bibleprophecyaswritten.com JESUS & Your BIBLE by Phillip Goodman Lord, Are The 66 Books In My Bible The Right Ones? Are there more? Less? Is the Bible true word for word? How does Jesus answer these questions? “...when you received from us the word of God's message, you accepted it not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God.. .” (the Apostle Paul, Jesus’ “chosen vessel” Acts 9:15; 1 Thes 2:13) PA R T 1 P a r t 2 i s H E R E Jesus and Your Bible by Phillip Goodman T ake a good look at your Bible before you read this. Thumb through it. Flip the pages from the first chapter of Genesis to the last chapter of Revelation. If your Bible is made up of 66 books and is a good translation, then you have in your hands the Word Of God. Jesus said so. There is no higher authority, and we are going to consider carefully what Jesus has said that confirms that you hold in your hands the Holy Scripture — God’s Word to you and I. Lord, Are The 66 Books In My Bible The Right Ones? Are there more? Less? T he Old Testament — Jesus made it clear that the 39 books in your Old Testament are the only ones that belong there. In a rebuke to the Pharisees, He said, “that upon you may fall the guilt of all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah...” Matthew 23:35 How important is this statement? It is the same as Jesus saying to the Pharisees that the whole Jewish Scriptures (our Old Testament) testify against them. Here’s why. The Jewish scriptures during the days of Jesus contained 22 books. But they were the same books as our 39, since the Jews combined some of them. Also, the arrangement of their Bible was different from ours. Whereas our 39 books are arranged from Genesis to Malachi, the Jewish Bible of 22 books (the same as our 39 books) was arranged in such a way that 2 Chronicles was the last book. Thus, the Jewish Bible ran from Genesis to 2 Chronicles, with Malachi and the other books listed in between. Now, when Jesus used the phrase “from “Abel” (found in Genesis) to “Zechariah” (the “blood” of this particular Zechariah found in 2 Chronicles), he was saying “from the first book to the last book of God’s Word in the Old Testament.” In light of the above, this is equivalent of our phrase “from Genesis to Malachi (the first and last books of the Old Testament).” Therefore, Jesus affirmed that the 39 books from Genesis to Malachi — no more, no less — are God’s inspired word in the Old (Covenant) Testament. T he New Testament — Jesus plainly instructed the Apostles that when the Holy Spirit comes, He will “bring to your [the Apostles’] remembrance all that I said to you” John 14:26 This is the same as saying that the Holy Spirit will inspire the Apostles to remember all that Jesus said and did and write it into our 4 New Testament Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke & John). In the same setting, Jesus also said of the Holy Spirit “He will guide you [the Apostles] into all the truth” John 16:13 This is equivalent to Jesus promising to supplement the truth of the Gospels with the additional truths that we have in our 22 New Testament books and epistles (Acts to Jude). Jesus continued by saying that when the Holy Spirit comes (at Pentecost) ”He will disclose to you [again, the Apostles] what is to come” John 16:13 In this statement, Jesus affirmed that through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit our New Testament would include “what is to come” in the future, found in the Book Of Revelation (as well as in many portions of the other books and epistles). The AUTHORS of the NEW TESTAMENT The Apostles Associates of the Apostles 2 brothers of Jesus "He who receives you receives Me, and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me. (Mat 10:40) T he Whole Bible — Jesus, therefore, confirmed the extent (39 books) and inspiration of our Old Testament, and He foretold the extent (27 books) and inspiration of our New Testament. You have in your hands the English translation of the inspired, inerrant 66 - book Word Of God! Jesus Said Your Bible is the Inspired Word Of God “Inerrant” means without error. The original Bible, penned by the Old Testament Prophets and the New Testament Apostles, was without error. But in order to be without error, the Bible first had to be inspired by God, the author of truth, who Himself is without error in The APOSTLES & Their GOSPELS all His thoughts, words and deeds. To be “inspired” in the Biblical sense means that all of the words were God - breathed into the writers of Scripture. Thus what the Biblical authors wrote was what God wanted them to write. Jesus spoke of the