100 Bible Questions and Answers for Families (eBook)

SECTION 1

THE BIBLE

1. HOW LONG AGO WAS THE BIBLE WRITTEN, AND WHO WROTE IT?

The Bible is a book that consists of sixty-six works, spanning three continents, three languages, and more than fourteen hundred years of revelation. Approximately forty authors, ranging from a shepherd to kings, completed its writings. Few books of the Bible specifically name their authors, but most clearly identify the main characters or the story they would tell. While we do not have absolute proof of authorship because no original manuscripts exist, we can construct a reliable reference for the books and conclude their authorship. This dating and byline are based on the language they used and repeated in other books, on historical references to kings and nations of their time, and on the biblical characters they describe.

The Old Testament includes thirty-nine books written over the course of one thousand years between about 1400 to 400 BC. Those books were written mostly in Hebrew with some Aramaic. Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible, Genesis through Deuteronomy, by approximately 1400 BC. These books are often called the Torah or the Law.

The Historical Books (Joshua through Nehemiah) cover 1400 to 400 BC, including the history of Israel in the land of Israel and after their return to Jerusalem under Ezra and Nehemiah. The likely author of Joshua is Joshua. Judges, Ruth, and 1 and 2 Samuel are attributed to the prophets Samuel, Nathan, and Gad. Jeremiah wrote the books of 1 and 2 Kings, whereas Ezra wrote 1 and 2 Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah. Mordecai is the likely author of Esther and Moses of Job.

The Poetical Books (Esther through Song of Songs) include a variety of times. Job may have been the earliest biblical book written as it references events prior to the law of Moses though its date is unknown. The Psalms mostly cover the time periods of David and Solomon (around 1000 BC) though some psalms were written as early as Moses (1400 BC) or as late as the return to Jerusalem (in the 400s BC).

The book of Proverbs was largely written during the lifetime of Solomon—and mostly by King Solomon. God had answered Solomon’s request for wisdom (2 Chronicles 1:10), and as a result, Solomon was able to compose and comprise the wise sayings that make up the first twenty-five chapters of this book. Chapters 25 through 29 are also the Proverbs of Solomon, but Hezekiah’s men are credited with their preservation (Proverbs 25:1). Chapter 30 is credited to one of Solomon’s contemporaries, a man named Agur. Chapter 31 is credited to King Lemuel, but to give credit where it is due, the Word of God specifies that this final chapter of the book contains proverbs Lemuel learned from his mother. We know that the ultimate author of Proverbs (and all Scripture) is God himself through the Holy Spirit (see 2 Samuel 23:2; John 14:26; 2 Timothy 3:16–17; 1 Peter 1:20–21). The Triune God—whom the Bible calls “the Spirit of prophecy” (Revelation 19:10)—led Solomon to also pen Ecclesiastes and the Song of Songs.

The Prophets begin as early as the 800s BC (as was likely the case of Obadiah and Joel), and the last prophetic books (such as Malachi) were completed in the 400s. The Prophets are usually divided into the Major Prophets (Isaiah through Daniel) and the Minor Prophets (Hosea through Malachi). They are named for their main character and also their writer, much like the Gospels.

After a “silence” of approximately four centuries, the New Testament was written in twenty-seven books that cover the life of Jesus and the first generation of Christians that spanned the first century AD. The four Gospels include three books likely written in the 60s (Matthew, Mark, and Luke). Theologians usually suggest that the gospel of John was written between AD 70 and 90.

Acts was written as the second part of Luke’s gospel. It covers the period from the ascension of Jesus in either AD 30 or 33 to the imprisonment of Paul in Rome in about AD 62. It was likely written in 62 or shortly afterward.

The Epistles of Paul (through Romans through Philemon) were written during his lifetime. He became a follower of Christ by AD 38, within five years of the resurrection of Jesus, and died in the mid-60s.

Hebrews is the one anonymous book of the New Testament, and it discusses events that likely took place in the AD 60s or 70s. Its mention of Timothy, the recipient of 1 and 2 Timothy, suggests a time of writing in the mid-60s to late 60s.

