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 Where Did the Bible Come From? The Bible was written by many men. The 39 books of the Old Testament were written in the Hebrew language. The first five books, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, were written by Moses who lived about 1,450 B.C. As other men were inspired by God, they gave their special messages. The last book of the Old Testament was written about 400 B.C. by Malachi. The Old Testament Scriptures over the process of time became recognized as the Word of God. By the time of Ezra, these 39 books were accepted as God-inspired. This accepted collection of writings is called the Old Testament Canon. There followed a period of what is sometimes called the 400 silent years before the appearance of Jesus when no prophet spoke. The 27 books of the New Testament were written in the Greek language. Matthew, John and Peter were members of the special group of 12 disciples who followed Jesus for the 3 years of His ministry. They wrote eight of the New Testament books. The other authors were Mark, a young man who was probably no older than a teenager at the time of Jesus' ministry, and was a son of an early Christian family. Luke wrote two books, Luke and Acts, and was a Christian physician. He was probably the only Gentile author of any of the books of the Bible. The others were all Jews. Two of the authors in the New Testament, James and Jude, were brothers of Jesus (either half-brothers or foster brothers). The apostle Paul wrote most of the New Testament books. Early Acceptance The early Christians began to save these writings. Occasionally, during those early years someone would write a book and sign the name of one of the apostles, hoping in this way to get acceptance for some personal viewpoint. These books have come to be called the pseudepigrapha, which means the "false writings." Within two or three centuries after Christ, the "false writings" were recognized for what they were, and the 27 books we now know as the New Testament were accepted as authentically inspired writings. The Bible has been translated many times into many languages. One of the first translations was from the Hebrew of the Old Testament into Greek two or three centuries before the Christian era, and was for Jews who lived in Greek speaking lands. This translation was called the Septuagint. Later the Bible has been translated into nearly every language spoken. The first English translation was made in about A.D. 1388 by an English scholar named John Wycliffe. The most popular English translation for centuries was the King James Version, authorized by King James I of England in 1611. In the last century, many translations have been made into more contemporary English. ______________________________ By Bob Edwards. © 2007 AnswersForMe.org. Click here for content usage information. Published with permission from the Voice of Prophecy, Simi Valley, CA. |
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