We are doing a Message Series on the Word of God with the Word of God. Our key passage for this Message Series is 2 Timothy 3:16-17. Open your Bibles to 2 Timothy 3. Timothy was warned that in the last days, there will be evil activities in society; Take a look again at 2 timothy 3:1-5…. We today are seeing all these evil activities; we are living in the last days. And like Timothy, we must always remind ourselves of the Gospel of Jesus Christ; For God so loved the world that He gave His One and Only Son Jesus Christ that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life! Forgiveness of sins is a gift from God through Jesus Christ! Christians now belong to God forever and while still here on earth, Christians anticipate the return of Jesus Christ. In the meantime, God gave us the Bible and we are to note 2 Timothy 3:16-17 which states….
Last week we noted that the Bible is God-breathed (inspired by God), meaning, God had people write down His own words. The Bible is God’s spoken words and we must read it and learn from it with that in mind. The Almighty God is talking to us through the Bible! All Scripture is God breathed and is useful for teaching and rebuking… Before we can teach from the Bible, we must know how we ended with the Bibles we have in our hands and which Bible to use. Today let us learn the history of our Bibles.
We know the Bible is God’s Word but He called on people to put His words in writing! How did God put His own words through people? Remember what happened at Mount Sinai? God not only spoke to Moses but God actually wrote on stones His own words, the 10 Commandments.
1. God certainly could have just written Himself all of Scriptures, but God chose, with His divine wisdom, to have people write down Scriptures. What do you think would happen if the 2 stone tablets with the 10 Commandments written on them are available today? What have we done with all the Holy sites in Israel? People are worshippers of things not necessarily God! If we still have the 2 stone tablets, or even just a chip of those stones, people would worship the stones rather than God! Similarly, people worship the sun, stars, comets, and even pets instead of the Creator God Himself.
Open your Bibles to Deutoronomy 4:10-14 and read along with me…. now to Deutoronomy18:18-20…. And so, after God Himself wrote Scriptures, God called Moses and other Prophets to write down His Words. And what can we say about the New Testament? Jesus Christ Himself spoke, and He stated that God the Holy Spirit will guide others to write down what He taught; and we always note in the Apostle Paul’s writings the statement “this is the command from our Lord”.
God called on people, by the power of God the Holy Spirit, to write down God’s Word for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. God put His words in writing for you and me!
2. As we had noted last week, With the exception of the Book of Genesis, Scriptures were written so close to the actual events that they are like “newsflashes” in a newspaper! God called on eyewitnesses to write down His words. Do you see the power of this? God could have just called anyone to write His words, but how believable would that be if just some random person wrote for God? Would you actually read seriously something written by PeeWee Herman? However, People do accept writings about Aristotle and Caesar when those writings are about 1000 years after the actual events when Scriptures are only about 200 years after the actual events written by eyewitnesses!.The Bible is historically accurate and reliable to depend our lives on it!
Now, there are many other writings which claim to be the Word of God; why do we only have 66 Books in our Bibles? First of all, turn to Deutoronomy 4:1-2….
3. God chose and protects only the 66 Books of the Bible! This is called the “canon”, meaning the standard! How is it done? …. at least 4 good reasons:
a. First of all, God Himself protected and continues to protect the 66 Books! How? After the last book of the Old Testament from the Prophet Malachi, God was silent for 435 years till the announcement of the coming Messiah! For over 400 years God silently spoke to state that the 39 Books of the Old Testament was enough! And what did Jesus say at the last Book of the New Testament? Turn to Revelation 22:18-19 with me……
God Himself protected and continues to protect the 66 Books of our Bibles!
b. Secondly, there is a godly internal evaluation of the 66 Books! Remember what we noted last week about those who try to speak and write for God? If the church or society itself finds out that what the speaker/writer is saying or writing is wrong, they are immediately killed for heresy! The Bible has been proven historically and prophetically to be trusted. We will note more about this as the Bible was translated to Greek.
Another reason why we only have 66 Books?
c. The 66 Books of the bible are consistent with each other! God is truly the sole author of the 66 Books in the Bible and He will never contradict Himself!
d. The 66 Books are sufficient for our lives! There is no need for other books; I certainly don’t need another book when I’m still trying to learn and live out the 66 Books and I bet you don’t need another one either! 2 Peter 1:3….
