence at this very moment.
I want to reiterate this point because this book should never cause anyone to doubt one’s salvation. If you have accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior, there is nothing, not even a limited knowledge of the Scriptures, that negates your salvation. Even if someone only believes the basic parts of the gospel, and then disregards many other parts of Scripture, this person’s salvation is no less secure.4
Yet you might doubt the veracity of certain parts of Scripture; and perhaps doubt and confusion have set in in other areas of your life as well. It could be a fractured relationship, mounting bills, health concerns, or a relational rift that might make you wonder how your salvation intersects with the daily grind. You thought accepting Christ would solve your problems, but Jesus seems rather far off. You hear that he loves you, and you desperately want to believe this is true. But if you’re honest, your soul feels cold. If your life seems confusing, imbalanced, or lacking in hope, God wants you to turn to his Word.
But why would you turn to his Word unless you know that it’s truly from him? It can be a vicious cycle of grasping and hoping, doubting and wondering, and pondering how our relationship with Jesus can seem stunted in daily living. If so, the best place to run is to the Scriptures—even if you’re unsure of its veracity. Read it, meditate on it, examine it, and pray it. Also engage with it, asking God to grant you the knowledge and faith to understand his Word. He will meet you on those pages and orchestrate divine appointments and thoughts to bring you to the truth of his Word. The Word of God promises what no other book can promise, because the Bible is God offering his own heart to us.
THE CANON
If we’re honest, though, the Bible can be a daunting read. There are names that are very hard to pronounce, some stories leave us scratching our heads, and the historical divide between now and then can seem sizable. Names such as Shelumiel and Zurishaddai, tales such as Lot’s wife turning into a pillar of salt, and historical actors such as pharaohs and prophets are a few examples. But this is when the craft of history can skillfully bridge the distance between times and cultures.
History can seem like entering time travel and landing in a foreign and unrelatable land. But knowing the history of the Bible is a powerful avenue to accepting God’s Word as truth. One way to offset the divide is to start from the present and work backward when possible. Reverse chronological order allows us to begin together here in the twenty-first century, and then travel backward collectively. Reverse chronological order can also make the distant past not seem so distant. For example, two thousand years seems like a considerable divide, but the same period might seem more accessible when measured in life spans. If the average life span is seventy years, then thirty life spans (or even fewer, since lifespans generally overlap) covers two thousand years, bringing us back to the days of Jesus.5
History is also a helpful lens to analyze the claim that the books of the Bible are inspired by God. For Christians, the word canon is used to denote this claim. This means that the Bible we hold in our hands today is composed of the actual books that God inspired. Christians today can be certain that the Bible received from the Israelites in the Old Testament and Christians in the early church is truly God’s Word. We believe with confidence that the books identified as authoritative and inspired were correctly received and accepted in these communities.6
So what does the term canon mean today? It’s not a widely used term in common (meaning non-church, non-academic, or non-theological) language. You might know of a person with that name, or the company so named that makes printers, cameras, and such. Or the word might make you think of weaponry used for warfare way back when (that cannon has two n’s). But when we use the word canon associated with the Protestant Bible, it refers to the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments, and only those books, as God’s Word.7 A mid-twentieth-century biblical scholar defined canon as writings “acknowledged by the Church as documents of the divine revelation.”8 In essence, these are the words God “breathed” into existence.9
The first time canon was used to denote divine revelation was in AD 367 by Athanasius, who held the important position as bishop of Alexandria.10 In his annual letter circulated to his churches, Athanasius stated that “it seemed good to me . . . to set before you the books included in the Canon, and handed down, and accredited as Divine.” Referencing the Old and New Testaments, Athanasius wanted to make sure that these books alone were counted as “divinely inspired Scripture” and not to “mix them up” with “the books termed apocryphal.”11 The books in the canon, then, are not words fabricated from human minds, but they are revelations from the eternal God. God selected human agents to convey his thoughts in writing, but they were conduits of these thoughts rather than the originators.
Further, the Latin and Greek etymologies of the word canon refer to a straight rod that could be a measuring stick. The extrapolation from this term can add a dual meaning, where canon also implies the absolute standard (or rule) from which all other standards should be measured. This means that in our post-(post-)modern world, the Bible claims that there is absolute truth and all other truths must bow and submit to the truth proclaimed in the Scriptures. There is no picking and choosing—the entire Bible and its teachings on money, forgiveness, homosexuality, divorce, and all other topics are accepted as the ultimate truth and authority.12 All this to say, a twenty-first-century Protestant Christian is referring to the thirty-nine books in the Old Testament and twenty-seven in the New Testament when using the term canon.
When such a sizable claim is made in the realm of spiritual matters, people rightfully look to spiritual proof to authenticate the pronouncement. Golden tablets sent from celestial beings sure would be nice right about now to substantiate the divine nature of the Word. For Christians, however, there is no such tale. Instead, we must look at the messy nature of canonicity, while marveling at God’s sovereign, divine, and expert hand in creating the Word. How can we bridge the messy with the marveling? One powerful method is by fusing history and theology—and praying that both types of information transform into faith.
Even if history proves that Jesus lived and died, historian Scot McKnight notes that “the historical method cannot prove . . . that Jesus died for our sins and was raised for our justification.”13 That is, even if historical evidence proves that Jesus died on a Roman cross, history alone cannot prove why Jesus hung on that cross. That’s where theology comes in. Borrowing words from theologian Kevin Vanhoozer, “History alone cannot answer the question of what the canon finally is; theology alone can do that.”14 Discerning which books are actually considered divine in origin requires that historical information is distilled through a theological framework. A correct understanding of God’s nature, attributes, and personality are a part of this quest of discernment. History and theology working in tandem help build our faith in Jesus who was sent to redeem us.
EXPERIENCING AND INVESTIGATINGTHE SCRIPTURES
Salvation is a mysterious thing, and the moment of salvation can be anything but a definable moment. There are the dramatic stories of conversion, but there are also those who grew up in Christian homes and somewhere along the way their parents’ faith became their own. Although our Savior is always the same, our salvation stories are personal and nuanced. The same can be said of our relationship with the Scriptures.
My brother’s story drives home this point. Henry, who is now a criminal prosecutor, previously found himself on the wrong side of the law. He made some poor choices as a teenager and ended up in jail. At a very low moment in his life, sitting in solitary confinement, he looked around his cell and saw a lone piece of literature: the Gospel of John. He wasn’t a follower of Jesus, but desperation made him pick up this book. As he read, he felt a divine presence enter the room and into his soul. His reading of the Word made him believe in the possibility of God’s existence—in the possibility that the divine and carnal intersect, that hope can be found in the most unexpected places.
This type of experiential interaction with the Word is certainly a gateway into knowing Jesus more, whether as Savior or the Word. Start there, whichever verse the Lord speaks to you. Hang on to that verse or passage for dear life, and then ask him to speak more through his Word. Along the way, continue to attend church, listen to sermons, join a Bible study, and read books that point to the formation and elucidation of Scripture.
My own journey, combining these elements, took many years. A pivotal moment came when I experienced the power of the Scriptures in a life-altering way. This was the year that Josephine, my daughter, was born, which turned out to be the hardest year of my life. A few months after giving birth I was diagnosed with a condition called a “petrous apex mucocele” that had gotten out of hand, and I lost hearing in my right ear and feeling on the right side of my face. My surgeon told me that I would eventually lose all hearing and all feeling if left untreated. After the diagnosis, I started having panic attacks, where even in broad daylight and open spaces I felt like I was drowning. Then I started feeling dizzy and blurry in my vision, and I went through more scans and tests than I can remember.
I was extremely fortunate to have a compassionate and skilled doctor who spent hours talking with me about all the options available. Doug and Julie, my pastor and his wife at our church in Woodland, California, walked alongside us every step, offering an incredible amount of prayer and counseling. Brian, my husband, was nothing short of heroic. But it was God’s Word that broke through the madness.
One evening, I came across Scripture reminding me of God’s love and sovereignty. Those words felt like lightning entering my soul, and I wept and laughed in unison. In that moment, I felt a divine joy, sustaining peace, and deep cleansing of my soul that can’t be fully explained in human vernacular. It felt like a light had dawned in pitch darkness.
I savored the words and meditated on them, praying them over my soul. Those verses ushered me to meditate on God’s character and how much he loves me and is so worthy of being trusted. And eventually my fears about my surgery and all the what-ifs slowly receded.
Each fear based on a what-if was replaced with God’s holy presence and promise. What if I can’t take care of my newborn? God loves Josephine more than I do and will care for her regardless. What if the surgery is a failure and I lose all hearing and feeling on that side? God formed me in my mother’s womb, continues to sustain my every breath, and is mindful of my frame. What if I don’t survive the surgery because of some accident? God knows the exact moment of my last breath on this planet, and nothing can thwart his best and loving plans for my life. He is sovereign, he is good, and he is so very much in love with me.
