From where did we get the Bible?

[Augustin56]

Did a Big Hand reach down and hand someone the first Bible? Where did it come from, do you think?

 

[whereismynotecard]

Did a Big Hand reach down and hand someone the first Bible? Where did it come from, do you think?

Probably that. What you just said. Wouldn't that be cool?

 

[Benjamin_D]

The Torah was handed to Moses on Mount Sinai. Verbally. The words were written on the scrolls through God.

 

[IF_u_knew]

The whole of the Tanakh was written while the Jewish were in Babylonian captivity. The commandments and Law were written at an earlier time, but because they had been taken away, the Scribes wrote the whole of the Tanakh, including the prophecies for a two fold purpose... 1. To keep the Law from being corrupted and 2. a warning against the corruption of the ways of G.d that was going on around them and is going on now.

It is spoken of in Daniel 5 (keep in mind the vessels being spoken of are the children of G.d and the wine being drunk from them was the Wisdom of G.d).

Daniel 5:
3 Then they brought the golden vessels that were taken out of the temple of the house of God which was at Jerusalem; and the king, and his princes, his wives, and his concubines, drank in them.
4 They drank wine, and praised the gods of gold, and of silver, of brass, of iron, of wood, and of stone.
5 In the same hour came forth fingers of a man's hand, and wrote over against the candlestick upon the plaister of the wall of the king's palace: and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote.
6 Then the king's countenance was changed, and his thoughts troubled him, so that the joints of his loins were loosed, and his knees smote one against another.

Also in Daniel, we see clearly that we can gain true Understanding (that is G.d's Understanding) by asking Him for it in all uprightness of heart.

Thus, why we are in the state we are in today...

Isaiah 42:
20 Seeing many things, but thou observest not; opening the ears, but he heareth not.
21 The LORD is well pleased for his righteousness' sake; he will magnify the law, and make it honourable.
22 But this is a people robbed and spoiled; they are all of them snared in holes, and they are hid in prison houses: they are for a prey, and none delivereth; for a spoil, and none saith, Restore.
23 Who among you will give ear to this? who will hearken and hear for the time to come?

 

[Augustin56]

Oookay. Any Christians out there want to answer the question?

Interesting responses from our Jewish friends. The canon of the Old Testament was settled in the late 1st or early 2nd century, yes?

 

[McBell]

LOng long ago in a city far far away one man in a hotel room woke up one morning and found, much to his surprise, the very firstest Bible ever....in the nightstand drawer.....

 

[Delilah Roo]

The bible was written by men, right? That is what I always understood. And edited by man.
Delilah

 

[whereismynotecard]

The bible was written by men, right? That is what I always understood. And edited by man.
Delilah

I hope so... who else would have written it? I hope aliens did.

 

[Kilgore Trout]

Did a Big Hand reach down and hand someone the first Bible? Where did it come from, do you think?

I'm pretty sure someone ordered it on Amazon.

 

[sojourner]

Oookay. Any Christians out there want to answer the question?

Interesting responses from our Jewish friends. The canon of the Old Testament was settled in the late 1st or early 2nd century, yes?

Your question needs to be more specific. Are you talking about the canon scriptures we know today as "The Bible?" Do you mean the original manuscripts? Do you mean "where did the inspiration come from?" Do you mean "Who were the authors?"

Your question is too broad to be answered effectively.

 

[Biblestudent_007]

Oookay. Any Christians out there want to answer the question?

Interesting responses from our Jewish friends. The canon of the Old Testament was settled in the late 1st or early 2nd century, yes?

I presume from what I understand the Christian Bible was given to us through the ancient Church where primitive Bishops and Saints took articulate care to organize the numerous books of the Bible (probably a process that took a 100 years or so) . . And thus we have listed the canonical books of the Bible. This work >(Tradition)< was given and handed down to us Christians today through the One, Holy, Catholic,and Apostolic Church.

 

[angellous_evangellous]

The Bible is a collection of many writings that were written down over hundreds of years.

The writings were preserved because they were used in worship.

 

[Biblestudent_007]

From where did we get the Bible?

From the ancient Church.

 

[fatima_bintu_islam]

Members, please remember that you are on the Christianity DIR and making fun of christians beliefs here is against the rules.

Thank you

 

[fallingblood]

It may also be noted that this thread is a year old.

As I see there have not been a very sufficient answer, I will give a little detail.

The Torah, according to the oldest traditions, was written by Moses who had it spoken to him from God. The idea was that God spoke directly to Moses and Moses wrote those words. This is primarily based off of one verse which stated that Moses wrote these words. This view has been dropped by most critical scholars, and even in most mainline seminaries, it is not taught.

