How We Got Our Bible by Tim Hegg Torahresource. com
How We Got Our Bible
Preface
As the title of this study suggests, we will be looking at the history of the
Bible, the manner in which God gave us His eternal, inspired word, and the history
of the biblical canon, that is, how the various parts were eventually gathered
together and recognized as the authoritative word of God.
The fact that we should study the history of the Bible, reminds us that the
Bible we now have is a compilation of books that came into existence over a
long period of time, nearly 2000 years. Understanding something of the story of
the Bible will help us appreciate its complexities as well as marvel at its overall
coherence.
There are, of course, certain presuppositions with which we begin. This is
an inevitability: everyone begins with some presuppositions. Our presupposition
is that God exists, and that He has truthfully revealed Himself in the creation,
in the written word we call the “Bible,” and in His Son, Yeshua Who is the
Messiah. Beginning with the presupposition that God truthfully reveals Himself
in the Scriptures may seem like circular reasoning to some, and so it is! But then
all reasoning is circular, in that it begins and ends with one’s presuppositions.
Without becoming too philosophical, we may say that one approaches the study
of the Bible or the Scriptures with one of two presuppositions. Either he sees
himself as the judge of truth and therefore comes to the Scriptures to test them
as to whether they are true or not, or else he believes that God is the revealer of
truth, and comes to the Scriptures to discover what is true. In the first case, the
presupposition is that one is fully capable of discerning what is true and what is
not, and therefore able to judge the veracity of the Bible. In the second case, one
begins by admitting that apart from God’s gracious act of revealing the truth, he
will never find it. Moreover, he comes to the Scriptures with a sense that faith in
God is a requirement for understanding the Bible as God intends.
Now it is clear that the two approaches to Scripture may yield drastically
different results. Someone who is coming to critique the Bible, to discover
whether it is believable or not, will not seek to resolve apparent conflicts. On
the other hand, one coming to the Scriptures with the presupposition that God
has revealed Himself in them, will seek to understand how what appear to be
contradictions are, in fact, resolvable if one but seeks additional information.
What is most telling in terms of the different approaches to Scripture is what
one does when there are conflicts that cannot be resolved. One who has come
to the Bible with the presupposition that he or she is the judge of truth, will end
up rejecting the Scriptures as fallible when sufficient explanation for apparent
conflicts is not found. On the other hand, one who comes to the Bible believing
that it contains the revelation of God to man, will admit failure to comprehend
the mystery of the Scriptures in the face of apparent contradictions. Rather than
judging the Scriptures to be unworthy and mistaken, he will admit his own
inability and await further explanations.
One might accuse the person who comes to the Scriptures with the
presupposition of faith as “having his head in the sand”—of taking a “don’t
confuse me with the facts” position to the sacred text. But this is not the case
whatsoever. Reason and logic play a significant role in understanding the
Scriptures from a presupposition of faith. But such reason and logic are servants
of one’s faith, not the means of establishing it. When reason and logic fail to
supply an acceptable answer to the questions the Bible raises, faith stands firm in
2 – Preface How We Got Our Bible
asserting the veracity of Scripture in spite of one’s inability to resolve all of the
conflicts. Throughout the millennia, scholars have pointed to various claims of
the Scriptures as proof beyond doubt that they were mistaken, only to “eat their
words” when later generations uncovered new data. The person of faith takes
this into account: what appears to have no answer today, may be completely and
satisfactorily answered tomorrow.
In approaching this study, I am taking the presupposition that the Bible,
comprised of 66 books in its present form (we could count them a number of ways,
as we will see, but the 66 book enumeration is the most common in our day), is in
fact the word of God revealed to mankind. That means that I consider the Bible
to stand above mankind’s reason, and at times, beyond it. The Bible contains the
mysteries of God, and though they were written to reveal God’s truth (and are
therefore understandable in their primary message), they nonetheless contain the
handiwork of God, and we should expect, therefore, that they will stretch and
exceed our ability to fully grasp the depth and breadth of their revelation.
Yet even this approach to the Scriptures, that they are the revelation of
God which I accept on the foundation of faith, does not preclude our attempts to
understand them, nor to explain how they are non-contradictory. This is profitable,
and it is our duty. Such an enterprise does not differ from the scientist who studies
the physical world and attempts to explain its inner workings. But the believing
scientist recognizes the hand of the Creator in the physical universe, and therefore
admits to the unexplainable when his observations and experiments do not yield a
rational explanation. He does not presume, because he does not have an answer to
the “how” of the phenomenon he observes, that the physical world does not exist,
or that it is unworthy of his study. Rather, he admits his own limitations, and
continues to seek answers, all the while admitting the mystery that he beholds.
