How can I find out about the history of the Bible?

Question

I mean, not understanding the Bible itself, but how the Bible came to be the Bible? Who wrote it? Who decided what should be in it and what shouldn't be? How many times has it been translated? How faithful are those translations to the original texts?

Can you recommend a good site?

Answer 1

Archaeological Evidence Substantiates Bible

Archaeological evidence substantiates many Biblical accounts. To quote Millar Burrows of Yale. "...archaeological work has unquestionably strengthened confidence in the reliability of the scriptural record. More than one archaeologist has found his respect for the Bible increased by the experience of excavation in Palestine." Nelson Glueck, reformed Jewish scholar notes: "It is worth emphasizing that in all this work no archaeological discovery has ever controverted a single, properly understood Biblical statement."

Archaeological discoveries have proved the accuracy of Bible accounts that had long been considered inaccurate by scholars who had insufficient information. Because of Luke's detailed descriptions of historical events, some of his writings -- and thus the credibility of the entire New Testament -- had been in dispute for over a century by Bible scholars who didn't believe the details supplied by Luke were accurate. Bible scholars thought that Luke's writings were a fraud, written in the second century by someone who didn't know the history or geography of the time. For example, in Acts 14:6, Luke relates that Paul and Barnabas fled from Iconium to the cities of Lyconium. Bible scholars had believed that Iconium was located in the province of Lyconium -- thus the statement made no sense. It would be like saying someone fled from Miami to Florida. An inscription was later found that proved that when Paul and Barnabas fled from Iconium, the city was part of the province of Phrygia, proving Luke's writing was correct.
Bible critics also believed that the circumstances of Jesus' birth were concocted to fulfill the prophecy in Micah that states the Messiah was to be born in Bethlehem. They doubted that there had been a census (Luke 2:1-3) which caused Joseph and Mary to travel to Bethlehem. A Roman edict was later discovered in Egypt, which stated: "The enrollment by household being at hand, it is necessary to notify all who for any cause so ever are outside of their administrative districts that they return at once to their homes to carry out the customary enrollment..." Other discovered documents confirmed that this census was taken every fourteen years.

Some examples of archaeological evidence supporting Biblical accounts are shown in Table 3. For many more examples of archeological finds substantiating Biblical accounts including geography, rulers, conflicts, and more, see the references at the end of this article.

Luke had stated that Quirinius was the Governor of Syria at the time of Jesus' birth, however secular records showed that Saturninus was the governor at that time. An inscription was later found in Antioch which showed that Quirinius indeed was governor of Syria at the time.
Pontius Pilate's historical authenticity was in doubt until 1961, when an inscription was found "Pontius Pilate, Prefect of Judea, has presented the Tiberium to the Caesareans", thus proving his existence.

An interesting archaeological discovery appears to document a Roman governor's reaction to the resurrection of the dead. Matthew 28:11-15 describes the reaction of the chief priests and elders when the guards around Jesus' tomb told them about the resurrection: "When the chief priests had met with the elders and devised a plan, they gave the soldiers a large sum of money, telling them, "You are to say, 'His disciples came during the night and stole him away while we were asleep.' If this report gets to the governor, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble." The governor must have heard the report and it must have upset him, because he issued a decree instituting capital punishment for the crime of violation of sepulcher, a crime which had never previously had such a severe penalty. A white marble slab inscribed with this decree was found in Nazareth in 1878. Its inscription appears in Table 4.

The possibility of grave robbers stealing Jesus' body is highly unlikely. A Roman guard was one of the greatest, strictly disciplined fighting units. A Roman security guard would never fall asleep, as the penalty was death. They rotated shifts every four hours to ensure top performance of duty. It is reasonable to conclude that the Roman guards came to the chief priests out of desperation following Jesus' resurrection. They feared for their lives and they knew that the chief priests would have influence on Roman authorities.

