The Bible is One Book and Many Books
So accustomed are we to the printed Bible published in one
bound volume that we are apt to forget that its different books were written by many different people, in many periods of
ancient history, and that the books at first circulatted independently. Only gradually were they gathered together into
smaller and then greateer collections, until a collection of collections was formed. Certain of the writers were separated
by more than a thousand years. But the Bible is also one book. It arose ooout of the religious experience of one
people (Israel) and with their God (Yahweh). The Bible explains the origin of this people, the chara cter of their history,
the nature of their instructions, the purpose of their existence, and their ultimate destiny as the people of Go. The
Christian church regarded itself as the true Israel of God (Galatians 6:16; 1 Peter 2:9-10), and the events of its foundings
as the fulfillment of the purpose of God as expressed in the holy writings (Luke 24:25-27, 44-46; Acts 2:16; Romans 1:1-2).
Thus the church came to see Jewish scriptures and Christian
writings as complementary--as together bearing witness to the mighty deeds of God in the forming of a people of God's out
of the stock of Israel and through the true Israel, out of the nations of the world. The Bible is therefore one book
with one prevading theme: God's activity in the redemption of the world through a chosen, renewed, and obedient people.
The Bible is a Collection of Approved Books
Both Israels--the old and new--produced a large literature.
Much of it is not now contained in our Bible, even in those Bibles that include the Apocrypha. In the Old Testament
we find mention of books now lost: "the Book of the Wars of the Kings of the LORD" (Numbers 21:14); "the Boof of Jasher"
(Joshua 10:13); "the Book of the Acts of Solomon" (1 Kings 11:41); "the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah" (1 Kings
14:29); and others.
Many books not menetioned in our Bible (including
the Apocrypha) circulated in Judaism before, during, and after the rise of Christianity. Among them were commentaries
on and paraphrases of Old Testament books; collections of Old Testament and of hymns; books about worship, about the end of
the age, and about the briefs and practices of religious group.
Christianity produced much literature not included in the
New Testament as finally agreed upon by A.D. 400, such as: many Gospels and related works; many writings about the Apostles;
and several books that professed to unveil the future (apocalypses).
The books that appear in our Bible are thus only a part
of the large literature of the Judeo-Christian religion. Our biblical books came to the fore and maintained their prestige
not only because of their assumed connection with people believed to have been God-inspired but because of their value of
worship, instruction, and guidance of life in communities for which they were written. For the most part, they became
"approved" books in their communities long before they were included by official action in a closed collection.
The Bible is a Two-Stage Book
The Bible, as knwn in the Christian church, is a two-step
book. The stages are:
Stage 1: The Promise
The Old Testament, or more accurately, the Old Covenant
Stage 2: The Fulfillment
The New Testament or New Covenant
Traditionally in English and Latin Bibles the Christian church
has referred to the books it inherited from Judaism as "theh Old Testament" (Latin, testamentum). Actually,
the Hebrews spoke of a berit or covenant which God had made with the fathers, particularly with Moses at Mount Sinai.
By this word they meant a promise, an agreement, or an arrangement involving two parties, in which at least one party
was bound by an oath. The Greek Bible translated the Hebrew word berit (covenant) by the word diatheke
(meaning usually "covenant" but sometimes "will" or "testament"--that is, a declaration of intention concerning the disposal
of an estate upon the maker's death).
It is not a "will" that is intended in the terms Old Testament
and New Testament, but an arrangement or agreement between contracting parties involving promise and sealed with oaths.
Therefore, "Old Covenant" and "New Covenant" are to be preferred in modern translations.
The Bible represents the Old Covenant as proposed by God,
accepted by Israel, and sealed in solemn ceremony at Mount Siani. God promised to bless Israel with divine presence
and to protect and guide it to a place of preeminence among the peoples of the world--If Israel would be exclusively loyal
to God, become like God in character, express this God-likeness in individual and national life, witness to the nations concerning
God's saving activity in Israel's history, and invite the nations to join in the benefits and responsibilities of the covenant
relationship.
