Peeking Inside God’s Diary: The Bible

In This Chapter

Observing how the Bible came into existence

Debating the authority of the Apocrypha

Seeing the Bible for what it is and reading it knowledgeably

Exploring the Bible’s relevance to the 21^st century

My older sister always kept a diary while she grew up, and, for many years, my overarching goal in life was to sneak into her room and locate it. I figured she must’ve had deep, dark secrets that, if I could only discover them, I’d make it to Easy Street – she’d wash dinner dishes for life in return for my vow of secrecy. If you looked at my constantly pruned, dishpan hands when I was a boy, however, you’d have realized that I was never able to secure that elusive get-out-of-dishes-for-life promise from her. 

As I found out growing up, the thought of discovering another person’s diary is alluring; a private journal reveals unique insights into who a person is and what makes him or her tick. Christians believe that amazingly, the infinite Creator of the universe thought it important that you and I should have access to his “diary,” which is commonly known today as the Bible (or Word of God). Although God may not have penned the pages himself, Christians believe the Bible provides a revealing portrayal of who God is and what makes him tick. And by reading the Bible, you discover what’s important to him, how he relates to people, and what his future plans are for this world. 

To Christians, the Bible is all of this – and more. Yes, it’s a book about God and his people, but Christians say it contains real power. In fact, they often refer to the Bible as the “Living Word,” because of the way the Holy Spirit works in the hearts of Christians who sincerely read its pages (check out Chapter 7 to find out more on the Holy Spirit). 

In this chapter, I provide the info you need to know about the Bible to understand Christians and why they put so much faith in what many nonbelievers call an ordinary book. If you find yourself hankering for more, run to the nearest bookstore and check out The Bible For Dummies by Jeffrey Geoghegan and Michael Homan (Wiley).  

The Bible: Facts in brief

Name: The word Bible comes from the Greek word for “book.” Christians consider the Bible the Book of Books.

Original languages: The Old Testament was written in Hebrew. The New Testament was written in Greek.

Number of books: Old Testament (39), New Testament (27), and Apocrypha (11-15)

Also known as: Word of God, scripture, scriptures

Organization: The Bible is divided up into two parts. The Old Testament starts with the Creation story and details the history and revelations for God’s special people, the Jews. The New Testament continues what was started in the Old Testament with the accounts and teachings of Jesus and the early Church.

Consistent teaching: Although emphases of the Old and New Testaments are different, the consistent message throughout is that God’s faithful are saved by faith (see Romans 4 and Hebrews 11). 

Retracing the Bible’s Formation

When I was a young pup of a Christian, I didn’t think much about how the Bible came to be what it is today. I figured that God must’ve hired a team of ghostwriters to record the saga of the “early years,” perhaps having it published through his official publishing house (Abraham and Sons). Then, after Jesus Christ came, he cranked out the presses again with a sequel. The reality is that the Bible’s formation followed a windier path than what a published book follows today. Not only were the books written over a span of many years (over 1,200!), but each also had to be considered authorized by God among God’s faithful and set apart from other religious literature. 

Christians believe that during the ancient eras, God set apart certain writings to be treated as inspired, or being his very own words (find out more in the section, “Reading the Bible Appropriately,” later in this chapter). To Christians, his purpose in having special inspired writings – commonly called scripture or scriptures – is to bring people into a relationship with him and to teach people how to live a holy life. Paul says this best in 2 Timothy 3:16: 

All scripture is God-breathed and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction which is in righteousness, that the man of God may b complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. 

The Christian Church calls this authorized set of books the canon, which stems from a Greek term that means “measuring rod.” Therefore, books that are considered part of the canon are the measuring rod or bottom line for the Christian faith. 

The selection process – known as canonization – was both painstaking and self-evident. With the exception of the apocryphal books (see the “To Be or Not to Be: The Apocrypha” section, later in this chapter), Christians never had any fierce or fiery debates over which books should make it into the Old and New Testaments. In the end, when all the facts were gathered and put out on the table, it was obvious to the Church leaders (the bishops) which books stood out as being from God. 

When you look at the Bible’s historical development, you see six loosely defined stages that it went through to become the authoritative Word of God that the Christian Church universally recognizes today:

Stage 1: The Hebrews recognized certain writings (known today as the Old Testament) as sacred.

Stage 2: Jesus and the apostles treated the Old Testament writings as authoritative.

Stage 3: Indicating that the Bible wasn’t yet complete, Jesus alluded to more scriptures coming from the apostles.

Stage 4: The apostles understood their New Testament writings as equal to the Hebrew scriptures in their authority.

Stage 5: The early Church recognized a set of the apostles’ writings as New Testament scripture.

Stage 6: Because apostle leadership was a requirement for any New Testament scripture, the Church closed the book on the canon after the last apostle died.

 
Figure 6-1 illustrates the progression of these six stages, each of which I discuss in the sections that follow.