THE BIBLE From God to Us JoLynn Gower Spring 2017 493-6151 - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

JoLynn Gower Spring 2017 493-6151 jgower@guardingthetruth.org

THE BIBLE

From God to Us

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WORD FOR THE JOURNEY

— 2 Timothy 3:16-17 All Scripture is inspired by God and

profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.

— Scripture: graphe: writing, especially the Holy Bible text — Inspired by God: theopneustos: God-breathed: the

concepts and wording came from God, via the Holy Spirit, to men who wrote it down

— 2 Peter 1:20-21 But know this first of all, that no

prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God. GOD SPOKE, MEN WROTE

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A REVELATION OF GOD

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— IN THE BEGINNING, GOD…. — The Bible never tries to prove the existence of God; He is

everywhere in scripture assumed to exist

— Exodus 3:14 God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM"; and

He said, "Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, 'I AM has sent me to you.'"

— Tetragrammaton: YHWH; Yahweh or

Jehovah

— The name wasn’t spoken; other words

such as Elohim or Adonai were frequently substituted or in English G-d

— In our Bible, when we see LORD, the word being

transliterated is Yahweh

STARTING WITH MOSES?

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— Exodus 24:3-4 Then Moses came and recounted to the

people all the words of the LORD and all the ordinances; and all the people answered with one voice and said, "All the words which the LORD has spoken we will do!" Moses wrote down all the words of the LORD. Then he arose early in the morning, and built an altar at the foot of the mountain with twelve pillars for the twelve tribes of Israel.

— The first five books are credited to Moses’ authorship;

however, some rabbis believe Moses had written down the Genesis account prior to the Sinai experience

— Isaiah 30:8 Now go, write it on a tablet before them and

inscribe it on a scroll, that it may serve in the time to come as a witness forever.

IT IS WRITTEN

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— Jesus gave tremendous validity to the Old Testament,

quoting it often

— Our Bible consists of two “Testaments” which are basically

covenants

— The Old Covenant was a “beriyth” which means “contract”

It is an agreement made between two persons or groups; It may be conditional or unconditional It may be timeless or have a time limit

— The New Covenant was a “diatheke” which is something

like a Last Will and Testament Hebrews 9:16-17 For where a covenant is, there must

• f necessity be the death of the one who made it. For a

covenant is valid only when men are dead, for it is never in force while the one who made it lives.

WHAT’S INSIDE

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— The Protestant Old Testament consists of 39 books; the

Catholic Old Testament has 46, which includes 7 books that we consider to be apocryphal

— The Protestant Old Testament has the exact same content

as the Jewish scriptures, which are called the TANAKH

— T = Torah; N = Nevi’im (prophets), K = Ketuvim (writings) — The Jewish scripture has only 24 books

1,2 Chronicles are Chronicles 1,2 Samuel are Samuel 1,2 Kings are Kings Ezra and Nehemiah combined into one book The 12 minor prophets are combined as one book

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Pentateuch: Genesis – Deuteronomy Historical: Joshua – Esther Poetic: Job – Song of Solomon Major Prophets: Isaiah – Daniel Minor Prophets: Hosea - Malachi

WHAT’S INSIDE

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— The Protestant and Catholic New Testaments both contain

27 books; the Jewish scriptures lack a New Testament but the Protestant version is studied in Israeli schools as a historical book

— The original scriptures were written without chapter or

verse divisions; these were later added for convenience

— Stephen Langton, Archbishop of Canterbury is believed to

have first divided chapters in 1227; the Wycliffe Bible (in English) used these divisions in 1382

— A rabbi named Nathan divided the OT into verses in 1448 — Robert (Estienne) Stephanus, a printer, first added verse

numbers to the New Testament in 1551-1555

WHAT’S INSIDE

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— The Bible is believed to have originally been written in

three languages.

— The Old Testament is primarily Hebrew with some Aramaic

(Daniel 2:4 – 7:28 and Ezra 4:8-6:18 and 7:12-26 are in Aramaic)

— The New Testament was primarily written in Greek with a

few aramaic words here and there

— The writing dates range from 1800 BC to about 100 AD — Approximately 40 different authors from three continents

authored biblical content; they wrote from palaces, prisons, wilderness, and exile; they express love, anger, joy, and frustration; yet there is flawless internal consistency. The Bible never contradicts itself.

INERRANT AND INFALLIBLE?

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— Yes, but…

The original autographs themselves, or perfect manuscripts copied by others, are considered inerrant

— Every English “translation” on the market is not! — Choosing a translation is extremely important — A translation may be contained within several different

Bible formats

— Know your editors! The original autographs of the text

were inspired by God; the footnotes are not!

— Translations are generally considered to be:

Literal: word for word Dynamic Equivalent: thought for thought Free: paraphrase

TRANSLATION CHART

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NASB: New American Standard 1995 AMP: amplified 1965 ESV: English Stadard Version 2001 RSV: Revised Standard 1952 KJV: King James 1611, revised 1769 NKJV: New KJV 1982 HCSB: Holman Christian Standard 2004 NRSV: New Revised Standard 1989 NJB:New Jerusalem Catholic NIV: New International Version 1984 TNIV: Todays NIV 2001, 2005 NCV: New Century Version NLT: New Living Translation 2004 NIrV: NIV easier reading GNT: Good News CEV: Contemporary English Version Living: Living Bible 1950 Message: The Message 1991-2004

WHICH TRANLATION TO CHOOSE?

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— The original language is always best! — For serious students who are using associated tools, a

literal translation gives the best opportunity for correct hermeneutics or teaching format. NASB, ESV, HCSB; having an interlinear that defines parts of speech, tenses,

• etc. is helpful

— For school use and larger groups where the idea of a text

is more important than literal word study, or in a sermon format, the NIV is usually chosen

— For younger children and new believers without much

biblical knowledge, a carefully chosen paraphrase may be appropriate – but I would stay away from the Message because it has an added agenda

SUMMARY

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— The Bible is infallible in its original autographs and carefully

copied manuscripts

— God gave information to people, who in turn wrote it down

at His direction

— The New Testament apostles and others believed that the

Old Testament Scripture was entirely trustworthy; the church has accepted this position on the New Testament as well

— Not all Bible translations are equal; serious Bible students

who cannot study from the original languages must carefully choose both their translation and the editor of a selected format