But Israel was faithless to the terms of the covenant, as
the great prophets unceasingly pointed out. The nation worshipped other gods, trusted fpr security in military alliances
made with idolatrous foreign powers, aped the false way of life of the peoples around, and finally experienced national
disaster as the consequence of infidelity to its covenant with God. Instead of becoming a light to the nations, it
withdrew into something like a ghetto existence. God's name, rather than being honored among nations, was blasphemed
because of Israel's shameless conduct (Isaiah 52:5; Romans 2:24). The prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and others
looked forward to the day when Israel wouldl be fullly obedient to the terms of the covenant, when its national life would
be renewed inwardly and outwardly and its world mission faithfully carried out. But with th pages of the old Testament
all this remains unfulfilled promise.
The New Testament resounds with the note of fulfillment.
It says that the righteous leader promised as the fulfillment of Israel's God-appointed destiny appeared with the birth, ministry,
and death-resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. It declares that he inaugrated a new and fully effective covenant between
God and Israel. It claims that, as participants in the new covenant, his followers are made loyal to God, are
inwardly cleansed, are indwelt by God's Spirit, are living in loving relationships with brothers and sisters as children in
a common family, and are faithfully carrying out their work of witnessing to the nations. The New Testament regards
the church as the outpost of the Kingdom of God and holds that the church enjoys in foretaste the life of the final kingdom.
The Bible is Both an Ancient and a Very Modern Book
It contains o tribal traditions reaching back
into the second millennium B.C. One of the supposed sources behind the Pentateuch (first five books of the Bible) may
have been composed as early as the tenth or ninth century B.C. "The Court History of David" (II Samuel 9-20 and 1 Kings
1,2), unquestionably the finest piece of historical narrative in the Old Testament, was written probably in the age of King
Solomon--centuries before the rise of historical writing among the Greeks.
The books of the Old Testament were created to meet the
needs of the ancient communities in which they first appeared. A proper interpretation of them requires that we see
them primarily as written for the circumstances of the author's own time.
The prophets of the Old Testament were declarers of the
divine will for the people of their own age. They were not primarily predictors of the future for our benefit.
Paul's letters were practical directives for the church
of his day. He did not write, as one scholar has put it, "with the thought that prosperity [was] looking over his shoulder."
Another writer remarked that if Paul had possessed a magic carpet, he would not have written his letters at all.
Even a book like the Revelation to John--so loudly claimed
in some circles today as having been incomprehensible until now by any but ourselves, who live in the time of the final fulfillment
of prophecy--was actually "tailored" for the church in Asia Minor at the end of the first century A.D. Its first readers
certainly understood it far better than we can.
Furthermore, these ancient books, addressed to ancient people
and situations long gone, were transmitted through the centuries by copyists who reproduced them by hand. The original
manuscriptas of animal skins and papyrus soon perished. The thousands of copies showed variations due to inaccurate
copying. Scholars have been at work for som two hundred years comparing the many manuscripts and recovering as far as
possible the original text of the biblical books. The Bible is an heirloom of great antiquity, bequethed to us by countless
people who produced it and passed it along to us.
Yet, when all this has been said, the Bible remains a strangely
modern book, often strikingly relevant to our contemporary life. This is so in part because the human situation in every
age remains fundamentally the same. We are born, grow up in families, marry, beget children, and work for a living in
a natural order often hostile to our best efforts. We struggle against human enemies and cringe before the leering fae
of death. In every age people are tempted to worhip the creature rather than the Creator and to seek self-gratification
rather than the well-being of all people. Though the cultural setting of human life varies from age to age, its basic
situation remains the same.
Thus Abraham, who desperately wanted what life had denied
him (a son), who sought by devious means to obtain an heir, and who at length learned to trust in God in the face of human
impossibility, holds up a mirror in which we see our own frustrations, lack of faith, and need of divine help. Thus
Job, whose life was reduced to ashes in overpowering disasters and who found God at the end of his quesetioning, comforts
us in our tribulations. Thus Jesus and Paul, wh left father and mother, brothers and sisterss, and houses and
lands in obedience to the divine call and the claims of the kingdom of God, draw us after them.
The early church and Christians through the centuries have
found that, under the Holy Spirit as teacher (John 14:26; 16:13-15), the sacred writings are "profitable for doctrine, for
reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throuoghly furnished unto
all good works" (II Timothy 3:16).
