Encore Post: When we think about the Bible today, we think about it as one book. And so it is. God is the author of all of Holy Scriptures. He spoke though his prophets, evangelists, apostles and — most importantly — his Son. (Hebrews 1:1-2) It has a single theme: how God saved the world by sending his Son to die for us.
Yet in most languages the word for Bible is plural — Biblia — books! In fact, when we call the Word of God the Holy Scriptures you can see that even in English. Scriptures is plural too! The Bible is a library of sixty-six books written over a period of about 1500 years. At first they were written literally in stone and clay tablets. Later they were recorded on papyrus (paper made from reeds that grow along the Nile River) and on animal skins, rolled into scrolls. Copies were made by hand, one by one, a scholar carefully copying it letter by letter. Later the whole thing would be memorized and passed from one teacher to his students.
At the time of Jesus’ ministry, a new form of the book took form. Rather than roll a book up on spindles, small segments were sewed together along one edge creating a codex — the form with which we are most familiar. It was easier to carry, to page through and to read. To make many copies, one person would read it from a desk called a lecturn — a reading stand — and multiple scribes would carefully write it down word for word.
At first the words of Jesus were memorized by his disciples and hearers. It was a part of the way rabbis taught. They would perhaps also take notes on Roman wax tablets from which they would later copy. After a period of time the Evangelists (literally translated gospelists) would bring these together with their own testimony and that of others to produce books from which the faith could be taught. The rest of the New Testament are letters written mostly by St. Paul, St. Peter and St. John, to pass instructions and encouragement to growing churches far away. The ones the church recognized as the very words of God were copied and collected into codices (plural of codex) and carried wherever the Gospel would be preached.
Eventually the Word of God would be translated into many languages and copied in numbers greater than any other book in history. When the printing press came into being, the first book printed was — you guessed it — the Bible. Now everyone could afford to buy one. In our age, the Bible continues to be the most translated and printed book. Yet it also now is in electronic form. It is easier than ever to read, learn and hear God’s own message to you.
©2019 Robert E. Smith. All rights reserved. Permission granted to copy, share and display freely for non-commercial purposes. Direct all other rights and permissions inquiries to cosmithb@gmail.com
What about those apocryphal books included in some bibles ?
That is another subject. 😉 in short, the whole church never accepted them as Scripture