{"id":429,"date":"2010-11-16T09:02:25","date_gmt":"2010-11-16T09:02:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/thinplaces\/2010\/11\/what-is-the-bible.html"},"modified":"2010-11-16T09:02:25","modified_gmt":"2010-11-16T09:02:25","slug":"what-is-the-bible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/11\/what-is-the-bible.html","title":{"rendered":"What is the Bible?"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n\"bible.jpg\"<\/span><\/p>\n

For the next few weeks, I am going to address a few questions about the Bible: <\/span><\/div>\n
What is the Bible?<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/span>Who decided what goes into the Bible and how did they decide?<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/span>What is the Old Testament?<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/span>What is the New Testament?<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/span>How do I read the Bible today?<\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/span>Our culture exhibits a range
\nof opinions and thoughts on the Bible. On one end of the spectrum you have
\npopular authors like Dan Brown, who wrote the Da Vinci Code.<\/i> This end of the spectrum sees the Bible as a
\ncultural construction, something that reflects church politics and a
\nhistory of oppression. Here, the Bible is merely the work of flawed human
\nbeings. On the other end of the spectrum, you have people who read the Bible as
\nif it is a supernatural document without any human involvement, where every
\nword can be lifted out verbatim and applied to our lives because it is the word
\nof God. The problem with this end of the spectrum is that God’s word ends up
\nbeing misapplied and telling us what we want to hear. Say, for example, you
\nwanted to argue that God was a large bird in the sky. You could quote Psalm
\n17:8: “hide me in the shadow of your wings,” which, of course, would be missing
\nthe point all together. The truth of what the Bible is lies in between these
\ntwo extremes. In other words, the Bible is both the work of human beings and
\nthe Word of God.<\/span><\/p>\n

So if it isn’t merely a
\nculturally constructed and deeply flawed human project, and if it isn’t God via
\ndictation, what is it?<\/span><\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Factually speaking, the (Protestant) Bible is 66 books gathered together over the course of thousands of years, written on three different continents in three different languages by an incredibly diverse array of people. Moreover, as Christians see it, the Bible–start to finish–tells the story of God’s work in the world, centered on the person and work of Jesus Christ. <\/span>Despite the diversity of thought, time period, language, authorship, style, and location among the books of the Bible, it is also a unified collection telling a unified story about the work of God in the world. Throughout the books of the Old and New Testament, a common story emerges. The story told by Scripture as a whole is a story of creation, fall, and redemption. Over and over again, through a glorious multiplicity of forms and viewpoints, the Bible proclaims<\/p>\n

1. that God is Lord over all creation, and therefore of human beings;<\/span><\/p>\n

2. that humans have fallen away from God or rebelled against God;<\/span><\/p>\n

3. that God is redeeming and restoring all of creation, including humans, to a place of dignity and purpose.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Bible is a collection of books that serves the church as an authoritative witness to God’s consistent, redemptive work within the world. This story culminates in the story of Jesus, because through Jesus’ death and resurrection, God enables creation to be redeemed.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span>Check back next week for more on how these particular 66 books came to be included in the Protestant “canon” of Scripture… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For the next few weeks, I am going to address a few questions about the Bible:  What is the Bible? Who decided what goes into the Bible and how did they decide? What is the Old Testament? What is the New Testament? How do I read the Bible today? 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Two major life experiences have shaped her writing and her faith\u00e2\u20ac\u201dcaring for her mother-in-law as she battled cancer and welcoming her daughter Penny into the world after she was diagnosed at birth with Down syndrome. Both experiences expanded and enriched her understanding of what it means to be human and to receive each and every person as a gift.\u00c2\u00a0 A graduate of Princeton University and Princeton Theological Seminary, she is the author of Penelope Ayers: A Memoir, and the forthcoming A Good and Perfect Gift (Bethany House). Her essays have appeared in First Things, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Christian Century, ChristianityToday.com, and Bloom, among other online venues.","sameAs":["http:\/\/amyjuliabecker.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/author\/amyjuliabecker"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/88"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=429"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}