Bible's Uniqueness Points to God

Imagine a book written by more than forty authors, each with different levels of education, social position, and age. Then imagine that these authors used three different languages to write this book. Assume that at the time they wrote it, some of them were in a situation of war, some were at peace, some were imprisoned, some were living in splendor, others in poverty. In addition, imagine that the authors of this book lived at different times during a 1,500 year time span. What do you suppose the result of this writing would be?

The Bible was written under these conditions. Its contents describe hundreds of controversial topics and are of a variety of literary types, yet there is a unity in the writing that binds it together: the theme of God's redemption of man. The Bible is philosophically consistent. The conditions of its writing and the resulting unity of the text speak of a supernatural direction, the Holy Spirit, directing chosen men who authored the Bible. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. -- 2 Timothy 3:16.

The Bible is also unique in its content. The Bible's perspective of the universe, man's existence and man's origin is described from an external observation point outside of the created dimension, which is unique in religious works. John 1:3, Colossians 1:16-17 and Hebrews 7:3 speak of God being above time and space. Job 26:7 speaks of God suspending the earth in space: "he suspends the earth over nothing", something that until modern times required an external viewpoint to comprehend. The Bible alone among religious works clearly states that time had a beginning. In Genesis 1:1 "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth."

Prophecies described in the Bible were accurately fulfilled centuries later. No other religious writings have such accuracy of prophecy fulfilled. Scientific facts in the Bible are accurate far beyond human knowledge of science at the time they were written. Scientific facts in other religious writings are no where near as accurate. The Bible is historically accurate as well. Archaeological discoveries substantiate Bible accounts.


Unmatched Fulfillment of Prophecies

The Bible stands alone among literature. Prophecies written hundreds of years before an event have been fulfilled with 100% accuracy. There are approximately 2500 prophecies in the Bible, 2000 of which already have been completely fulfilled -- the remaining 500 speak of future events.

The chance of any one man fulfilling just eight prophecies has been calculated by Peter W. Stoner in Science Speaks at 1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000 -- yet 60 major Old Testament prophecies, having 270 ramifications were fulfilled by the life of Jesus. An example of the precisely fulfilled prophecies include the place of His birth, Bethlehem (prophesied in Micah 5:2, fulfilled in Luke 2:4-7); that He would be born of a virgin (prophesied in Isaiah 4:17, fulfilled in Luke 1:26-31); that He would be despised and rejected by Jews (prophesied in Isaiah 53:3, fulfilled in John 1:1, Luke 23:18); that He would be betrayed by a friend (Judas) for thirty pieces of silver cast on the floor of the Temple and used to buy a potter's field (prophesied in Zechariah 11:11-13, fulfilled in Matthew 27:3-10).

Fulfilled prophecy extends to the present day -- consider the people of Israel. In Genesis 12:2,3 and 13:13-15, God promised Abraham a great nation, a great name and a land that will belong to his descendants forever and through Abraham, that all families of the earth will be blessed. At the time, Abraham was 75 years old and his wife was barren. The prophecy was fulfilled when Abraham was 90 years old (Genesis 21:2) when his wife Sarah miraculously bore him a son. Over the next several hundred years, the nation promised to Abraham appeared (Exodus 1:7).
Later, through Moses (Deut. 28-33), God warned Israel that He will use other nations to remove them from their land if they are unfaithful to Him. He predicted that they would eventually be scattered across the whole earth and would find no rest. He also promised to bring them back to their land. Israel was unfaithful. King Nebuchadnezzar took people captive to Babylon, then burned the city and the Temple. God then allowed the Israelites to return to the land (Ezra 1). Later, in AD 70, Titus the Roman also destroyed the city of Jerusalem, scattering the people. In AD 1948, Israel became a nation and the people began to return to their homeland. They have since survived several conflicts. We think of the United States as having a long history, yet it has been in existence for only 200 years. Israel has been a people for more than 4,000 years.

2 Peter 1:20-21 describes how Bible prophecy can be so accurate: "Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit."