The Bible is a Book of Rich Variety
It contains many types of literature: songs and other poetic
material, historical narratives, laws, litugies, prophetic utterances, wise sayings, short stories, Gospels, letters, sermons,
apocalypses. There is reading matter for every mood. One can skip through lush meadows to the music of the birds,
drink from sparkling fountains, and loll under the cedars of Lebanon (Psalm 104). One can ride the waves in a ship of
Solomon's fleet in search of gold Ophir (I Kings 9). One can dawdle in the pleasure gardens of kings, sipping wine from
golden goblets and watching maidens from the royal harem entertain the banqueterss (Esther 1-2). One can enter into
the awful silence of the temple, cry out for mercy before a majestic and holy God, and depart with sins forgiven and
a mission to perform (Isaiah 6). One can vent his anger over the rank injustices in life, lament the day of his birth,
and perhaps battle his way to faith (Job and Jeremiah) or turn to bitter pessimism (Ecclesiastes). One can peer into
the future with prophets and seers, tremble before the great white throne, and shout "hallelejah!" with the redeemed or wail
with the damned (Daniel and Revelation).
The Bible is a book that plumbs the depths of human
experience on all its sides.
The Bible is a Picture Book
Its pictures are, of course, word pictures.
But so graphic are they that we see the scenes a l most as if we are looking at photographs. Isaiah's description of
the daughters of Zion walking with outstretched necks, glancing wantonly as they mince along with the tinkling feet (Isaiah
3:16) is almost as effective as a motion picture of the scene would be. Jeremiah's word picture of the drought in Judah
(Jeremiah 14:2-6) is so realistic that our lips seem cracked like the parched earth and we fairly pant with the wild asses
on the barren heights. The picture language of the Bible is technically called metaphorical language. A
metaphor offers a comparison between two objects of realms of experience. When we speak of the head of the table, a
leg of a chair, the foot of a bed, the face of a cliff, an arm of a sea, the hands of a watch, we characterize one object
in terms of another.
In the Bible almost every page glistens with
metaphors (our example of a mixed metaphor). Jda is "a lion's whelp,"
Isreal "a wild vine" and "a wild ass. . .in her heat sniffing the wind."
Jesus is said to be "the Lamb of God" or "our paschal lamb." He is represented as "the bridegroom," and the church as
his "bride." Christians are "the light of the world." Skillful use of metaphor is characteristic of great literature.
The Bible is an Inspired and an Inspiring Storybook
The Hebrews were a storytelling people, in some respects like their
Arabic-speaking kin, who spun the delightful tales of the Arabian Nights. Some of the world's best stories are to be
found in the Bible. Many literary experts regard the Joseph narrative, for example, as a supreme example of the storyteller's
art.
The real power of the Bible lies in its central story--the
story of redemption. The theme of this story is what God has done through the life of Israel to save all humankind from
sin and folly and to bring people of every race and condition into a kingdm of love and brotherhood.
The story describes how God called the Hebrews to be his
means of revelation, how God was made known to them when they were delivered from the land of Egypt, how he disclsed his will
for teir life in the giving of the Law of Mount Sinai (Ten Commandments), how he led them into the Promised Land, how
he spoke urgent words to them through the Son's life, death, and resurrection, the power of evil was broken and a new
Spirit-filled community brought into being. It affirms that through Jesus Christ salvation has been made available
to all people. It declares that the power of this community will increase, that the kingsom of this world will
become the kingdom of our Lord and Christ, and finally God's purpose for all people will be fully realized: God and
the redeemed children will dwell together in intimate fellowship forever.
Because of the wonderful story told in the Bible and confirmed
in human experience, Christians have always regarded the Bible as an inspired book. It came out of the life of an inspired
people, a people granted unusual intimacy with God and special understanding of God's will. The Bible is the record
written by these people about God's encounter with them. When we read it we find what God is like, what God has done
and is doing for us, and what God wants us to be and do. In the Bible we have a message from God and about God.
We thus say the Bible is the Word of God.
We do not, of course, mean that every word contained in
the Bible was placed there by God. We must remember that God works in the world through people who are responsive,
usable, and human. God's own Son became truly human that God might speak to us in a language we mortals could understand.
To grasp this message one must view the Bible as a whole, not in piecemeal fashion, as though there were something magical
about the individual words.
The Bible tells us what we need to know in order to be saved.
It does not satisfy our curiosity about important questions in the fields of science, philosophy, history, psychology, and
the like. Its function is to bring us to Christ, to bring us to maturity in him, and to send us out into the world to
witness by our life and good deeds in his sving power. It gives us a great hope--that "earth may be fair and all her
children one"--and it assures us that "eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things
which God hath prepared for them that love him" (I Corinthians 2:9).
