Perhaps some may ask, How can the Bible be the word of God? Was the Bible not written by men? This is not difficult to explain. For example, when someone telephones you from abroad and you hear his voice through the receiver, would you say that the voice is the voice of the receiver? We all know that the voice in the receiver comes from someone who is outside the receiver but speaks through the receiver. Apparently the Bible is the word of men; actually, it is the speaking of God in and through men. Second Timothy 3:16 says, “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God” (KJV). In Greek, given by inspiration of God means “God-breathed.” The Scripture is the word of God breathed into men and then written down by men. It is God’s thoughts being written into men and then spoken out by men. We may use the record player as an illustration. The voice is breathed out by the singer, stored onto a record, and then it is played back through the record player. We all know that the voice and the words stored on the record are exactly the same as the voice and the words uttered by the singer. It was the same in the beginning when God breathed out His thoughts to be received into men and then spoken out by men.
Every writer of the Scripture would reverently confess that what he wrote was not his own word but God’s word. In the Old Testament, it is frequently mentioned that men were inspired by God. Balaam, who was an evil prophet, originally intended to curse the Israelites, but it was not up to him. Whenever he opened his mouth, he spoke words of blessing instead of words of cursing. Those words were not what he had intended to say; rather, they were beyond what he had expected (Num. 23-24). In this way, we can understand the meaning of being inspired by God. God spoke through men by giving them inspiration. This means that the Spirit of God came upon men and wrote the word of God through them. The Bible was written in this way.
There were approximately forty writers of the Bible. Among them, some were men of noble birth, such as King David; some were lowly men, such as Peter; some were shepherds, such as Amos; some were highly educated, such as Moses; some were men of great wisdom, such as Paul; and some were very simple, such as John. Some lived in palaces and some were in the wilderness; some were in Judea and some were in Arabia. They had different styles, they were in different places, and they wrote at different times, yet when their writings were put together, these writings formed the complete Bible with a consistent line of thought. This shows that the Bible truly came out of the inspiration of God. God first wrote a portion through Moses, then after a period of time, wrote another portion through Isaiah; later He wrote through Jeremiah and still later through Daniel; then finally He wrote through John. There were at least forty writers, yet they all wrote under the divine inspiration over a period of more than 1500 years. The first book was written by Moses around 1500 B.C.; the last book was written by the apostle John around A.D. 94-96, 1500-1600 years after the first book. The entire Bible consists of sixty-six books. These books were written in many different places, such as Palestine, Rome, and Ephesus. However, although they were written in so many places, over such an extended period of time, and through so many hands, after they had been compiled together, they formed the complete Bible, in which all the thoughts are consistent. This is full proof that the Bible truly originates from God.
It is amazing that the Bible could be transmitted to us. The first book of the Old Testament-Genesis-was written about 1500 B.C., and the last book-Malachi-was written about 400 B.C. In other words, the Old Testament was already completed in 400 B.C. After the Lord Jesus came, in His preaching He often quoted the words of the Old Testament. This is proof that at His time the Old Testament had already been completed.
When the Lord Jesus was on earth, since printing had not yet been invented, the Bible had to be copied by hand on sheepskin. The Jewish scribes were very reverent in making copies of the Scriptures. History tells us that they wrote on sheets made from the choicest sheepskin and exercised the greatest possible care in copying. They counted not only the words, but every letter in every line. If an incorrect letter was found, the whole copy was rejected. It is said that the writers also had to pronounce each word aloud before writing it. They were required to wipe their pen before writing the name of God in any form, and to wash their whole body before writing Jehovah. This shows how much they revered the holy Scriptures. After the Lord Jesus had departed the world, the apostles were inspired to write the New Testament. By A.D. 100 the entire New Testament had been completed. In the second century, the God-fearing people often cited the words of the New Testament in their writings. This proves that within a hundred years after the Lord’s departure, the New Testament was already there.
The Old Testament was written in Hebrew, the ancient language of the Jews. The following four passages, however, were written in Aramaic: Jeremiah 10:11; Daniel 2:4-7:28; Ezra 4:8-6:18; and Ezra 7:12-26. These portions contain records of the events related to the Babylonians, who used the Aramaic language, so they were written in Aramaic and not in Hebrew. The Chaldeans also adopted the Aramaic language. At the time of the Lord Jesus, many Jews still used the Aramaic language. By that time the Roman Empire had already captured the land of Israel. When the Roman Empire conquered all the surrounding areas of the Mediterranean Sea and spread the Greek culture to all those places, the Greek language became the common language of the Roman Empire of that day. Hence, the apostles used Greek for the writing of the New Testament.
The Bible in common use today, however, was not translated from the original manuscripts because they have all been lost. According to the researchers of the ancient manuscripts, the oldest manuscripts that have been discovered are from the third and fourth centuries after Christ. In other words, the oldest manuscripts are only 1500 to 1600 years old. Although the originals are no longer in existence, three early manuscripts still exist. These have been considered to be three among the fifty copies of the Bible which were made through an edict issued by Emperor Constantine in A.D. 330.
Of these three manuscripts, the oldest and most complete copy is known as the Vaticanus manuscript and is being kept in the Vatican Library. It was done around A.D. 350 and was discovered over 500 years ago. The second copy, which was beautifully written, is the Sinaiticus manuscript. In 1844 it was discovered by Dr. Tischendorf, a renowned German scholar, in a monastery at the foot of Mount Sinai. Later, it was deposited in the Royal Library of Russia until 1933, when it was sold to the British Museum in London for 100,000 pounds sterling. The third copy is the Alexandrinus manuscript. It was presented to King Charles I in 1628 by Cyril Lucar, a Greek patriarch of Alexandria, and is also being kept in the British Museum, London. Thus, of these three ancient manuscripts, two are in London and one is in the Vatican.
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