Who made the Bible?
The gospel of Thomas and the book of Maccabees are out there. They were written at a time when the gospels were being written or even earlier, so why does the Bible have the books it has? Is the Bible the word of God? BRIGHT MHANGO searches for the answers.
Whenever there is a religious argument, people will often say “the Bible says this and that….that means God forbids this and that…” Some Bibles are actually labelled “The word of God,” but is it true? Is it God who wrote the Bible and said the things that are said in the holy book?
The obvious answer is no. There are 66 books in the Bible and they all have authors. What can be claimed to be true about the Bible is that the books were “divinely inspired,” meaning God was the inspiration behind the authors.
As 2 Peter 1: 21 says, “For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.”
The bigger question, however, is how and who decided that a book was divinely inspired, especially because history is awash with literature?
It is believed that there were over 600 books which were worthy compiling but only 80 and eventually 66 made it. The reasons this happened are many: some were written too late, others were unpopular, some were too controversial, some too unpopular and not well known, some were damaged and lost while others were just letters that were not scripture.
First Apology by Justin Martyr, one of the most respected defenders of Christianity, was written too late, but his work was as fine as any.
The Gospel of Thomas was trashed because it was considered controversial. Thomas is the one who wrote of Jesus making twelve sparrows out of mud and giving them life. A nice tale, but in the next chapter, the child Jesus curses a boy and makes him wither up. Later, Jesus is angered when another child bumps into his shoulder and strikes him dead!
The Gospel of the Hebrews was not too popular enough. Others such as the Book of Jasher, which are mentioned in history, were never found or got lost while the Ecclesiastical History by Eusebius, which is probably the single most essential document for the study of church history before Constantine, never made it into the Bible because it has little faith value and is just historical.
The Old Testament books were already in place and the New Testament is basically a result of the 4th Century actions via a series of church synods which produced a list of texts of the New Testament that would be subsequently used today.
The most important meeting was the Synod of Hippo in AD 393. And later the church father Jerome produced a Latin edition of the Bible.
The Second Epistle of Timothy says that “All scripture is inspired of God,” (2 Timothy 3:16-3:17). What about the Gospel of Thomas, for example? Did the church produce a Bible that was sweet to their agenda and silenced what might have been truly the case?
One Theologian, blogging on www.minds2mentes.wordpress.com, writes: “The single most important criterion for a book to be considered divinely inspired is that it had to be written by an apostle. This was mandatory. During the early years of the church, the books and letters written by the apostles were thus accepted as scripture.
“These were preserved and compiled, and by A.D. 175 the New Testament looked pretty much like it does today, being unanimously accepted by the church and its leaders. At the 3rd Council of Carthage in A.D. 397, the canon was confirmed and officially closed.”
Christians believe that the Bible is the inspired word of God, that God, through the Holy Spirit, intervened and influenced the words, message, and collation of the Bible.
For many Christians, the Bible is also infallible, and is incapable of error in matters of faith and practice.
To some, it does not matter where the Bible came from as long as it helps humanity get closer to God, all is well. To some, the details matter and the Bible remains a claim until they know who wrote it, why and who decided who was fit to be a biblical author.
