The Bible remains the best-selling book in history, regarded by Christians as the word of God. Over the years a lot of contradicting ideas have been conceded by people regarding the validity of the Bible. But how are we sure that the Bible is real? Why should we believe in a book that was completed more than two thousand years before our existence?
First, the Bible has a unique feature, unlike many other religious books. It took 40 authors a time span of 1500 years to complete this unique book. The Bible also contains stories with historical and archeological backing.
The Bible is divided into two different segments, the Old Testament and the New Testament. The Old Testament brought to light the concept of creation, the fall of man, the Abrahamic covenant, the slavery of the Israelites in Egypt, the mosaic covenant, the monarchy of Israel, the prophets, and many other subjects.
On the other hand, the New Testament emphasized mainly the lifetime of Jesus Christ, his ministry on earth, the history of the early church, and other subjects like salvation, repentance, the holy spirit, and the second coming of Jesus Christ.
There are a lot of controversies regarding the time between the two Testaments, which is often regarded as “The silent era of the Bible”. Nevertheless, it can be established that the Old Testament was concentrated on God’s covenant with Abraham and the laws given to Moses, while Jesus shows up in the New Testament to introduce a new covenant and law.
The Bible according to the Guinness World Record happens to be the most sold and distributed book in the world, and also the most stolen book in the world notwithstanding the fact that one of the ten commandments clearly stated that “Thou shall not steal”.
Quite a number of people believe that the world of God shouldn’t be for sale and therefore as a result of its availability people tend to steal the Bible for themselves or to give to others.
Below are the reasons it is believed that the stories of the Bible are not mere fiction.
- Translation of the Bible
The first step of gathering the Bible included the Old Testament, which manuscripts were written in the Hebrew language, starting with Moses who wrote the first five books, other books of the Old Testament were written by leaders and prophets.
The Old Testament was already in use by the time of the New Testament, that’s what Jesus referred to as “The Scripture”.
After the establishment of the early church, apostles who walked with Jesus started documenting the record of the life and ministry of Jesus, which is referred to today as the Gospel.
Other apostles like Peter, and Paul likewise other church leaders wanted to give direction to the church, therefore they wrote different letters to churches in different locations. These today are called the Epistle.
Many years later, a lot of letters and manuscripts explained who Christ was, his sacrifice, and how to live like a Christian. It became obvious that so many of the books were in contradiction, and people began to ask which to follow and which to ignore.
Finally, Christian leaders all over the world gathered to make a major decision regarding books to be included in the scripture.
Read Also: Is the Bible fiction or nonfiction?
It was later concluded that a book should be included in the Bible if it was written by a disciple of Jesus, someone who was a witness to the ministry of Jesus, like Peter, and John, or someone who interviewed witnesses like Luke.
The books written long after the Establishment of the church weren’t included. Alignment with other portions of the Bible was considered, meaning that the book wouldn’t contradict a scripture.
After years of debate, the council concluded on the books to be added to the scripture (Bible). Later on, they were published into a single volume by Jerome.
- Archaeological evidence of the Bible
The Bible vividly illustrates historical people, places, and events. Over the years, various archeological evidences proving the validity of the Bible have been discovered and more pieces of evidence are still being discovered.
Courtesy of modern-day research the stories of the Old Testament ranging from the patriarch to Moses and the exodus, the conquest of Canaan, the monarchy, the exile, and restoration have been proven with archeological backings.
- Authorship of the Bible
Those who wrote the Bible lived in different times, some were separated by decades, hundreds, and thousands of years. In most cases, they were completely strangers to each other.
Authors of the Bible consist of Kings, Shepherds, physicians, soldiers, traders, fishermen— people from all spheres of life. They existed under different eras, jurisdictions, systems of philosophy, government, and contrasting cultures.
The Bible contains 66 books, 1,189 chapters, and 31,173 verses brought together conveying harmonic messages. The authors expressed God’s messages in written words. The prophetic messages were then gathered together under God’s leadership in the book we call the Bible.
- Eyewitnesses account
The New Testament authors repeatedly referred to themselves as eyewitnesses, even if they did not make overt statements including their names. In the last chapter of John’s Gospel, the author tells us he is testifying and his testimony is true. The statement assumes that the writer has seen something that he can testify to us as an eyewitness.
In addition, the authors of 1 John and 2 Peter identify themselves as eyewitnesses who had direct contact with Jess and were not making up superstitious tales.
Luke on the other hand clearly said that he was not an eyewitness to the life and Ministry of Jesus, he tells us he is relying on the actual witness to convey the information.
This shows that most authors in the Bible had a direct connection with the information they were conveying in one way or another.
Authors like Paul didn’t write much about Jesus’ life and ministry owing to the fact that he never had any direct contact with Jesus in his lifetime. Apostle John who was the closest to Jesus gave the most information about Jesus Christ’s life and Ministry.
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