The same is true when we approach the Scriptures to seek their message. When
we can offer no explanation for the apparent conflict the Scriptures present, we
admit that we have come to the end of ourselves, while at the same time affirming
the eternal truth of the Bible.
My procedure in outlining the history of the Scriptures is to overview the
manner in which the various writings were made and gathered together in the
course of history to form the Bible we now have. This will involve: 1) a general
overview of the manner in which the various parts of the Bible were originally
given; 2) becoming familiar with the most important biblical manuscripts
currently extant; 3) understanding the process of transmitting the Scriptures
and the various ways that scribal errors entered into the copies; 4) an overview
of the methodology used to discern which readings should be accepted when
manuscripts of a given text differ; 5) an overview of various textual theories, and
6) a summary regarding the question whether nor not we can trust the manuscripts
we now have to represent faithfully the original work of the biblical authors.
The Scriptures, while the work of human authors, are nonetheless endowed
with the spiritual quality of the Divine Author. The method by which God
superintended the writing of Scriptures is known as “inspiration.” Quite clearly,
inspiration is a spiritual issue, and involves the work of the Holy Spirit in guiding
and aiding the human writers. Moreover, one accepts the reality of inspiration on
the basis of faith—that what God has said is true. However, inspiration has an
objective verification as well, for it is in the distinctly divine nature of Scripture
that it is able to predict events before they occur (prophecy). Furthermore, the
divine quality of Scripture, imbued by the work of the Spirit in inspiration, is that
which arrests the soul, drawing it to God through His sovereign, elective grace. It
will thus be important for us to overview this aspect of the Bible, an aspect that
sets it apart from all other literature.
How We Got Our Bible Preface – 3
Finally, I want to deal with the issue of canonicity. Canonicity of Scripture
deals with the matter of authority. It seeks to answer questions such as: 1) Who
decided what was Scripture and what was not? 2) How was the canon developed
throughout history? 3) What were the criteria necessary for a given book/epistle/
history to be accorded the status of biblical canon? 4) Is the Bible still be written,
or is the canon of Scripture closed? One can readily see that this final part of our
study is the necessary conclusion of it. For even though we may be able to trace
the formation of Scripture, and see that Scripture is “God-breathed” (inspired),
unless we are agreed on what is and what is not Scripture, we are left with a
theory, but not with much practical application. It is when we affirm the historical
process of canonicity to likewise be within the careful providence of God, that we
are compelled to bow to Scripture as God’s authoritative word for us and for our
communities and world.
As we enter into this study, there will of necessity be some technical issues
we will encounter. As such, there will be the need to understand some basic terms.
First, I do not refer to the Scriptures as “Old Testament” and “New Testament,”
even though these designations are by far the most common in our day. The reason
I avoid these designations is because, in my way of looking at it, they rest upon
faulty conclusions that others have made regarding the Scriptures themselves.
“Old Testament” is without meaning unless there is a “New Testament,” and surely
within the recorded history of the Bible itself, the books which today comprise
the “New Testament” did not yet exist. Therefore, no one during the decades
and millennia in which the Scriptures were being written and compiled would
have thought of them as the “Old Testament.” Moreover, “Old Testament” and
“New Testament” are themselves pejorative. For by “Old Testament” the ancient
church fathers did not mean “former testament,” but rather “inferior testament” in
comparison with what they perceived as a better and more fulfilled word of God
in the “New Testament.” Such a viewpoint bespeaks the underlying doctrines of
the emerging Christian church, that she had been given a covenant (testament)
which replaced and forever made obsolete the covenant given to Israel. It is in the
“supersessionist” theology of the emerging Christian church that the monickers
“Old Testament” and “New Testament” were developed.
I will therefore adopt the terminology of the Apostles and Yeshua, who
referred to the so-called “Old Testament” as the Torah, the Prophets and the
Writings, or Tanach for short (T = Torah; N = Nevi’im [prophets]; K = Ketuvot
[writings]). I have chosen the term “Apostolic Writings” or “Apostolic Scriptures”
to refer to the Gospels, Acts, and Epistles of the so-called “New Testament.”
Finally, my hope is that through this short study, you, the reader and student,
will come to appreciate more than ever the eternal mystery of God’s word,
revealed in the common elements of human language, and preserved by His
sovereign hand to be the guiding light of His people throughout the generations.
ּבְ לִ ּבִ י צָ פַ נְ ּתִ י אִ מְ רָ תֶ ָך לְ מַ עַ ן לֹא אֶ חֱ טָ א־לָ ְך
“In my heart I have treasured Your word
so that I might not sin against You.”
Psalm 119:11