Yes, the Bible was written by men. So was everything else on your bookshelf. So were the tenets of modern science. So what? Further, and perhaps critically, if somebody says, “the Bible was written by men.” the obvious implication is that because it was written by men, that therefore it is untrustworthy because men are untrustworthy.
Full Answer
Even after nearly 2,000 years of its existence, and centuries of investigation by biblical scholars, we still don't know with certainty who wrote its various texts, when they were written or under what circumstances.
St. Jerome -“Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ!” insisted St. Jerome - a strong exhortation from a Father and Doctor of the Catholic Church to Christians urging them to pay attention to serious Scripture study. This is a must, not a luxury option.
The Bible's origin is both human and divine—not just from God and not just from humans. The Bible's narratives, poems, histories, letters, prophecies, and other writings come from a profound collaboration between humanity and God.
About The Book For thousands of years, the prophet Moses was regarded as the sole author of the first five books of the Bible, known as the Pentateuch.
4 Verses 13 to 18. [13] But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. [14] For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.
But ignorance merits punishment—this according to 1 Corinthians 14:38 (“If anyone does not know, he will not be known”). Therefore, ignorance is a sin.
Although many sections of the Bible may seem alien to women, there is evidence that a few of these texts were actually composed by women. Surprisingly, literature on this theory is almost completely absent.
Evidence for the Bible We have copies of the manuscripts and throughout history these copies show that the Bible has been transmitted accurately. Despite common skeptical claims that the Bible has often been changed through the centuries, the physical evidence tells another story.
In my experience as a Catholic priest, one of the most commonly held accounts of biblical inspiration among Christians is that God “dictated” the Bible. According to this view, sometimes called the verbal dictation theory, God dictated each word of the sacred text to a human author who simply wrote it down.
According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, Catholic ecclesiology professes the Catholic Church to be the "sole Church of Christ" – i.e., the one true church defined as "one, holy, catholic, and apostolic" in the Four Marks of the Church in the Nicene Creed.
Mary Magdalene as Jesus's wife One of these texts, known as the Gospel of Philip, referred to Mary Magdalene as Jesus's companion and claimed that Jesus loved her more than the other disciples.
The recognition that God was the source of scripture became the most important criteria in accepting books into the Bible. Faith communities would go on to establish additional criteria to help them recognize which books they would consider scripture. Eventually, the question was taken up by Church councils.
Dei Verbum's teaching stressed the unity of Scripture and tradition in the revelation of God's word, but never considered the role of historical criticism in the interpretation of God's word in tradition that it affirmed in God's revelation in the biblical word.
Far more often than I ever would have expected, they have thrown at me the phrase in 1 Corinthians 8:1: “knowledge puffeth up,” as if I am somehow conceited because I have too much knowledge of the Word.
What is the relationship between the picture on page 205 and the life of prayer? In the pictire, Jesus is knocking on the doosm which has no handle on the outside; Jesus cannot open the door, it has to be opened by the person inside.
Latin BibliaThe Bible takes its name from the Latin Biblia ('book' or 'books') which comes from the Greek Ta Biblia ('the books') traced to the Phoenician port city of Gebal, known as Byblos to the Greeks.
The only way for you to prove that God had no involvement in the writing of the Scriptures is for you to be omnipresent.”. Then point out that he/she is claiming to be God when they made the statement that God had no involvement in the Bible.
Also, 15% claim that the Bible contradicts itself. This implies that God was not involved since God cannot deny Himself ( 2 Timothy 2:13) and, thus, contradict Himself. So at least 50% would, in one way or another, dispute that a perfect God was responsible for the Bible!
Omnipotent: they are claiming that if God had tried to help the biblical authors, then they had the power to stop such an action. So, the person making the claim that the Bible was written by men is claiming to be God; but these three attributes belong solely to God.
Do you know how to respond to this question? 2 Timothy 3:16-17 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work .
He viewed himself as the authority and not God. He further reasoned that there is no God at all, and, therefore, the Bible could not have had God ’s involvement. Therefore, his statement that the Bible was written by men was a religious claim—he was claiming to be God.
Christians would be the first to point this out. For example, Paul wrote letters to early churches that are included in the Scriptures ( 2 Peter 3:15–16 ). David wrote many of the Psalms. Moses wrote the Pentateuch, or the Torah (the first five books of the Bible). In fact, it is estimated that over 40 different human authors were involved. 2 So, this is not the issue.
Since the Bible alone contains detailed predictive and fulfilled prophecy, it alone can qualify as being authenticated by God. Other methods of responding are to undercut the entire position by pointing out that any type of reasoning apart from the Bible is merely arbitrary.
Further, and perhaps critically, if somebody says, “the Bible was written by men.” the obvious implication is that because it was written by men, that therefore it is untrustworthy because men are untrustworthy.
They will say that God did not really mean what he said. They will say that the Bible has to adapt to modern science. They will say, “the Bible was written by men .”. People do not want the Bible to be authoritative, so they will desperately mount these attack against it, something like bank robber trying to carve into the vault door with a fork.
