The Bible
What do we know about how the Bible was written?
The Bible has at least 40 authors and was written over 1500 years in 3 languages on 3 continents. The authors range from philosophers, fishermen, kings, and poets. They discuss a wide range of topics, yet we see unity on these topics that suggest a common author or source of inspiration.
The first thing we need to understand to develop context within the Bible is to acknowledge that the Bible is a collection of ancient literature. Even the word "Bible" can be traced back to ancient Greek, meaning paper or scroll. Each book we have in the Bible is an individual work, and each has its own genre or style in which it was written. The style of the writing affects how that specific writing is to be read and understood. Some of these writings were originally spoken. Some were sung. Some are historical records. Others are poetry or prophecy. Poetry is read and understood very differently than prophecy or history.
Is the Bible written by God?
Every book of the Bible is considered God's word. Every author of the Bible is considered inspired by God to record the events in the Bible and the instructions within the Bible. This is the concept of Divine Authorship.
The purposeful canon of the Bible was chosen by man but considered inspired by God. There has been much debate on extra-biblical sources, their inspiration, and their validity. Further, even New Testament letters, such as letters written by Paul, are written as pastoral letters from Paul to specific believers living in a particular place at a specific time. Nonetheless, these letters are read with the assumption that Paul was led by God and the Holy Spirit to understand the topics he discussed and do it for the reader's benefit.
To whom is the Bible written?
The literature that makes up the Bible is written to people from another time and another place in the world. We can argue that the Bible is for us, to be used by us, but it's not explicitly written to us. Meaning that we, modern-day readers, are not the original intended audience of the writings. One could argue that the author of any book of the Bible likely did not intend for the writing to be read over 2,000 years later and by a different culture altogether nonetheless.
The authors and the audience of the literature that we have in the Bible were primarily the Jewish people. For example, when Jesus spoke the Sermon on the Mount, as we read it in Luke or Matthew's Gospel, he said those things to a specific group of people at a particular time. His audience was primarily Jews in the first century.
In addition to much of the Bible being written to a Jewish audience, we can also read specific letters in portions of the New Testament that were addressed to non-Jewish people or particular groups of people of the author's day. But no passage in the Bible was written directly to 21st-century Gentiles.
Why does this context matter? It matters because, as a disciple of Jesus, we will want to get the message correct. We like to be responsible readers of the Bible. We can't be responsible readers by claiming a passage from Isaiah or Jeremiah as a personal promise from God to ourselves. That is not to say you cannot read that passage and be encouraged or hopeful. You should not, however, read the passage and assume God is talking to you specifically and interpret the passage through that lens. You have to establish a context before drawing conclusions.
Further, we should not hold God accountable for fulfilling what we read and interpret as personal promises. God is not entitled to fulfill or give us every little thing we read because it's in the Bible. We tend to bring preconceived ideas and a modern perspective to the ancient words we read in the scriptures, and we manage to apply them to our time and our situation, often without even thinking about the ancient people to whom the writings were initially addressed.
We tend to be anachronistic (meaning belonging to a period other than that being portrayed), especially when reading the New Testament. Suggesting that we read our Bibles and primarily apply what we read to our situation and our period with either little or no regard for what Jesus' words and actions meant to Jews in the first century. We tend to individualize or spiritualize things, understood as corporate or not spiritual in their original context. This is about just reading the Bible in context. Always keep in mind the author, the style or genre, and the audience of the writings.
What do we know about the Bible canon?
