How We Got the Bible Introduction

Oh good evening everyone. And welcome to Sovereign Grace Academy for our new term survey of how we got the Bible. And if you are visiting or if you're tuning in to this online whether it is during the live stream or whether it is during the recording if you have any technical difficulties please let us know.

We do have someone monitoring the class right now via YouTube so if you're watching this on Facebook and you have any problems switch over to YouTube and you can ask a question or let us know if the sound is not coming through or something like that.

Well good evening everybody. We do have an actual class. It's not all online and this is one of our bigger classes and I'm thankful to have you all here. As we said tonight is called a survey of how we got the Bible.

This is an eight-week course and in just a few minutes we're going to be going over the course. Syllabus. This class lasts an hour and a half and we do take about a five minute break right at the hour mark.

So be prepared for that and like to begin this course with a word of prayer. So let's bow our heads and go to the Lord our Father and our God. We come to you in Jesus name. We thank you for giving us the opportunity to be in a class where we can learn about our Bible how it went from the hands of the writers and received into our hands through a process of inspiration canonization transmission and translation.

And Lord as we look at each of these subjects and we seek to find out more about them. I pray Lord that you would guide us and direct us by the power of your spirit. For Lord if I do not have your spirit then my teaching is in vain.

And if those who are hearing do not have the spirit then they won't be able to truly understand. So I pray Lord that your spirit would be the teacher. I pray that you would give us all a mind and a heart to understand.

And Lord I pray for our students in the classroom as well as those who are coming online. I pray that this would edify them encourage them and educate them by the power of your spirit. We pray this all in Jesus name and for his sake.

So we are continuing tonight or starting tonight with our class on how we got the Bible. And I want to give an overall introduction to the course because it may be that some of you have a question and the question might be something along the lines of why take a class on how we got the Bible.

And if you're here you probably answered that question in your own mind. But I want to give you some thoughts maybe beyond the things that you've considered as to why you're here. I think there are three reasons why every Christian should know how we got the Bible.

Why Christians Should Study How We Got the Bible

The first reason is to be informed to be informed. If we claim the Bible is the Word of God we should have a basic understanding of how it came to be. One of the biggest problems in Christian thinking today especially in the evangelical world is a satisfaction with ignorance.

We don't know and we're okay with not knowing. And that has led to many problems such as the intro intrusion of things like well-known and historically documented heresies making their way back into the church because people don't know that their heresies because people don't know their Bibles and people don't know the truth.

We've never had more information available to us than we do today and never has it been as free or readily available as it is today. And yet it seems more than ever Christians are willing to live as it were with their heads in the sand.

Now of course I'm not talking about you you're in class but in general the problem is a satisfaction with ignorance. Studying the the the history of the Bible is so that we can be informed so that we can know this thing that we hold that we call a Bible.

How did we get it. How did it go from Moses to me. That's a phrase you'll hear me say over and over and over because Moses of course wrote the first books of the Bible. How did it get from Moses to me some 3500 years later.

That's a question every Christian should at least have considered and tried to be able to answer but so often we just take things for granted. The second reason for this class after to be informed is to give a defense.

To give a defense. Those of you who are familiar with Sovereign Grace Academy know that we have eight core classes and the eight core classes include a class on apologetics. Well this class is taking the place of the apologetics class that we did two years ago.

And the reason why it's taking the place of it is because the apologetics class that we did while good I felt like needed some updating. And when I began to look into what is it that we're really facing today.

What great apologetic issue are we really facing. It's the question of the tenacity veracity and historicity of the scriptures standing on the Word of God and part of how we do that is knowing how we got the Word of God.

So it is. This is an apologetics class. First Peter 315 says sanctify the Christ. Sanctify Christ is Lord in your hearts always being ready to give a defense to anyone who asks you for the hope that is within you.

And do so with gentleness and reverence. Christians should be able to explain intelligently the basis of the Christian faith. And that certainly would include why we trust the Bible. Lastly as an introduction to the course why do we take this class.

The third reason is to have greater assurance. To have greater assurance. If you've never ever studied the history of your Bible this class will challenge you in some ways. In fact some of the things we're going to talk about may even be uncomfortable and difficult.

