Challenging claim 1 Whose word

The Bible comes before us, demanding to be heard as the word of God.

Saint Peter as Pope by Rubens

“Thus saith the Lord”, and phrases like it, are an integral part of the fabric of the Old Testament. To remove all those parts of scripture claiming Divine inspiration for themselves, or recognising it in others, would leave but little remaining. The Apostle Peter’s claim that the Jewish scriptures were produced when

“holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:21)

is either true or it is a pious fraud. But when we realise the extent to which the Lord Jesus Christ himself – not to mention his apostles – recognised that same Old Testament as the authoritative word of God, there ought to be no doubt that the attitude of a true follower of Christ should be the same.

“Have ye not read?”; “It is written”; “What saith the scripture?”

– these were favourite phrases of the Master when referring to the largest part of
what we now know as the Bible.

Significantly too, the Lord Jesus claimed no less of an inspired authority for his own words (see John 17:8); he promised his apostles that they too would be supernaturally guided by the Holy Spirit (John 14:26; 15:26,27; 16:13-15); and the early Bible Christians took it as a foundation doctrine that

“all scripture (both Old and New Testaments by then) is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable …” (2 Timothy 3:16).

Such a challenging claim by the Bible about itself leaves no middle way for our personal reaction to its message. We must either accept or reject it. For if the claim is false, then the Bible’s message is of no real value, and the Gospel of salvation it contains is but a figment of man’s imagination. But if the claim is true, then the Bible’s message commands obedience and its Gospel offers the true hope of life beyond the grave. The Bible’s claim is no academic exercise: it is a matter of life and death.

If there is a God who created the world, would He not be interested to follow what happened to His Creation? Doesn’t it make sense that he’d be interested in what goes on in the world? And if God is bigger and more powerful than all creation, and He intervenes with what happens in the world, wouldn’t people be dazzled by what He does? When things happened in history which do look incredible, would not many wonder Who is behind it? Fantastic events are possible. Miracles can happen. You can’t just disqualify them.

Some Bible books recite what God has done in people’s lives — like 1 and 2 Kings. Other books, like Isaiah, show God speaking directly to us through the voice of a prophet. Isaiah doesn’t just reflect on his personal experiences with God. He speaks for God, and God actually speaks through him.

The followers of Christ were pushed into an underground movement.  At first they could meet with the other Jews, and also assembled in the Jewish temples, but because too many gentiles joined the movement “The Way” they became excluded from the temple grounds and later the Christians couldn’t even hold public meetings until the 4th century.

Though already soon after the Comforter (the Holy Spirit) had made the apostles not afraid any more to go out in the world to preach the Gospel of the coming Kingdom of God, the apostles were confronted with false teachers. To warn their members they started edifying letters and told them what they should believe, what they could and what they should read. (This happened already before there was an “official” New Testament.)

Illumination of St. Mark – 11th century Trebizond Gospel (Russian State Museum, Saint Petersburg).

When we look at the historical credibility you could ask if one of the 12 disciples or the convert and letter writer Paul stood behind certain writings? Matthew was an apostle, and he was with Jesus, so his book holds a lot of weight. Mark (John Mark) wasn’t an direct disciple from the beginning, but was one of the Seventy Disciples sent out by Christ (Luke 10:1), as is confirmed by the list of Hippolytus. Mark could have been one of the servants at the Marriage at Cana who poured out the water that Jesus turned to wine (John 2:1–11). He had heard and seen enough about his fellow Jew Jeshua from Nazareth. As Cousin of Barnabas he served with him in Rome (2 Timothy 4:11), though some think the evangelist Mark could also be an other person than the one Paul mentioned explicitly in his letter to the Colossians (Colossians 4:10) but we know for sure that Mark the evangelist worked with Peter, and Peter was with Jesus; that’s why Mark’s book holds weight.