The Bible was written by about 40 different men during a span of about 1,500 years. Even though it claims to be God-breathed ( 2 Timothy 3: 16) it was not dictated word-for-word from God to man. In addition, many of these men committed terrible sins. David was an adulterer and murderer, Moses was a murderer, and Paul helped put Christians to death. The Bible states that everyone is a sinner ( Romans 3:23; 5:12–19 ).
God placed His reputation on the line by allowing fallible men to write His infallible Word but He has been faithful to keep it free from error. The Bible has been scrutinized, criticized, and attacked for centuries, and it has withstood every assault. It is unique in every way. More importantly, it is the inspired, inerrant, ...
The evangelical doctrine of biblical inerrancy states that God’s Word is without error in its original manuscripts. It allows for copyist errors or typos in the modern translations. These modern errors are few in number and often disappear when comparing the ancient manuscripts.
The Bible sets the standard very high. Deuteronomy 18:15–22 states that if a prophet ever made a prediction that failed then he was not speaking for God. Some view this as being a convenient way for Bible believers to excuse any possible mistakes; however, much more is at stake.
Just because we make mistakes does not mean that we have to make mistakes in everything we do. Nor does it mean that we always make mistakes. It is certainly possible for a man to write an inerrant and infallible book. It is likely that some Math textbooks out there are infallible books written by fallible people. 2+2=4 and 10×10=100. Despite being a sinner, I am capable of writing something that does not contain mistakes. In the same way, the authors of the Bible could have written their respective works without error. This possibility becomes reality when we recognize that the authors of Scripture were “moved” by the Holy Spirit ( 2 Peter 1:21 ).
It is true that all men are fallible, except Jesus, of course. Any honest person will readily admit they have made mistakes. I know that I make mistakes and it is likely that mistakes exist on this website so I certainly would not and could not make a claim of infallibility for myself. So how can I believe that it is possible for men like David, Moses, and Paul to have written books containing no errors? The answer is actually quite simple.
In addition, many of these men committed terrible sins. David was an adulterer and murderer, Moses was a murderer, and Paul helped put Christians to death. The Bible states that everyone is a sinner ( Romans 3:23; 5:12–19 ).
There is no doubt that the Bible displays normative literary techniques of the ancient world, and that it addresses issues that were relevant to the people who would have originally received the writings.
The Bible was written over a period of 1500 years. That constitutes about 40 generations. It was written by over 40 different authors with very diverse backgrounds and contexts. The Bible was also written from three continents: Asia, Africa, and Europe and it was written in three languages: Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek.
First, we should admit that the Bible was indeed written by men. The Christian affirmation is not that the Bible dropped down from heaven. Nor is it the Christian conviction that God literally “penned” the Bible. The issue is not that “men wrote the Bible”, the real question is whether the Bible is “inspired” by God.
The truth is we are told, that the Bible was written by imperfect men. Thus, it is foolish to believe in what it says.
Remember, the Bible is not just one book, but rather, a compilation of books written in different places and at different times. Yet we have amazing predictions within the Bible that find their fulfillment at later points.
In fact, the Bible is a miniature library of 66 books. It consists of the 39 books of the Hebrew Scriptures, called by many the Old Testament, and the 27 books of the Christian Greek Scriptures, often called the New Testament.
Nehemiah 1:1; Isaiah 1:1; Joel 1:1. Most Bible writers acknowledged that they wrote in the name of Jehovah, the one true God, and that they were guided by him. Prophets who wrote the Hebrew Scriptures proclaimed more than 300 times: “This is what Jehovah has said.”.
The intent of the authors here isn’t hard to parse: Throughout the books of Kings, the reader is assailed with endless warnings not to worship strange gods, or to take up the strangers’ ways — especially relevant for a people in the middle of the Babylonian captivity, freshly plunged into a foreign country and without a clear national identity of their own.
Apocalypse: The book of Revelation has traditionally been attributed to the Apostle John. Unlike the other traditional attributions, this one wasn’t very far off in terms of actual historical authenticity, though this book was written a little late for someone who claimed to know Jesus personally.
The next section of the Bible — and the next investigation into who wrote the Bible — deals with what’s known as the wisdom literature. These books are the finished product of nearly a thousand years of development and heavy editing.
Gospels: The four Gospels in the King James Bible — Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John — tell the story of Jesus’ life and death (and what came after that). These books are named after Jesus’ apostles, although these books’ actual authors may have just been using those names for street cred.
HOLY BOOKS HAVE A REACH that goes far beyond what virtually all works of literature can ever accomplish. Unlike, say, The Great Gatsby, the Bible is a text upon which millions and millions of people have based their entire lives. That fact can be good or bad, and it’s often been both over the many centuries throughout which Christians have been ...
Books from this period include Ruth, Esther, Lamentations, Ezra, Nehemiah, Lamentations, and Ecclesiastes.
E: “E” stands for Elohist, the name given to the author (s) who referred to God as “Elohim.”. In addition to a fair bit of Exodus and a little bit of Numbers, the “E” author (s) are believed to be the ones who wrote the Bible’s first creation account in Genesis chapter one. Interestingly, however, “Elohim” is plural, ...