But it is my firm belief that a study of how we got the Bible will ultimately give you greater assurance that the Bible that you hold in your hand is accurate and truly represents what God originally gave to the Apostles and the prophets.

And that's what this is about. Having that greater assurance if you've been in any way connected to the online world and seen so much of what is being said out there so much of what is being said is an attack against the Bible.

How do you know that what you're reading is what Moses actually wrote. How do you know that you have 27 New Testament books and not 28. What about the Gospel of Thomas or the Gospel of Mary Magdalene.

Or what about those 12 books in the Catholic Bible that don't exist in the Protestant Bible. These are questions that this class will ultimately answer and give you an ability to address when you're faced with those questions.

So that is the reason for this course and that's why we have a class on how we got our Bible. And now what I'd like to do is I'd like to turn our attention to our syllabus. If you're here we handed these out before we began the class and you will note in the syllabus that it is a two-page syllabus on the front gives our overview and objections and our objectives and our requirements.

And on the back it has our course schedule. So let's turn our attention first to the front you'll notice that it has my email address and my phone number on it but let me just say this we have started a new website SovereignGraceAcademy .org and my interactions with this class are going to become almost exclusively through that site because it has a forum where I can go in and post information and you can respond with questions or comments or whatever after I've made those posts and it's going to make it to where everyone can see what's happening and ask questions.

And in case somebody asks questions somebody else needs answer to. It's going to be very helpful. However if you have a personal issue something that you don't want posted on the website you still have my number you still have my email address.

You're still welcome to email me. But I have found over the last year that email has become very difficult for some people are not getting my email. Some people it's going to their junk mail. Some of those things are happening.

So the website I do believe is going to be the better method for keeping everyone together. And if some of you have tried to register for the website as I know Rebecca told me earlier and it's not letting you in I have to go in and confirm you for some reason.

That's that's happened with four or five students so far and I'm not sure if it has to do with the email address or whatever but I have to go in and confirm it. Once I confirm it you'll be able to access everything.

After every class I'm going to put up a post that is going to have the link to the audio and video of the class in case you need to go back and see it as well as any handouts that I give out in class there will be a digital copy on the website.

All right. So if the website is really going to be helpful and I want to thank a person her name is Sarah. I want to thank her for being a blessing to me by putting this website together. She heard that we had this need.

She's not a member of our church is somebody who knew me from the online from through an online relationship and built the entire website for us. And I'm very thankful for her contributing to Sovereign Grace Academy so thankful for that.

So this class the course overview says this course will survey the inspiration canonization transmission and translation of sacred scripture. Students will be introduced to concepts such as text types textual variation and translational methodologies.

Special attention will be given to the transmission and translation of the English Bible. And the reason for that is I don't see anybody in here who speaks who doesn't speak English might speak a second language but I don't see anybody here who doesn't speak English.

So as English speakers we tend to focus on the English Bible. The required text that you are required to have are a copy of the scriptures. You have to have a Bible and you are allowed to choose whatever translation you want.

At the end of this course you may find yourself looking at a different translation just because after we talk about translational methodologies you may find that your copy of the passion translation may not be the best one.

So if that's what you brought with you you know you may find that you want a different one but as of right now any translation that you have will satisfy the requirement for the class. But if you need a Bible and you don't own a Bible as always if you're part of this class in the physical state come and see me.

I have Bibles I would love to give you. And the other book that you have to have is how we got the Bible by Neil Lightfoot. This is the third edition revised and expanded. If you have a different edition the page numbers will be different.

I found that out recently because I was looking at some notes from an old edition and it was a totally different page totally different chapter setup. So you really need this one if you don't. If you didn't get this one send it back and get this one as this is.

It's not going to it's not going to work if you don't or it's not going to be easy for you. If you don't you also have suggested text. Now I brought my pile of suggested text with me. I'll go through these very quickly.

Question of the Canon by Michael Kruger. This is this book is worth its weight. It's very good and when next week when we talk about the Canon I'm going to be referencing that a lot. King James only controversy and the King James version debate.

