Jim Parker
Member
Bible 101 Class One
Introduction to the Bible Lesson 1A
First I’d like to “set the scene” for the writing of the scriptures. They were writing in the “milieu” (time and place and culture) of the writers. It is important to remember that because we tend to read them from our own “milieu” which is the 21st century, western, Modern English-speaking, scientific and information age, culture. Coming from that point of view will distort the message of the Bible if we try to apply our modern, western culture and language to their ancient, near eastern languages and cultures.
The scriptures were written in the milieu of the writer including:
The time of writing, which is from about 1500 BC to about 90 AD.
The languages of the original scriptures were: Ancient Hebrew, Chaldean, and Koine Greek. None of those languages are still spoken.
The cultures were from bronze age to iron age, near eastern, pre-scientific, agricultural societies.
Politically, the times included from city-states and kingdoms, like Ur and Sodom, to empires like the Hittites, the Babylonians, the Persians, the Greeks and, finally, the Roman empire.
The books of the Bible are written in the styles and formats, and conventions of the literature of the days and the cultures in which the writers lived. We have to be careful not to insert our modern experience of literature into the scriptures.
Chapters and Verses
The Bible was written without chapters and verses. Chapters and verses were added in the 16th century to help readers find passages.
That’s a good thing
However, chapters and verses tend to break up the writer’s thoughts into small pieces and cause people to see each verse as a “stand alone” statement or rather than part of a large communication and that can cause misunderstanding.
It can cause misunderstanding by taking a single verse or a piece of a verse out of its context to use as a “proof text” for some belief or doctrine. That is an improper use of scripture and should be avoided. It is improper because removes the verse from the author’s train of thought and looses some of its meaning in the process.
Sometimes it works because the belief or doctrine is supported by the context as well as the verse or piece of that verse. But, all too often, taking a piece of a passage out of the passage, ignoring what the rest of the passage is about, and using the “cut out” to prove a doctrine is not good practice.
Reading the Bible:
Make sure you understand what you read. By that I mean, make sure that the scripture you just read actually says what you think it said. It is useful to go back and read a passage two or three times if necessary to make sure that it actually said what you thought it said. We often read a passage thinking we already know what it says and totally miss the fact that it’s saying something we didn’t see before.
For example: Rom 8:29 “For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.”
Does that say God predestined some people to be saved?
No. It does not. It says that those God foreknew are predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son. Being “conformed” is a process, not the final status of being “saved.” God established that process for believers to be conformed to the image of Christ and, as long as we stay on that path, nothing can keep us from that goal; nothing can remove us from that path. Salvation is the endpoint of the process. Entering into the process is the starting point.
As Paul also said
So Paul, who used the term predestined in Romans and Ephesians, also exhorted believers to stay the course so that, like him, we might reach the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
Don’t go beyond what the words actually say.
1. What is the Bible?
Probably the most common response to that question is, “It’s God’s word.” But that’s not the answer to this question. That’s the answer to the question; “What is contained IN the Bible?”
The Bible is God’s self-revelation to man. It is a set of books that reveals to man everything we need to know about God. Notice I said “everything we need to know about God” rather than “everything about God.” God does not reveal everything about Himself to man. (Deut 29:29) but He reveals what is important for us to know.
The type of communication found in the Bible is Literature (not the transcript of the video tapes) It is the written record of what God revealed to His people, what He did and does and what man does and is supposed to do but has a hard time keeping focused.
2. The Bible contains a variety of types of literature.
History: The Bible contains historical information that is useful in relating the story of how God has related to mankind in order to do everything necessary so that mankind may have eternal life. However, the Bible is not a “History Book”. The focus of a history book is: what happened when, where, by whom, why, and how it effected later events.
The Bible, although written in the context of history (time and space) is not a history book because, it does not have as it’s focus those historical events, but rather, what those events tell us about how God relates to mankind and how we are to relate to God.
For example: The Flood.
Every culture around the world seems to have a flood myth. “Myth” is a story that gives meaning to an event. A myth is NOT the same thing as a “fairy tale”. “Myth” is the attempt to explain what a real, historical event means to us.