And so, there are many reasons to accept just the 66 books of the bible (39 in the OT and 27 in the NT).
Now, how did we end up with our English versions of the Bible?
a. God chose a people and so the Original Old Testament writings were mainly in Hebrew and some Aramaic. I often wonder if God loves coffee or tea, because He Brews!
b. Now, when Alexander the Great took power, Greek became the common language; and so, around 335BC, the Old Testament Bible was actually translated to Greek! Now, let us note of a concern here when translating the Bible; when the Old Testament with 39 Books was translated to Greek they actually added other supposedly religious books and called the compilation the Septuagint Bible. Let us also note another concern, the translation was a way to promote the Greek Kingdom!
c. When the New Testament was written, the common language was still Greek and so the NT was originally written in Greek. Now, some people do not believe the English Translations of the Bible because it is no longer the original; but did you know, that Jesus and NT people at the time, depended on the Greek Translation of the Old Testament? If God allowed that, why shouldn’t we accept translations of the Bible? But, we do need to be aware of the intent of the translations!
d. Next, after the NT was written, in about 300AD, the common language switched from Greek to Latin, and so the Latin Vulgate Bible was written. Copies of the Hebrew Old Testament was still around because the Vulgate was translated from them! Now, although it was good to translate the bible to the common language, there was again a hidden agenda we should be aware of; again additional books were included and a certain Christian denomination was being promoted.
e. Next, As the world population was growing and the word of God was spreading, guess what the next Bible translation was from the Hebrew, Greek, and Latin bibles? From 400-1400AD, German Translations of the Bible occurred! Have you heard of the Gutenberg Bible? The Gutenberg Bible was the first Bible printed on a printing press but it was still the Latin Vulgate; but other theologians translated the bible into German and took advantage of the printing press! The German Bibles had a significant role in the success of the German language; thus, we all know what “gesundheit” means 😊
f. English Christians translated the Bible 1500-1600AD (Wycliffe from the Latin Vulgate and Tyndale from Hebrew and Greek Texts). King James of England desired to have an English Version of the Bible instead of the Latin Vulgate! In 1611, the King James Bible in English was printed in a press!
Again, it was great for the common people to be able to read God’s Word but King James had selfish ideas, which is concerning!
g. Now, with the technology of Printing Presses in the 1500s, we see God at work here again because many more people were studying the Bible; and so Chapter and Verse numbers were added to the bible and some of the writings were questioned and were separated from the initial 66 books! PTL!
h. Because it is God’s desire to talk to every person in the world, we have many translations of the Bible today! Also because of technology and deeper studies and findings, we have many helpful versions of the Bible today! God wants us to know Him and so He speaks in a language we can understand; but let us note from history of humans, that some have other agendas rather than God’s! Be careful! Be discerning!
I have given you much information …
What does this all mean to us today? First of all, as we noted last week, even though we are sinners, God loves us, God desires to bless us, God desires to walk with us, and God desires to talk with us! How are we responding to this Holy Almighty God, starting with the Bible?
1. The Holy Almighty God is speaking, are we listening to His voice or our own or other voices? Read and study the bible seriously listening to God! Yes we should read the Bible daily (Matthew 4:4) but we must seriously study God’s Word on a regular basis!
2. At a minimum when we read the Bible, know God through the Reliable Holy Word of God; this is God’s desire and for our own good!
3. But, before reading and studying the Bible, pray through Jesus Christ for God’s leading and our humility before our Creator God! Pray always, even when you are actually reading; God desires a conversation, a relationship with each one of us!
4. Which English Translation of the Bible should I read and study?
a. Read the Preface of your Bible and know why it was written that way (“thought-for-thought”, “word-by-word”, combination, paraphrased? Each has its merits!)
b. For study, stay away from “Paraphrased” (including “The Message”) which are “bent” toward the perspective of the translator.
c. Accept the fact that there are passages which we can not completely understand!
d. It is enough to grasp the main points of the Bible and live it!
Take a moment to quietly pray about these things; give thanks to God for His Word and make a commitment to trust and seriously study the Bible....