Being a Hebrew prophet in ancient times was a serious and unenviable position. The prophet was purporting to speak for God and the penalty for any error was death. "But a prophet who presumes to speak in my name anything I have not commanded him to say, or a prophet who speaks in the name of other gods, must be put to death." -- Deut. 18:20. Prophets had to be 100% accurate. Deuteronomy 18:21-22 gives a test to determine whether the prophet is speaking for God: "You may say to yourselves, "How can we know when a message has not been spoken by the LORD?" If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the LORD does not take place or come true, that is a message the LORD has not spoken. That prophet has spoken presumptuously."

Table 1 illustrates just a few fulfilled prophecies whose precise fulfillment attests to the Bible as the accurate Word of God.



http://www.returntogod.com

click on "can we trust scripture?" on the left.

Answer 2

Something interesting about the old testament I think relating the new testament, is the fact that much of the stories in the bible got exaggerated over the years. as the stories were handed down it was in the best interests of the rulers at that time to inflate the truth with exaggerations; here is an example.

"The author Israel Finkelstein says Abraham, the Patriarchs, Moses, Exodus, and that the monarchies of David or Solomon were much smaller than the Bible implies.

The authors, Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman, argue that it is impossible to say much of anything about ancient Israel until the 7th century BC, around the time of the reign of King Josiah and that the Bible might have been created at that time to further the religious reform and territorial ambitions of the Kingdom of Judah."

It is almost impossible to get a real grasp on the places or the peoples in the bible, even Jesus. The truth has been distorted too much now. All that we have is opinion, just pick the opinion that you're most comfortable with and there's your religion; no questions asked.

Answer 3

Finding the true, absolute correct, history of the Bible is difficult because it has been changed and rewritten, both the Bible and its history, over time.

There are people who would rather you not question the origins of the Bible, but even, actually especially, if you are a deep believer in what the Bible is saying you should learn where it came from.

Places like the history channel are good refrences, but there may be many questions you cannot answer simply through research.

Answer 4

Even for those who don't believe in God, the bible is a great history record. Things like the dead sea scrolls prove the it is translated accurately. Many archeologist use the bible as an accurate record of ancient history of babylon, eygyt, etc. Any scholar studying ancient history is aware of this. There are many other gospels and books that were not included but are available for study.

Answer 5

I would echo what Hayden said. I've been to the wiki section on the history of the bible. It's not too involved but gives you a nice overview.

It's important to know how the book came to be and I'm happy to see people are interested in it too! Check out the councils of Nicea (two of em) and then read about the King James Version that everyone is so hot over. Very enlightening.

A lot of people on here are spamming you with, what is various sites that prosletize you to their religion. I'd go with wiki. They are unbiased and not selling their version of god.

Answer 6

It exhibits that the Bible has many sections that have been written later than that section's narrator is meant to have lived. It exhibits that the Bible incorporates a mixture of tangible places and activities and fictional ones (i.e. parables, etc.). Why do Christians might desire to spoil the Bible by asserting to verify that us to take it heavily it ought to be the infallible understand God? i'm an atheist and that i appreciate the Bible as a artwork of information and historic anecdotes. now and lower back i think of Christians inspect the Bible as an idol. God exists or does not exist despite if the Bible is precise background or not. stop being so damned insecure and advance up and enable your concept device mature slightly. maximum theologians who're Christian have not got any situation with the Bible's blunders peculiarities. It does not lead them to lose faith (not all of 'em...). So manage the info or you're in undemanding terms a enthusiast. stop ruining Christianity for something of Christians with the adulthood to settle for the realities (?) of their faith. those of you obesessed with Biblical inerrancy might desire to truly only recover from it.

