where did the bible come from?

Answer 1

How the Word of God came to be written
OLD TESTAMENT
The authors of Hebrew Scriptures are not as identifiable as those of the New Testament. The Books arose in the midst of the law given by Moses and the prophets sent by God to the children of Israel. The first 5 books (The Law) were written by Moses almost entirely. The remainder of the Old Testament is composed of the prophets and writings in the Hebrew canon, whereas the English Bible includes the following categories: historical books, poetic books, and prophetic books. These books include such authors as Samuel, David, Joshua, Solomon, and the Major Prophets such as Isaiah, Jeremiah, and a number of lesser-known figures who wrote smaller books called the Minor Prophets. Each of these authors presents his words as being the Word Of God.

NEW TESTAMENT
The New Testament was written by apostles of Jesus Christ and companions of the Apostles, Letters were written to individuals, churches, or larger groups of persons either to conform the truth of Christianity, engender belief in Christ, Correct problems in the local churches, or argue against error. The Book of Revelation also seeks tp present God’s plan for the end of the age.

HOW THE INSPIRED WRITTINGS WERE PASSED DOWN
OLD TESTAMENT
The Old Testament was written between 1440 B.C. and approximately 400 B.C.
The Laws of Moses was maintained in the Hebrew community by the priests of the temple. Later books continued to be deposited with these leaders until the destruction of the temple and then found their way into the teaching community begun by Ezra and continued in the synagogues. Trained scribes copied biblical texts by hand until the modern printing press came into use. The copies of the Masoretes of the ninth century A.D. are very close to the recently discovered Dead Sea scrolls, which originated a thousand years earlier.

NEW TESTAMENT
The New Testament books were copied by local Christian communities and passed from one to another for decades before an entire collection was made. Since the early letters were written on papyrus, they wore out rapidly and required regular copying. In the early fourth century A.D., fifty copies of the entire Old and New Testament Greek Scriptures were made at the order of the first Christian emperor, Contantine. It is likely that the Vaticanus and Sinaticus codexes, two of the longest early manuscripts to survive, originated from this order.

WHAT IS THE CANON OF SCRIPTURE?
The word canon is a word used to indentify the writings of the prophets, the apostles, and their companions, which are inspired by God and authoritative for truth pertaining to doctrine and life. It means “rule” or “standard.” A book is not inspired because it is declared to be conocical but is considered inspired. Therefore, the church discovered the canonicity of the Old Testament books; it did not determine or cause their canonicity.

HOW THE CANON WAS DECIDED
The books accepted by the Jewish community originated over a period of approximately one thousand years. The first question regarding writing’s acceptance was whether the book was written by a prophet of God. Generally the book would have statements of “thus says the Lord,” or “the word of the Lord came.” Second, miraculous signs or accuracy of fulfillment served as confirmation of a prophet’s message. Third, the book had to be internally consistent with the revelation of God found in the teachings of other canonical books, especially what God gave through Moses.
The first question for the church to answer about a books inclusion in the canon accepted by Christians was whether it came through the apostles of the Lord or through persons under the guidance of an apostle, such as Luke. Second, the book had to come with the power of God and be effective for changing lives. Third, it must have been generally accepted by the people of God. This latter test refers first to the ones who received the book and next to the transmission in the church. Determination of the New Testament canon took place over a period of years, reaching its final form at Synod of Carthage in 397.

THE MANUCRIPTS OF THE BIBLE
Old Testament
Fragments of the Hebrew Scrptures number in the Tens of Thousands, the majority dating between the third century B.C. and the fourteenth century A.D. The greatest attestation to the Hebrew Old Testament is the manuscripts found in the Dead Sea Scrolls, which mostly date from the third century B. C. to the first Century A.D.

New Testament
Manuscript evidence for the New Testament is abundant. There are more than five thousand existing copies, many with New Testament books entirely or largely intact.
Also there are several older translations of the New Testament into languages like Syriac, Coptic, and Latin that survive in thousands of manuscripts. No work of antiquity even approaches the New Testament for authenticity.

Answer 2

From God. It was written by men but inspired by God. Other than that do a study on KJV. It will take you back to the chain bible, Geneivea Bible. These was some of the first bibles.I think KJV was 7 from the oldest bible.

Answer 3

It is a collection of 66 books written by over 40 different authors covering a span of 1500-2000 years written on three different continents in multiple languages by several races.

The books which form the Old Testament are also called the Torah, and are read by both Jews and Christians as sacred scriptures. The books were written and collect over several centuries, reaching the form that we know them in today around 450BC. Except for a couple of short sections near the end of the Old Testament which are in Arambic, the rest of the books are in Hebrew.

There are 39 books in the Old Testament. They include history books, laws, poetry, a couple love stories, wise sayings, prophecies, and more. They are a true library of works reflecting the culture and personalities of the different authors.

