Can we trust the Bible (yes): How do we know it was compiled correctly?

Many people have suggested that the books of the Bible were selected to serve the desires of governments or church leaders, and other human institutions. Others suggest that the church withdrew the supposed Gospel of Jesus as it would destroy their religion. There are many conspiracy theories surrounding the Bible, however the truth is that the Bible was written to guide people to God and nothing else.

The Old Testament started as the first five books, often called the Torah or Pentateuch. Nobody is sure when this became widely accepted; however it is believed to be around 500 B.C. The laws in these cannon had existed for many centuries before. It is believed that this decision was enforced by the work of the prophets Ezra and Nehemiah in the restoration of the law. It took until 200 B.C. for the rest of the prophets writings to be included with the Torah. The rest of the Old Testament was not fixed until around the birth of Christ, and was done to help unify the Jews who were scattered and did not know which writings to follow. Over time, it became clear to the Jews which texts were truly the word of God. Because of this lengthy process, we really cannot determine a specific date when the Old Testament was officially recognized as canon.

Many people seem concerned about the fact that the Gospels were not written until thirty to sixty years after the death and resurrection of Jesus, however this is not a valid concern as in the society where Jesus lived information was passed primarily by word of mouth. It was not until the Word of God spread throughout the areas passed Jerusalem, where the credible yet ageing eye witnesses lived, that there was a need to write the information down.

With the New Testament, it is also hard to point to one specific date of compilation, as in the early Church, many churches would use various letters and books which often differed widely in terms of them and messages. There were a series of councils to determine which stories were cannon which were not. Many mistakenly believe that the Council of Nicaea in 325 A.D. was the event where the Bible was created by Roman Emperor Constantine I, however is was simply not true as it was primarily to determine the issues of the deity of Christ.

The first accepted version was compiled around 180 A.D. and was called the Muratorian Canon. The official list of the 27 books of the New Testament in the modern Bible was put together by Athanasius in 367 A.D. This list was circulated to various churches, although it was considered unnecessary as most churches of the time had already been using the same books.

In conclusion, when you are looking through the history of the Bible, it is clear that it was not put together as a means of any church or government to control the people. In fact, the Gospel was considered a threat to many nations as it establishes that God alone has the authority, but we should still follow any laws which do not conflict with the word of God. If any laws do conflict with the Word of God, such as not being allowed to publicly display religious icons or speak of God or pray in public, these laws should be ignored. Any laws which agree with the Word of God should be followed. As far as the Bible being modified to serve the will of the church leaders, it is obviously not the case. Jesus Christ himself disliked religion and the Gospels which were accepted into the Bible show this very clearly. The entire message of grace, which was the main focus of Jesus Christ's ministry, nullifies most of the teachings of organized religions.

a reply to: GolgothaBridge

I only believe in revelations. That is my thought.

That ain't true. I believe in a lot more i've heard or read. & genesis. Sorry.

a reply to: GolgothaBridge

Trust the Bible, for what?

The Bible was compiled by men, for men, about men and their mortal struggles with "divinity".

That you can trust!

Can we trust the Bible (no)

Fixed it for you.

As a relevant note, the analects of Confucius are a more dependable study of morality and social ethics than the Hebrew doctrines. The best? No, but more dependable. Less cult ritual and more etiquette.

a reply to: GolgothaBridge

Do you not find it a little odd that out of all Jesus' followers only 3 decided to write anything down?

he apparently had thousands of people following him... hanging on every word of his ministry yet only three wrote anything

Strangely enough in 1945 a stack of books emerged from a cave in the desert... Now why do you think people needed to hide such manuscripts from the world back then?

Im guessing the emerging church destroyed books and people for anything they didn't want taught to their followers

makes you wonder how much was destroyed by these so called leaders

a reply to: GolgothaBridge

The bible has done more for my life than anything else. The bible is God's way of delivering hope and salvation. It also contains numerous warnings and prophecies that have come true. The Old Testament points clearly to the coming Messiah Jesus. God has been very good to me and his mercy has played out in my life. No one deserves salvation, but God is good!

a reply to: GolgothaBridge

Fantastic post here. Accurate information based on true church history. Many of the conspiracy theories revolving around the canonization of scripture are too simple/generalized, and, as you’ve shown, discovered to be far from the truth after delving into the early church fathers and their history.

There are many important questions regarding the scriptures, indeed. Theologians who’ve dedicated their entire lives to proper exegesis and hermeneutics will never run out of source material; this is part of the beauty regarding those 66 books, in my opinion.

Unfortunately many approach the Bible the same way a butcher approaches a hog. You won’t learn anything if those are your tactics.

Thanks for your post.

a reply to: Akragon

Only 3 of the written records survived, wars and age, maybe
Maybe many in secular authority didn’t want the records of Jesus teachings recorded and destroyed them

a reply to: GolgothaBridge

Who cares, my faith is in Jesus, not the bible
If it’s not perfect, it points clearly to He who is, that’s enough

a reply to: Raggedyman

Could be... that would make more sense then only three people deciding to write anything he said down...

wars... maybe

age and weathering... likely not... we do have 1st century writing in abundance and earlier... just nothing about him

granted he was pretty much unknown in the first century but i find it hard to believe no one out of the thousands of his followers wrote anything... though i tend to point to the Vatican library

i would bet they have material that will never be release for whatever their reasons are

a reply to: Akragon

Could be violent extremist philosophies about purging society of the unclean and heretical, could be disturbingly down to earth revelations about his mundane biology and less than cosmic influences. No one would dare to upset the balance by updating the narrative during this delicate stage in our societal development, it could destroy us all.

originally posted by: Akragon
a reply to: GolgothaBridge

Do you not find it a little odd that out of all Jesus' followers only 3 decided to write anything down?

he apparently had thousands of people following him... hanging on every word of his ministry yet only three wrote anything

Strangely enough in 1945 a stack of books emerged from a cave in the desert... Now why do you think people needed to hide such manuscripts from the world back then?

