Christians.Have I got this right?

Question

Firstly please do not view this an attack on your beliefs.I just want to know if I have this correct.
The Bible is the basis of your religion
It was written when? - Nobody knows for sure
It was written by? - Nobody knows for sure
The central character (I don't mean to offend,I couldn't think of a better terminology) after God is Jesus Christ.
He was born when? - Nobody knows for sure
He was crucified when? - Nobody knows for sure
Please correct me if I am wrong.
Thank you in advance for answering

Thank you for that Christian attitude Father K.
In fact my question is based upon answers given by Christians to earlier questions I have asked

Answer 1

If I am a Christian at all, I'm definitely not a typical Christian. I think I can say I'm a "Christian" insofar as Christian means "follower of Christ" and I do love Christ and accept his teachings (at least the ones I regard as authentically from him).

So, my answers won't be typical, but.....

1. The Bible is not the basis of my religion. The Bible is itself based on something else, which is, in my opinion, a mix of true revelation from God, and the corruption of mankind. The basis of my religion is a more personal, direct encounter with God, which happens to be the same thing that inspired those true verses of the Bible.

2. The Bible was written over several hundreds of years. The earliest passages may go back to oral traditions which are thousands of years old. The majority of the Old Testament was probably written in the 6th century BCE, to the 1st century BCE (with Daniel being the latest written). Scholars have pretty good ideas about when various parts of the Bible were written.

3. Most of the time, we cannot say who wrote a particular book of the Bible. One notable exception is the works of Paul -- the ones which we know to be authentic Paul. Obviously, Paul wrote those, and we also know who he wrote them to, and why.
The Gospels are most likely NOT written by the authors that were later attached to them ("Matthew", "Mark," etc). But I wonder why it is so important to have a name. Whether their name was "Luke" or "Jikareqobab" we still can know the same amount about them, based on their writing. So even though, no, we don't have names for most of them, we CAN know a substantial amount about them. And scholars do.
In the case of the Hebrew Bible, we know at least that the author of a particular passage must have come from a particular school of thought. Some of the Prophets may have actually been written by the prophet it is named after, or by a secretary closely associated with them. In any case, no matter who wrote it, we know what it says.

The central character of the Christian Bible is definitely Jesus Christ (besides God). The Hebrew Bible does not have a central character, but a central people, Israel. And really, depending upon how you understand who Jesus was and what his mission is, it could be said that Israel is the central "character" even of the entire Bible.

We do know when Jesus was born within a few years. It's not like we can't even guess the century. He was probably born somewhere between 6 and 4 BCE.

He was crucified when he was a young man in his early 30's. Usually 33 is suggested. What year that was will depend, of course, on the date of his birth.

I'm not sure I understand the point (if there is one) of your question. But reputable scholars today do acknowledge that Jesus was an actual historical figure, who at least said and did some of the things attributed to him in the Bible. Careful scholarly analysis sheds light on which things we can be certain about, and which ones not. There IS enough to base a faith on.

Answer 2

The Bible was written over a period of 1000's of years -with precisely related oral traditions before that- by several different authors from various backgrounds; from kings to fishermen to a Pharisee to a physician. Yet the Bible, as you yourself noticed, still has a central theme -Jesus Christ. Secular records and the Bible place Christ's birth during the reign of Cesar Augustus and King Herod the Great. If you read the Gospels of Luke and Matthew you will get an even more precise time line for His birth. There are no questions as to the authors of the various books of the Bible because they identify themselves -except perhaps the book of Hebrews. It's a well known fact that Jesus Christ was crucified in 33 AD, verified by secular history. The oldest book in the Bible is the book of Job, written about 3000 or 4,000 years ago. The youngest book is Revelations, written before 90 AD. The Gospels were all written -again, verified- between 35 AD and 70 AD, at a time when there were several around who could"ve -and would've- disputed anything that was incorrect. No disputes were made because they were all accurate writings. Those few books where the author isn't named, the authors were confirmed by the apostles and the early church.

Answer 3

The Bible was written

The Bible was not written in one specific year or in a single location. The Bible is a collection of writings, and the earliest ones were set down nearly 3500 years ago. So let's start at the beginning of this fascinating story.

The first five books of the Bible are attributed to Moses and are commonly called the Pentateuch (literally "five scrolls").

Moses lived between 1500 and 1300 BC, though he recounts events in the first eleven chapters of the Bible that occurred long before his time (such as the creation and the flood).

These earliest accounts were handed on from generation to generation in songs, narratives, and poetry.

In those early societies there was no writing as yet and people passed on these oral accounts with great detail and accuracy.

The earliest writing began when symbols were scratched or pressed on clay tablets. The Egyptians refined this technique and developed an early form of writing known as hieroglyphics. The Bible tells us that Moses was "educated in all the learning of the Egyptians", so he would have been familiar with the major writing systems of his time. We also read that God gave Moses "two tablets of the Testimony, the tablets of stone inscribed by the finger of God"(Exodus 31:18). All this leads to the conclusion that the earliest writings in the Bible were set down around 1400 BC.

The writings of the thirty or so other contributors to the Old Testament span a thousand years! They recount the times and messages from Moses' successor, Joshua, to the last of the Old Testament prophets, Malachi, who wrote his little tract around 450 BC.

Then there is a 500-year period when no writings were contributed to the Bible. This is the period between the testaments, when Alexander the Great conquered much of the world and when the Greek language was introduced to the Hebrews. Indeed, they began to use Greek so much that the Hebrew language was replaced by Greek and by another language, Aramaic, which was spoken all over that area of the world at that time.

