Why The Bible? Series

So why the Bible?

Series Deep Dive.

The purpose of the Bible is to encourage all of humanity to have a right relationship with God and one another. The writing of Bible was inspired by God to inform us of the need for repentance and redemption. God wants us to be justified to be in close relationships with him.

The need for redemption, saving from sin is an interesting topic and a good place to start with an understanding of scripture. Prior to the writing of the Bible there was a fair amount of history that had occurred. If we are to look at Biblical timelines and the writing of the first books, we will see that Job and Genesis were likely written at a similar period of history. Sometime around 1400 BC, these are ancient books. The other thing to remember is that oral history recording has an important place in many cultures prior to the written word.

For instance; Jane McRae of The Auckland University Press tells us: Maori oral tradition is the rich, poetic record of the past handed down by voice over generations through whakapapa, whakatauki, korero and waiata. In genealogies and sayings, histories, stories and songs, Maori tell of ‘te ao tawhito’ or the old world: the gods, the migration of the Polynesian ancestors from Hawaiki and life here in Aotearoa.

A voice from the past, today this remarkable record underpins the speeches, songs and prayers performed on marae and the teaching of tribal genealogies and histories. Indeed, the oral tradition underpins Maori culture itself. (Maori Oral Tradition: He Korero no te Ao Tawhito by Jane McRae- Auckland University Press)

The Hebrew people also had a verbal record of their history.

In the Jewish tradition, students training to be Rabbi’s learn scriptures by heart and only those who memorised them, went on to be Rabbi’s. These are not just a few key verses but boys undergoing the training had to memorise the first five books of the Torah, the same first five books of as our Bible by the age of thirteen and be tested on their memorisation of these five books prior to training.

After that wee aside back to Job. Job’s account is that of a righteous man who suffered. It is a record for all of humanity that points us to an understanding of a few different things. One being that in life there is a certain inevitability that there will be some degree of suffering, even in the lives of righteous people.

Another that there is a spiritual domain that we don’t see, and that there is a being, Satan, who meant to do Job harm with the evil scheme that when loss and suffering occurred to Job, Job would then turn his back on his relationship with God. Another point I often think of in relation to the story of Job, is that his friends, while they were there for him, gave bad advice that probably added to his suffering, but Job being the righteous man that he was, continued to have faith in God. The main point is that God was aware of Job and cared for Job and eventually gave him more than he had lost. Think of this in regard to eternal life. The book of Job book is classified as poetic writing, it is an historical writing and part of the wider sacred text that is the Holy Bible. Being part of the Bible it also is a sacred text. There ends Andrew’s short synopsis of the book of Job.

So why the Bible, and why is it a sacred text? Excellent question, I’m getting to it. The book of Genesis, that is recorded as being written by Moses starts with an insight into creation, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”

So, looking at Genesis we can gain an understanding for the need for the events of Biblical history and all other Biblical teaching. Why? Well, the simple answer to that question is the fall of humanity. A simple run down on the first two chapters, well let’s start with those first two verses of chapter one. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.” Already we see two things about God, that He is the Creator and that He is Spirit. Verse three “and God said, ‘Let there be light’.” Another aspect of God as creator is that he speaks all we know into being. As the Apostle John says about Jesus, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. John 1:1 Race to the end of chapter 1, verse 31, “God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.”