Where did we get the Bible?

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Let’s talk about the what before the when. Does the Bible exist? Yes. Is the Bible a myth? No, the Bible really exists.


What is the Bible? Uh, a book? No, it's a bunch of books. Two groups, the Old Testament and the New Testament, with a total of sixty-six books to be exact.

Who wrote the Bible?

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A bunch of authors from a variety of backgrounds. They could all read and write. Amos was a farmer. Jeremiah and Ezekiel were priests. Daniel was a prisoner of war and a refugee who became a statesman. Peter and John were fisherman. A lot of them were prophets, like Isaiah and Micah, although we don't know if they had professions. Luke had a profession. He was a doctor. And Matthew was not well loved, working for the Romans as a tax collector.

None of the disciples were professional scholars or theologians. They had to have all been under thirty years olds when they met Jesus. The New Testament was founded by a youth movement.

Where did we get the Bible?
Where was the Bible Written?

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Most of the Old Testament books were written in Israel, but a couple were penned in Babylon, east of Israel. The New Testament book writers travelled more, from Greece to Italy.

What Style did they Write in?

This collection of books covered a wide variety of literary styles and genre, which play an important role in figuring out what the authors meant. Law codes and parables require different principles of interpretation.

What Materials did They Use to Write the Bible?

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The word Bible comes from the Latin word, biblion, which means book. Biblion had morphed from byblos, a name for papyrus, a reed plant found along the Nile river in Egypt. Back in the day it was the equivalent of paper. Papyrus didn't seem to fold well, so they spliced sheets together and rolled them around two wooden sticks, like dowels. One held the scroll in place while the second one unrolled it.

Nobody carried around a paperback papyrus role in their back pocket. Too unwieldy. Pockets too small. Would have pulled your pants down.

Some of the books of the Bible were gigantic. Isaiah wrote sixty-six chapters. Unrolled, it measured twenty-three feet. Few were larger than that.

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Then one day somebody laid a piece of papyrus on top of another piece of papyrus, folded them over, which worked, and “books” came into existence. One book was called a “codex,” which meant the trunk of a tree because it was still very heavy, like blocks of very thin wood stacked on top of each other. So leaves of papyrus became “leaf books,” which were more manageable than scrolls. Turning pages made finding passages easier than rolling and unrolling twenty-three feet of a plant.

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Some people, for lack of the ability to change, kept using papyrus roles well into the second century, AD. Commitment to ingrained habits.

Then somebody decided to skin an animal, scrape the hide, soak it in lime, let it dry and write on both sides. Called velum, it was half the weight of papyrus and more durable. The term biblia, “the books,” reigned.
What is the Bible? Sixty-six books under one cover.

Let's start with the Old Testament.

Where did we get the Bible?
The Old Testament

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Over 40 different authors wrote the Old Testament, and they covered more than 2000 years of Israel's history. The Old Testament is three times the size of the New Testament. No two authors are alike, since each lived in a different context and went through their own turmoils.
The first book in the Old Testament, Genesis, begins before the beginning. God existed. Period. Believe it or not believe it. Irrelevant. If God exists, then He exists. If He doesn’t, then He doesn’t. Nobody’s belief system can change reality, one way of the other.

God didn’t write Genesis while He was creating everything. He waited until a man named Moses showed up in Egypt centuries later to have that done.

Where did we get the Bible?
Historical Background

Genesis 1-11 summarizes human history by revealing only some major events until we meet Abraham. Vast periods of time are passed over in silence. Once we arrive at Abraham and his life story, the rest of the Old Testament is very specific and detailed about Jewish history until the Romans showed up and Augustus took over as reigning monarch.

The world had experienced the rise and fall of an untold number of civilizations before Abraham. By his time, languages had increased and humanity had spread out around the globe. With the fall of each civilization, humanity had to start over. Abraham began his existence as a Chaldean in the city of Ur, a major Sumerian city (2100 BC - 300 BC) in present-day southern Iraq. He worshipped Nanna, the moon god (Joshua 24:2).

When Abraham left the thriving metropolis of Ur, he entered the world of nomads. Caravans transported people and property from China to primitive Europe with “Central Asia” and the “Middle East” between them. Lone travelers did not last long. Raiding parties ruled the countryside. Abraham put his own army together to survive his journeys to find a permanent home.