In the flood myths of Mesopotamia (the kingdoms along the Tigris-Euphrates river plain) the reason for the flood was that the earth complained to the gods that it could not support all the people and needed relief. The gods then sent a flood to kill all the people so the earth could have some peace and quiet but some people escaped the flood in a boat and were able to restart the world population. The gods didn’t want a repeat of the overpopulation so they caused more women to be barren; they increased the infant mortality rate by sending a demon to kill infants; and they caused some women to choose not to have children. So, the earth was saved from overpopulation.
Noah’s flood story tells us that the cause of the flood was that man had become so evil and sinful that God could no longer tolerate their wickedness. So, God told the one righteous man left (Noah) to build and ark and to gather two of each animal so God could wipe out the evil population, start over and give mankind a second chance.
In the Biblical flood epic (which was written abut 500 years after the Mesopotamian epics) the cause of the flood was man’s evil. In the perspective of God, life is always a blessing. Children, new lives, are always a blessing to the believer. That is unlike the pagan view of the city dwellers who saw new life (children) only as a conditional blessing. (“We can afford another mouth to feed…”)
So, the Bible records the same flood that every culture in the world records but it gives a different meaning to it. A “History” would seek to understand the geography and climate issues that brought the flood about and the cultural changes that followed the catastrophe. The Bible tells us, based on the same event, God’s view that sin brings catastrophe and life is always good.
A large part of the Old Testament contains historical information about the formation of the nation of the Jews. But note, that it is not so much a history of the events surrounding the rise and fall of the kingdoms of the Jews, as it is the Hebrew’s “Story of Us.” The focus is not so much about the historical events of the times and places and peoples when the Jewish kingdoms were being established and their rise and decline as it is about the nature of man who chooses a worldly king (Saul) in place of God as their King, and how that turning from a heavenly king to an earthly one is followed by the decline of the nation because man really needs God to be our King. Those historical books point us to the coming of the King of Kings who, unlike all earthly kings, will rule in perfect righteousness, justice and love.
Introduction to the Bible Lesson 1A
First I’d like to “set the scene” for the writing of the scriptures. They were writing in the “milieu” (time and place and culture) of the writers. It is important to remember that because we tend to read them from our own “milieu” which is the 21st century, western, Modern English-speaking, scientific and information age, culture. Coming from that point of view will distort the message of the Bible if we try to apply our modern, western culture and language to their ancient, near eastern languages and cultures.
The scriptures were written in the milieu of the writer including:
The time of writing, which is from about 1500 BC to about 90 AD.
The languages of the original scriptures were: Ancient Hebrew, Chaldean, and Koine Greek. None of those languages are still spoken.
The cultures were from bronze age to iron age, near eastern, pre-scientific, agricultural societies.
Politically, the times included from city-states and kingdoms, like Ur and Sodom, to empires like the Hittites, the Babylonians, the Persians, the Greeks and, finally, the Roman empire.
The books of the Bible are written in the styles and formats, and conventions of the literature of the days and the cultures in which the writers lived. We have to be careful not to insert our modern experience of literature into the scriptures.
Chapters and Verses
The Bible was written without chapters and verses. Chapters and verses were added in the 16th century to help readers find passages.
That’s a good thing
However, chapters and verses tend to break up the writer’s thoughts into small pieces and cause people to see each verse as a “stand alone” statement or rather than part of a large communication and that can cause misunderstanding.
It can cause misunderstanding by taking a single verse or a piece of a verse out of its context to use as a “proof text” for some belief or doctrine. That is an improper use of scripture and should be avoided. It is improper because removes the verse from the author’s train of thought and looses some of its meaning in the process.
Sometimes it works because the belief or doctrine is supported by the context as well as the verse or piece of that verse. But, all too often, taking a piece of a passage out of the passage, ignoring what the rest of the passage is about, and using the “cut out” to prove a doctrine is not good practice.
Reading the Bible:
Make sure you understand what you read. By that I mean, make sure that the scripture you just read actually says what you think it said. It is useful to go back and read a passage two or three times if necessary to make sure that it actually said what you thought it said. We often read a passage thinking we already know what it says and totally miss the fact that it’s saying something we didn’t see before.