The Later Epistles (or General Epistles) include 1 Peter through Jude and were all likely composed during AD 60s through the 90s. The authors included Peter (who died in the 60s), the apostle John (who died by the end of the first century), and Jude (the half brother of Jesus).

Some scholars suggest the apostle John wrote Revelation either in the AD 60s or 90s. The best evidence suggests a date of around 95–96, making it the final book of the New Testament, produced by the last remaining apostle.

The books of the Bible were copied and collected by the early church, with lists of most books noted together by the second century. The modern order of today’s Bible is largely based on Jerome’s translation of the Bible into Latin in the fourth century.1

2. WHAT WERE THE ORIGINAL LANGUAGES OF THE BIBLE?

The Bible’s sixty-six books were written in three different languages. The Old Testament, covering thirty-nine of the Bible’s books, was mostly written in Hebrew, along with some portions in Aramaic.

The Aramaic portions of the Old Testament include Daniel 2:4–7:28 and Ezra 4:8–6:18 and 7:12–26. Both books were authored during the time when Aramaic had become a more common language among the Jewish people. Aramaic words and influences are found in many additional places in the Bible. In particular, names of people, locations, and selected words in the Old Testament often use Aramaic, as both Hebrew and Aramaic use the same alphabet and are similar in structure.

Aramaic was the commonly spoken language of the Jewish people during the earthly life of Jesus, something that many New Testament accounts reveal, though the original manuscripts of the twenty-seven books of the New Testament were all composed in Greek. For example, in Mark 5:41, Jesus told a dead girl to arise with the phrase talitha koum. The words mean “Little girl, get up!” (NLT) in Aramaic. Ephphatha, used in Mark 7:34, means “be opened.” The word abba that Jesus often uses in the Gospels is also Aramaic, indicating that Jesus likely spoke Aramaic as his main language. Luke 4:17–21 also reveals Jesus reading Hebrew from the book of Isaiah in a Jewish synagogue.

The use of the Greek language in the New Testament is most likely due to its dominant role in the Roman Empire during the first century. Though Latin would later become more common, authors of the Gospels, Paul’s letters, and other parts of the New Testament wrote in Greek and gave the works the widest possible audience during its original time period.

The Bible teaches that its words are inspired, but scholars take much work to evaluate the existing early copies to determine the exact wording and to translate those words into modern languages. Until the Protestant Reformation of the 1500s, most languages did not have access to Scripture in their heart language. The work of scholars during and since that time have made great strides to offer access to God’s Word to many people worldwide.

Today’s translations of the Bible seek to use the best manuscripts of these original language documents to provide comprehensible versions of Scripture. While many readers today likely have access to the Bible in multiple copies or versions, hundreds of languages worldwide have yet to receive even one verse of Scripture in their own language. Of the more than seven thousand languages in use today, more than eighteen hundred languages still need Bible translations started, and many others have access only to portions of Scripture in their language. Further, some tribal languages continue to exist only in an oral version without a written alphabet or symbols, revealing the need for more work to provide God’s Word to “all the nations” (Matthew 28:19).

3. HOW CAN WE KNOW THE COPIES OF THE BIBLE WE HAVE ARE ACCURATE?

The original copies of the Bible’s books no longer exist. How can we know that the copies we have today are accurate? The process of providing an accurate Bible translation includes a close study of the existing early manuscripts and a thorough knowledge of the ancient languages.

For the Old Testament, many of its books have copies dating to the Dead Sea Scrolls that were discovered in the last century, proving that the manuscripts were in circulation well before the earthly life of Jesus and the writings of the New Testament. Jewish scribes meticulously copied the first five books of the Bible, called the Torah, to make certain no changes were made to the text. For other parts of the Old Testament, the multiple remaining early copies allow scholars to compare any differences to help provide an accurate original language copy for translators.

For the New Testament, more than fifty-eight hundred copies of handwritten Greek manuscripts containing parts or all of its books remain available today. Textual critics and New Testament scholars have painstakingly analyzed the differences among manuscripts to help determine the likely wording of the original text in all but a few places.

Nearly all of today’s...