The Bible: Historical Friday

As we kick off our weekly discussions about the impact of historical theology, I thought it was appropriate to start with the Bible. No matter what strand of Christianity you come from, all of them look to the Bible as a source of authority. Most of the disagreements we have amongst ourselves, when it isn't over selfish reasons, come from different interpretations of the Bible.

The Bible is the best selling book in the world by a wide margin. This book has been dissected, attacked, and studied like no other; yet it still holds up and changes lives. Governments across the world fear their people getting their hands on this book. Clearly it is extremely important to the Christian faith.

Even though it is so important, many of us probably have never asked where it came from. The Bible didn't magically appear out of thin air one day. In fact it was assembled over a period of 1500 years. The Bible, like many other things in our churches, is the product of history.

Some Misconceptions

First things first; I want to clear up some commonly held misconceptions about how the Bible came together. Many people believe, including a large number of Christians, that the Bible was assembled sometime around 400 AD at a council held by the Roman Catholic Church. Here the Catholics had heated debates about which books should be included in the Christian scriptures. Many of the books on the table didn't make the cut, and so the Bible was born. 

This is a very popular belief that is furthered by films like The Da Vinci Code and television programs that like to talk about the lost books of the Bible. In truth the process was a lot more subtle than a big council that proclaimed the books of the Bible. It should also be noted that this largely has to do with the New Testament books. The Old Testament was pretty much set before the time of Jesus by the rabbis of Judaism and was used as Scripture by the New Testament writers.

So How Did It Happen?

The books of the New Testament spread quickly after they were written. While some did spread faster than others, by the second century the various churches all recognized the 27 books we have today. This means that they were used as Scripture alongside the Old Testament. This is how we got our Bible.

Now you may be wondering how the idea of a council making the Bible came to be if in fact it actually happened just as I described. This is because a council did in fact come up with a document showing what books were in the Bible. However there is an important distinction that needs to be made between what people think happened and what really happened; the council didn't choose the books, they merely recognized which ones were already being used. 

Why? Well there were two groups that emerged that made churches recognize that they needed to all be on the same page when it came to the Bible. The first group called the Marcionites, so named because they followed a man named Marcion, was very anti-Jewish. Marcion's version of the Bible cut out the Old Testament entirely and only kept Luke and Paul's letters that he edited to ensure no favorable talk of Judaism could be found. 

The other group that emerged later was called the Montanists, so called because their founder was a man named Montanus. Montanus believed that the Bible wasn't closed. In fact he believed that the Holy Spirit spoke through him and that what he said had equal weight to Scripture. Both of these groups were trying to twist the Scriptures to suit their agendas. 

Now both of these groups led the rest of the churches to make an official list of the books of the Bible so people would know what was true. This list is the list we use today. The Christians of that time simply recognized which books God had already given to them. They wanted to ensure that other Christians wouldn't be led astray by either of these two groups.

Conclusion

The process of how we got our Bible is actually a lot simpler than most would have us believe, and many of those theories about the Bible are really from a misunderstanding of what actually happened. The Bible came together relatively smoothly. There weren't massive debates about which books should be in or out, and the Catholic Church didn't conspire to have the Bible carry forward their agenda (in fact the Catholic Church as we think of it didn't exist for several more centuries!) 

What we do see is that the Holy Spirit wasn't simply involved in the writing of the Bible, but also how it all came together. He guided the process of piecing the Bible together book by book. I believe that there is a reason we have the 66 books we have in our Bible, and that reason is that it is the will of God.

I hope today's post was educational and insightful. I know that there was a lot to digest and a lot of information thrown out, but I believe it to be important. The churches of old simply recognized the 66 books that God had given them in the Bible. Today, every time we open our Bibles be at home or as a community, we also simply recognize the 66 books that God has given us.