Answer 7

The Bible's accuracy and reliability have been proved and verified over and over again by archaeological finds produced by both believing and nonbelieving scholars and scientists. This included verification for numerous customs, places, names, and events mentioned in the Bible.
One among many examples is the fact that for many years the existence of the Hittites (a powerful people who lived during the time of Abraham) was questioned because no archaeological digs had uncovered anything about them. Critics claimed the Hittites were pure myth. But today the critics are silenced. Abundant archaeological evidence for the existence of the Hittites during the time of Abraham has been uncovered.
Bible scholar Donald J. Wiseman notes, "The geography of Bible lands and visible remains of antiquity were gradually recorded until today more than 23,000 sites within this region and dating to Old Testament times, in their broadest sense, have been located." Nelson Glueck, a specialist in ancient literature, did an exhaustive study and concluded: "It can be stated categorically that no archaeological discovery has ever controverted a biblical reference." Well-known scholar William F. Albright, following a comprehensive study, wrote: "Discovery after discovery has established the accuracy of innumerable details, and has brought increased recognition of the value of the Bible as a source of History."

There are more than 24,000 partial and complete manuscript copies of the New Testament. These manuscript copies are very ancient and they are available for inspection NOW. there are also some 86,000 quotations from the early church fathers and several thousand lectionaries (church-service books containing Scripture quotations used in the early centuries of Christianity). In fact, there are enough quotations from the early church fathers that even if we did not have a single copy of the Bible, scholars could still reconstruct all but 11 verses of the entire New Testament from material written within 150 to 200 years from the time of Christ. Bottom line: The New Testament has an overwhelming amount of evidence supporting its reliability.
The Apocrypha refers to 14 or 15 books of doubtful authenticity and authority that the Roman Catholics decided belonged in the Bible sometime following the Protestant Reformation. The Catholic Council of Trent (1545-1563) canonized these books. This canonization took place largely as a result of the Protestant Reformation. Indeed, Luther had criticized the Catholics for not having scriptural support fur such doctrines as praying for the dead. By canonizing the Apocrypha (which offers support for praying for the dead in 2 Maccabees 23:45-46), the Catholics suddenly had "scriptural" support for this and other distinctively Catholic doctrines.
Roman Catholics argue that the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament) contained the Apocrypha. As well, church fathers like Iraneaus, Tertullian, and Clement of Alexandria used the Apocryphal books in public worship and accepted them as Scripture. Further, it is argued, St. Augustine viewed these books as inspired.
Protestants respond by pointing out that even though some of the Apocryphal books may have been alluded to in the New Testament, no New Testament writer EVER quoted from ANY of these books as holy Scripture or gave them the slightest authority as inspired books. Jesus and the disciples virtually ignored these books, something that wouldn't have been the case if they had considered them to be inspired.
Moreover, even though certain church fathers spoke approvingly of the Apocrypha, there were other early church fathers - notable OrigIn and Jerome - who denied their inspiration. Further, even though the early Augustine acknowledged the Aprocrypha, in his later years he rejected these books as being outside the canon and considered them inferior to the Hebrew Scriptures.
The Jewish Council of Jamnia, which met in A.D. 90, rejected the Aprocrypha as Scripture. Combine all this with the fact that there are clear historical errors in the Aprocrypha (especially those relating to Tobit) and the fact that it contains unbiblical doctrines (like praying for the dead), and it is clear that these books do not belong in the Bible. In addition, unlike many of the biblical books, THERE IS NO CLAIM IN ANY APOCRYPHAL BOOK IN REGARD TO DIVINE INSPIRATION.

Answer 8

Go to Barnes an Noble and check in the Fiction section, Actually there is very good Program for about ten bucks at Barnes and Noble, Might have been Best buy. in the bargain CD's It has many different versions, languages, and is expandable

Answer 9

The history of the bible is right their inside of it if you own a study bible it tells the writers that God sent his messages threw like Moses,Peter,Paul, John,Solomon, Matthew,etc. Just read it.

Answer 10

Try Yahoo or Google search Engines.

Answer 11

Historychannel.com
biblehistory.com
/www.nationalgeographic.com/