This is by James White. This is by DA Carson. Two very good books and the DA Carson ones about 50 years old was written the 70s so interesting just a different perspective because a different time. Scripture alone by James White this one deals more with what we mean when we say we believe in sola scriptura and why we believe in scripture alone.

It's a soul infallible rule of faith. Very good book and this is. This is a visual aid and I'm going to be using this in class. It's called how we got the Bible by Clint Arnold and it's got a lot of visual pictures of things like like this right here.

This is a leaf from a papyri codex. We're going to be talking about that in class. What is a papyri codex. What's the difference between a scroll and a codex. So I'm going to be using this just to show you pictures but I can't photocopy out of this book that would be copyright infringement so I'm not going to give you handouts.

You're welcome to look at the book. Don't take it home because I need it for class but if you want to get yourself a copy this is a nice visual aid. And speaking of visual aids another book I always recommend is the Rose book of Bible charts.

If you've been in my other classes I make this I think is a requirement for Old Testament because of all the Old Testament charts and things that it has. This book is like 20 bucks. It's great for anybody's library.

And Rose also has a smaller version of how we got the Bible. This one's $5 so if you don't want the whole thing if you can't afford the whole thing you can get this for like $4 .99 off Amazon and it's just the section on how we got the Bible.

But if you have this you don't need this because this has this in it all right now. This last one this is a I almost called a magazine but it is a book. It's just printed like a magazine. This is on the history of the Dead Sea Scrolls and when we do our Old Testament survey which would be our class 3 survey of the Old Testament manuscripts.

If you're not familiar with the history of the Dead Sea Scrolls we're going to be talking about that in class and we're going to be drawing some things from this book. This again has some visual aids and stuff.

So these are all things that you can if you want to come look at these during the break and talk about how how to get those. All of those would be useful and helpful but the only thing you have to have is this book.

Your required readings will come out of this book. Class attendance has changed a little bit because we know that there are those who are participating only online at this point. Basically this is what is required.

You have to have notes from every class to pass the class. So if you miss a class or two classes make sure that you watch the video and take notes so that at the end of the course you can show me your notes.

And online students are going to be required to take pictures of their notes and send them to me for me to see. And they can do that through the website. So that's a big deal. But that's the only way I can know you're paying attention.

And by the way if you don't have a notebook tonight remedy that by next week you need to have a notebook for every one of our classes and it needs to be its own thing its own individual notebook. I still have notebooks from seminary when I was in school and I still have that that blessing of being able to go back and see my own handwriting my own studies that were done over the years of being in school.

And if you do that here you'll have the same thing. It's it really is a treasure of your time in the classroom and it's your your thoughts writing down the notes as we go through these things as we go down it talks about academic character.

We don't allow for cheating in any form and that includes the use of artificial intelligence. It's not written on here but that is a new thing. I was talking to Mike about this last night. Yes you can go on to chat GPT and it will write you a very good essay but that is cheating.

And even though I may not be able to know it's cheating God will know it's cheating. So when your essays are due and your work is due if you're having the computer do it for you shame on you that's best I can say don't do that and don't cheat.

Don't take from other people without giving credit. As you know the difference between plagiarism and research is footnotes. It's kind of a joke but they're very research. They say plagiarism is when you steal from one person and research is when you steal from everybody.

But you got to give everybody credit when you do that. And if you don't know how to add footnotes if you don't there's all kinds of websites but I'm more than happy to help you if you need help with that.

When it comes time you will receive a final examination. Your final examination will probably be four to five pages long which will include an essay section and that's what I'm talking about when I talk about your writing we may have a midterm quiz.

If we do it's going to be digital. I'm working on a digital quiz right now to send out via the website where you can go in and actually do a multiple-choice quiz and get a grade immediately. So I'm working on that.

Hopefully it'll be done by class for one class this semester I will be out. It is the class on the history of the English Bible part one and that is going to be taught by brother Mike Collier. He is going to come in and fill the class that evening and he's already got the notes and is already studying for that class.

So there's one class that I'll be in. I'll be in Mississippi for the fire conference that week and I didn't want to miss a week so he's going to come in and fill that fill that in. Come on in brother.

