WHERE DID THE BIBLE COME FROM?
INTRODUCTION
1. Inspiration means that the Holy Spirit worked in a unique supernatural way so that the written words of Scripture were also the words of God.
2. 2 Tim. 3:16 tells us that scripture was created by the divine “in-breathing” of God into man. It was the original documents that were inspired, called autographs. The word “canon” means “measuring rod” but came to mean “standard.”
📖 Old Testament Canon
1. Hebrew Bible (Tanakh)
• The Jewish Scriptures were written between 1400–400 BC.
• They were recognized over time by Jewish communities and eventually formalized, most likely by around 90 AD at the Council of Jamnia.
2. Key Criteria for Inclusion
• Authorship: Attributed to prophets or people closely connected to God's work.
• Usage: Widely read in synagogues and recognized by Jewish communities.
• Consistency: Agreed with the theological and moral direction of known Scripture.
3. Greek Septuagint
• A Greek translation of Hebrew Scriptures created around 250–100 BC.
• Included extra books (later called the Apocrypha or Deuterocanonical books).
• The Protestant Old Testament aligns with the Hebrew Bible; Catholic and Orthodox Bibles include the Deuterocanonical books.
4. The Dead Sea Scrolls, found 1947-1956.
• The Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in eleven caves near the ancient settlement of Qumran. They were the library of a Jewish sect hidden when the Roman army was advancing A.D. 66-70.
• The scrolls contain manuscripts from every Old Testament book except Esther, plus many non-biblical books. The earliest complete O.T. Hebrew manuscript had been the Leningrad Codex, circa A.D. 1009. Critics had ridiculed its accuracy. Then the Dead Sea Scrolls were found, many of them dating as early as 200 B.C. The shocker? They were virtually identical to the Masoretic text!
?? New Testament Canon
1. Written 45–100 AD
• The 27 books (Gospels, Acts, Letters, Revelation) were written by apostles or their close associates.
2. How They Were Chosen
By about 200 AD, most churches widely accepted:
• The four Gospels
• Paul’s letters (13)
• Acts
Debates lingered over Hebrews, James, 2 Peter, 2 & 3 John, Jude, and Revelation.
3. Key Milestones
• Muratorian Fragment (c. 170 AD): Earliest list resembling today's NT canon.
• Athanasius' Easter Letter (367 AD): First to list exactly the 27 books of the NT.
• Councils of Hippo (393 AD) and Carthage (397 AD): Confirmed the canon, which was already in wide use.
4. Criteria for Canonization
• Apostolic Origin: Written by or connected to an apostle.
• Orthodoxy: Agreed with accepted Christian doctrine.
• Universal Use: Read publicly in churches across regions.
• Inspiration: Believed to be divinely inspired and transformative.
5. Manuscript Evidence
• There are at least 5,366 Greek manuscripts plus over 19,400 early translations into other languages, far more copies than any other early document. The nearest is Homer’s The Iliad, with 643 copies.
• No other religious document is as close to the actual witnesses and as abundantly attested. The are 10 N/T/ documents that were written during the lifetimes of the Apostles. We can be confident that the Bible we have is the very Word of God!