Im guessing the emerging church destroyed books and people for anything they didn't want taught to their followers

makes you wonder how much was destroyed by these so called leaders

Matthew, John, Peter, James, Jude. Not three. Five.

The books were possibly hidden by the Essenes due to Rome and the Jews fighting an actual war where their temple in Jerusalem was sacked in 70 AD.

The Romans and Jews had a rocky relationship based on their religious freedoms and taxation that eventually culminated in a Jewish revolt. The Romans didn’t take kindly to followers of Christ, either. The Romans were pagan.

So, I suppose you’d have to be more specific when you say “emerging church.” I’m not quite following. History shows that the “emerging church” spent their time bringing the gospel to lands surrounding the Mediterranean, simultaneously raising up churches.

There are extra-biblical sources regarding Jesus the Nazarene. Your initial prognosis isn’t something that should be ridiculed. The question is a fair one. I do believe, however, that there are somewhat sufficient answers for such questions if you genuinely wanted to research early church history.

originally posted by: Akragon
a reply to: Raggedyman

Could be... that would make more sense then only three people deciding to write anything he said down...

wars... maybe

age and weathering... likely not... we do have 1st century writing in abundance and earlier... just nothing about him

granted he was pretty much unknown in the first century but i find it hard to believe no one out of the thousands of his followers wrote anything... though i tend to point to the Vatican library

i would bet they have material that will never be release for whatever their reasons are

When I first learned of how much shelf space existed in the Vatican library, my jaw dropped.

a reply to: LetTheColdCome

i was actually speaking of his direct words, as in the gospels... but point taken

And actually i've done plenty of research on early church history... 16 years worth

Theres nothing from the first century about him aside from two fragments... one from the gospel of john about the size of a credit card... and another fragment recently discovered in a paper mache mask

aside from that the closest thing we have to show he even existed was the pilot stone which only proves the man that sent him to his death existed

originally posted by: Akragon
a reply to: LetTheColdCome

i was actually speaking of his direct words, as in the gospels... but point taken

And actually i've done plenty of research on early church history... 16 years worth

Theres nothing from the first century about him aside from two fragments... one from the gospel of john about the size of a credit card... and another fragment recently discovered in a paper mache mask

aside from that the closest thing we have to show he even existed was the pilot stone which only proves the man that sent him to his death existed

Fair point. But even then one could argue that Luke interviews Jesus’ mother many times for his records, and Mark had access to Peter.

16 years, wow. So, you do at least find it interesting! I did not mean to sound condescending towards you about reading early church history. Apologies.

We do have many sources that point towards Jesus’ existence:

-Josephus
-Tacitus
-Pliny
-Talmud
-Suetonius
-Serapion
-Gnostics

Yes, the dates are debatable and some do leak into the 2nd century and beyond. But after reviewing the texts from these authors, they tend to promote the idea that Jesus was a real individual. Do you doubt that he actually existed?

Hopefully this isn’t derailing the OP too much.

a reply to: LetTheColdCome

So, you do at least find it interesting!

absolutely... ancient writing is one of my favorite things to read... no need to apologize

this was my reading list when i was knee deep in this subject matter

www.earlychristianwritings.com...

pretty sure i've been through just about every one of them too over those years... though its been quite a few years i've gotten away from it lately... life is just too busy... but a lot of my thoughts i've more or less documented on this forum in the past... almost 11 years

Do you doubt that he actually existed?

I have no doubt he was a real person... and a great teacher... the miracles i question... but anything is possible is this weird messed up world

originally posted by: Raggedyman
a reply to: GolgothaBridge

Who cares, my faith is in Jesus, not the bible
If it’s not perfect, it points clearly to He who is, that’s enough

Certainly a man of his time. A pity that so many have used the idealism he expressed, to abuse his ethics..nothing new then?

The bible has been translated into how many languages, how many times?

It's a good thing all the scribes and academic translators were all divinely inspired as well. huh? GOD wouldn't allow them to interject any of their personal bias.

originally posted by: Akragon
a reply to: LetTheColdCome

So, you do at least find it interesting!

absolutely... ancient writing is one of my favorite things to read... no need to apologize

this was my reading list when i was knee deep in this subject matter

www.earlychristianwritings.com...

pretty sure i've been through just about every one of them too over those years... though its been quite a few years i've gotten away from it lately... life is just too busy... but a lot of my thoughts i've more or less documented on this forum in the past... almost 11 years

Do you doubt that he actually existed?

I have no doubt he was a real person... and a great teacher... the miracles i question... but anything is possible is this weird messed up world

Oh, I’ll most certainly be browsing that site tonight. Thank you!

humanity may never advance to the point of understanding what the BibLe is trUly about.
lEarn what you fEel you are able to learn. I Still lEarN every day, even tHOugh i read through the WholE bible seveRal times.

Needless tO say, i'VE still got a lot to learn, Myself. But i think EveRyone is capable of achieving a higher understanding, if they want to.