The New Testament was written entirely in Greek (the most common language of its day). It contains four accounts of the life of Christ (called the gospels), a history of the first generation of the church (Acts), thirteen "letters" written by the apostle Paul that explain Christian doctrince and theology, several additional letters by other early church leaders including two of Jesus' brothers, and the prophecies of the book of Revelation.

The New Testament books appeared between 48-95AD, and were widely circulated and known by 150AD. A complete New Testaments copied between 150 and 200AD still exist today. Fragments of over 2,300 other manuscripts from the first 200 years of the Christian faith still exist today. If every Bible were to disappear today, the entire NT could be recreated from quotes, commentaries, prayer books, rituals, inscripts, etc, from the first 200 years of the church.

The New Testament was officially placed in the form that we have it today around 325AD. However copies of complete New Testaments still exist that predate this council by as much as 175 years. Being a "banned" religion, this was the first time that they could "officially" meet to declare what books made up the NT.

The Bible would be translated into Latin in the 400's AD, which would be "the Bible" for most people until the protestant reformation of the early 1500s. Several translations came out of the time period, but the one that became "the Bible" was the King James version. It won, not because it was the "best" translation, but because it was the only major translation which did not include notes and commentaries. That made it usable by any church or denomination.

As the 20th century arrived, the KJ was showing its age. Some of the 17th century language had become difficult to understand. This resulted in a flurry of new Bibles translations. Some have special purposes (such as tranlations with simple wording and limited vocabulary for people who used english as their second language) or Bibles that followed the original languages word for word, even when the difference in grammar and sentence structure made no sense in English (remember Hebrew is read right to left - backwards). Some used British vocabulary and others American vocabulary to translate to English. Plus new manuscripts, but Bible and non-Bible, have increased our knowledge of the ancient languages, making for a more accurate translation.

If you compare the versions which are on sale today, you will find that they are the same in content, but vary in style.

Answer 4

According to Christians the Bible is a word of God - OT revealed on Moses and NT on Jesus!

Unfortunately the Moses and Jesus do not know the existing Torah and Bible since the original scriptures were long lost !

The present Torah & Bible are based on human memories and have been amended time to time hence cannot be termed as word of God. The contradiction in both the Books is evident - The Torah insists on Oneness of God (Ehad=one) whereas NT insists on three Gods.

I wonder how Jesus could preach 3 Gods in a Jewish nation? and claim divinity in his society?

The Bible came from the evil minds having personal benifits-who changed the original message of Jesus..

The Holy Quran speaks itself that it is the Word of God.
It was compiled during the life time of Muhammad(pbuh).
No amendment, No stories, only undenyable facts and realities.
It provides with the solutions of human unity with one God.

Answer 5

The many versions of the bible etc are all made from different printing company's, if that's what you mean...

However, the inerrant word within the binding and on the paper comes from God. And be it NIV, King James, THE MESSAGE, etc. the accounts were documented and left to give us a handbook of who God is, why Jesus came, how to live and have everlasting life!

Answer 6

Unlike Athena it did not spring full grown from the brow of Zeus.

Thru evolution man developed the ability to vocalize. Vocalization allowed
for story telling. The stories were made up to deal with mans fear of natural
phenomena by providing a sense of control. The stories were passed on
vocally ( oral history ). Now you gotta know the story content changed
with repeated retelling and the oral history with changes were incorporated into new stories compiled to comprise religious thought.
Now along with misinterpretations came deliberate alterations in a
congregations religious thoughts to suit that congregations perceived
needs & goals. Finally, someone with the wealth to pay for a scribe had
his preferred version written down.
and viola!... all that was then needed was the gullible multitude to accept
all of " THE TRUE WORD OF GOD " as gosip le
.

Answer 7

Many texts, written thousands of years ago, by many different people, compiled into one book. The bible you see today is nowhere near what it was as an original. Constantine went through and discarded over 600 texts that he didn't find 'suitable' for public reading. That public copy was then translated to another language, then another, then another .. until you come to the copies we have in circulation today.

However, the contradictions and errors were there from the beginning.

I always wonder why christians never ask themselves ... what parts of the bible did Contantine NOT want us to know badly enough to throw them away?

Answer 8

The Holy Bible is "God breathed" - totally inspired by God but penned by many men - by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

Answer 9

the Bible is the written record of Gods relationship with the nation of Israel and was written in great sacredness by those whom God had chose to do so,especially the writers of the Gospels.

Answer 10

Aside from the dogmatic speculation about who "inspired" it, nobody has a clue as to the origins of most of it. Even the Christians Gospels of the "New Testament" are of unknown authorship. (No, those names at the top are not necessarily the authors.)