For all those who think they know; What's the Bible's origin?

Question

Some interesting answers, some, (as many are in these forums), just dumb and some just fanatisism.
I posted the question without the intention of grandstand my oppinion, (like many people here do). My intentions were to obtain answers at the historical not religious level.

Answer 1

The Bible is a collection of writings composed by many different authors over the course of centuries. These writings gave rise to many varied sects of early Christians.

In AD 325, Constantine convened the Council of Nicea, comprised of the foremost religious leaders of the day. Constantine wanted it to be decided, once and for all, which of the writings being circulated among the populace should be considered valid and which should not. He also wanted a codified Creed to specify what the beliefs core to Christianity were.

After much debate, the books of the Bible were chosen as we know them today. There are also copies of the so-called apocryphal books, which are the religious writings which the Council of Nicea deemed unfit for inclusion in the Bible.

That's where it came from. It has been through many translation and through many editors. It would be interesting to see what an early Bible from the time of Constantine contained.

Answer 2

To my knowledge

Some of the old testament was copied and preserved for a long time. Others were written down later after they escaped ... my history of the old testament is not very clear.

The new testament... the gospels were written by those 4 of the apostles. Other parts of the bible were letters written from one person to a church or group elsewhere. Later on, as the Church grew, these letters were collected and combined with the gospels. Sort of a "Hey, don't we have a letter Paul wrote us somewhere? Maybe we should give that to the church to include in a canon of authentic teaching" kind of thing.

edit: Then of course, there was the matter of translating - always difficult.

Answer 3

The Bible is the Word of God, it is a document, or more accurately a set of documents of man's faith relationship with God, having multiple origins in a wide variety of traditions over thousands of years, undergoing many redactions, and collections of writings, stories, and traditions, by no means uniform in authority or reliability. God is its source, but man is its means, with all his imperfections. Councils have at various times decided on the best of texts available, and we accept their judgement as those closest to the understanding and origin of the Scriptures we have.

[It was Jerome, who translated the Bible into Latin, who said we receive the books of the Apocrypha for reading for instruction in manners and morals, but establish no faith or doctrine thereby, not the Council of Nicea. The Eastern Church does not have the same canon as the Western Church. There are more books in the Bible than many people think. The Authorised Version includes the Apocrypha, although it's not printed in the King James Version familiar to Americans. Orthodox Christians do not read the Apocalypse as scripture, but do read Third and Fourth Esdras.]

Answer 4

Of course different people will tell you different things. That's how it is when it comes to religion.
Allow me to offer you what I have found to believe after seeking this answer too. But I am just a stranger, my words might not mean much to you. I urge you to do your own seeking and I would love to hear what you come to believe at some point or another.
So, I believe the origin is the Will of God, wanting to communicate to us, His children, everything about reality, which means our world and the unseen world. It is a work of inspiration, which means that the writers wrote with their own hands, words which generated from thoughts in their minds, but which were inspired by God Himself. There can only be 3 kinds of origins for thoughts. A person generates a thought by themselves, the devil inspires a thought (such as a temptation) or God Himself inspires a thought in the person's mind - such as what we read in the Bible. At the same time, I also believe that there are notions which depict the human personality of authors. Although under Divine inspiration, God did not just eclipse the authors, turning them into writing machines. He always respects the free will which He Himself gave us. So, we see stylistic differences between the Gospels for example. If you read the Gospel according to Luke, you see the historic details of a man of science (he was a physician, a doctor). If you look at Matthew, you see the writings of an old-school Jewish man, who for example when describing the genealogy of Jesus, stopped at Joseph not at Mary, although Joseph was not the biological father of Jesus since Jesus had no human biological father. But for the Jews, the father was the head of the family. If you look at John for example, also called the Apostle of Love, his Gospel is more mystical, not so human like Matthews and Luke's and Marc's.

Anyway, the point is that I personally believe the Bible's origin is God, and He used a few of His human children as instruments to translate His Divine Though into human words, so that we may all have spiritual food for our daily life, for our daily questions.

God bless

Answer 5

Easy? The bible as we know today was actually many different scrolls written by various authors, The scrolls that could be translated from the ancient hebrew and arabic langauges were translated to the languages of the era latin, greek and chaldiean then translated yet again to english by king james and his great scholars at that time.

Answer 6

It's a collection of oral tradition and "inspired" scrolls written by a bunch of tribal hash smokers to make them feel better about being slaves. It has had many elements, many versions, edits, mistranslations and exclusions.

Answer 7

Excluding the Old Testament, the Bible is a collection of Jesus's teachings, though proved to be imcomplete (think of the Dead Sea Scrolls, etc.). It was set down years after Jesus's death after being orally told and has been copied many times by man.

Answer 8

Honestly? Well, the first five books were oral traditions that were passed down for many generations before being set down in writing.

The rest was written within a reasonably short amount of time after the events transpired.

Answer 9

It began with the Jews,
then ;
16For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty.

17For he received from God the Father honour and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.

18And this voice which came from heaven we heard, when we were with him in the holy mount.

19We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts:

20Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.

21For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.

Answer 10

The hills of America.