So that leads us to our the back page of our syllabus and on the back page of our syllabus you will see there are eight lectures. It's lecture number six that brother Mike is going to be brother page or lecture number six the one Mike is going to be here teaching.

So tonight we are in lecture number one. You'll notice it goes across the page the date of the lecture the the title the content to be covered and then we have the assignment due. The assignment due is every week you have a reading assignment every week you are required to read from this book.

This week you are required to read pages one and I'm sorry pages chapters one and two the week after that I know it sounds weird but you're going to read chapter 14 and 15 and the reason why is the outline of what I'm teaching is different than the outline in the book.

And there and I had to go through the book and figure out how to make that work. He does not go to canonization immediately and I'm going to so that's why you're going to go to chapter 14 and 15 and read then you're going to go back to 12 and 13 for the Old Testament.

Then you're going to read chapters 3 5 6 for the New Testament. I'm leaving out chapter 4. I do recommend you read it but I don't require it. Chapter 4 is all about the history of Codex Sinaiticus. It is a very important historical part of the book but it's not absolutely necessary for you to know it's it's it's filled with a lot of really cool information but I had to put it in a situation where I felt like you could get through it in a week and I felt like four chapters was a lot to ask.

So I brought it down to three chapters. If you want to read chapter 4 do it but just know it's not required during the class. And then when you get to lecture 6 it's only one chapter for for for three weeks it's chapter 16 chapter 17 and chapter 18 where we begin our study of the English Bible.

Any questions about the syllabus. Yes sir. How much does what cost. Well you should have a book already provided for you set free sets provide your guys books and I'm not sure how much it is. I think it's $16.

Is that about. Right. You guys who bought the book 12. Yeah it's not. It's it's not. This book is not expensive at all. It's it's very very reasonably priced. All right. So did you get a copy of this.

All right. David here you go take that. Yeah. All right. So that is going over the syllabus and I know that's a lot to go through but class one we always have to go through that. Let's now turn our attention to our first outline.

We're going to look at three questions as or excuse me three sections as part of tonight's outline. The first question is what does the Bible claim to be. The second question is who wrote the Bible. And thirdly we are going to look at the four steps of the revelatory process.

The four steps of the revelatory process. So let's first look at what does the Bible claim to be. If you have your Bibles open them with me to 2nd Timothy 2nd Timothy chapter 3 and go to verse 16. Now many of you are familiar with this passage.

If you have done my study through theology when we talked about the doctrine of Revelation we looked at this passage. This is a very familiar passage especially for those in the Reformed community because we talk a lot about Scripture and what Scripture is.

And this is one of the most important foundational passages in regard to what the Scripture is. And it says in 2nd Timothy chapter 3 verse 16 all Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching for reproof for correction and for training in righteousness that the man of God may be complete equipped for every good work.

So the word that is important in this particular passage though all the words are important but the word that is important is the word they honest us. They honest us. And that word comes from a breakdown of two words the word chaos which means God.

And Pneuma had a little trouble there which means air or breath or breathe. And any of you have been in my class before you know that what I'm getting across from this passage is that it says that Scripture is breathed out by God.

The word Pneuma is brought into our own language by the word pneumatic. If you have air-filled tires on your car they're called pneumatic tires. If you have a wrench that's driven by an air compressor that is called a pneumatic tool.

And if you're like me when I was a kid and I learned the word pneumatic I was always surprised to note that it starts with a P instead of an N just like the word pneumonia starts with the letter P. And the reason why is because it's drawn directly from the Greek language.

The word in Greek Pneuma. Sometimes the P is dropped off by modern speakers. But we really don't know how the ancient world would have spoke because we don't coin a Greek is no longer a spoken language.

So we can assume that. Or we can we can't assume that we know for certain. But what we do know is this Erasmian pronunciation is uses all the different sounds. So when you say a word with Erasmian pronunciation you simply pronounce all the letters.

So you'll hear me say they are new stars. It's actually they are new stars. There's a you would actually pronounce the P. Not that any of this matters but it's just a nice little nice little historical thing.

