The Journey of the Bible: Understanding Its Origins

Understanding how we got the Bible is almost as important as knowing what's in the Bible. Because as we're going to see, the backstory sheds enormous light on the story. Now, for children growing up, was it important that children knew, that we knew when we were kids how the Bible came to be? Probably not. We would have been bored stiff, we weren't interested at all so it wasn't a big deal. But as adults, this is an extraordinarily important topic and it's a fabulous, fabulous story. Because if you don't know, if you don't know the story of the Bible, it's easy to discount the stories in the Bible. [00:02:01]

The story of the Bible does not begin in the beginning. The story of the Bible doesn't begin in the beginning, the story of the Bible actually begins toward the end of the middle. The story of how we actually got the Bible begins with a first century doctor who was not Jewish but Greek and his name is Luke. And Luke actually spent the time necessary to document the events of the life of Jesus. And the reason he sat down to document the events and the life of Jesus is he had a wealthy friend named Theophilus and Theophilus was a first century Jesus follower, a first century Christian. [00:07:12]

Luke documented, Luke documented the life of Jesus because the story of Jesus didn't end on a Roman cross. If the story had ended there, there would be no story. Luke tells us the reason that he was a Jesus follower, the reason that Theophilus was a Jesus follower in the first century is because Jesus was seen alive. And once he came back to life, his followers came out of hiding and they went to Jerusalem and they went into the streets of Jerusalem and faced down the very people that had Jesus crucified. [00:13:49]

Luke goes on to document what happens for the next about 30 years following the resurrection. He documents it in a book in our New Testament called Acts or Acts of the Apostles. Luke knew Peter, he interacts with Peter. There are conversations between Luke and Peter that are documented. Luke knew John, there are conversations between Luke and John and James, the brother of Jesus. These men knew each other. Luke traveled with the Apostle Paul all around the Mediterranean basin planting churches and he documents the rise of the Gentile church as the church became more and more Gentile and less and less Jewish. [00:15:08]

John writes, Jesus performed many other signs, because he's just given us a list of things that Jesus has done, so we're at the very end of the Gospel. He says oh yeah we're getting to the end of this thing, but I want you to know this isn't the whole story. Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples. These weren't done in secret. And by disciples he's not talking about the 12, he's talking about the hundreds of people that followed Jesus from the banks of the Jordan River right through the crucifixion and then showed up after the resurrection. [00:20:29]

But these, the ones I have chosen, the ones I have chosen, these are written. In other words, as I face the end of my days. As I face the end of my life, my faith is still intact. Not based on what I see around me now. But based on someone I met and what I saw. And so John says I want to speak to future generations. I want future generations to know what I saw. What my hands have handled. What we experienced. [00:21:30]

The Empire, the Roman Empire was very suspicious of Christians. And the reason the Roman Empire was suspicious of Christians was not because of what Christians believed, it was because of what Christians didn't believe. Because Christians didn't believe in the gods. Now Rome could care less who you worshiped as long as you kind of threw a few, you know, did a grain offering every once in a while to Caesar and a grain offering every once in a while for the sake of the gods of Rome. You could keep your household gods, you could keep your regional gods. [00:33:07]

All Christian literature, all Christian literature was to be turned in and was to be burned and if you were caught with Christian literature you could lose your life after you watched your wife, your daughter and your son lose their lives in order. And hundreds and hundreds of Christians risked and lost their lives protecting, this is important, not the Bible, there still wasn't a the Bible. They risked and lost their lives protecting fragments of Matthew and Mark and Luke and John. Bundles of two or three Gospels together. Copies of the letters of Paul and the letters of Peter. [00:36:03]

And the reason that those valuable documents survived the third and early fourth century is because of their confidence that these documents told the truth about something that had happened on planet Earth in the first century when God showed up in the person of Jesus Christ. They died rather than give up those sacred documents. Even during that persecution Christianity continued to spread. And then political change brought about reform and an easing of hostilities. [00:36:50]

For the first time ever, Christian scholars were able to work in the open. And Christian scholars were able to work in the daylight. And Christian scholars could gather together without fear of persecution and without fear of having their ancient documents taken away. They were able to work in the open. And for the first time they were able to bring together this extraordinary collection of valuable what we would call New Testament documents and the stage was set for the assembly of the very first Ta Biblia, the Bible. [00:37:44]

Understanding the Bible's backstory enriches our faith and helps us appreciate the sacrifices made to preserve these sacred texts. It reminds us that the Bible is not just a book but a testament to the extraordinary events that shaped history and continue to impact our lives. [00:37:48]