Soon after that experience, I asked God, “How did all this come together? And how did your Word become what it is?” I heard nothing right away, but soon after, a friend recommended that I read New Testament scholar F. F. Bruce’s The Canon of Scripture.15 I had started digging around for answers for over a year at this point, but Bruce’s book was like none other. From defining the term canon, to covering the compilation of both the Old and New Testaments, Bruce’s book served as a textbook of sorts. From there, God stoked a love for his Word, both in content and canonicity.
God’s Word entered my soul like lightning. But this moment was not singular. It sparked a lifetime of delving into the Scriptures, where newfound discoveries awakened greater love for the Bible. But it has also brought me to deeper wrestling with Scripture, where certain verses have left me confused or certain parables remain enigmatic. I explore the hard questions, not in order to believe that the Bible is truly God’s Word, but because I already believe by faith and reason that it is.
CIRCULAR REASONING
In college I had a lab partner in biology class who was an atheist, but we often talked about God. I was a new Christian, and I just couldn’t help bringing up Jesus from time to time. He was so actively working in my life that it was difficult not to talk about him. One day my lab partner, James, said, “Where are you getting all this stuff about Jesus?” and I replied, “The Bible.” He then said, “How do you know it’s true?” And I told him that the Bible declares that it is the Word of God. I pulled out my pocket Bible and pointed to John 1:1. He then asked me, “Can you prove that it’s the Bible without referencing the Bible?” And I told him, “Hmm, well, uh . . . let me get back to you on that.”
I wish I could contact James now and share with him what I’ve learned since. Yes, there is much evidence that the Bible is God’s Word. Yes, you can make this claim without referencing the Bible. It takes faith to believe the reality of this claim, but it also takes faith to disbelieve it. Rejecting a claim needs a framework and rational basis, too, and it takes faith to discount the truth of the Scriptures. I hope that professing Christians, as well as atheists like James, will discover the evidence outside of Scripture that the Bible is indeed what it claims to be: God’s Word to humanity.
Christians have been taught that faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God, as stated in Romans 10:17. Many powerful verses throughout the Bible attest to its own veracity, and I believe every one of them (for example, Deuteronomy 8:3; Psalm 18:30; Psalm 19:7; Matthew 4:4; John 1:1; Ephesians 6:17; 2 Timothy 3:16; Hebrews 4:12; 2 Peter 3:16). But citing its own claim can seem, at best, circular reasoning, and, at worst, fraudulent. There are many well-respected theologians who would disagree with me on this point. For example, theologian and authors Norman L. Geisler and William E. Nix believe that using the Bible to validate its own assertion for holy status is not circular reasoning and any such charges are “unfounded.”16 Many good books already exist using Scripture to validate Scripture, and there is a place and need for such dialogue. This book, however, aims to use mainly nonbiblical sources to prove why Scripture should be accepted as God’s Word.
Using Scripture to validate Scripture can seem like a version of, “We can prove that Zeus exists because Hermes believed in Zeus’s existence.” This does not mean, however, that Scripture will be excluded in our discussion in what it self-proclaims. The Bible claims to be God’s Word, and it is vital that we examine these assertions. We’ll also assess the Scriptures alongside historical evidence and theological and rational dialogue.
I respect James’s question and these challenges because they are rational and important assertions. The Christian faith is making a gigantic ask of its followers to base their entire lives on words written centuries past. There are easy parts to believe—such as loving our neighbor and serving the poor—but what about the passages about not judging others and forgiving those who have hurt us? The Bible is not a buffet where we can pick and choose various parts to conform to our taste. It must all be true; otherwise the claim of canonicity in sum total cannot be made.
Faith comes by hearing God’s Word, and there is no doubt about that. As you read about canonicity, my prayer is that you would continue to study and consume the Scriptures voraciously. May our investigation into the compilation of God’s Word be coupled with his actual Word. May the Lord open our hearts and minds to the truth of the Word as we delve further. We cannot trust and live out the Scriptures apart from the Holy Spirit, so to the living God we ask,
Holy Spirit,
We need you. And we invite you to take charge of this journey. May the words in this book point to the Scriptures. And may the Scriptures illuminate our hearts and minds to your eternal love. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.
