What is the Bible?
The Holy Bible is the inspired Word of God. It is complete and correct in all respects. It provides everything we need to know about our relationship with God and each other.
You may not believe that, but it’s true. There are libraries of books, essays, and articles on this topic. Many highly educated people have been writing them for thousands of years. My intention for this page is to provide a few starting points to help you gather your own information and make your own evaluation.
Bible means “the books.”
The Bible is a collection of writings that range from roughly 2,000 to 3,500 years old.
It is divided into two groups. The Old Testament and the New Testament.
The Old Testament is the Hebrew Bible. It is the sacred texts that the original Hebrews, later called Jews, still revere today. The New Testament is the Christian Bible.
These two groups of Scripture are complementary and interdependent.
The Old Testament foreshadows and predicts Jesus of the New Testament.
The New Testament tells of Jesus and his teaching. It builds on the Old Testament.
Both Testaments are divided into books, chapters, and verses.
The first five books of the Old Testament, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, have been used since the days of Moses. They were written in approximately 1450 BC. The others were written prior to 400 BC.
The New Testament provides the background and basis for the Christian Faith. It was written between roughly 50 and 110 AD.
The Old Testament books are often grouped into: the Law, History, Wisdom and Poetry, and Prophecy.
The New Testament books are often grouped into: The Gospels, History, Letters to Churches, General Letters, and Prophecy.
Many other writings from these periods were not included.
The books of the Old Testament were chosen (canonized) because they were considered divinely inspired, originally written in Hebrew, composed before 400 BC, and already widely accepted by the faithful.
The books of the New Testament were chosen based on the writer being an apostle of Jesus or a close associate of an apostle, the text aligning with Jesus’s teaching, and the text already being widely accepted and used by early Christian communities.
The writings and their selection are considered to be directly inspired by God himself.
Because the OT was directly inspired by God, because the history, letters, and prophecy of the NT were inspired by God, and because Jesus was God in human form, the Bible is considered and revered as the Word of God.
Holy means set apart, or dedicated, solely for God. When referring to God, it means absolute purity, perfection, and unsurpassed.
Therefore, the Word of God is also called the Holy Bible.
Because the Holy Bible is inspired by God, it, therefore, must be true, complete, and without error. It is the instruction manual for our lives, provided to us by God Himself.
“Every Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness, that each person who belongs to God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:16-17 WEB)
How do I know the Bible is not fiction?
The Bible is historical. It is supported by tradition, eyewitness accounts, non-biblical writings, and archaeological evidence.
Tradition
The first books of the Old Testament are 3,500 years old. Hard proof is difficult to come by. However, the Hebrew people, later known as Jews, considered the writings of Moses sacred. Their whole culture and civic structure were built around them. They had a priesthood of men set aside to memorize them, teach them, and offer the required sacrifices.
If you accept that these people devoted everything to worshiping God, you’ll accept that they considered copying these books exactly as written to be a sacred duty.
The consistency over millennia is demonstrated by thousands of ancient manuscripts. More than any other ancient writings. The Dead Sea Scrolls, written 200 years before Jesus and found in the 1940s, are very consistent with today’s Bible.
Jesus often referred to and honored the Old Testament.
Eyewitness Accounts
One of the reasons books were chosen for inclusion in the New Testament was that they were written by an apostle of Jesus or by someone in close relationship with one.
Paul’s letters began to appear a mere 15-20 years after Jesus’s death. The last book was written around 110 AD, within 70 years of Jesus’s death.
The Bible tells us that Jesus appeared to over 500 people after His resurrection. These writings began to appear while many of them were still alive. There are no surviving historical records of Christians or non-Christians refuting the resurrection.
The Bible tells us that one of the twelve apostles (James) was martyred for preaching the Gospel and the resurrection of Christ. Christian tradition, supported by writings outside the Bible, holds that nine others were also martyred.
There was intense persecution of Christians in the first century. Christians were imprisoned, beaten, driven away, and killed for their belief in and preaching of Jesus as the Messiah. People do not suffer that for a lie. Remember, there were many more than 500 who saw the Miracles of Jesus during his lifetime.
Non-biblical accounts
There are many outside references to events in the Bible that support its credibility.
Prior to the establishment of the kingdoms of Israel, non-biblical references are few. “Israel” appears on a monument of the pharaoh Merneptah from around 1200 BCE. It’s called the Merneptah Stele.
References to the kings of Israel and the House of David show up in the histories of surrounding countries. Moabites, Assyrians, and Babylonians.
References from around 600 BC to 100 AD abound. Greek authors from around 300 BC and Roman authors from 100 BC through 100 AD, like Flavius Josephus, wrote extensively.
The Bible includes events, cultures, timelines, and references that are confirmed in secular historical writings.
Archaeological Evidence
Archaeologists have uncovered inscriptions that reference people and places included in the Bible. For example, the Roman Census, Pontius Pilate, and Sodom and Gomorrah are mentioned.
Details of crucifixions.
Descriptions of the laws and legal processes in the Bible match the Roman and Jewish practices of the time.
A stone fragment known as the Tel Dan Stele, dating to 600 BC, mentions the House of David.
Sennacherib’s Prism and the Cyrus Cylinder are non-Jewish records that corroborate events in the Bible.
Caution
The Bible has been printed and sold more copies than any other book in the history of the world. People have been killed for millennia defending it. Governments have tried repeatedly to stamp it out without success. The first books have survived over 3,500 years. The last books, almost 2,000. Nothing lasts that long without God’s support.
The 66 books by over 40 authors written over such a long period are remarkably consistent and unified. There are over 300 prophecies in the Old Testament about Jesus. They all came true. The odds of them culminating in one man are more than astronomical.
Here’s the caution. Some people have always opposed God and what he is doing in the world. Those people are here today. They can be very sweet, smooth, and convincing in their mission to undermine God and your faith in him. They point out what they say are inconsistencies, or they misinterpret, or misconstrue, or take things out of context to mislead.
Avoid simply believing something that sounds good from someone who seems smarter than you. This is not a debate about what defense in football is better or whether or not it’s ok to eat eggs and butter. This is about your life’s success and happiness. This is about where you will spend eternity. There is nothing, nothing, more important than your relationship with God. Nothing.
Take some time to read the Bible. Investigate what it says and study its lessons. You will see for yourself that it is good. Yes, there are some squabbles about what some verses mean. There are some minor differences in translations. Do not let them frustrate you or cause you to turn away. You are standing at the most important crossroad of anyone’s life, your life. Everything worthwhile requires work and time. Choose wisely.