The current view that is held by the majority of scholars now is called the Documentary Hypothesis which came about in the 18th and 19th centuries. At first, it stated that the Torah was comprised of three sources, J (for the author who called God Yahweh, but because of a mistranslation, it was read as Jehovah, thus the J), E (for the author who called God Elohim) and P (for the author who was believed to be a priest). Later, a fourth source was later added called D (for Deuteronomy). This idea was created because, in the Hebrew, one could see distinct differences in various sections of the writing. This included writing styles, names they called God, material listed, etc. In the English, the differences are hardly noticeable, but in the Hebrew they can be seen.

In addition we have what are called doublets; two renderings of the same stories. These doublets usually contain different names for God. Such as, one rendering will call God Jehovah, and the other will call God Elohim. These doublets include the accounts of the creation story, the flood, the covenant with Abraham, and Moses getting water from a rock.

The stories were probably written in different parts of what once was the Hebrew nation. After the Hebrew nation split in two, both of the newly formed kingdoms would have written their own accounts. J was probably written under Solomon though, as somewhat of a national epic in order to bring the new nation of Judah together. It probably was commissioned by Solomon for that reason. E was probably written by the Israel, for the same reason. In this source, we see an emphasis on the second son, which would have been used to show them in a better light.

The only author we really suspect could have written any of the Torah is a man name Baruch, who was a scribe, and possibly wrote Deuteronomy. We have found a clay seal with 7th century Hebrew script on it with the name of Baruch the scribe on it. We believe this to be possibly the writer of Deuteronomy because in both in the Bible and the seal we see that Baruch was the son of Neriah (we are told this in Jeremiah, which the part that Baruch wrote had many similarities with Deuteronomy, which suggests he may have been the author of that book as well).

The Torah itself was probably compiled and finally edited around 500 B.C.E. This was after the Babylonian conquest, and later Persian conquest. The Persians allowed the Jews to return to their homeland, and they were led there by Ezra. It has been suggested that Ezra could have been the final editor as well, but we can not know for sure at this time.

The rest of the Old Testament was written throughout that entire time period. We see some being written under Babylonian captivity, some being written during the time of the two kingdoms, and some even being written after the second temple period. We also see other Jewish holy books having been written during that time too. Some of these are even mentioned in the Old Testament. Others we know as the Apocrypha.

After the second temple was destroyed (70 C.E.), Rabbinical Judaism began to arise, and around 90 C.E., the Jamnia Council of Rabbis was held, and the 39 books of the Old Testament were canonized.

During this time, we also see the writing of Christian texts. We saw a plethora of Christian writings. Various groups were writing to fit their ideals. Eventually, we see the orthodox view labeling everything as heretics, and thus getting rid of their scriptures. However, we see the first Christian canon being formed between 130-140 C.E. Actual canons were not completely closed until a few hundred years ago.

So the Bible comes through many centuries of debate, and additions and subtractions.
For a more detailed look at the development of the New Testament, L. Michael White's book From Jesus to Christianity does give some good information. Also, Ehrman has a great book on the subject.

 

[ZooGirl02]

The Bible is a bunch of books written by various authors about God. It is a fallible book and is not necessarily the word of God. It is a book about God but it is not a book by God as some Christians seem to assert. Most Christians do not believe that God wrote the book and then just dropped it down from Heaven though. Most conservative Christians believe that God directed the authors to write exactly the same words that the original authors wrote so that it would actually be God's words but yet it would be a human person writing them. Other Christians believe that God inspired people to write what they wrote and that God directed them about what to write but yet He inspired them to write it in their own words. I, for one, believe that a bunch of men decided to write books on their own about God and that what they wrote may or may not be true. In most cases, it is partially true and partially false. For example, some of the Old Testament writers wrote that God commanded them to commit genocide. I don't believe this. In reality, they probably thought that God was commanding them to do this when He actually wasn't.

 

[Blackmarch]

Did a Big Hand reach down and hand someone the first Bible? Where did it come from, do you think?

from different men who had the visions and communes with god, or from those who recorded for them. which then was handed and repeatedly copied. Some error does get incurred, and some things are lost, but compared to many other things the Bible is very incredible for what it still contains after so much time.

the closest thing we've had the hand of God to actually write something are whatever commandments he Gave moses before he told moses to write the 10 commandments..... and unfortunately those things were not kept in any records that made it to the time when the bible was compiled.
the second closest thing was when christ wrote in the sand...... but no one copied that down, or at least any copy to be considered legit survived.

 

[Norman]

Did a Big Hand reach down and hand someone the first Bible? Where did it come from, do you think?

Norman: Hi Augustin56, Good question, I think Peter gave us a clue as to and how scripture was written.
2 Peter 1:21 For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.

 

[BilliardsBall]

It may also be noted that this thread is a year old.

As I see there have not been a very sufficient answer, I will give a little detail.

The Torah, according to the oldest traditions, was written by Moses who had it spoken to him from God. The idea was that God spoke directly to Moses and Moses wrote those words. This is primarily based off of one verse which stated that Moses wrote these words. This view has been dropped by most critical scholars, and even in most mainline seminaries, it is not taught.

The current view that is held by the majority of scholars now is called the Documentary Hypothesis which came about in the 18th and 19th centuries. At first, it stated that the Torah was comprised of three sources, J (for the author who called God Yahweh, but because of a mistranslation, it was read as Jehovah, thus the J), E (for the author who called God Elohim) and P (for the author who was believed to be a priest). Later, a fourth source was later added called D (for Deuteronomy). This idea was created because, in the Hebrew, one could see distinct differences in various sections of the writing. This included writing styles, names they called God, material listed, etc. In the English, the differences are hardly noticeable, but in the Hebrew they can be seen.

In addition we have what are called doublets; two renderings of the same stories. These doublets usually contain different names for God. Such as, one rendering will call God Jehovah, and the other will call God Elohim. These doublets include the accounts of the creation story, the flood, the covenant with Abraham, and Moses getting water from a rock.

The stories were probably written in different parts of what once was the Hebrew nation. After the Hebrew nation split in two, both of the newly formed kingdoms would have written their own accounts. J was probably written under Solomon though, as somewhat of a national epic in order to bring the new nation of Judah together. It probably was commissioned by Solomon for that reason. E was probably written by the Israel, for the same reason. In this source, we see an emphasis on the second son, which would have been used to show them in a better light.

The only author we really suspect could have written any of the Torah is a man name Baruch, who was a scribe, and possibly wrote Deuteronomy. We have found a clay seal with 7th century Hebrew script on it with the name of Baruch the scribe on it. We believe this to be possibly the writer of Deuteronomy because in both in the Bible and the seal we see that Baruch was the son of Neriah (we are told this in Jeremiah, which the part that Baruch wrote had many similarities with Deuteronomy, which suggests he may have been the author of that book as well).

The Torah itself was probably compiled and finally edited around 500 B.C.E. This was after the Babylonian conquest, and later Persian conquest. The Persians allowed the Jews to return to their homeland, and they were led there by Ezra. It has been suggested that Ezra could have been the final editor as well, but we can not know for sure at this time.

The rest of the Old Testament was written throughout that entire time period. We see some being written under Babylonian captivity, some being written during the time of the two kingdoms, and some even being written after the second temple period. We also see other Jewish holy books having been written during that time too. Some of these are even mentioned in the Old Testament. Others we know as the Apocrypha.

After the second temple was destroyed (70 C.E.), Rabbinical Judaism began to arise, and around 90 C.E., the Jamnia Council of Rabbis was held, and the 39 books of the Old Testament were canonized.

During this time, we also see the writing of Christian texts. We saw a plethora of Christian writings. Various groups were writing to fit their ideals. Eventually, we see the orthodox view labeling everything as heretics, and thus getting rid of their scriptures. However, we see the first Christian canon being formed between 130-140 C.E. Actual canons were not completely closed until a few hundred years ago.

So the Bible comes through many centuries of debate, and additions and subtractions.
For a more detailed look at the development of the New Testament, L. Michael White's book From Jesus to Christianity does give some good information. Also, Ehrman has a great book on the subject.

Respectfully, not only are the majority of (secular) scholars wrong, they are contradicting the text, which says itself that inspired people wrote inerrant truth.

 

[BilliardsBall]

The Bible is a bunch of books written by various authors about God. It is a fallible book and is not necessarily the word of God. It is a book about God but it is not a book by God as some Christians seem to assert. Most Christians do not believe that God wrote the book and then just dropped it down from Heaven though. Most conservative Christians believe that God directed the authors to write exactly the same words that the original authors wrote so that it would actually be God's words but yet it would be a human person writing them. Other Christians believe that God inspired people to write what they wrote and that God directed them about what to write but yet He inspired them to write it in their own words. I, for one, believe that a bunch of men decided to write books on their own about God and that what they wrote may or may not be true. In most cases, it is partially true and partially false. For example, some of the Old Testament writers wrote that God commanded them to commit genocide. I don't believe this. In reality, they probably thought that God was commanding them to do this when He actually wasn't.

As long as you personally recognize that you are citing an opinion that the Bible contradicts, I'm okay with this. The Bible itself indeed says that it is a book by God written through humans used as amanuenses.

Your post contains different schools of thought. The conservative Christian school of thought is the one that matches the scriptures.