Information about the bible

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stacky1

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I was wondering if someone could help me out. I am trying to get more into religion, or at least trying to figure out what I believe(i am having dificulties with that), and I am reading some books and have decided to look more toward the bible. My boyfriend suggested I start reading some proverbs, so I have been reading some the past couple nights before I go to bed. At this point I don’t really believe in god, but I am trying to figure stuff out. Just a little background, I was raised catholic and went to church all the way through college. I was in ccd as a kid but didn’t pay attention or something, cause I don’t remember like any of it. In college I was in intervarsity, a christian group, and went to church and bible studies, but I never really got much out of them. So, as a result, I don’t know much about the bible. I started reading some and then I got to thinking, and started having questions, and decided to come here to see if i could find some help. So here are some of my questions, and sorry if I ramble, and sorry if these are answered in the bible or somewhere and I haven’t found them yet(i was having trouble reading with all these unanswered questions)…

Who decided to write the bible? Who wrote the books that arnt about a person? How did they know all that happened like in the beginning? Or with proverbs that I’m reading, how did they know all that? And did the ones about people write their own? Who decided who all got to be in the bible? Who put the bible together? How did they know when to stop? Like, why are we not writing more?

Sorry about all the random questions, but those were all roaming around in my head and I had to get them out to ask someone. Sorry if they don’t make since or anything. I probably have more, but that is enough for now. Also, if anyone has a recommendation on the order that the bible should be read, that would be helpful, like should I read it cover to cover or in a different order? And also I currently am having trouble believing in god, so if anyone has any books they recommend, that would be greatly appreciated. I currently have the books, the god questions, made for more, christianity: the faith that makes sense, and the christian athiest(the book my boyfriends bible study is using) Thank you for anyone’s help! I really appreciate it!
 
stacky1 said:
I was wondering if someone could help me out. I am trying to get more into religion, or at least trying to figure out what I believe(i am having dificulties with that), and I am reading some books and have decided to look more toward the bible. My boyfriend suggested I start reading some proverbs, so I have been reading some the past couple nights before I go to bed. At this point I don’t really believe in god, but I am trying to figure stuff out. Just a little background, I was raised catholic and went to church all the way through college. I was in ccd as a kid but didn’t pay attention or something, cause I don’t remember like any of it. In college I was in intervarsity, a christian group, and went to church and bible studies, but I never really got much out of them. So, as a result, I don’t know much about the bible. I started reading some and then I got to thinking, and started having questions, and decided to come here to see if i could find some help. So here are some of my questions, and sorry if I ramble, and sorry if these are answered in the bible or somewhere and I haven’t found them yet(i was having trouble reading with all these unanswered questions)…

Who decided to write the bible? Who wrote the books that arnt about a person? How did they know all that happened like in the beginning? Or with proverbs that I’m reading, how did they know all that? And did the ones about people write their own? Who decided who all got to be in the bible? Who put the bible together? How did they know when to stop? Like, why are we not writing more?

Sorry about all the random questions, but those were all roaming around in my head and I had to get them out to ask someone. Sorry if they don’t make since or anything. I probably have more, but that is enough for now. Also, if anyone has a recommendation on the order that the bible should be read, that would be helpful, like should I read it cover to cover or in a different order? And also I currently am having trouble believing in god, so if anyone has any books they recommend, that would be greatly appreciated. I currently have the books, the god questions, made for more, christianity: the faith that makes sense, and the christian athiest(the book my boyfriends bible study is using) Thank you for anyone’s help! I really appreciate it!
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Your asking a lot of stuff, but thats okay. I was raised Catholic, left for 20 years and came back. You can always come back. In fact you may cry and get a great realization. Early Christians (church Fathers) wrote the Bible, and you could say compiled it as well. Believing in God can be seen as tough if you don’t think wisely about it. You want to hear something cool? The bible says , “the evidence of God are the things made.” Awesome. Stay away from books that get into “new age” guessing games. When you start reading stuff like you can become like God, drop it. Ask God to show you what to do. It can take time but if you stay at it the truth of Gods ONE church will be revealed.🙂
 
“The Case for Christ”, by Lee Strobel, is an objective look at why we believe in Jesus Christ. I highly recommend it if you are having doubts. You can find it on most book sites and book stores.

The Bible was compiled and collected writings from pre-100 ad. The canon of scripture was discerned in Ecumenical Councils, with the help of the Holy Spirit. The canon of scripture was known during the Council of Rome, circa 382 ad, but was officially announced much later.
 
Scripture was written because God revealed everything in it to mankind, and inspired certain men to write it. Beside Father, Son and Holy Spirit, no one was there at the beginning of creation, so all of this had to be revealed to us, who had no ability to know it on our own. It was revealed to us so that all that exists, including God, would make sense to us, and so that we had the freedom to choose Him, or reject Him. It is the story of a relationship of love. Yet, nothing that we know about creation, or about the God Who created it, came by our own ability. It all had to be revealed to us. Just as in college, where the lecture by the one who knows comes before our test, so also did revelation come to us before we are tested in this life.
 
The OT used by the Church is the one used by the Synagogues at the time of our LORD, the Greek Septuagint, or LXX. This version was compiled in Greek by seventy translators around 100BC. LXX is Roman for “70” and Septuagint is Latin for 70.

The NT texts were collected as a canon by the Council of Nicaea in AD325.

ICXC NIKA
 
Hi stacky1 and welcome to the forums…

You ask many good questions, and I suspect that you will have still more.