The New Testament was written during a much shorter period, i.e. during the last half of the first century AD.

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It was the coming of the Messiah, Jesus Christ, which ignited the flame that produced the New Testament, as the new faith swept across the Near East and then westward to Greece and on to Rome.
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Half of the New Testament books were contributed by one man, the Apostle Paul, in the epistles he sent to groups of new Christians and to his assistants Timothy and Titus.
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The Bible closes with a majestic book of visions and dramatic views of the future. It was penned by the aged Apostle John around 95 AD and describes the new heaven and the new earth when God's kingdom will embrace the universe and all rebellion and death will be a thing of the past.

In looking at all these dates, the important thing to remember is that when the Bible was written is not as important as what was written. However, the when is important also as we sense how God's presence persisted through the centuries and gave us "in the fullness of time" the full-orbed revelation of salvation and hope through his son Jesus Christ.
It was written by several men, Most of the books say who the author is within the book itself. One or two have unknown authors but because of writing style etc it is assumed we may know who they are.
The caledar we use today was created around Christs birth, so that means about 2007 years ago He was born
They know EXACTLY when He was crucified, it was the first sunday after the first full moon of the spring solstice during the reign of a certain king. this is known because it was passover
Any other questions I can help you with.
Ruth

Answer 4

No, you do not.
The Bible is the basis of your religion
Yes, that's true.
It was written when? - Nobody knows for sure
No, it was written over a course of 1500 years. I have a Bible that tells who wrote each book and when.
It was written by? - Nobody knows for sure
See above. The Bible had many different writers, and we know who wrote most of the books.
The central character (I don't mean to offend,I couldn't think of a better terminology) after God is Jesus Christ.
That's true.
He was born when? - Nobody knows for sure
That's true, to an extent. Records weren't kept as well back then. However, because of events surrounding His birth (Herrod, the slaughtering of infants, et cetera), the year can be pinpointed approximately.
He was crucified when? - Nobody knows for sure
The exact year is unknown, however, there are records that corroborate His age at the time: Thirty-three.

Answer 5

The Bible was written over a period of 1500 years, beginning with about 1500 AD, with the Law of Moses.

Most writers of the 66 books are identified. All in the New Testament have been identified. It was completed by 80-95 AD. The various books were held as sacred by the various churches scattered throughout the Roman Empire. They were brought together in one book by ca. 400 AD. However, that does not negate their prior existence, use and sacredness.

Central character is Jesus. He said, "All that is written in the Law, the Prophets and the Psalms concerning me must be fulfilled (see Luke 24).

Jesus was born prior to the death of Herod the Great, who died in 4 BC. Jesus died in approximately 29 AD. It was in the Spring because is was on the Jewish Passover.

Hope this helps you. By the way, there's lots of mis-information out there, passed on by non-scholars...scoffers looking for a way to discredit the Bible. It's been that way for 2,000 years now. It's still the very best seller in history!

Answer 6

We do know who most of the Bible was written by. If we don't know for sure about a specific part of the Bible, we have a very good idea based on context.

The Bible is split into 66 books. Each book was written at a different time. We do have very specific time frames (some exact) that point to when the books were written. Many are based on historical things the authors talk about in their book.

We know Jesus was born around 0 AD. Many experts think it was a few years later (like 3 or 4 AD). We know this based on passages about Jesus birth in Luke 2. They talk about who was in charge and how he ordered a census of the entire Roman world. It also mentions it was the first census while he was governor.

We know he was crucified at age 33.

If you are truely interested in learning about this, I suggest you read "The Origin of the Bible"

I apologize on behalf of immature Christians responding to your post. Thanks for asking the questions and wanting to know the truth.

Answer 7

OK with the whole God and Jesus Christ are the same exact person since we say God the Father God the SOn and God the Holy Spirit. All we kno as for when the bible was written is before and after Jesus died. All the prophets and apostles wrote the Bible.We kno that Jesus was not actually born on Chrsitmas day it more like October or September but when the Wise Men ( which was more that 3 more like hindreds ) got there it was the 25th of December.When Christ was crucified it was 3 days before Easter since Easter iss the Dya he ressurected. Yes the Bible is mainly the Base of our religion thats wat we use when someone askes about wat we belive we use scripture.

Answer 8

I'm afraid you are mistaken in several assumptions.
We know the authors for most of the books, as well as approximate dates. (the book of Job is the only mystery). The central character, as you say, is Jesus Christ. He was born in 6 BC (the early Christian calendar was slightly miscalculated, but we could expect that in the middle ages. A 6-year error, considering what they had, is actually pretty good). He was crucified at the age of 33. That would be in the year 27 ad. There are non-Christian writings to back that one up.
Historically, we have more certainty about the life of Jesus than about the life of Napoleon Bonaparte. I mean in regards to sure documents of the time.

Answer 9

1513 bce ( before common era) to 98 c.e. or a.d.

40 different writers beginning with Moses for the first 5 books and ending with the apostle John ( who also wrote 5 books including a gospel, 3 letters and Revelation)

around 2 b.c.e.

around 33 c.e. or a.d.

It may be argued that these facts aren't known, but Bible chronology along with major historic events helps us to date certain things such as when Babylon was conquered by the Persians in 539 b.c.e and when Rome sacked Jerusalem in 70 c.e.

Answer 10

Who gave you this false info? The old Testament was about 1500BC and the last of the new testament 95AD. The Holy Spirit moved upon men of old to write the old testaments, such as Moses. There were a variety of writers of the new, like Paul. Jesus was born about 2to 4 BC. He was crucified 30 to 32 AD.