A side note. In Genesis 14, Abraham’s “army” numbered 318 men. He defeated a force of five armies. Not impossible. History reveals numerous out-numbered opponents who won the day. (Three hundred Spartans whipped between 100,000 and 2.6 million Persian troops in the battle of Thermopylae in 484 BC). Abraham was outnumbered, but had other advantages that gave him his victory. He knew the territory. A small force could navigate the rugged terrain better than a large army. He attacked at night. The enemy was drunk from celebrating their previous victory. And all he had to do was cause some chaos and kill the military leaders.

Egypt rose to power and the Old Testament shifts its focus to Moses, a baby placed in a basket and floated down the Nile until picked up by a childless princess. The second book in the Old Testament relates the war between God and Pharaoh, the release of the Israelites from Egyptian captivity to follow Moses into the desert, where God gave him the Law Code for Israel to follow. During the next few years, God guided Moses through the writing of the first five books of the Old Testament, which included Genesis 1-11, the life and travels of Abraham and his children, the time in Egypt and Israel’s arrival in Palestine.

The Pentateuch, the first section, is the foundation of the Jewish faith. God had Moses write down everything that had happened up until Moses was born in the book of Genesis. The rest of the Pentateuch describes God's rescuing the Jewish people from Egypt and giving Moses the Jewish Law Code to reveal God's perfection and demand for perfection for everyone. Since its obvious that nobody can keep the Law perfectly (and that was the main point), God gave the Jews laws of sacrifice to accompany their repentance for their sins. The sacrifices served as examples of what had to be done to pay for sin. Those sacrifice did not pay for any sins. Something more was needed, but God didn't tell them what. He just told them to repent of their sins, i.e., ask God to forgive them, try to obey God as much as they chose to do so, and offer the sacrifice as part of their obedience.

After the fall of Egypt, no world power ruled the Middle East until the Assyrians rose in the 14th century and lasted until the Babylonians, under Nebuchadnezzar pushed them out of history. The Persians took over in 539 BC, founded by Cyrus the Great, and ruled until Alexander the Great (they all loved “the Great” title) in 336 BC.

Here’s a simple timeline.

  • 2000 BC                 Abraham & Chaldeans
  • 1500 BC                 Moses & Egypt
  • 1000 BC                 David & the Philistines
  • 700 BC                   Isaiah & the Assyrians
  • 540 BC                   Daniel, Jeremiah, Ezekiel &
  •                                    the Babylonians
  • 500 BC                   Daniel & the Persians
  • 400 BC - 450 AD   Greeks & Romans

Where did we get the Bible?
Divisions of the Old Testament

Since most readers won’t care about how the Hebrews or Greeks divided up the various parts of the Old Testament, here’s the English method. Look in the contents page of a Bible for a detailed list of the books.

1. The Pentateuch: Genesis—Deuteronomy (5 books)
2. Historical Books: Joshua—Esther (12 books)
3. Poetic and Wisdom Books: Job—Song of Solomon (5 books)
4. Prophets: Isaiah—Malachi (17 books)

The story continues in the second section with Joshua and ends with 2 Chronicles, four hundred years before Jesus showed up. The two books of Chronicles repeat what's in the books of Kings, but from the perspective of God blessing obedience and punishing disobedience. The old testament strongly emphasizes history, because the Bible teaches that God reveals himself through history.

The third section is more philosophical, presenting God’s view of reality as opposed to man’s view. That section includes the story of Job, a man who trusted God while going through massive suffering; the Psalms, 150 songs used in Hebrew worship; a Book of proverbs, with contradicting statements that don't contradict each other when seen in a proper context; an explicit book describing sex within marriage; and Ecclesiastes, a very depressing book on the uselessness of everything in life with a happy ending.

The fourth section contains the major and minor prophets. The major prophets are labeled major because they are longer. Historically, the prophets appeared before or after the famous “Babylonian Captivity” from 597 BC - 539 BC. Some wrote their own books, while others appeared in the historical books.

Between 734 and 722 BC, six prophets (Jonah, Joel, Amos, Hosea, Micah & Isaiah) showed up before and during the Assyrian empire. The Assyrians took the northern ten tribes into exile in 722 BC.

Between 722 and 586 BC, five prophets (Nahum, Zephaniah, Habakkuk, Obadiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel) appeared during and after the Babylonian Captivity. Babylon took the southern two tribes into exile as prophesied. When the Persian King Cyrus conquered Babylon in 539, he allowed the Jews to return to Jerusalem, and three prophets (Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi) entered the scene then.

