The Big Question 2: Who Put the Bible Together?
Apr 19, 2018 23072
Radio Version:
Who put the Bible together?
The question of who put the Bible together is one that comes up over and over again.
The Christian Bible consists of 66 different small books, written over a period of up to 1,500 years, by different authors in different times and cultures. It’s divided into the Old Testament and the New Testament.
The Old Testament consists of the Hebrew Scriptures – the books that were written before the coming of Jesus Christ into the world. The Jews were scrupulous in making sure that they copied the Scriptures accurately, and the discoveries of the Dead Sea Scrolls confirmed that the Old Testament from hundreds of years before Jesus is virtually identical to what we have today.
It’s when we come to the New Testament that things get more interesting. Some people claim, incorrectly, that the Emperor Constantine had a hand in choosing what should be included, around about three centuries after Christ. Others point to the existence of the “gnostic gospels” which they claim are as reliable as what we have in the New Testament. But the gnostic gospels were largely written centuries after the New Testament.
But the books that were accepted as the New Testament were actually written during the first century, by the eyewitnesses of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection, and the earliest Christians. There were two or three books that they weren’t too sure about, basically because they couldn’t pin-point who wrote them, but they worked through it and came to a decision.
As Christians, we would say the Bible wasn’t put together by a decision-making process, but that God had his hand over its development, and the way it has survived throughout history. So, when you read a Bible, you can be sure that you are reading the same content that the first believers in Jesus Christ also read.
John Saves
Oct 25, 2022
I can assure everyone that ‘church politics,’ and possibly money had a part in the ‘creation’ of the Bible. You may ask why would that be true. I would say because the history of the ordinary man is very well known.
Eliezer Gonzalez
Apr 12, 2020
Hi John, Your question reveals some confusion about how we received the Bible in our own languages. The Bible was originally written not in Hebrew, but in a number of languages - Hebrew and Greek. The first known translation of part of the Bible was the translation of the Old Testament into Greek by a group of Jewish scholars in the third century BC. We do not know their names. Since then, the Bible became the most translated book in all of history. There are thousands of translations. It has been translated into almost 700 languages alone. It isn't possible to give you the names and dates for all the translators for each of them in this forum. Many modern Bible translations will have a list of translators and dates if you are interested.
John
Apr 11, 2020
Hi Madam Can you give me the exact date and the names of the Scholars who translated the Bible from Hebrew to Greek and to English. Thanks John
Eliezer Gonzalez
Jan 20, 2020
Many different authors over a long period, under the guidance and inspiration of God.
Randy
Dec 27, 2019
Good day, Can I ask who wrote the Old Testament? Thank You and A Blessed Day?
Eliezer Gonzalez
Oct 26, 2022
Hi John - There was no "church" or "church politics" in an institutional sense when the Bible was "put together." It came together not through church decisions but through the acknowledged respect of tradition and the authors (in the case of the New Testament, authors who were eyewitnesses or who knew the apostles and the eyewitnesses.)