How We Got the Bible

Next Part The Significance of the Numbers.

Which Translations Are Best?

Is the Bible complete without the Apocrypha or other obscure writings? Is there sufficient evidence to prove whether these documents belong in God’s Word? Many facts about the assembly and preservation of the Bible show God’s guiding hand in the entire process. Section I of this booklet explains the amazing story of how God preserved His Word! Also, God commands us to seek His kingdom first and to search the scriptures—the Bible—daily. But how can we do this if it has not been translated into the language of the common people? Section II explains which of the 70 English translations produced today you should use.

SECTION I

Consider for a moment. Are you able to preserve important financial papers that you need to keep? Can families preserve treasured photographs, protected in an album? Are companies able to preserve records vital to their existence? Can the National Archives protect important documents and artefacts from America’s history? Is the Internet capable of preserving virtually EVERYTHING?

The answer to all these questions is “Of course!”

If God can create the universe—and all life within it—surely He can preserve His Word. Yet, most seem to think that God is less capable of preserving what is vital to Him than are human beings!

The design and development of the Bible is a fascinating story. This article will explore in essential detail the canonization—the binding and confirming—of those books that God intended to preserve for all time as His Word—Scripture.

The Parameters

Three separate areas need to be understood and appreciated to answer the opening series of questions. We will present the overwhelming evidence in the following general format:

(1) The design and layout of the Old Testament (including canonization).
(2) The design and layout of the New Testament (including canonization).
(3) The study of the Apocrypha and other documents not canonized.

PART 1: The Design and Layout of the Old Testament

The Jews preserved the Hebrew Scriptures. Romans 3:1-2 tells us: “What advantage then has the Jew? Or what profit is there of circumcision? Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God.”

The oracles of God consist of the Sacred Scriptures and the Sacred Calendar. To find the source of the true Scriptures, we must look to the Jews, whose leaders were commissioned to preserve and protect them.

How certain can we be that God is able to preserve His Word for us today—nearly 2,000 years after the final canonization of the New Testament? Christ answers this in Matthew 24:35: “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away.”

Notice another statement by Christ that expands on this principle: “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one title shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled” (Matt. 5:17-18).

The phrase, “the law or the prophets,” is a short term for the Hebrew Sacred Scriptures, as we will see shortly. Christ did not come to destroy the Scriptures, or nullify the Law of God, but to fulfil them—the prophecies of His human existence and sacrifice.

Notice the following verse, which indicates that Christ realized that the Jews possessed the proper Scriptures, prophesying a specific fulfilment: “But how then shall the scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be?…But all this was done, that the scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled. Then all the disciples forsook Him, and fled” (Matt. 26:54, 56).

Acts 17:10-11 shows where the brethren looked in order to find the true Scriptures: “And the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night unto Berea: who coming there went into the synagogue of the Jews. These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.”

Timothy, the son of a Jewish woman, had always been familiar with the true Scriptures: “And that from a child you have known the holy scriptures, which are able to make you wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness” (II Tim. 3:15-16).

Many other verses could be cited to reinforce this fact, but the point is clear. Every synagogue possessed exact replicas or copies of the texts found in the Temple. Even the term “holy scriptures” literally meant “Sacred Scriptures.” Sacred refers to the Holy Place of the Temple. The term “holy scriptures” is actually translated “Temple Scriptures” in the Englishman’s Bible. Again, all the sets of Scriptures in the synagogues were replicas of the texts found in the Temple.

The Arrangement of the Books

The King James Version and virtually all other more modern translations list 39 individual books in the Old Testament. These books do represent the entirety of the Old Testament. But the one problem with them is the order in which they are found.

Since these books comprise the official Hebrew canonized Scriptures, this is where we should look to establish the correct order. First, notice that Christ told His disciples, after His Resurrection, that Bible verses foretold of His life and mission: “And He said unto them, These are the words which I spoke unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning Me. Then opened He their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures” (Luke 24:44-45).

As Luke wrote of this account, he was specifying which Scriptures—the Hebrew canonized Scriptures—Christ pointed out as His inspired Word. They foretold of His life and fulfilment of many prophecies concerning Him.

Luke was specifying this information to the gentile readers of his Greek manuscripts.

The Hebrew canonized Scriptures are emphasized here in contrast to such counterfeit documents as the Septuagint, written in the Greek language. (More will be covered about the Septuagint later.) Accurate and valid copies of the Hebrew Scriptures translated into the Greek language did exist in the first century.

Notice that Christ himself identified the Hebrew Scriptures by the following terms: (1) The Law of Moses, (2) the Prophets, and (3) the Psalms.

These are the three major divisions of the Hebrew Scriptures—the Old Testament. They were arranged according to the recorded words of Jesus Christ in Luke 24:44-45.

Before defining these three sections in detail, keep in mind that the arrangement is different than we find in the Kings James Version and other modern translations of this time.

The reason for this change in order is that the Roman Catholic Church based its Latin Vulgate on the Egyptian Septuagint Version, written in Greek. Unlike the Jews, these mainly Samaritan religionists had no commission to preserve the Scriptures as the oracles of God. Therefore, they did not fear the God of Israel, and proceeded to group the Scriptures as they saw fit. They rearranged the order of the Old Testament books according to subject, ignoring the order according to the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms.

The arrangement we find in most all bibles at this time reflects the rearrangement by these non-Jewish counterfeits. The order of the 39 books is radically dismantled. Yet we shall see their original placement and come to appreciate why that order was important.

Note what Flavius Josephus states in regard to the number of books in the Hebrew Scriptures: “For we [the Jews] have not an innumerable multitude of books among us, disagreeing and contradicting one another, but only 22 books, which contain the records of all the past times; which are justly believed to be divine” (Against Apion, Book I, Section VIII).

The following scholars associated with the Catholic movement also publicly acknowledged that there were 22 books to the Hebrew Scriptures: Origen (A.D. 210), Athanasius (365), Cyril of Jerusalem (386), and Jerome (410).

We first list the books of the Law, also known as the Torah or Pentateuch:

The Law of Moses (5 books):
Genesis; Exodus; Leviticus; Numbers; Deuteronomy

Note that in this first section of the Law, the order is not changed. The radical changes appear in the second (the Prophets) and third sections (the Psalms or Writings).

Now, we list the original order of the Prophets. Note how the books are divided and sub-divided:

The Former Prophets (2 books):
Joshua-Judges (combined into one); Samuel-Kings (combined into one)

The Latter Prophets (4 books):
Three major prophets (each one book): Isaiah; Jeremiah; Ezekiel; “The Twelve” prophets (the following texts combined into one): Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi

Finally, the third division known as the Psalms. This division is also known as the Writings. It is divided into three parts:

The Former Poetic Books (3 books):
Psalms; Proverbs; Job

The Megillot or Festival Books (5 books): Song of Solomon; Ruth; Lamentations; Ecclesiastes; Esther

The Latter Restoration Books (3 books):
Daniel; Ezra-Nehemiah (combined into one); Chronicles (combined into one)

This original order is completely chronological. This will be more thoroughly appreciated once we study the canonization and other historical aspects.

Next Part The Significance of the Numbers.

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How We Got the Bible

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