Here's four consecutive timelines of the prophets.

Prophets of Israel    Dates                Bible History

Jonah                          810-790 BC     2 Kings 13-14
He hated the people he was sent to from God


Joel                              790-760 BC      2 Kings 11-15 Obsessed with locusts


Amos                           780-760 BC      2 Kings 14-15       Farmer who tricked the Israelites into agreeing with him


Hosea                          785-725 BC       2 Kings 15-18     Ordered to marry a whore


Isaiah                           750-695 BC        2 Kings 15-20 Survived four kings; most prophesies about the future


Micah                           745-725 BC        2 Kings 15           Told the Jews that they would be destroyed and rebuilt

Prophets of Judah   Dates               Bible History         (south)


Nahum                     660-630 BC          2 Kings 15-18


Zephaniah               630-620 BC          Isaiah 10


Habakkuk                 620-610 BC          2 Kings 23


Jeremiah                   628-588 BC          2 Kings 22-25     Murdered by his own people

Prophets of the Captivity  Dates               Bible History

Daniel                                   606-534 BC     2 Kings 23-25 Preparation for the Book of Revelation


Obadiah                                597 BC            2 Kings 25       One of the most interesting judgments in the Bible


Ezekiel                                    596-574 BC    2 Kings 2     Tough life; told to run around naked for three years

Prophets of the Return                                                         to Jerusalem                     Dates                Bible History

Haggai                               520-518 BC      Ezra 5-6         Chewed the Jews out for not getting their act together


Zechariah                          520-510 BC      Ezra 5-6   Intriguing prophecies


Malachi                              420-397 BC      Nehemiah 13     Last prophet before Jesus

The uniqueness of the prophets is twofold. One, their track record for accurate prophecies. If taken literally, all of the prophecies that have come true so far in history, have been extremely accurate. Two, not all of their prophecies have come true, yet. Some of the prophecies concern the future from the time of this publication.

Four hundred years elapsed during the period between Malachi and Jesus. No other prophets appeared, and no more books of the Old Testament were written. However, Hellenization has taken over the Middle East. More about that in the next chapter. In an attempt to preserve their heritage, the Hebrews translated their entire Bible (the Old Testament) into Greek.

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History claims that 70 scribes took part in this endeavor, and therefore the Greek translation of the Old Testament was titled the Septuagint, or the LXX, the number representing 70. Next to the Hebrew text itself, the LXX is second most important document that supports all the world’s Bible translations.

As Greek manuscripts began to be discovered since that time, three of the most important ones contain the LXX: the Vaticanus dated in the 4th century, the Sinaiticus dated in the 4th century and the Alexandrinus dated in the 5th century.

Where did we get the Bible?
The Number of Old Testament Books

The books in the Old Testament have been counted between 22 and 24 by the Hebrews, whereas the English Bibles count 39. Why the difference? Well, actually, there is no difference. It's all the same material. Just divided it up differently. The Jewish people have always had the same books in their “canon,” until some debate arose during the first century. We’ll cover that later. Stick with the English versions, unless you have an insatiable curiosity to find out the details that scholars love.

Order of the Old Testament Books

Because the Hebrews divided up the material of the books the way they did, the order of the books varied between the Hebrew Bible, the Septuagint, and English Bible. Glance at the table of contents in any English Bible and stick with that.

Titles of the Old Testament Books

Some books in the Old Testament are anonymous. The Hebrews were not always interested in who wrote a book, as long as the circumstances around the book demonstrated clearly to them that the book was originated and authored by God and demanded a response. Most of the books did not start out with the title. Titles showed up later as the scribes copied them through the centuries. The first five books of the Bible got their titles from the first important word of words in the book. This is clearly seen in Hebrew, but not in English. The title of the majority of the old testament books, however, reflect the main characters (Joshua, Ruth) or the authors (Isaiah, Malachi).

The New Testament comes next. If you are bored, go play a video game.

[Link to lesson 2 - under construction]

Suggestions for Teaching Your Class

1. Have the students read this blog before class. The book contains too much material for most people to retain.

2. During class time, use my questions found in the pdf below.

3. Ask the students to review the material for a quiz you will give them the following week.

I have posted links to purchase my quizzes for each blog along with the keys to each quiz. See below. When I'm finished developing and posting all the blogs, I will publish a small book of the entire process.

Where Did We Get the Bible? 01 Quiz & Key

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