PLAY ILLUMINATING BUMPER VIDEO,
right before I get up to speak.
It is in the shared Google Drive Folder (HCC Sunday AMz/Technology Sunday AM-z)
Be sure it is NOT on loop and the sound is up at the start.
THANKS
The B.I.B.L.E.
Yes, that’s the book for me.
I stand alone on the Word of God.
The B.I.B.L.E.
What is the Bible? Part 1
The Bible is NOT…
Bible McNuggets
“Philip Yancey has said we’ve essentially reduced our engagement with the Scriptures to eating Bible McNuggets. And snacking, once you’ve begun to indulge it, is an unhealthy but hard habit to break” (Paauw, Saving the Bible from Ourselves, 56).
“Biblicism is a type of approach that says that all I need is my KJV/ESV/NASB and me, there are no factors outside the Bible that should effect biblical interpretation and they definitely don’t shape my interpretation of the Bible.”
~ Michael Bird
Biblicism is the belief that “the Bible is the actual word of God and should be taken literally, word for word...” [with no study or interpretation or no trying to understand it in its OWN ANCIENT WORLD. Just read it].
Biblicism is everywhere in evangelical popular culture, including, for instance, on the Internet. One Bible website dedicated to helping readers in ‘selecting the best Bible translations,’ for example, is entitled ‘God's Handbook to Life’” (6).
One website read, “The Bible is an encyclopedia on all subjects you can think of under the sun" (6).
Still another website read, “‘The Bible is designed by God to provide US a blueprint for living life. It's like an owner's manual for a piece of exercise equipment. We can make the best use of the equipment if we read the owner's manual so we are aware of how to use all the special capabilities and how all the ‘buttons and whistles’ work. When it breaks down, we can look in the manual to know how to repair it’” (7).
a
Biblicism, therefore, is a commitment to the unified, obviously self-interpreting whole view of the Bible as the inspired and inerrant Word of God with an emphasis on interpreting it with minimal reliance on external traditions, human experiences, philosophies, or human reasoning. Biblicists seek to apply the Bible’s teachings directly to everyday life, often prioritizing “clear,” simplistic or rigid, prescriptive instructions, sometimes ignoring historical and cultural contexts.
The word "Bible" originates from the Greek word βιβλία (biblía), which means "books." It is the plural form of βιβλίον (biblíon), which means "book" or "scroll."
“The Bible is … a mixture of history, literature, and theology. It contains a diverse array of genres including ancient Near Eastern creation stories, Bronze Age law codes, historical narratives, Hebrew poetry, wisdom literature, prophecy, Greco-Roman biography, ancient Greek historiography, letters, and an apocalypse” (xvii).
“The Bible is a small library of books that all emerged out of the history of the people of ancient Israel.
And in one sense, [the Jews] were just like any other ancient civilization, but among them were a long line of individuals called prophets, and they viewed Israel's story as anything but ordinary. They saw it as a central part of what God was doing for all humanity.
And these prophets were literary geniuses. They expertly crafted the Hebrew language to write epic narratives, very sophisticated poetry.
They were masters of metaphor and storytelling, and they leveraged all of this to explore life's most complicated questions about death and life and the human struggle. And these texts [the OT] were produced over a thousand year period starting with Israel's origins in Egypt then leading up to their kingdom with their first temple.
But eventually they were conquered
by the Babylonians, who took them away into exile. Then at a crucial moment in their history, many Israelites returned to their land. They built a second temple, they reformed their identity, and this is when the Jewish Scriptures begin to be formed into the shape that we have them today.
South Is.
captured
586 BC
North Is. captured
722 BC
We have another writing from that period called The Babylonian Talmud, which is a central text of Rabbinic Judaism, comprising a vast collection of discussions, legal rulings, ethical teachings, and interpretations of Jewish law (Halakha) and scripture (the Torah). (Sometimes in a 35 volume set.)
Just because the Israelites were captured by the Babylonians didn’t mean that they weren’t doing anything. This is when many scholars believe that the oral teachings of Jewish Scriptures were compiled, edited, and written down.
Torah
Nevi’im
Ketuvim
“Teachings”
“Prophets”
“Writings”
Genesis
Exodus
Leviticus
Numbers
Deuteronomy
TaNaKh
The Hebrew Scriptures
Joshua
Judges
Samuel
Kings
Isaiah
Jeremiah
Ezekiel
The Twelve
Psalms, Proverbs, Job
Song of Songs
Ruth
Lamentations
Ecclesiastes
Esther
Daniel
Ezra/Nehemiah
Chronicles
Former
Prophets
Latter
Prophets
The different order of our OT was influenced by the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures used by early Christians. The Septuagint (LXX) was translated between the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC by 70 translators in Alexandria, Egypt. It grouped books by genre rather than by the Jewish canonical order.
“When tales were told or wisdom conveyed, the documents were not checked out of the library. Such information was resident in the oral traditions of the culture and was drawn from them. Authority was not connected to a document but to the person of authority behind the document when that person was known, or to the tradition itself” (27).
“Our modern Western society operates on the premise of literacy. It is not just that we value reading and writing enough to try to teach these skills to every child throughout their education; reading and writing are essential to even a basic level of participation in society. It is the rare person who cannot read and write. Western culture can therefore be described as a text-dominant culture.
“The ancient world was consistently hearing dominate rather than text dominate. Information was disseminated orally. Traditions were passed on by word of mouth generation to generation. The ability to read or write was not essential to be a fully functioning member of society, and literacy was not a part of the basic education process, formal or informal, so no one was disadvantaged if they could not read or write” (19).
“Before there were books and handwritten copies, there were only oral texts. Jesus Sermon on the Mount, before anyone wrote it down, was an oral text. Texts came into existence and were passed along differently in a world dominated by hearing. Brains were wired differently” (11).
“In the ancient world, it was the scribes who represented the specialist minority. Other members of a society might have been capable of learning to read and write, and in some periods and places undoubtedly did so at a very basic level,' but there was no need for common people or even elites to become literate …to function.
“It would not be an overstatement to say that in the ancient world there were no authors and there were no books-at least not in anything like the form that we are familiar with today. Instead there were authorities, documents and scribes” (25).
Now that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. They were talking with each other about everything that had happened. As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them; but they were kept from recognizing him.
Luke 24:13-19
He asked them, “What are you discussing together as you walk along?”
They stood still, their faces downcast. One of them, named Cleopas, asked him, “Are you the only one visiting Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?”
“What things?” he asked.
Luke 24:13-19
He said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?” And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.
Luke 24:25-27
Torah
Nevi’im
Ketuvim
“Teachings”
“Prophets”
“Writings”
Genesis
Exodus
Leviticus
Numbers
Deuteronomy
TaNaKh
The Hebrew Scriptures
Joshua
Judges
Samuel
Kings
Isaiah
Jeremiah
Ezekiel
The Twelve
Psalms, Proverbs, Job
Song of Songs
Ruth
Lamentations
Ecclesiastes
Esther
Daniel
Ezra/Nehemiah
Chronicles
Former
Prophets
Latter
Prophets
The Bible is not just a book; it is a library of books, many books, describing the origins of the Hebrew people, the person and work of Jesus Christ, and the spread of the Christian church. Yet its central character is God— the God who creates, who legislates, who rescues rebels, who becomes human, and who makes all things new” (xvii).
The B.I.B.L.E.
Yes, that’s the LIBRARY OF BOOKS for me.
I stand alone on the Word of God.
The B.I.B.L.E.
The Bible isn’t a book.
It’s a diverse library of “books.”