The subject of the Bible is enormous and requires a tremendous amount of research, discussion, and often the breaking down of the preconceived beliefs inculcated into the mind of believers by religious zealots. Topics like historicity, authenticity, original languages, manuscript evidence, inspiration issues, consistency, translations, transmissions, support texts, error and infallibility, contextual understanding (and much more) play a key role in how th eBible content will be understood and ultimately received by each reader.
The body of believers might be divided into several camps relative to the Bible:
The body of believers might be divided into several camps relative to the Bible:
- Those who believe that in its original manuscripts, the text was perfect
- Those who believe that certain translations today are perfect and without any error.
- Those who believe the book is corrupted and unreliable.
- Those who believe it is the product of men and full of myth.
- The Bible was first only the Old Testament, or what the Jews referred to as the "Tanakah," which is an acronym for Torah, Nevi'im, and Ketuvim, meaning Law, Prophets, and Writing, respectively. These three groups in total include all books of the Hebrew Bible which in most Christian Old Testaments covers Genesis through Malachi.
- When Jesus speaks of the Word of God or scripture, He was speaking of the Tanakh.
- When his apostles spoke of scripture they almost always were speaking of the Tanakh.
- In other words, there was no New Testament for the early apostolic church.
- The only writings that the early Christian believers had outside of the Tanahk were letters that were written by Jesus's apostles to specific Saints in specific churches that were in specific parts of Israel and Asia Minor.
- There were no printing presses in that day so all manuscripts of either the gospels or the epistles had to be copied by hand if they were to be shared or passed along to other believers in other lands.
- In addition to the truly inspired, apostolically, authorized writings, there were numerous of counterfeits among the believers in the first century.
- Knowing which manuscripts were authentic and which were pseud-scripture took some time - a great deal of time.
- Add in the fact that the distance between where the Gospels and the Epistles were originally written was enormous, that authentication of the writing was at times difficult, and that all copying was done by hand, the Bible, as we know it today was never available to believers for the first 250 years after Christ ascended to heaven.
- Two hundred and fifty years is a long time - that's more than six biblical generations.
- And then, even after the contents were somewhat agreed upon by the third Century scholars, the Bible was translated into a language few could read or write (Latin). This meant only the educated and (and due to the unavailability of manuscripts) only the established churches with resources (Roman Catholicism, Greek Orthodoxy) had direct open access to the collection of New Testament writings.
- This would be the general situation for the next 1250 years!
- In and around what we call the Protestant Reformation the Bible was taken and retranslated by men like Wycliffe, Tyndale, Erasmus, and others who provided full translations of the Bible into English.
- The advent of the Gutenberg printing press in 1440 allowed for the wide distribution of the written word and the era of everyman having and reading the bible was underway.
- While the book is perhaps the greatest material gift in the life of a believer in Christ it was not available, sometimes in part and rarely as a whole, to the followers of Jesus for 1550 years!
- It was certainly not available to believers in the first 250 years.
- So the question is, "What did the early believers do without a New Testament?"
- What did the people who believed Paul's words in, say, in Rhodes, have to guide them once he left them after visiting them for seven days? No (apparent) epistles. No direct apostolic leadership? They had the Tanahk but that book is almost altogether ignored by many Christians today?
- What they had was the Spirit, which is called the Spirit of Christ in scripture that was abiding by them, living in them, and directing them.
- Absent a complete printed and agreed-upon New Testament this is what most Christians had for the first 1500 years of Christian history.
- It was only when the scripture as a whole became available to the masses that the bible - that the Bible - under Martin Luther's direction - to the place of the Spirit-leading believers.
- And what was his stance on what he called, Sola Scriptura giving the world of Christianity?
- Instant Denominations. Instant infighting. Instant wars.
- Sola scriptura, has never produced unity of the faith but has actually produced the opposite - disunity in the faith, even hatred! - over such small things as water baptism.
- In the face of all this division, which is a direct by-product of looking to the New Testament as our Law (writing on paper) we have lost what God gave his believers in the first 15000 years of the faith - his spirit - and the fruits of His spirit which is love.
- Love is the new commandment of the King. Not laws and doctrines printed on paper. They will be forever disputed and debated but true love for God and his SOn (and therefore each other) would never let disputes over doctrine and practice divide a people who claim to follow Jesus as King.
- There was a good reason God did not have a New TEstament complete and printed for believers of His early Church. He wanted them to abide in love and unity. He wanted them to be lovers, not lawyers. "Any fool can make a rule.", Any person on earth with a religious agenda can take the Bible and concoct another denomination.
- God wants unity. He wants all divisions over Him to stop and wants His radical followers to radically follow him in being peace makers and not to allow differences on disputable matters to reign in his true body.