So they honest us it's God breathe. But what is it that's God breathe. Read it again. It says all what all scripture is God breathed. So immediately we have a question mark. Because it doesn't tell us Matthew Mark Luke and John Acts Romans first and second Corinthians Galatians Ephesians Philippians Colossians first and second.

Yeah it doesn't say that is God breathed. It also doesn't say Genesis Exodus Leviticus Numbers Deuteronomy Joshua Judges Ruth is God breathed. It doesn't say that it says all scripture is God breathed.

And so we immediately have the question of well what constitutes this. Well I am convinced right away that when Paul was talking in 2nd Timothy about scripture that he had in mind what we would call the Old Testament that he was referring to the scripture that he was actually using for teaching and studying and he would be referring to the Old Testament.

Now in my Old Testament class and for those of you who took it you'll remember that the Jewish Old Testament is numbered differently than the the way that we number our Bible. The the the modern way of numbering our Bible has 39 Old Testament books.

But the Jews number their books differently and you end up with 24. Some say 22 and again that's a debate you know whether it's 22 24 but you it's it's a different numbering system because like all 12 of the minor prophets are made into one book right.

And you don't have first and second Samuel just have Samuel. And so when you begin to bring it down like that the numbers get smaller but the books remain the same. So the books that we call the Old Testament are the same books that the Jews understood to be the Old Testament and those would be in line with the scripture.

So all scripture at least we know Paul recognized the Old Testament as being scripture and and you guys know what a Venn diagram is. I'm going to talk about this more when we do our we do our Canon study.

But I just want to throw it out there right. Now you if you take this circle and you imagine this circle represents all all literature all literature that's ever been written all right. Would we say God has breathed out every book that's ever been written.

Go ahead and say no. It's the answers no in this context of God breathe God speaking because that's what God breathe means. God has not spoken his through every book. I'll go ahead and say it the Quran is not God breathed even though certainly the Muslims would disagree the Book of Mormon is not God breathed even though they would disagree so and even you know Huck Finn is not God breathed.

So so in this in this category of all literature of human history we would put a smaller very smaller circle that would be defined as scripture. Now it is within the realm of literature. But it is a particular type of literature.

It is the God breathed literature the God breathed scripture. And this is what the Jews referred to as scripture. And Paul says all scripture is God breathed. And we'll talk in our next class about how we define that.

How do we know what books are God breathed or not. That's the question of canon which will be next time. But the point is when he says all scripture is God breathed he's saying something. He's saying this these books are different.

These books are different from the vast libraries of mankind. These books are different and they're different because they're God breathed as the King James says inspired. And one of the issues with the word inspired even though I think it's a word and we do use the word.

That's why we call this inspiration right. The inspiration of scripture. But the problem with the word inspiration is it's been so misused today. Somebody looks at a mountain and says oh I'm inspired by the beauty of the mountain.

Or they say I was inspired to write a song. And I've even heard false teachers say I was inspired to write this book the same way the Apostle Paul was inspired to write the letter to the Romans. And it's like slow down.

You're you're teetering on blasphemy because it's not the same. It's not the same. Now a big question that often is asked. Well do we believe the New Testament. Even though Paul was only speaking about the Old Testament in 2nd Timothy 3.

Do we believe that he recognized his letters as being part of that scripture. I do believe that he did. I do believe a case can very easily be made from the New Testament that the New Testament writers understood that what they were writing was to be understood as scripture.

Especially Matthew who seems to begin his gospel as if he's completing what the Old Testament ends with by giving us a genealogy and all the things that we see in these Old Testament books. We see this in Matthew.

And we see this this book about Jesus to sort of bring in this story as a completion of what had happened with the people of Israel now coming into the people of God in the New Covenant. And Paul of course speaks with the authority of God.

He gives commands on of the authority of Christ. Peter calls Paul's work scripture. Peter actually identifies Paul's letters as writing scripture. And that's an important text we'll look at. So there are things that tell us the New Testament is to be included in this section in this group called scripture.

And we'll deal with that a little bit more in our class on Canon. Why do we believe 39 Old Testament 27 New Testament. But for the most part when we say what is the Bible claim to be it claims to be God breathed literature.

