As I wrote the introduction to this series, I had to include a very brief description of what the Bible is. As I read that article again, I realized something; there is a multitude of reasons why someone should read the Bible in just the description of what the Bible is. So, let’s answer the question; what is the Bible? In answering this question, I believe there will be a multitude of reasons why you should contemplate reading the Bible and reading it frequently. I also believe this attempt at explaining what the Bible is will set you up for a better understanding of the remaining articles in this series.
So, What Is the Bible?
Before you click away from this article due to a sense of redundancy, realize that this article will be searching the Bible to define itself. On the surface, I am simply a 24-year-old white male who, depending on what context you see me in, works at Calvary University in the Presidents Office. I have brown hair, pale complexion and really struggles growing facial hair. However, my testimony of myself is much deeper, more accurate (such as, I don’t struggle growing facial hair. I gave that up a long time ago.), and touches on aspects of myself that people from the outside cannot know unless I tell them. The Bible is no different. On the surface, it’s a book, which contains 66 different books within (which makes for a really long read) and is generally seen sitting on a shelf covered in dust. But, what is it really? To know the depths of truth about the Bible, one must dig within to see what the Bible testifies about itself. Join me on the journey.
A Compilation of Old Books By Many Authors
The first author to write inspired words was Moses. Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible, and, arguably, Job. With those books, Moses wrote the biggest portion of the Bible! Way to go Moses… The crazy part about this is the dating of these writings. The estimated date of Moses’ writings is around 1400 BC. There are approximately another 39 authors throughout the whole of Scripture (the “approximate” is because this number varies by 1 or 2 depending on the authorship of a couple books).
As many know, the Bible is broken up into two major sections; the Old Testament and the New Testament. The Old Testament begins with the Creation of all things (other than God himself) and ends approximately 400 years before the birth of Jesus Christ. The New Testament begins with the just before the birth of Jesus and ends with the future return of Jesus. This means the timeline discussed in the Bible covers all of time. The dates that these books were written, however, is from 1400 BC (writings of Moses) to around AD 90 (writing of Revelation by the Apostle John). That gives us a book that was written by 40 different authors over the span of 1500 years in three different languages (Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic). Sneak peak…these facts aren’t even the beginning of the amazement of the literature found in the Bible. What makes it even crazier is the fact that the Bible contains zero contradictions (Psalm 119:60; 33:4; 19:7-11).
A Compilation of Old Books By One Author
Wait a second…did I not just say there were around 40 authors throughout all the books of the Bible? Yes. There were approximately 40 different authors, however, all of those human authors were simply writing what God told them to write (2 Peter 1:20-21; 1 Thess. 2:13). The reason the Bible can be found without contradiction is because the Bible was not written by a flawed human without the divine work of a perfect God. God spoke through the prophets and writers of the Bible. The Bible is not simply a literary work which has great poetry. The Bible isn’t a compilation of the worlds most famous literary masterpieces. The Bible isn’t the rarest ancient writing. The Bible is so much more than that, it is divine; supernatural. The Bible is the perfect, life-giving Word of the one true God; YHWH.
If the Bible were simply the work of 40 different wonderful human beings, it would be a great work of art; one of literary genius. The different structures and syntax used throughout is one that brings amazement to even the most experienced of writers. While that’s all cool, God is the author. Think about this, who is God? God, YHWH, is the Creator of the universe, reigning over all things. The wind listens to Him, the seas obey Him. That same God penned a book so that we could know Him and know the history of the universe (John 17:3).
Authorship Drives Motivation
Because God is the author of the Bible, we find so many benefits to reading it. That is the whole point of this series. You see, in America specifically, biblical literacy is at an all-time low. Over 50% of Americans read the Bible less than 3 times a year (Barna). But how? The Creator of the universe is the author of a book that contains zero errors, contains all things needed for life and godliness, and is completely relevant to life today. Just knowing what the Bible is and who the author is should be drive enough to keep a Bible in my back pocket, reading it at every chance I get.
Let us pray for an increase in biblical literacy. Make sure you are one who is bettering those statistics. Let’s get to know God more and more as we dig into the glory found within the pages of the Bible.
