This week we continue our “Questions That Matter” series with a query from Joey, age 8:
“How many people wrote the Bible? And why are some stories repeated?”
This is a profound question of critical analysis! I sat in classrooms in seminary with graduate students who had never thought to ask questions like this about the Bible.
It’s also not that easy to answer, unless we say, “Well, we don’t exactly know!”. What we know today as “The Bible” has gone through many permutations, translations, canonical versions, and committees throughout history, and what we know today as individual “books” of the Bible were likely written by more than one person and then added to over time. One well-established example of this is in the Gospel of Mark, which has three distinct endings (like a letter with a couple of postscripts)!
The Bible is nothing so much as it is a rich tapestry of human experience of God and of itself, and the relationship between the two. And like most things in life, what we bring to the reading and study of Scripture affects what we take from it.
Get ready for a “crash course” in the history of the Bible, this Sunday or whenever you’re able to join us online!
1 Peter 1:13-25 (CEB)
13 Therefore, once you have your minds ready for action and you are thinking clearly, place your hope completely on the grace that will be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed. 14 Don’t be conformed to your former desires, those that shaped you when you were ignorant. But, as obedient children, 15 you must be holy in every aspect of your lives, just as the one who called you is holy. 16 It is written, You will be holy, because I am holy. 17 Since you call upon a Father who judges all people according to their actions without favoritism, you should conduct yourselves with reverence during the time of your dwelling in a strange land. 18 Live in this way, knowing that you were not liberated by perishable things like silver or gold from the empty lifestyle you inherited from your ancestors. 19 Instead, you were liberated by the precious blood of Christ, like that of a flawless, spotless lamb. 20 Christ was chosen before the creation of the world, but was only revealed at the end of time. This was done for you, 21 who through Christ are faithful to the God who raised him from the dead and gave him glory. So now, your faith and hope should rest in God.
22 As you set yourselves apart by your obedience to the truth so that you might have genuine affection for your fellow believers, love each other deeply and earnestly. 23 Do this because you have been given new birth—not from the type of seed that decays but from seed that doesn’t. This seed is God’s life-giving and enduring word. 24 Thus,
“All human life on the earth is like grass,
and all human glory is like a flower in a field.
The grass dries up and its flower falls off,
25 but the Lord’s word endures forever.“This is the word that was proclaimed to you as good news.
Consider these questions:
- Have you ever wondered about how the Bible came to be? Has your understanding of it developed over your lifetime?
- How do you read the Bible? As a history? An ethnography? A scientific document? A love letter?
- What questions do you have about the Bible?