Many books claimed “apostolic connection,” but some of those claims — like the Gospel of Thomas — were fraudulent. Some critical scholars suspect that the reference to Didymos (Greek) Judas Thomas (Aramaic) the Apostle Thomas is false, and that therefore the true author is unknown. {April D. De Conick 2006 The Original Gospel of Thomas in Translation ISBN 0-567-04382-7 page 2} It belonged possibly to the proto-Gnostics. Unlike the canonical Gospels, it is not a narrative account of the life of Jesus. Instead, it consists of logia (sayings) attributed to Jesus, sometimes stand-alone, sometimes embedded in short dialogues or parables. The text contains a possible allusion to the death of Jesus in logion 65 {De Conick, April D., The Original Gospel of Thomas in Translation, 2006, p.214} (Parable of the Wicked Tenants, paralleled in the Synoptic Gospels), but doesn’t mention crucifixion, resurrection, or final judgement; nor does it mention a messianic understanding of Jesus. {Alister E. McGrath, 2006 Christian Theology ISBN 1-4051-5360-1 page 12 + James Dunn, John Rogerson 2003 Eerdmans Commentary on the Bible ISBN 0-8028-3711-5 page 1573} Bishop Eusebius included it among a group of books that he believed to be not only spurious, but “the fictions of heretics”. {Church History (Book III), Chapter 25:7 and Eusebius}

Nowhere in the Book of books, the Bible or Holy Scriptures, are there certain writings listed as the ones to be read and to believed in. At no place in the Holy Scriptures do we find a list of the books that are supposed to be in this so called Bible. Some may even think that nowhere in the Bible does it clearly tell us how to use the Bible, but for those we can say to have a closer look at the many texts.

Wise bishops in the early church examined the many writings which were produced and came known at the time by many. For those writings they checked who could be the author and what would have been his connection with the apostles and with Jesus himself. They also asked if that person, like for example Thomas could really be the author. An other point to be questioned was the relevance to its teachings and to the teachings of the first disciples of Christ Jesus. They also questioned if  the writing reflected the spiritual and theological commitments of the other books. With the Gospel of Thomas, the answer was “no” on both counts.

At the time when the Biblical writings were written people knew what had happened and how it had happened. The writings were not put together in secret and they were available to many, also non-believers and critics. The coming together of the Book of books was a very public process which took many centuries. People have been able to closely examine its claims all along, even to this day. And Christians welcome that kind of scrutiny, because we know our Bible can stand up to it.

At the time of the Nazarene Jew Jeshua (Jesus Christ) everything what was told about him, was seriously checked. Because he also was a person not liked by many, people could read the stories and would have reacted strongly against anything which was not conform to the eyewitnesses or to what really had happened. The life of Christ was evaluated, studied and examined by the people who had lived when Jesus lived, and could verify the accuracy of those stories.

Everybody can do historical research on the Bible to find out if it’s reliable.

Whilst the historicity can be proven it is more difficult for the inspirational matter. But historical and modern evidence that Biblical stories are true and haven’t been proven wrong is no basis for the Christian belief in an Inspired Bible.

Biblical inspriation (Photo credit: Nick in exsilio)

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Please find also:

1. Unsure about relevance Bible
2. The Bible: God’s Word or pious myth?
3. Bible, Word of God, inspired and infallible
4. Why believing the Bible
5. Inspired word
6. Did the Inspirator exist
7. Who Wrote the Bible?
8. Bringing Good News into the world
9. Pure Words and Testimonies full of Breath of the Most High
10. God, Creation and the Bible Hope
11. Power in the life of certain
12. Bible for you and for life
13. Appointed to be read
14. Bible a guide – Bijbel als gids
15. Scripture alone Sola Scriptora
16. Old and New Testament not discordant
17. The Bible is a today book
18. Bible like puddle of water
19. Of the many books Only the Bible can transform

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Additional reading:

1. Mark the cousin of Barnabas
2. Why Believe the Bible?
3. Why should we believe in the Bible?
4. Why Do We Believe the Bible Is the Word of God?
5. Why we believe the Bible to be the inspired Word of God
6. Why Do I Believe that the Bible is the Word of God?
7. Why believe the Bible?  Why Believe Bible.com
8. 10 Reasons to Believe In The Bible
9. How does archaeology support the Bible?
10. Has the Bible changed over time, or do we have what was originally written?
11. Are the gospel accounts of Jesus reliable?
12. Do historians confirm what the Bible says about Jesus?
13. Are there contradictions in the Bible?
14. How were the books of the New Testament determined? Why not the gospel of Judas?
15. Why did it take 30 to 60 years for the Gospels to be written?
16. Does it matter if Jesus really did and said what is in the Gospels?

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Preceding article: Miracles of revelation and of providence 2 Providence

Next: Challenging claim 2 Inspired by God

Dutch version / Nederlandse versie: Uitdagende vordering 1 Wiens Woord

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