In the time of Jesus, the canon of the Bible had not been determined. The New Testament was non-existent. Only the Hebrew Scriptures existed. There was a clear understanding of what scriptures were authoritative and inspired by God. The first portion of the Hebrew Scriptures of Jesus’ Bible is called the Law of Moses or, in Hebrew, the Torah. The second portion is named the Prophets or, in Hebrew, the Nevi’im. The third part of the Hebrew Scriptures is the Writings or the Ketuvim. The Writings represent the Psalms, Proverbs, and other books that are not considered the Torah or the Prophets. During the first century, all would agree that the books of Moses (the first five books of the Hebrew Scriptures, commonly referred to as the Torah) were authoritative and inspired. Many also considered the teachings of the prophets to be inspired and, in many ways, as important as the Torah. The Hebrew Scriptures consist of the Torah, the Prophets, and the Writings. Unlike today, how many refer to the Hebrew Scriptures as the Old Testament, in the time of Jesus, it was common to call it the Law and the Prophets, as seen in Matthew 5:17:
Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. (Matthew 5:17, ESV Bible)
In the gospel of Luke 24:44, Jesus refers to the Hebrew Scriptures in even more detail than we see here in Matthew 5:17. Jesus says:
“These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” (Luke 24:44, ESV Bible)
This description of the Hebrew Scriptures represents the threefold description of Jesus’ Bible. The Psalms is the largest book in the writings, and that may be why Jesus mentions it here in Luke 24. These three major divisions of the Hebrew Scriptures during the time of Jesus represent the same three divisions found in the Hebrew Scriptures to this day. The First letter of each Hebrew name for these three divisions forms the acronym T-N-K. In Hebrew, what we refer to as the Old Testament is known as the Tanakh (TaNaKh).
Is the Tanakh the scripture used by Jesus and the Apostles?
In the first century, the Tanakh was their Scripture, consisting of the law, the prophets, and the writings. Through these scriptures, they understood God, their past, present, and future. It was the lens through which they understood the need for redemption, the covenants God had made with their ancestors, and how God would fulfill the promises spoken within the law and the prophets despite the ups and downs in their history. Their interpretation of these scriptures framed their worldview.
In Romans, Paul explains that the scriptures are to encourage and give hope to the reader:
For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. (Romans 15:4, ESV Bible)
What is the hope that Paul describes? For the Jew, it is the hope and fulfillment of God's promises. Things like restoration and redemption of creation and man. Restoring the earth back to the days of Eden. The hope included setting the world's wrongs right through the judgment of the wicked and the reward of the righteous. Their hope most certainly contained the promises given to David of an eternal kingdom and a Messiah who would rule over the nation from Jerusalem.
Paul's view of the Hebrew Scriptures and their application to Jews of old and for his present day and future is further evidenced when he says:
But the words "it was counted to him" were not written for his sake alone, but for ours also. (Romans 4:23, ESV Bible)
One of the more interesting passages written by Paul is found in 2 Timothy 3:16:
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:16-17, ESV Bible)
Modern-day readers will read this passage and immediately conclude Paul is speaking about the entire Bible. However, the Bible canon had not yet been completed. More likely, Paul is talking specifically about the Hebrew Scriptures or the Old Testament.
The books of the Old Testament, consisting of the law, the prophets, and the writings, were the scriptures of the first-century Jew. It was the scriptures read by Jesus and the apostles. The scriptures were held in high regard and represented the source through which the first coming of Jesus was understood. If Jesus and the apostles held the Old Testament scriptures in high regard, then as disciples of Jesus, we, too, should find the same instruction, encouragement, and hope within the Hebrew Scriptures. As Paul says in 2 Timothy 3:16, it is God-breathed and profitable. It will teach us, correct us, and train us in righteousness. It will equip us to do good work here in this age.
Another great example that illustrates the importance of the Old Testament is seen in Acts 15. This is the Council at Jerusalem, where early Christian leaders gathered to address whether Gentile believers needed circumcision and follow Jewish customs to find salvation. In other words, did the Gentile believers need to become Jewish and observe the Law of Moses? The chapter emphasizes the importance of faith in Jesus and the role of the Holy Spirit in the lives of believers, emphasizing that salvation comes through grace. If the Gentiles had received the Holy Spirit and God's grace without being Jewish, then what does becoming Jewish stand to offer them? The council's decision was not to burden Gentile believers with unnecessary requirements but to encourage them to abstain from certain practices for the sake of unity among believers. Of great interest to our conversation here is found in Acts 15:21:
For from ancient generations Moses has had in every city those who proclaim him, for he is read every Sabbath in the synagogues." (Acts 15:21, ESV Bible)
This verse suggests that while Gentile believers were not required to observe all aspects of the Mosaic law, they would undoubtedly hear and be exposed to it. You see, at that time, many gentile believers would attend Jewish synagogues as Christianity as we know it grew out of a sect of Judaism, explicitly identifying Jesus as the Jewish Messiah. Jewish believers still attended synagogues and worshiped at the Temple. Therefore, many Gentile believers followed suit. This reference to Moses in Acts 15 indicates that Gentile believers were expected to have some basic understanding and respect for Jewish customs. It also highlights the ongoing significance of the Hebrew Scriptures for first-century believers. While we may see the Old Testament as dated and often irrelevant, this was not true for the first-century believers.
Was Jesus and the disciples Jewish?
Too often, we fail to recognize that Jesus was Jewish. He was a Jewish rabbi, and his teachings were similar in many ways to the Jewish Pharisees of his day. He prayed in the Temple. He celebrated all of the Jewish feasts according to the law of Moses. We must understand Jesus' Jewish identity and its implications for interpreting the Bible. His words and actions are rooted in a broader Jewish narrative and should be understood with that in mind. This has been lost for modern readers, so our image of Jesus and his message has taken various forms. Now, while we often intellectually affirm the Jewishness of Jesus, we don't usually think through some of the massive implications of what this means, especially for 21st-century Gentiles, when we read his teachings in our Bible. If Jesus was Jewish and came to the Jewish people in the land of Israel 2000 years ago, we need to read his words and see the events of his life through that specific lens. Jesus and the Jews of the first century had a preexisting worldview, just a particular way of understanding God. The worldview was a way of understanding Israel's history and where everything was headed, meaning what the future held for the nation of Israel and for the world. So, the events we read about in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John were not the beginning of a new story. Further, the division between the Old and New Testaments has led to more confusion about this reality. More on this in future studies.
The disciples were all Jewish. When we read about the twelve disciples in the Gospels, we often assume that they're primarily ignorant, uneducated tradespeople who are just childish and unrefined and, therefore, unable to grasp the complexities of the spiritual truths that Jesus is teaching them. This is not true, and they are best understood as Jewish men living Jewish lifestyles with Jewish expectations. Perhaps we read the Bible anachronistically, taking our lives and our experiences and culture in modern times and superimposing those things onto the Jewish people in first-century Israel. We can't read our Bibles and assume these guys were Christians, just like modern believers who attend church on Sunday. The disciples and apostles were Jewish, and they remained Jewish even after their time with Jesus. They were raised in a culture with customs and an outlook for the future utterly different from the modern world. They were deeply familiar with their scriptures, which not only chronicled their history but outlined the details of their culture and lifestyle and set firm expectations for the future.
Is the Purpose of the Old Testament to point to Jesus?
Since the coming of Jesus, many Christians think that everything from Genesis to Malachi points to Jesus and that it's largely irrelevant to us today because, as the reasoning goes, Jesus has come. We don't need to know anything other than Jesus and the cross and forgiveness. This is pretty problematic for a few reasons:
The Old Testament presents a story of something so much bigger than Jesus coming to die for sins and to rise again. It's mostly unfamiliarity with the details that causes this perspective. Jesus' life, death, and resurrection are significant. But his life, death, and resurrection are important because they are in context to the larger story of God's covenantal dealing with Israel and what those covenants mean for the rest of the nations and all of creation itself.
