Bibliology: New Testament and God Essay

37); the Bible is regarded as being inerrant, because it was created by God and God cannot lie and is incapable of lying. The authenticity of God’s word is stated several times throughout Scripture, and David proclaims that God’s word is error-free; to object the honesty of God’s word as being true is to challenge the claim of Christ (Cartwright & Hulshof, 2016, pp. 35-37).

Unlike Mythology, narratives of the Bible are actual events that took place dating back to the beginning of time. The conception of The Holy Bible’s compilation started thousands of years ago in the land of Egypt. Initially, the Old Testament Scriptures were written in the Hebrew language, however, they were later translated to the Greek. At the onset of the New Testament writings, they were originally recorded in the Greek language. Forty men transcribed the voice of God, which resulted in sixty-six books of the Holy Bible. The Holy Scriptures explained the creations, formation of the world, God, God’s chosen people, sin, and the plan of salvation as well.

Bruce offers a solid explanation of the formation of the canon chronologically starting with the Hebrew scriptures (p. 21) until the 4th century where church councils started to present the first spoken finished canon (p. 97). Bruce shows the importance of the Old Testament scriptures, but writes most about the New Testament. He not only shows how the New Testament came to be a canon but offers a deep analysis of non-canonical scripture called the Apocrypha (pp. 48, 90-93).

scholarship. I feel that chapter four is more important than chapter three because the topic is

The Old Testament books are written in many different literary styles such as historical, prophetic, or biographical. Between the Old and New Testaments there were four hundred years during which time books were not written. As the New Testament begins, it starts with four books commonly known as the Gospels. These gospels are a biography of the life and works of Jesus Christ himself. The remainder of the Bible contains mostly letters to various people and churches throughout Asia Minor, Greece, and Italy. These are letters of encouragement to the early churches of the world and many Christians who may have been imprisoned or in captivity in several countries. Still one question that plagues the minds of several modern day Christians is, how did the modern day Bible come to be? The Old Testament had been decided upon long ago. Elders in the Jewish church met and decided 39 different books in all. These books had been written over the span of several centuries and became what is today known as the Old Testament. The New Testament was somewhat similar. During the time shortly after Jesus, there was controversy over the books that were truly from God and those that were not. The early church hierarchy settled this dispute during the second, third and fourth centuries. During this time, councils, consisting of church elders, met periodically to determine which books had true divine inspiration and which were frauds. In the mid-fourth century, the New

Evidence for OT and NT canonicity and tests for canonicity are for the OT canonicity is seen in “the Law” originating from the Old Testament in Law of Moses is seen as being “authoritative”. Examples of scripture that supports this are “1 Kings 2:3; 2 Kings 14:6 and Ezra 6:18”. These writings help justify the first five books of the Old Testament that Moses contributed in writing. Second “from the prophets” is another example of evidence seen where the prophets were inspired with the word from God. The gospels of Joshua, Chronicles, and Daniels are examples of supportive books in the gospel. Third example is “from Malachi 4:5” where the prophecy ends with Malachi and resumes with John the Baptist. Evidence for the NT is “quotations of the old testament to the new”, which shows “250 quotes from the old testament” being used. Second, “Matthew 5:17” shows the Law and the Prophets holding power as spoken by the Lord. Third, “Luke 11:51” the condemnation of Jewish leaders for murdering the Lord's messengers throughout time. The tests for canonicity are first “the test for authority” where the books of the canon were backed up by an authoritative prophet or apostle. Second, “the test for uniqueness” where evidence had to be unique to be placed in the canon. Third, “the test of acceptance by the churches”, where the books had to gain acceptance by the

Bible as the Inspired Word of God The Bible is the work of various authors, who lived in different continents and wrote in different eras. Furthermore, much of the text does not claim to have been 'dictated' by God and is not always God speaking to people. In parts it consists of people speaking to God, as in the Psalms, and people speaking to people, as in the New Testament letters written by Paul. In light of this, some maintain that it is not possible to treat the Bible as a book of divine oracles, delivered once by God and recorded by its authors through divine inspiration, since biblical authors were products of their time and subsequently their understanding of divine truth was culturally

Scripture, the saving revelation of God in Jesus Christ, addresses us with full divine authority in its total extent and in all its parts, and therefore the CRC speaks of the Bible as the inspired and infallible Word of God.

Due to the Bible solely being inspired by God, but strictly composed by men, an argument becomes clearly evident that both human and divine elements construct the Scripture. Without the divine component, God’s revelation

The Bible is not a book of religions or rituals. Rather, the Bible is a library of 66 books—39 of which are known as the Old Testament and 27 books referred to as the New Testament—that reveals God’s divine plan of redemption, reconciliation, salvation, restoration and renewal of the whole world. The Bible can be read as a great literature, or as a history of Israel, or as a source of theological information. Though it is all of these things, none of them does full justice to Scripture as being authoritative. God has all authority, and we accept the Bible as the primary authority by which God communicates to us what He wants us to believe and to do. N.T. Wright’s book theorizes that Scripture is authoritative in that “the authority of

The New Testament is characterized by the existence of imperative Biblical figures, with the likes of Jesus Christ, the Apostles, among many others. Peter was among Jesus’ first disciples. From his turning point, as manifested in the book of John 21, to his progress as a dedicated leader as manifested in Acts, to his final emergence as a co-elder as manifested in the Epistles of 1st and 2nd Peter, Peter exhibited traits of a transformational and charismatic biblical figure (Neil & William 409).

The evolution of the Bible begins one hundred and fifty years after Jesus’ birth with Marcion of Pontus, a Christian theologian and heretic. He was a faithful Christian but was dissatisfied with the Jewish scripture because he believed that the God in the Old Testament was too harsh and legalistic. The God in the Hebrew Bible was not the same God depicted by Jesus was the God that he believed in. Without the churches consent, Marcion removed all traces of the Hebrew text (the Old Testament) from his bible. Of course, at the time, people did not take well to his alteration but he was a catalyst for the evolution of the Christian bible we know today.

The New Testament was canonized over a period of approximately four hundred years (Stotesberg). From AD 50-125, the books which in the end constitute the New Testament were written. Simultaneously, other books, which did not end up being included in the final canon, were produced. These books are the Epistle of Barnabas, the Didache, I Clement, the seven letters of Ignatius of Antioch, etc. (“Development of the Difficult Canon”). As more and more books were written, Christians realized that it was imperative that they gather and consolidate this material before it became lost. Sometime before AD 100, ten of Paul’s letters were gathered and combined into their own canon. The Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) were combined to form another canon soon after the canonization of Paul’s letters. The Gospels and Paul’s letters became the main body of a new group of Scriptures that would soon become the New Testament. Soon Acts, I Peter, I John, and Revelation were inserted into this body of Scripture. Following this, the rest of the books were added to the New Testament (Barker).

Borg believes that if you do not believe that the bible is either totally a divine or totally a human product, then it “compounds the confusion” (26).

The bible was written as an account of what many viewed that God had accomplished so his actions and words could be passed on for generations. Some believe it is a literary account and some believe it is a historical account. The word of God in the bible comes in many forms and is left up to interpretation by the reader. Some believe that the word of God should be the only word and should be strictly followed. Some believe that the words are meant as a guideline to help us through life. Whatever your belief is you can always seem to find the meaning behind your belief through the word of God in the Bible.