The Bible is the account of God's action in the world and his purpose with all creation. The writing of the Bible took place over sixteen centuries and is the work of over forty human authors. It is a quite amazing collection of 66 books with very different styles all containing the message God desired us to have.
This compilation of booklets contains an astonishing variety of literary styles. It provides many stories about the lives of good and bad people, about battles and journeys, about the life of Jesus along with letters written to groups of Christians that met in homes. It comes to us in narratives and dialogues, in proverbs and parables, in songs and allegories, in history and prophecy.
The accounts in the Bible were not generally written down as they occurred. Rather they were told over and over again and handed down through the years before someone finally wrote them down. Yet the same themes may be found throughout the book.
So along with the diversity there is also a remarkable unity. So what is the Bible? Well, in addition to all the above, the Bible is this:
It is a guide for living life to the full. It gives us a road map for the perilous journey of life. Or to put it another way, on our voyage through life's ocean, we find our anchor right here.
It is a storehouse of wonderful stories for children and grownups. Remember Noah and the ark? Joseph's coat of many colors? Daniel in the lion's den? Jonah and the fish? The parables of Jesus? In these stories we recognize the triumphs and failures of ordinary people - and we may even see ourselves!
It is a refuge in trouble. People in pain, in suffering, in mourning, tell how they turned to the Bible and found strength there in their desperate hours.
It is a treasury of insight as to who we are. We are not meaningless robots, but we are magnificent creatures of a God who loves us and gives us a purpose and a destiny.
It is a sourcebook for everyday living. . .
Many people contributed to the writing of the Bible. Actually the Bible is a collection of writings from about forty contributors, thirty in the Old Testament and ten in the New Testament. For example, the Psalms are a collection of the works of several authors, of whom David, the "sweet singer of Israel", is the best known. But psalms were also written by Moses, by Asaph, by a man named Ethan, and by the sons of Korah.
The accounts which have been preserved in the Old Testament date from the earliest times and were both written down and transmitted orally. As time passed they were collected together and received by the Hebrews as coming to them by God's mandate. The prophets transmit God's message to humans, while many of the Psalms articulate cries of people to God. Yet these psalms are also preserved in the Bible as part of God's message to mankind.
The New Testament stories and teachings were widely circulated among the early Christian churches. The letters of Paul to the Christians in several cities were likely the earliest writings now found in the New Testament. But many other letters and epistles were circulated as well. Gradually it became clear to the early churches which writings were truly inspired and which were spurious or simply edifying messages from pious authors.
It is truly amazing that all forty of these authors, spread out over 1600 years, have such a unified message in spite of their great diversity in language, culture and time. There is a reason for that! The reason is that these forty or so writers are all secondary authors. There is actually only one primary author, the one who inspired all the human authors, the eternal God.
Christians believe that the Bible came to us from God himself, who used all these human authors to give us his message, through the presence and inspiration of his Spirit. He did not simply give dictation to these authors, because we observe their unique personalities and varying styles of writing shining through. But God's message, God's authorship, is always there, providing in the end through all the years, exactly what he wanted us to have. In this way the Bible is our own ageless treasure.
The above was from www.biblica.com
When I was on my own spiritual quest, I was confused about all this. I didn't understand how a "Book" was supposed to be the Word of God. So, I asked God about it.
As God knows me and loves me, he knew how to answer me:
I only read from the best-seller list because years ago, after spending money on a book that I thought sounded good, and/or get myself in comfortable reading position, eagerly anticipating my new found read, I was often heartbroken because after the first or second paragraph, the book proved to be a dud, and not worth reading. So this is why I only read fiction from the best-seller list because people actually read them so they must be good. That's why their best-sellers and I won't lose money or become overtly disappointed anymore. No one really knows this because it's not something that's brought up in a regular conversation. God knows that I've read from only the best-seller list for years.
So, after my prayer in asking God about the Bible, it was maybe two or three days later when I heard on the radio that the Bible is no longer listed on the best-seller because it's been the best-seller for like, ever, and they don't even list it a best-seller. . .it's a given. This is according to wikepedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_books: (The Bible is number 1)
Book
Author(s)
Original language
First published
Approximate sales
Bible [1](Koine Greek τὰ Βίβλια)
Traditional Christian view: Revelation or Inspiration by God[2] to various authors
Hebrew, Koine Greek, Aramaic
70 BC- 105 AD,
Further information: dating of the Bible
2.5 billion[3] to more than 6 billion[4]
In the supernatural world, or the spiritual world, that spoke volumes to me. (No pun intended! ha ha ha)
Then, within a day or two of that, I was doing some flipping on the channels and sure enough. . .I found the history channel. They were explaining the Bible and to date, not one architechtual fact of the Bible has been discounted. That's right. They find the artifacts that match completely to the Bible.
Huh.
God knows I like facts too.
So, this got my interest spiked, and I began to read and believe in the Bible.
There are two sections of the Bible, Old Testament and New Testament. My advice to any new reader of the Bible, stay in the New Testament. That's where Jesus comes into the picture.
Should you ever read the Old Testament? Sure. It has some great stories. . .it's just that prior to Jesus coming there was a "God wrath" and "God punishment" that doesn't apply to us now because of Jesus.
Oh, another point in the Bible that really, really looped me. I was catholic as a child, and in and out of all sorts of spiritual worlds, but it took the Bible and the power of prayer to show me that in the first chapter of the New Testament, there's a actually a lineage line to Jesus. He didn't just appear out of the sky, nor was He chosen by the people of the time. It was actually prophesized years before of the King's birth, and the Bible shows us that lineage.
I thought that was amazing!
As time goes on, I find it more and more amazing, but, we'll discuss that later. :)
I hope you find your own amazement while praying about and reading the Bible. God knows you and loves you too. He'll find you and tell you. :)
Next topic.
:)
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