I am a firm believer in "baptism by fire" so to speak. So, that is the way I will start off this blog, with a severely controversial, heated and detrimental topic! This, however, is not going to be an attempt to damage the validity of anyone's beliefs. I would hope that as the origins and authors of The Bible become more clear to a believer, that it will enforce certain things. And possibly, those things will become more positive aspects of one's spirituality.
Commonly, persons at church Bible studies believe that the first 5 books of The Bible were given to Moses by God, and he dictated them, verbatim, at Mount Sinai. Some believe other books were written by Moses, but usually other Old Testament books were believed to be written by respected leaders of the time. The New Testament Gospel authors are believed by many Christians to be Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, and the Acts and many other New Testament books to be written by Paul. Even though these books were written by human beings, it is perceived that the divine inspiration from God was immediately dictated without mistake, and so it is the word of God.
Some Jewish Biblical scholars alive today believe they have identified many different authors of the Old Testament scriptures, and several just in the first 5 books alone. It is easily understood when reading The Bible that there are different literary styles and distinct differences in repeated stories. But most striking to these scholars were the different terms used for God, such as Elohim and Yahweh. And it wasn't just that the different terms were used, the terms actually line up with the different literary styles and separate the different points of views used in some stories in The Bible. So many researchers of biblical history believe that there were two different writers for Genesis, and more in the preceding books. Also they have found that it is possible, from writing styles identified in the book of Jeremiah, that the scribe identified in the Bible as the dictator for Jeremiah also wrote Deuteronomy!
Now if you are saying, "Well, that doesn't really disprove anything about God!" then we are on the same page, so stick with me!
Some critics of The Bible have stated that some of the writings are pseudepigraphal. That is to say, they were written with the name of, and point of view of, important figures in the religion, therefore they are considered forgeries. The New Testament Gospels also inspire debate as to who wrote them. Reasons for this belief are 1. the titles of the books say The Gospel According to ...(meaning the Good News, or Godspell of ...) without actually saying they are written by that person, 2. references to the writers themselves do not appear often, and 3. some passages of The Gospels of Matthew and Luke seemed to be copied directly from The Gospel of Mark. So because of these discretions, it is believed that the some of the Gospel authors remain unknown. Some of the books attributed to Paul also contain literary usage that eludes to other authors, so there could be many more writers of the New Testament than previously thought.
A collection of Old Testament books discarded from today's Bible known as The Apocrypha were actually called The Pseudepigrapha at one time, even though most will agree that not all of these books were written by a writer using a name other than himself. There are other Gospels that have been eliminated or left out of the current Bible, such as the Gospel of Thomas, which may predate most books of The New Testament and was part of the early versions. The selection of these particular books has come under question by many very educated and dedicated scholars.
It is probably easier to eliminate the question "Did God write The Bible?" because of the various authors, styles and points of view present in the scriptures. But even if God did dictate messages to Moses, Samuel, Solomon, Ezra, Mark, Paul, you still have an imperfect human attempting to convey the word of a perfect God, in the writers own language. And even if the prophetic writings have been given and recorded in a fairly accurate way, you will still always have human mistakes in dictation, translation and interpretation. So to say that God wrote the Bible would not be correct in my opinion. However, to say that God inspired The Bible must be absolutely correct. The authors of The Bible also lived in a time in which there were not so many distractions, and such a removal and disconnection from the earth, God and nature. It is my belief that, through all the static between God and human, that The Bible contains some of the most inspired and spiritually uplifting work in print, as well as some quite accurate history and stunningly applicable prophecy.
I am very glad that we have The Bible to read for ourselves, and the opportunity to make our own way through the scriptures. There are archaeological finds and fulfilled prophecies that have highlighted and given strength to the argument of the validity of its historical and spiritual content. I prefer seeing The Bible not as a perfect entity for use in implementing an overbearing fundamentalist religion, but of a quite accurate account of man's interaction with God, biblical history and the life of Jesus. I would prefer to utilize the scriptures to nurture and inspire the beliefs I already have about God, and Jesus. It gives me confidence in my own belief system to know that I can confront its history and imperfections, and still find that the scriptures provide me with food that enlightens my soul. I have read a large amount of religious texts and historical information on many religions. I have enjoyed my journey on this planet, seeking absolute truth, and finding absolute wonder. Still, the things I believe now, even though they may be bits and pieces of things I have felt, experienced or struggled to understand, these are the things that strengthen my love for this organized, unresolved universe.
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