History of the Bible .

The Bible consists of thirty-nine books of the Old Testament and twenty-seven books of the New Testament,*** sixty-six books written by different authors.

The Old Testament was written primarily in Hebrew (with a small portion in Aramaic) and the New Testament in Greek.

The Old Testament was completed hundreds of years before the birth of Jesus, and the New Testament begins after the crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus.

It is generally believed that the Book of Job may be the oldest book in the Bible, but the exact date of its composition is unknown.

In addition to the Book of Job, the oldest books of the Pentateuch (a generic term for the first five books of the Old Testament: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy) were written around 1,400 BCE, and the books of the Old Testament were written around 400 BCE.

The writing of the New Testament began in the middle of the first century and was completed by the end of the first century.

There was a four-hundred-year gap between the two Testaments (known as the "silent period").

So the writing of the Old and New Testaments took about 1500 years.

The Bible was first written on paper made from sheepskins (sheep, goats, or antelope), calves, or reeds from shallow lakes in Egypt and Syria.

This reed, also called papyrus, was exported from the Syrian port of Byblos.

The Greek word Byblos means "book", from the name of the port.

The English word "paper" is also derived from the Greek word "papyrus".

In addition, some of the scriptures are preserved on wakas, tablets, wax tablets, etc.

The catechisms are also preserved on the wakas.

The instruments used for copying were reeds, feathers, metal pens, etc.

Ink was used for copying.

The ink is made of charcoal, glue and water.

The four dozen or so authors of the Bible not only lived in different times, had different occupations and identities, but also wrote in very different environments.

Moses was a political leader, Joshua was a military leader, David and Solomon were kings, Daniel was a prime minister, Paul was a Jewish legalist, Luke was a doctor, Peter and John were fishermen, Amos was a shepherd, and Matthew was a tax collector.

In New Testament times, the Jews were ruled by the Romans.

Tax collectors were those who were Jews but taxed and profited from their own countrymen on behalf of Rome ***.

It's like the traitors who worked for the Japanese in the war against Japan.

Some say that the tax collector is a Jew.

Some were written in the palace, some were written in prison or on the island of exile; some were written in the time of war, some were completed in the peace and prosperity; some were written in the joy ***, some were written in the valley of mourning and disappointment.

The books of the Bible were written independently of each other and were read in synagogues and Christian churches.

The authors of the Bible had no idea that these books would later be compiled into a canon of the Old and New Testaments.

It is remarkable that when these sixty-six books were compiled together, these disparate works, written across sixty generations, were in such harmony that they echoed back and forth as one! Not to mention the time and space differences caused by more than a thousand years, it is the same era of people who wrote works independently, it is difficult to harmonize with each other.

Even the same person's work, with the passage of time, their views will be contradictory! Imagine what we think of our own works written ten years ago. In fact, I have just published a revised edition of The Wanderer in 1996, and now I am compelled to produce a revised edition! The strange coherence of the Bible can only be explained by the fact that it is the Spirit of God that runs through it, and that God is the true author of the Bible.

Around 250 BCE, at the invitation of King Ptolemy II of Egypt, the Jewish High Priest Eleazar selected six elders of the Bible from each of the 12 tribes of Judah to carry the Old Testament scrolls to the city of Alexandria and to translate the Hebrew Old Testament into the popular Greek of the time, which is known as the Septuagint.

At that time, the Old Testament was well established.

By the time of Jesus, the Old Testament was well established.

In the New Testament, the Lord Jesus and the writers of the New Testament, often quoted from the Old Testament.

The word "scripture" in "Thus saith the Scripture" refers to the Old Testament.

But it was at the end of the first century that the Old Testament canon was officially declared complete.

In 70 CE, when the destruction of the holy city of Jerusalem was imminent, Rabbi Judah Canaan was authorized by the Roman authorities to convene a high council of Judaism in Jamnia, between the cities of Joppa and Azor in Judea.

The matters discussed at the council were first transmitted orally and later recorded in rabbinic writings.

There was disagreement about whether to include Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, and Esther in the canon, but the discussion established that all thirty-nine books belonged to the Old Testament canon.

Around 140 A.D., Marcion began to spread heresy and wrote a so-called New Testament canon.

This inspired the Church to establish an orthodox New Testament canon in order to **** off Marcion's influence.

Furthermore, many churches in the East were beginning to utilize books that were not of the correct origin, and it became increasingly necessary to establish the scope of the New Testament canon.

By 3013 AD, Diocletian, the Roman emperor, decreed that all Christian scriptures should be destroyed.

In such a treacherous environment, believers needed to know which books of the New Testament were worth preserving at the risk of their lives.

For these reasons, people were prompted to edit the New Testament canon.

While there was controversy over whether Hebrews, James, 2 Peter, and Revelation should be included in the canon, Athanasius in a *** letter included the 27 books of the New Testament that we now have in the New Testament canon.

These 27 books were unanimously recognized by the Council of Damasine at Rome in 382, with Jerome as the principal figure, and by the Council of Carthage in 397, with Augustine as the principal figure.

From this time on, there was no longer any dispute between the two dioceses of Rome and Africa as to the proper number of books in the New Testament canon, which was finally completed.

In the interval between the New and Old Testaments, there were other Jewish writings.

The Apocrypha is a generic term for a number of Jewish writings that date from 200 BCE to 200 CE.

Some of these writings were written under the names of Adam, Enoch, Moses, and Ezra, and are therefore called Apocrypha.

The Apocrypha appeared in the form of traditional stories, revelatory visions, dreams, etc., and were intended to help the Jews, who were experiencing extraordinary hardship, to keep their faith.

Because of the grotesque and bizarre nature of some of the things they recorded, and because of the obviously false teachings of others, the Jews refused to include them in the Old Testament canon.

In addition to the Apocrypha, there were fourteen or five books of the Paraclete or Secondary Scriptures in circulation at the time, written between two hundred years B.C. and one hundred years A.D., which largely and accurately reflected the religious, political, and social situation between the two Testaments and contained a number of true and valuable lessons.

Because of the errors of truth in them, such as authorizing people to commit suicide, praying for the dead, and historical errors, as well as the fact that they themselves do not claim to be inspired by God, Judaism and Christianity (as a whole) do not accept the paraclete as canonical.

But the Catholic Church includes most of the paraclete scriptures in its canon.

Since the historical process of collecting the sixty-six books of the Bible involved a human aspect, one would think that the decision to become canonical was made by human beings, i.e., it would seem that the judgment of human beings is the key to canonization.

But this is not the case.

The sixty-six books are canonical because they were inspired by God.

They were canonical when they were written.

The fact that God's people recognize these writings as the implied word of God does not in itself make them the implied word of God.

The imprecation of God is a fact, and is not altered by the recognition of men.

The recognition of men is merely a "formal recognition" of the canonical books which the scattered congregations have long recognized.

The essence of the Old and New Testaments is that God inspired these books to be canonical, they were passed down and preserved under God's protection, and the people of God, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, recognized and accepted them as the canon of the Bible as inspired by God.

The Bible, from the time of its writing to the formation of the canon, is the work of God, but it was accomplished through man.

Just as the Bible was inspired by God, it was written by human hands.