The Bible:: Its Making, Reliability, and History

By Rev. Dr. Kunjumon Daniel

There's no available information at this time. Author will provide once information is available.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Aug 10, 2021
• ISBN: 9781664189164

Book preview

Copyright © 2021 by Rev. Dr. Kunjumon Daniel.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are from the Holy Bible, King James Version (Authorized Version). First published in 1611. Quoted from the KJV Classic Reference Bible, Copyright © 1983 by The Zondervan Corporation.

Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved. [Biblica]

Scripture quotations marked NRSV are taken from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, Copyright © 1989, by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Website

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Rev. date: 08/10/2021

Xlibris

844-714-8691

www.Xlibris.com

831490

CONTENTS

Abbreviations

Introduction

Chapter 1     The Bible: The Old Testament and the New Testament

A. Testament

B. The Writers of The Bible

C. Major Prophets

D. Minor Prophets

E. New Testament Writers

Chapter 2     The Preparation and Background of the Bible

A. Materials used for the Ancient Books.

B. Writing Instruments

C. Forms of Ancient Books

D. Ancient Scribes

E. The Background and the Preparation of the Gospels

F. Background and Preparation of the Acts of the Apostles

G. Background of the Epistles and Revelation.

Chapter 3     The Canon of the Bible

Chapter 4     The Bible in the Middle Ages and the History of the English Version

A. The Vulgate (The Latin Version of the Bible by Jerome)

B. The Bible into the Common Language: The History of the English Bible

a. William of Okham

b. John Wycliffe

c. Martin Luther

d. William Tyndale

C. The Story of the King James Version (KJV)

D. Revised Version (RV)

E. American Standard Version (ASV)

F. New International Version (NIV)

Chapter 5     History and Preservation of the Biblical Manuscripts and Its Reliability

A. Old Testament Text

B. The Great Synagogue to Preserve the Manuscripts

C. The Discovery of Qumran

a. The Amazing Discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls

b. The Value of the Scrolls

D. The Earliest Manuscripts of the Bible

E. The Septuagint Supports the Genuineness of the OT Scriptures

F. Reliability of the New Testament

G. The Scribes, Translators, Printers were not Inspired

H. The Church Fathers Support the Reliability of the New Testament

a. Tertullian

b. Irenaeus

c. Clement of Alexandria

I. Testimonies of the Apostolic Fathers

a. Clement of Rome

b. Polycarp, the Disciple of John, the Apostle.

c. Papias

Chapter 6     The Theology of the Bible

A. Dynamic Inspiration

B. Moral Inspiration

C. The Thought Inspiration

D. The Theory that the Bible Contains the Word of God

E. Mechanical Inspiration or Dictation Theory

F. Progressive Inspiration

G. The Biblical Doctrine of Inspiration

H. The Character and Claims of the Bible

I. A Supposed Error By Luke

J. The Human Element

K. Church Fathers and the Theologians About the Inspiration

Chapter 7     The Uniqueness of the Bible

A. How About Parallelism in Other Religious Writings?

B. The Bible is Unique in its Circulation

C. The Bible is unique in its Translation

D. The Bible is Unique in its Survival

Chapter 8     The Bible and Archeology

Chapter 9     Why Many Intelligent and Highly Educated People Disbelieve the Bible?

Chapter 10   The Word (Logos) Became a Human Being

A. Jesus the Eternal Word of God

B. The Old Testament Declared that Jesus is God

C. The New Testament Declares that Jesus is God

D. The Testimony of Jesus’ Enemies

E. The Testimony of Flavius Josephus About Jesus

F. The Testimony of Certain Prominent Men of History

Chapter 11   The Danger of Higher Criticism and Liberal Theology

Conclusion

Bibliography

Full Gospel Assembly of God

About the Author

Abbreviations

MSS - Manuscripts

OT- Old Testament

NT- New Testament

KJV. King James Version

NIV. New International Version

NRSV. New Revised Standard Version

Introduction

The purpose of this book is to give a background of the Bible to the new readers. The Book explains how it came into existence and survived over the years, How the Bible has influenced people throughout the history, and how it has changed their lives. Although God used men to write this book, God himself is the author of this book, and God breathed into it His very life.

We all might have read several books in our life time. Thousands of books are published every day on different topics. People are interested in history, biographies, fictions, novels, and love stories. If such books interest you, you will be interested to read the Bible, the greatest love story of God for the fallen man, the greatest mystery book, for it unveils the mystery of God’s plan for mankind. All books in the world are written by human authors. But the author of the Bible is God himself moving in human authors in different times and backgrounds to record accurately his will and plan for mankind. When we discover that God is the author of this book, we will put aside all other books and grab this particular book which originated from God.

In the bible you will find biology, science, sociology, geology, art, psychology, ethics and biography. But it is not a text book about these subjects. The bible is written for every one. The Bible is written by a wise God, and the wise will read it and get the direction for their life. This book is the road map for our life and our eternal destiny. God has left two Bibles for us. The universe is the first Bible God has left for us to read. Psalms 19 says that the heavens declare the glory of God. The second Bible is the special revelation, that is the Scriptures.

