2 Timothy 3: 15 – 17
How We Got Our Bibles
15 and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.
I was going to title this message as ‘Who Failed the Bible Test’. However, to make it more palatable I just put down, ‘How We Got Our Bibles.’ It is my hope that as we take a look at these Wonderful Holy Words composed by 40 writers over thousands of years you will come to appreciate how awesome we have God’s Word.
I want you to stop and consider your job. What is it that you do? Are you and Accountant, Doctor, Auto Mechanic, or Housekeeper? Well, they are all important in our way of life. The reason I bring them up is because even a housekeeper needs a manual in which to manage a home? We need manuals to all the appliances and electronic equipment. How about an manual to know about the heater or air conditioner or about the fuse box. Do you see the importance of these reference materials? Well, our Precious Holy Adoni Yahweh, our Father God, did not leave us here on earth to just wander around aimlessly, He gave us a ‘Manual’ to run our lives. Yes, it is the Bible.
Here is a question which I hope you know the answer. How was the bible put together? Or another way of asking, ‘How did the 66 books make it into our Bibles.’ Hey there are a lot of other old writings that we sometimes see on a television special. How come they are not consider important?. The bible passage that we see in the book of 2 Timothy chapter 3 says that 15 and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.’
Why are the 66 books in our Bible’s listed as being given by our Precious Holy Spirit while all these other books that are in circulation not?
There are 24 books in the Jewish Bible which is called the ‘Tanach’. Here is the listing.
The Five Books of Moses
• Genesis
• Exodus
• Leviticus
• Numbers
• Deuteronomy
The Eight Books of the Prophets
• Joshua
• Judges
• Samuel
• Kings
• Isaiah
• Jeremiah
• Ezekial
• The Twelve (minor prophets)
Hosea
Joel
Amos
Obadia
Yonah
Micah
Nahum
Habakkuk
Zephaniah
Chagai
Zechariah
Malachi
The Eleven Books of the Writings
• Psalms
• Proverbs
• Job
• Song of Songs
• Ruth
• Lamentations
• Ecclesiastes
• Esther
• Daniel
• Ezra/Nehemia
• Chronicles
Take a look now at the books that we have in our Old Testament bibles.
The Old Testament has 39 books total, which consist of...
Pentateuch - 5 books
Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy
Historical Books - 12 books
Joshua, Judges, Ruth, First Samuel, Second Samuel, First Kings, Second Kings, First Chronicles, Second Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther.
Poetic books- 5 books
Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon
Prophetic books- 17 books
Major Prophets - Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel
Minor Prophets - Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi.
The Hebrew bible has 24 books while our New Testament has 39 books. Now, we will compare both and find out that they are both the same. Huh? Yes, you will see. Are you ready? I will list them side by side.
Hebrew Bible Old Testament
. Genesis . Genesis
. Exodus . Exodus
. Leviticus . Leviticus
. Numbers . Numbers
. Deuteronomy . Deuteronomy
. Joshua . Joshua
. Judges . Judges
. Samuel . 1 Samuel
. 2 Samuel
. Kings . 1 Kings
. 2 Kings
. Isaiah . Isaiah
. Jeremiah . Jeremiah
. Ezekiel . Ezekiel
. The 12 minor
Prophets . Hosea
. Joel
. Amos
. Obadiah
` . Jonah
. Micah
. Nahum
. Habakkuk
. Zephaniah
. Haggai
. Zechariah
. Malachi
. Psalms Psalms
. Proverbs . Proverbs
. Job . Job
. Song of Solomon . Song of Songs
. Ruth . Ruth
. Esther . Esther
. Lamentations . Lamentations
. Ecclesiastes . Ecclesiastes
. Daniel . Daniel
. Ezra/Nehemiah . Ezra
. Nehemiah
. Chronicles . 1 Chronicles
. 2 Chronicles
24 books 39 books
So, are we okay with the books in the Old Testament? Now for the New Testament.
The first book to be accepted by the early Christian leaders was the Gospel of Matthew. As you know he was an Apostles who traveled with our Lord Jesus Christ during His 3 years of active ministry. Then we have the Gospel of Mark, who was a penman for the Apostle Peter. So, in a way his gospel is Peter’s Gospel but we know it and list it as ‘Mark’s’. Then we have Luke who was a disciple of the Apostle Paul. It is most likely that Luke never saw our Lord Jesus Christ. However, he was a gifted doctor, an investigator, and writer. He went back with Paul and had a chance to interview the very people who knew our Lord Jesus Christ, even Mary. The fourth Gospel that was accepted by all came from the man whom the Lord loved, the Apostle John. Next to be accepted was the book of Acts that in reality is the Gospel of Luke part B. Then all the letters of Paul to various churches and individuals was kept as sacred doctrine. We then see the Apostles Peter and John compose some letters which were included by all Christian fellowships. The book of Hebrews which many people believe was authored by the Apostle Paul was valued as Scripture and our Lord Jesus’ half brothers James and Jude’s letters were kept for sacred value. Lastly, the book of Revelation was added to complete what the early church considered to be the word of God. All in all these books are 27 and are listed as follows;
• The Gospel of Matthew
• The Gospel of Mark
• The Gospel of Luke
• The Gospel of John
• The Acts of the Apostles
• The Epistle of Paul to the Romans
• The First Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians
• The Second Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians
• The Epistle of Paul to the Galatians
• The Epistle of Paul to the Ephesians
• The Epistle of Paul to the Philippians
• The Epistle of Paul to the Colossians
• The First Epistle of Paul to the Thessalonians
• The Second Epistle of Paul to the Thessalonians
• The First Epistle of Paul to Timothy
• The Second Epistle of Paul to Timothy
• The Epistle of Paul to Titus
• The Epistle of Paul to Philemon
• The Epistle to the Hebrews
• The Epistle of James
• The First Epistle of Peter
• The Second Epistle of Peter
• The First Epistle of John
• The Second Epistle of John
• The Third Epistle of John
• The Epistle of Jude
• The Book of Revelation
Now, the books of the bible came from three languages which were at their time the major language in use. These languages were Aramaic, Hebrew, and Greek.
The first time we find an attempt to put all the books in the same language came from Scrolls called the ‘Septuagint’
THE SEPTUAGINT, derived from the Latin word for "seventy," can be a confusing term, since ideally it refers to the third-century BCE Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures, executed in Alexandria, Egypt.
The earliest, and best known, source for the story of the Septuagint is the Letter of Aristeas, a lengthy document that recalls how Ptolemy (Philadelphus II [285–247 BCE]), desiring to augment his library in Alexandria, Egypt, commissioned a translation of the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek. Ptolemy wrote to the chief priest, Eleazar, in Jerusalem, and arranged for six translators from each of the twelve tribes of Israel. The seventy-two (altered in a few later versions to seventy or seventy-five) translators arrived in Egypt to Ptolemy's gracious hospitality, and translated the Torah (also called the Pentateuch: the first five books of the Hebrew Scriptures) in seventy-two days.
There are over 5,600 early Greek Manuscripts of the New Testament that are still in existence. The oldest manuscripts were written on papyrus and the later manuscripts were written on leather called parchment.
Then we find many scrolls that were converted to Latin and called the ‘Vulgate’
Around 380 A.D. The Latin Vulgate was translated by St. Jerome. He translated into Latin the Old Testament from the Hebrew and the New Testament from Greek. The Latin Vulgate became the Bible of the Western Church until the Protestant Reformation in the 1500's. It continues to be the authoritative translation of the Roman Catholic Church to this day. The Protestant Reformation saw an increase in translations of the Bible into the common languages of the people.
In 1380 A.D. the first English translation of the Bible was by John Wycliffe. He translated the Bible into English from the Latin Vulgate. This was a translation from a translation and not a translation from the original Hebrew and Greek. Wycliffe was forced to translate from the Latin Vulgate because he did not know Hebrew or Greek.
In 1456 A.D. Gutenberg produced the first printed Bible in Latin. Printing revolutionized the way books were made. From now on books could be published in great numbers and at a lower cost.
In 1514 A.D. the Greek New Testament was printed for the first time by Erasmus. He based his Greek New Testament from only five Greek manuscripts, the oldest of which dated only as far back as the twelfth century. With minor revisions, Erasmus' Greek New Testament came to be known as the ‘Textus Receptus’ or the "received texts."
In 1522 A. D. Polyglot Bible was published. The Old Testament was in Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, and Latin and the New Testament in Latin and Greek. Erasmus used the Polyglot to revise later editions of his New Testament. Tyndale made use of the Polyglot in his translation on the Old Testament into English which he did not complete because he was martyred in 1534.
In 1611 A.D. The ‘King James Version’ was translated to English from the original Hebrew and Greek. The King James translators of the New Testament used the Textus Receptus as the basis for their translations
Now earlier, the question was asked, how come the 66 books are in the bible and not the other manuscripts in which other people have discovered?
The Early church had three criteria for determining what books were to be included or excluded from the Canon of the New Testament.
First, the books must have apostolic authority-- that is, they must have been written either by the apostles themselves, who were eyewitnesses to what they wrote about, or by associates of the apostles.
Second, there was the criterion of conformity to what was called the "rule of faith." In other words, was the document congruent with the basic Christian tradition that the church recognized as normative.
Third, there was the criterion of whether a document had enjoyed continuous acceptance and usage by the church at large.
Some early manuscripts like the books of 1 & 2 Esdras, 1 & 2 Macabees, Tobias, Judith, The Gospel of Thomas,,Wisdom, Sirach ,Baruch, Enoch, Epistle of Jeremiah, Susanna, Prayer of Azariah ,Prayer of Manasseh, etc. are not recognized as Holy Scripture since they did not pass the test.
I hope this helps you realize the great work of the Holy Spirit that you have in your hands.