QUESTIONS TO PONDER
1. Where are you currently on the journey from the first to the second confession?
2. What has your relationship with the Bible been like?
2
Old Testament Tradition
OUR FAMILY HAS A TRADITION where we pray every time we get in the car to leave for an event. Josephine and JD anticipate praying soon after we’ve buckled up; they will ask, “Aren’t we going to pray?” if we haven’t prayed yet after covering a half mile from our house. We often ask the Lord for safety, blessings for the people we will meet, and for our hearts to be attuned to his leading. And this is probably a good tradition for me since I drive a teensy bit faster sometimes than I should.
Your family might have a tradition, too, whether it’s daily or seasonal. Traditions can be symbolic, important, comforting, or just plain fun. Traditions have a way of pointing us back to something important. Some traditions, however, are not always worth keeping and should rightfully be jettisoned. The weightier the tradition, the more we should examine the rite, especially since the inheritors of tradition might not always understand its relevance or value.
For Protestants, we have inherited a rich tradition from the Jewish religion mainly in the form of the Hebrew Bible. (For our purposes, when we use the term Hebrew Bible, we’re referring to the Masoretic Text, which is the official version of the Hebrew Bible [Old Testament] for Judaism and Christianity.1) Our Old Testament is arranged in a different order from the Hebrew version, but its contents are identical. The key difference is that Protestants interpret the text differently than the Jewish tradition. Both attest to a Savior who will deliver humankind from the cesspool of sin, but Protestants believe that Jesus is this very Savior, while Jews do not. Messianic Jews are in a separate category, as they hail from Jewish roots and also believe that Jesus is Lord and Savior.
The Hebrew Bible comprises twenty-four books, categorized into three divisions. There is great likelihood that the earliest version of the Hebrew Bible had two divisions (the Law and the Prophets), but the threefold division has been the standard since ancient times.2
✹ Division 1: The Law (some other names are Torah, Pentateuch, Books of Moses) includes five books: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.
✹ Division 2: The Prophets, subdivided into the Former Prophets and Latter Prophets, includes eight books.
✦ Former Prophets include Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings.
✦ Latter Prophets include Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the Book of the Twelve Prophets (also called the Minor Prophets).
✹ Division 3: The Writings includes eleven books. The first three are the poetical books—Psalms, Job, and Proverbs; the next five are called the Scrolls (also known as Megilloth) and include Ruth, Song of Songs, Ecclesiastes, Lamentations, and Esther; and last are Daniel, Ezra-Nehemiah (in one book), and Chronicles, which comprise the historical books.
If we extrapolate these three divisions into lists, they are arranged like this:
1. Genesis
2. Exodus
3. Leviticus
4. Numbers
5. Deuteronomy
6. Joshua
7. Judges
8. Samuel
9. Kings
10. Isaiah
11. Jeremiah
12. Ezekiel
13. The Book of the Twelve Prophets (Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi)
14. Psalms
15. Proverbs
16. Job
17. Song of Songs
18. Ruth
19. Lamentations
20.Ecclesiastes
21. Esther
22. Daniel
23. Ezra-Nehemiah
24. Chronicles
THE LAW
The first division of the Old Testament is often labeled as the Pentateuch, for the five books (penta meaning “five”): Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. The word Pentateuch comes from the Greek word pentateuchos, which refers to the “five scrolls,” and was first popularized by the Hellenized Jews living in first-century Alexandria.3 To be “Hellenized” meant adopting Greek practices, such as speaking the Greek language and adopting Greek culture. It would be like when my family immigrated from South Korea to the United States many years ago and became “Americanized.” We spoke “Kon-glish” (a combination of Korean and English) and celebrated Thanksgiving with traditional fare such as turkey and stuffing but added buchimgae (Korean pancakes), mandoo (dumplings), and kimchee (spicy fermented vegetables).
The fusion of two cultures allows the best, and often the most convenient and expedient, forms of society to blend. One salient example of such fusion within Jewish Hellenization is the Septuagint, which is the Hebrew Bible translated into Greek, starting from the third century BC.4
The Pentateuch is also called the Torah in the Hebrew language, which means “instruction” in holiness. Such instructions are found within the laws and covenant often attributed to Moses. Hence The Books of Moses and The Law are other designations for this set of books. These names point to the prominent position given to the Pentateuch as the first group of books considered as divinely inspired by God.
While Christians proclaim that all Scripture is equally divine, the Pentateuch holds special prominence as the first