It ignores the context of the words of Jesus and his followers in the New Testament. Now, I want to develop this point and read a story that is familiar to most people. And that's the Christmas story. We hear this in churches at least once a year in December. But I think we often overlook the details, maybe because of overfamiliarity with the story. So let's look at this story from Luke 1:26:
In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin's name was Mary. And he came to her and said, "Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!" But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. And the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end." (Luke 1:26-33, ESV Bible)
The last few verses are direct quotations from the Old Testament and have nothing to do with Jesus dying on the cross for sins. Those particular words are from 2 Samuel, chapter seven. And they would have rung loudly in the ears of a first-century jew because the nation of Israel at the time of Jesus was languishing under the oppression of Rome. And the overarching question that so many were seeking to answer at the time was, "Will God be faithful to do what he said?" All of those promises that he made in the prophets and in the covenants that he created with the Jewish people, how are they going to come to pass? 2 Samuel 7:10, where God is speaking to King David:
And I will appoint a place for my people Israel and will plant them, so that they may dwell in their own place and be disturbed no more. And violent men shall afflict them no more, as formerly, from the time that I appointed judges over my people Israel. And I will give you rest from all your enemies. Moreover, the LORD declares to you that the LORD will make you a house. When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. (2 Samuel 7:10-14, ESV Bible)
Today, we read Gabriel's words and envision a heavenly kingdom. Jesus came to die for our sins so we can go be with him in this heavenly kingdom when we die. This is not what Mary is thinking when she hears the words of Gabriel. Like all of the other first-century Jews, Mary would have been longing for the promised deliverance, safety, security, and prosperity in the land that God promised to Abraham, where Israel's enemies would no longer oppress them, and a son of David would reign on David's throne in Jerusalem.
This is a really important context for us to understand because the angel comes to her and doesn't redefine the hope that Mary and the people of Israel had; instead, he forcefully affirms it. If Gabriel was implying a spiritual kingdom, he would say so. This is not some spiritual trickery where the Jews believe one thing, and God keeps leading them down a path of understanding only to pull the carpet out from under their feet in the future. What would that say about God, and how could we ever comprehend the message of scripture? In Luke, Gabriel is reaffirming the same promises in the Old Testament.
Another good example that highlights the context of the first-century Jewish worldview is in Acts 26. This chapter recounts the Apostle Paul's defense before King Agrippa, detailing his recognition of Jesus as the Messiah and his mission to preach the Gospel to the Gentiles. In verse 6, Paul says:
And now I stand here on trial because of my hope in the promise made by God to our fathers, to which our twelve tribes hope to attain, as they earnestly worship night and day. And for this hope I am accused by Jews, O king! Why is it thought incredible by any of you that God raises the dead? (Acts 26:6-8, ESV Bible)
Again, we see his worldview in context to the Old Testament promises to Israel. So his hope, even as an apostle and a disciple, did not change because of Jesus. Even after Jesus came, died, and rose, and after Paul encountered Jesus, he's still affirming a Jewish apocalyptic hope. To be blunt, because of our modern Gentile ignorance of this Jewish story, we miss entirely these details about the hope of the Jewish people. Or, at worst, we assume that it gets redefined somehow and that Jesus is reigning in heaven right now, and he's already on David's throne, somehow spiritually subduing Israel's enemies.
We over-spiritualize the hopes of Israel because we fail to see the first-century Jewish perspective. Talk to any Jewish person living in the land of Israel right now, or even look at the news from the Middle East. Israel doesn't have rest from her enemies. There's no king from David's line ruling from Jerusalem and no house for the Lord's name. There's no temple in Jerusalem, either. Some in the scholarly world have written volumes spiritualizing these things and saying that Jesus came to redefine or reimagine them through his ministry or death and resurrection. They claim that the ethnic descendants of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob don't really matter anymore because God now has a new people called the church. But we have so much evidence, both biblically and historically, that this is not the way that first-century Jews thought. And this first-century Jewish thought did not change until hundreds of years later when people like Augustine and Constantine came into the picture. We will explore that more in future studies.
The Gospel and our hope as Gentile disciples of Jesus today is wrapped up in tangible, earthly promises God has made to and through the Jewish people. God intends to be faithful to those promises, as he spoke them in the Old Testament scriptures. We're looking forward to a genuine day in the future when the Jewish Messiah, Jesus, returns and sets up a kingdom based in Jerusalem, and that kingdom will rule over all the nations. The authors of the New Testament say that Jesus' resurrection provides proof that we can have certainty about these things:
He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. (2 Corinthians 5:5, ESV Bible)
Who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory. (Ephesians 1:14, ESV Bible)