process behind the inspired writings when He said about David that he spoke “in the Spirit.” (Matthew 22:43, referring to David’s inspired writing of Psalm 110) Jesus foretold that the New Testament would be created and written by the same process of Holy Spirit inspired words when He promised that the Spirit would “ bring to your [the Apostles’] remembrance all that I [Jesus ] said to you” and that the Spirit would “guide you into all the truth”” and would “disclose to you what is to come” (John 14:26: John 16:13) Christ promised His Apostles that there would be times when "it is not you who speak, but it is the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you.” (Matthew 10:20; 16:17) Likewise, He cautioned them not to rely on their own words during critical times because He would “give [them] utterance and wisdom,” supplying the actual words. (Luke 21:14 - 15) Facts About The Inspiration Of Your Bible 1. The consensus of the earliest Church fathers is that Matthew wrote the first inspired Gospel, followed by Luke, Mark, and then toward the end of the first century, John. 2. Since Luke wrote both the Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts, and since Acts records the history of the Church following the resurrection of Christ in the first century, then we can reasonably “date” the writing of the Gospels. Acts does not record the deaths of either Peter or Paul, which we know to have occurred during the reign of Nero around 64/65 AD. Nor does Acts mention the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD. Therefore, Acts was written sometime before 64 - 70 AD. Since Luke wrote his Gospel before Acts (Luke 1:1 - 4 & Acts 1:1), then it must have been written sometime during the 50s AD. Therefore, Matthew was written even earlier. Mark’s Gospel was written very close to the time of Luke’s. The Gospel of John, according to John’s own disciple Polycarp, was written around 90 AD. 3. Mark was Peter’s associate and scribe, and wrote his Gospel based on the memoires of Peter, so in substance it is the Gospel Of Peter. 4. Luke researched the testimony of many eyewitnesses. As a close associate of the Apostle Paul, Luke is linked to the apostolic authority required of New Testament authors. Facts About The Inspiration Of Your Bible (continued) 5. Paul says that “All Scripture is inspired by God ...”, and Peter tells how that happens when he says “for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God. (2 Timothy 3:16: 2 Peter 1:21) 6. Peter attests to the fact that 14 of the New Testament letters, written by Paul, are “scripture” when he says, “our beloved brother Paul , according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you , as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures , to their own destruction. (2 Peter 3:15 - 16) 7. Paul names a passage from both the Gospel of Matthew and Luke as “scripture” right alongside the Old Testament when he writes , “For the Scripture says, ‘You shall not muzzle the ox while he is threshing’ (from Deuteronomy 25:4) and ‘ The laborer is worthy of his wages’ " (from Matthew 10:10 & Luke 10:7). Note that Paul calls both the citation from the Old Testament and the citation from the two Gospels “ scripture .” (1 Timothy 5:18) 8. When Jesus spoke of the Bible that He used (the Old Testament), He summed it up with the phrase “the law and the prophets,” or its equivalent , “Moses and the prophets.” (Luke 24:27, 44) Jesus and His apostles used a translation. It was a translation of the Hebrew Scriptures into the lingua - franca of the day, the Greek (although Aramaic was also spoken). We know this translation as the Septuagint. This first translation of the Bible was used mightily by the Apostles as they spread the Gospel through the Greek speaking world in their own language. Jesus Said That Your Bible Is Based On Inerrant Manuscripts Jesus summed up the character of your Bible when He said, “Thy word is truth.” (John 17:17) Since Jesus is the Truth (John 14:6), and since God cannot lie (Hebrews 6:18), then every word, letter, jot and tittle (letter parts, Matthew 5:18) of your Bible is based upon original writings (manuscripts) that were without error — or inerrant. Though minor “typos” have crept into the copying and recopying of the Bible over the past 2000 years, none affect any major Biblical teaching, and so the inerrancy of those first 66 books still shows through. In Part 2 HERE we will discuss the importance of a Literal translation and point out the selection options. Yours in Christ, Phillip May God richly bless you in your “BEREAN” Bible studies. (see Acts 17:11 )