For example: Rom 8:29 “For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.”
Does that say God predestined some people to be saved?
No. It does not. It says that those God foreknew are predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son. Being “conformed” is a process, not the final status of being “saved.” God established that process for believers to be conformed to the image of Christ and, as long as we stay on that path, nothing can keep us from that goal; nothing can remove us from that path. Salvation is the endpoint of the process. Entering into the process is the starting point.
As Paul also said
Phl 3:12-14 Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on,
that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me.
Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended;
but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind
and reaching forward to those things which are ahead,
I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me.
Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended;
but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind
and reaching forward to those things which are ahead,
I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
So Paul, who used the term predestined in Romans and Ephesians, also exhorted believers to stay the course so that, like him, we might reach the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
Don’t go beyond what the words actually say.
1. What is the Bible?
Probably the most common response to that question is, “It’s God’s word.” But that’s not the answer to this question. That’s the answer to the question; “What is contained IN the Bible?”
The Bible is God’s self-revelation to man. It is a set of books that reveals to man everything we need to know about God. Notice I said “everything we need to know about God” rather than “everything about God.” God does not reveal everything about Himself to man. (Deut 29:29) but He reveals what is important for us to know.
The type of communication found in the Bible is Literature (not the transcript of the video tapes) It is the written record of what God revealed to His people, what He did and does and what man does and is supposed to do but has a hard time keeping focused.
2. The Bible contains a variety of types of literature.
History: The Bible contains historical information that is useful in relating the story of how God has related to mankind in order to do everything necessary so that mankind may have eternal life. However, the Bible is not a “History Book”. The focus of a history book is: what happened when, where, by whom, why, and how it effected later events.
The Bible, although written in the context of history (time and space) is not a history book because, it does not have as it’s focus those historical events, but rather, what those events tell us about how God relates to mankind and how we are to relate to God.
For example: The Flood.
Every culture around the world seems to have a flood myth. “Myth” is a story that gives meaning to an event. A myth is NOT the same thing as a “fairy tale”. “Myth” is the attempt to explain what a real, historical event means to us.
In the flood myths of Mesopotamia (the kingdoms along the Tigris-Euphrates river plain) the reason for the flood was that the earth complained to the gods that it could not support all the people and needed relief. The gods then sent a flood to kill all the people so the earth could have some peace and quiet but some people escaped the flood in a boat and were able to restart the world population. The gods didn’t want a repeat of the overpopulation so they caused more women to be barren; they increased the infant mortality rate by sending a demon to kill infants; and they caused some women to choose not to have children. So, the earth was saved from overpopulation.
Noah’s flood story tells us that the cause of the flood was that man had become so evil and sinful that God could no longer tolerate their wickedness. So, God told the one righteous man left (Noah) to build and ark and to gather two of each animal so God could wipe out the evil population, start over and give mankind a second chance.
In the Biblical flood epic (which was written abut 500 years after the Mesopotamian epics) the cause of the flood was man’s evil. In the perspective of God, life is always a blessing. Children, new lives, are always a blessing to the believer. That is unlike the pagan view of the city dwellers who saw new life (children) only as a conditional blessing. (“We can afford another mouth to feed…”)
So, the Bible records the same flood that every culture in the world records but it gives a different meaning to it. A “History” would seek to understand the geography and climate issues that brought the flood about and the cultural changes that followed the catastrophe. The Bible tells us, based on the same event, God’s view that sin brings catastrophe and life is always good.
A large part of the Old Testament contains historical information about the formation of the nation of the Jews. But note, that it is not so much a history of the events surrounding the rise and fall of the kingdoms of the Jews, as it is the Hebrew’s “Story of Us.” The focus is not so much about the historical events of the times and places and peoples when the Jewish kingdoms were being established and their rise and decline as it is about the nature of man who chooses a worldly king (Saul) in place of God as their King, and how that turning from a heavenly king to an earthly one is followed by the decline of the nation because man really needs God to be our King. Those historical books point us to the coming of the King of Kings who, unlike all earthly kings, will rule in perfect righteousness, justice and love.