God breathed scripture. That's what it claims for itself. Now we have to make a distinction running out of board space. Here I have an eraser. Excuse me. We have to make a distinction between. Well that's not good anyway we have to make a distinction between what is called the autographs and the copies.

Now very quickly what would be the autograph. What do you think the original. Right. The autograph is the original document. The original document. I have a question. Feel free to raise your hand if you know the answer of the 66 books of the Bible that we currently possess how many of them do we still possess the autograph.

Gory hands. I'm David's right. But was that what you were going to say. Nope not even one. We no longer possess the original writing of any of the New Testament documents. They do not exist in anywhere known to man.

And even if we found one I don't know that we would know it was it. But the original autographs no longer exist. What we are dealing with our copies and that's an important distinction. Because when we talk about inspiration when we talk inspiration we have to understand that when we say God inspired a writing we are talking about the autographs not the copies.

Now that makes people very uncomfortable. Or you tell me my Bible isn't inspired. What I am telling you is what was inspired was the original writing. The copies that have been passed down to us. As we're going to see through this study is the copies do have variations.

The copies do have scribal errors and things like that in them. And those have to be defined discovered studied and all of those things even the very very meticulously handed down Jewish manuscripts are found at times to have differences.

And so when we talk about what is inspired we say the autographs are inspired. If you read our statement of faith from Sovereign Grace Family Church it says very clearly in our statement of faith that we believe the Bible is inerrant in the original autographs.

To make that clear. Now we're going to talk about how accurate what we have is. And I do believe it's accurate. I do believe it's true and I believe the Bible. But we have to when we talk about inspiration inspiration is related to the autographs.

Providential transmission is related to the copies. And it's two different concepts. If you believe the copies every copy has been inspired. Then you run into an issue because some of the copies are flat-out wrong.

There was a Bible printed that said thou shalt commit adultery because they left out the word not in the Ten Commandments. What if somebody said well this is what God meant for me to have you know that's not how that works.

So you see what I mean when I say the copies themselves are not inspired. Inspiration exists in the autographs alone. Now second question is the writing inspired or is the writer inspired. It's another big question.

Okay according to Scripture it's the writings themselves not the writer. Now I'm not saying that God didn't carry them along use them and superintend what they were doing. But oftentimes you'll hear people say Paul was inspired to write Romans.

That's not the right way to say it. It's not that's just not the right way to say it. The Bible doesn't say it that way. The Bible says the Scripture is inspired. It never mentions the author. The author is the medium of how the Scripture comes.

But the Scripture itself is what is superintended by God. And there is a distinction to be made there. When we start talking about Paul being inspired we get into that whole again the question of well what about I was inspired when I wrote my book.

Or you were inspired when you did this or whatever. It's the autographs that are inspired. It is the writings that are inspired. Now when we talk about inspiration we have to consider both the divine and the human element.

The divine element is God himself working through the writers ensuring that what he wants said is what is said. Probably the best passage for this is 2nd Peter chapter 1 verses 20 and 21. And this is what it says.

But know this first of all that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will but men were moved by the Holy Spirit and spoke from God.

So what that tells us is that the prophecies of Scripture that which is in the Bible was from the Spirit written by men who were being kept or carried by the Spirit of God. I use the word super intend.

The word super intend you think of like a superintendent right. Somebody who's in charge. The writer of Romans is Paul. But the superintendent of Romans is the Holy Spirit. The writer of Hebrews is unknown but the superintendent is the Holy Spirit.

And that's what we mean by the divine element. But we also have a human element in inspiration. The human element is the person himself. Paul writes differently than Luke does. And you might not notice as clearly when you read English but when you read the original language you can see using a different vocabulary.

John writes very differently than Paul. John uses a very limited vocabulary. He uses a lot of the same words over and over and over John certain words he calls Jesus the Logos. John is the one who does that.

Right. We don't see that in other writers. John uses that identification for Jesus. Paul talks a lot about words like justification righteousness and works. But James uses those terms slightly differently than Paul does because James is making an argument about what our faith produces versus Paul who is arguing about justification being by faith and not by works.