Let’s have a look at some of your issues…

Who decided to write the bible? I don’t think there was any one decision to “write a bible.” The bible is a collection of books, a library of sorts, that were written over a period of nearly 2 thoudand years. It has different genres included, such as history, poetry, wisdom, fiction, prophecy,etc. these books and letters were written at different places and times and for different reasons. They were eventually collected by the Jewish community at first, then adopted by the Christian community and viewed as inspired by God.

It is important to understand that some of the early texts, the first 5 books of the bible, were at first passed on in oral tradition, then written down. So if you read the creations stories (there are two), you are reading mythology, which is the telling of truth in creative terms. So, there were first humans, the world was created and so forth, but in the biblical story, adam was formed from dirt, God breathed life into him, Eve was made from Adam’s rib, they ate from a tree that grew knowledge, they spoke to a serpent. All these aspects are creative ways to the story of creation.

As you get through the bible, the historic events become more and more factual. But the bible is not a history book. It is the relationship between God and His people.

I’ll be back with more 😃

Subrosa
 
Subrosa said:
Who decided to write the bible? I don’t think there was any one decision to “write a bible.” The bible is a collection of books, a library of sorts, that were written over a period of nearly 2 thoudand years. It has different genres included, such as history, poetry, wisdom, fiction, prophecy,etc. these books and letters were written at different places and times and for different reasons. They were eventually collected by the Jewish community at first, then adopted by the Christian community and viewed as inspired by God.
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I think “write” might not have been the word i was looking for. Who decided to put all these stories together? How did they know which stories to include? How did they decide which stories to put in this one book? How did they know that the stories people had written wernt just stories that they made up? Why did they stop including stories when they did? Why didnt they keep adding stories up until now?

Sorry for all the questions, im just curious about how the bible came to be and why and who. I like knowing where it came from when im reading it. Thanks Subrosa a bunch! Your answers were really helpful!
 
stacky1 said:
I think “write” might not have been the word i was looking for. Who decided to put all these stories together? How did they know which stories to include? How did they decide which stories to put in this one book? How did they know that the stories people had written wernt just stories that they made up? Why did they stop including stories when they did? Why didnt they keep adding stories up until now?

Sorry for all the questions, im just curious about how the bible came to be and why and who. I like knowing where it came from when im reading it. Thanks Subrosa a bunch! Your answers were really helpful!
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Couple of books: Catholicism for Dummies and Where we got the bible. Both will answer many, if not most of your questions.
 
stacky1 said:
I think “write” might not have been the word i was looking for. Who decided to put all these stories together? How did they know which stories to include? How did they decide which stories to put in this one book? How did they know that the stories people had written wernt just stories that they made up? Why did they stop including stories when they did? Why didnt they keep adding stories up until now?

Sorry for all the questions, im just curious about how the bible came to be and why and who. I like knowing where it came from when im reading it. Thanks Subrosa a bunch! Your answers were really helpful!
Click to expand...
What goes into scripture is decided by the community which uses it. The books and letters that are in todays bible were eventually finalized at the end of a long process. Other books were included by others who believed they were scripture, only to be removed after examination.

Books such as Enoch, Jubilees, the 4 books of Maccabees were eventually eliminated by rabbis. Some letters that were considered scriptural, such as the Letter of Clement to the Corinthians & The Shepherd of Hermas, were eventually excluded in the New Testament.

These decisions were made on the basis of Tradition. In the western church, there were a group of councils in Hippo, Carthage & Rome during the late 4th/early 5th centuries that decided which books make up what is todays bible. Then, during the Reformation, the Protestants decided they didn’t agree with some of those books and removed them from thier bibles, which is why we have different sized bibles today.

So it is the community who decides which books are scriptural, even after a decision was made by bishops or rabbis.

Subrosa
 
There are always people who have questions like this and are wondering. We all are.

You’re right, if you’re worried about all the supernatural stuff in the bible. It surely makes everybody think.

Even the Bible “knows” that there are people who don’t believe in God, but – ready for this? – it calls them fools. That’s pretty stiff stuff to take. but, it doesn’t worry me.

For me, I was confronted when I was a teenager with deciding who I was and what was right and wrong. And, when I thought about what was right and wrong, I thought about what was “absolutely” right and “absolutely” wrong. I think that there are absolutes, all over the place. Not everybody agrees. Some don’t see any absolutes except themselves – they are skeptics, ultimate skeptics.

I guess I can’t re-create all my thoughts from back then, but the whole idea of absolutes led me to God. It’s funny about coming to God this way, because God reveals himself in the Bible as just that – an absolute. The most holy name of God in the Bible, by which he refers to himself is “I AM.”

In a real sort of way, everything in the bible is about God revealing himself.

I’m not really trying to trick you here. But, it turns out that what I said above is also the general idea of what St. Paul says in his letter to the Romans. You can discover God by looking at natural law and separately by looking at the revelation to the Jews (in the Bible, the Old Testament). finally, you can find God by studying Jesus Christ. These three ways are, progressively, the more and more convincing ways to find God.

When you find God this way, why would you want anything else? why would you want to stake your life on anything else but Jesus Christ?

Some people don’t like all this, sooner or later, and “bail out” for one flimsy excuse or another. don’t let that happen to you. You are more important than that.

there are a lot of difficult and confusing things about the Bible. I guess I’d say you wouldn’t want anything less than the bible offers, drawing you closer and closer to the person of Jesus Christ. I could be wrong, but why would anybody want anything less than eternal life?
 
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