The Bible originated from God and it is communicated to men without error, and it is marvellously preserved for the following generations. Even in an advanced scientific age as ours, the Bible does not contradict the truths of nature, history, or human existence.

During the last several generations the Bible has been scrutinized by both Christians, and critics alike. If the Bible is true, it must stand the test of scrutiny; it sure did. There are thousands of prophecies in the Bible, and not one of them failed. The archeologists unearthed thousands of Bible lands, and every one of their discoveries supported the accounts of the Bible history. Thousands of bible MSS (hand written copies) survived the years and they all are in harmony in its basic doctrines and messages.

Millions have laid down their lives for the Bible. Man-eaters, drunkards, abusers, prostitutes, thieves, and atheists have been transformed by its message. The river of God’s love is flowing through this book for generations. The scarlet thread of redemption runs through all the pages of the Bible.

The Holy Scriptures are the revelation of God himself and his will for mankind and it is the standard by which God will judge every man and woman. God’s mind, being infinite, is impenetrable by finite beings.¹ So unless God reveals himself to us, who are finite beings, we have no way of knowing him. The Bible is God’s revelation of himself. Bible is also the story of man, his fall, and redemption. Bible says that the Scriptures are God-breathed (2Timothy 3:16), and it is the same breath that breathed life in Adam, and therefore the Scripture has the life-giving power to regenerate us and transform us.

We believe that the original autograph (original copy) of the scripture was inspired by God and the Holy Spirit helped the writers to record it for the following generations. Although the original autographs were lost,² there are thousands of copies preserved. Since it is written thousands of years ago in Hebrew or Greek or Aramaic and in a different culture, the modern man strives to understand what a particular Text meant when it was written and then try to apply its principle to our lives. For this, one need to study the ancient culture and language the scripture was written. This is textual criticism is all about. This is true about all the ancient literatures, the originals are no longer available.

The Bible is the story of mankind, their fall, the consequence of their sin, and God’s love for man and His redemptive plan through Jesus’ coming and his perfect sacrifice to forgive our sin. As Steve Green and Jackie Green in their recently published book This Dangerous Book state, if we take the bible as a story, we don’t pick and choose what we want, cutting out snippets for our own personal needs. Stories demand our entire attention and require us to read them in full, or we may miss an important detail. We must seek to understand the lesson it is trying to teach.³

The bible is for the truth seekers. It is a mirror that reveals our real condition, and provides us the spiritual provision to cleanse ourselves and make us holy so that we can have a relationship to a holy God. Jesus said: ye shall know the truth and the truth will make you free (John 8:32). Satan has kept mankind under falsehood and erroneous teachings and ignorance for generations. As John the apostle wrote in his Gospel: "In him (Jesus) was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it (John 1:4,5 NRSV). God has given a general revelation of himself through his creation (Romans 1:20), and the revelation through Jesus Christ is the special revelation. Jesus said, nobody has ever seen the Father, except the Son who was in the bosom of the Father (John 1:18). He further said those who have seen me has seen the Father (John 14:9).

Dear reader, after you read this small book you can never overlook the Bible, the Book of books. This book is the outcome of several years of research and prayerful study. I owe to great works of men like Henry Morris, Josh McDowell, Harry Rimmer, John R. Rice and many others. Also I gratefully acknowledge the patience and co-operation of my wife Lilly, as I engaged several hours in the writing and production of this book. She has been my faithful partner for the last 40 years. Some portions of this book have been published in the Good News (New York), Paradeshi (Philadelphia) and The Good News Weekly (Kottayam). May God reward everyone who prayed and supported for the production of this work. Especially I cannot forget my teachers and mentors over the years. Thanks to Dr. Lyman Kulathungam for going through the manuscript and giving many valuable suggestions. I believe this will be an answer to the doubters, and a good resource for the seekers, and the gospel workers.. I dedicate this humble effort for the glory of God and for the salvation and edification of many.

Rev. Dr. Kunjumon Daniel. Toronto, 2018

Chapter 1

The Bible: The Old Testament

and the New Testament

Before we explore the reliability of the biblical Text and its transmission, let us examine the terms Bible, Old Testament and New Testament. The term Bible comes from the Greek word "biblos which means book. The Bible is a collection of 66 books written by various authors who lived in the span of 1600 years starting from the time of Moses (B.C. 1491) to Apostle John (A.D. 96). God’s Law was first written upon nature. The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands (Psalms 19:1 NIV). ...even though they (the Gentiles or Non-Jews) do not have the Law... the requirements of the Law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness.. (Romans 2:14,15 NIV). God himself wrote the fundamental principles of the Law upon the tablets of stone. Later the entire scriptures with all God’s Laws were given. For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope (Romans 15:4 NIV). In due time Jesus appeared as the perfect embodiment of the truth which He illustrated in His own sinless life. The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the One and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth (John 1:14 NIV). It was the divine purpose that the Law, at last, should be written in the hearts of men (Hebrews 8:10), and the final publication of its precepts be found in their outward lives. You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everybody. You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets