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Tuesday, March 08, 2005
I have always been a voracious reader. I grew up before cable television came on the scene and parents shoved kids in front of the screen to keep them occupied, so it was a necessity. Outside of Sesame Street and The Electric Company that came on in the early morning, the set was off and a book was in my hand.
I loved reading so much that I decided to become an English major at college. That's when I discovered that reading what somebody else tells you that you have to read and have it completed by the time they tell you to have it completed isn't nearly as much fun as choosing what you want to read and enjoying it at your own pace.
Lately, I've been on this kick of reading the books that I either don't remember from high school or some "classic" that I never got assigned in school. The good folks at Barnes and Noble have helped out by buying the copyrights to some of that literature and selling them at ridiculously low prices.
Hands down the best book I ever read was "The Brothers Karamazov" by Fyodor Doestoyevsky. It was an amazing story. It was brilliantly written. Even the story behind it would be worthy of a documentary on the History Channel. Over it's 1,008 pages, it moved me emotionally and made me think about my relationship to God. That's rare.
When you think about it, the Bible is an even more amazing book. It is an amazing story. It is brilliantly written. Almost every story in it is worthy of a documentary on the History Channel (and they've tried, too). Over it's pages, you'll be moved and think about your relationship to God.
But the Bible is even more amazing. The word “Bible” comes from the Greek word biblia—meaning “books.”
The Bible is compiled into 66 books: 39 in the Hebrew Scriptures, 27 in what we call the New Testament. The Hebrew Scriptures were recorded primarily in Hebrew (with parts of Ezra and Daniel written in Aramaic). The New Testament was written in common Greek.
The Old Testament can be divided into sections: History, Genesis. Government, like Leviticus. Poetry, like Psalms or Ecclesiastes. Prophecy, like Jeremiah.
The New Testament is similar. There's the Gospels. There's history, like Acts. There's letters, like Colossians. And there's prophecy found in Revelation.
The Bible has roughly 40 different authors.
The Bible was written over a period of time from (roughly) 1400 B.C. to 100 A.D.
The Jewish scholars before the time of Christ has placed the Old Testament together before the time of Christ.
The New Testament was finalized at the Council of Carthage 397 A.D., which verified a letter by Athanasius in 365.
It is incredibly reliable when compared to other writings. For example, no scholar doubts the authenticity of Caesar's "Gallic Wars" and there are 10 known copies, the earliest of which was written 1,000 years after his death. There are 24,000 known copies written within 30 years of the death of Christ or within 100 years after the death of John.
The biggest difference in a great work of literature and the Bible? The Bible has a unity all pointing to one thing: To get to know the Author. Let's face it. Doestoevsky or Stephen King don't write books so you can have a relationship with them. They write to entertain. To move you. To get you to think. Whatever.
But the Bible's amazing reality that it was written over 1500 or so years by 40 or so different authors who all have the same goal in mind: They want you to get to know God better. To get to understand yourself better.
So, for today, spend some time thanking God that we have so many available copies available to us. And let's ask ourselves why we don't use it for it's intended purpose more, eh?
Brent 4:26 AM
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