Heb 4:12 For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. (KJV)

Heb 4:12 God means what He says. What He says goes. His powerful Word is sharp as a surgeon's scalpel, cutting through everything, whether doubt or defense, laying us open to listen and obey. Nothing and no one is impervious to God's Word. We can't get away from it -- no matter what. (The Message)

Basic Bible Facts

1. The Bible contains 66 books, 39 in the Old Testament and 27 in the New Testament.

2. There are 1,189 chapters, 31,173 verses, and 773,692 words in the Bible.

3. There are 36 authors, writing from 3 continents, spread over 1,500 years.

4. The Old Testament is written in Hebrew with the exception of parts of the book of Daniel such as chapter 4 which is written in Aramaic. The New Testament is written in Greek (an older version called Koine Greek) except for a phrase here and there which is in Aramaic and Hebrew. (Jesus spoke all three languages)

5. The scriptures were copied continually by hand by men called "scribes" until the printing press was invented in 1450. The first book ever printed on a printing press was the Bible.

6. The chapter and verse divisions are not inspired of God and were put there by men so that we could find specific portions of scripture easier. The scriptures was divided into chapters by Cardinal Hugo in 1250 A.D. They were divided into the familiar verse format in 1551 by an Englishman, Sir Robert Stephens.

7. Fun facts: longest book - Psalms

shortest book - II John

longest chapter - Psalms 119

shortest chapter - Psalms 117

middle chapter - Psalms 118

longest verse - Esther 8:9

shortest verse - John 11:35 "Jesus wept."

middle verse - Psalms 118:8

How Can We Know That Our Modern Day Bible Is Accurate?

1. By translating from many "original" manuscripts - We have approximately 113 complete New Testament manuscripts and many fragments of these books. There are numerous copies and fragments of the Old Testament manuscripts. These various manuscripts are from different regions of the world and different time periods. The fact that they generally agree and say the same things, tell us that if translators use all of these manuscripts, our English Bible will be extremely close to the original.

2. The scribe's accuracy in copying the scriptures - The velum or parchment upon which the scriptures were first written have a life-span of under 30 years. Therefore, throughout history, they had to be continually copied and passed down through the years. Men called "scribes" were commissioned to copy the scriptures by hand. Their method was as follows: The scribe would read a word of the scripture. He would then pronounce it clearly aloud. He would then carefully write the word on the new parchment and then move on to the next word! At the end of the page, a rabbi would count the words in the column, and compare it with the number of words in the column of the original. If there was a discrepancy in the numbers, the page was discarded and the scribe started over! There are very few scribe errors in our copies of the scriptures because of their meticulous method of copying. Jesus' condemnation of the scribes of His day was not because of their work of copying scriptures but because many of them had decided that since they had the important job of passing the scriptures on through the generations, that they were also the only people who could interpret scriptures correctly.

3. By Jesus and the Early Church's use of the Septuagint - In the time between the Old and the New Testament, Alexander the Great and His Grecian army conquered the known world. He caused the universal language of the world at that time to become Greek. The Jewish leaders realized that the Old Testament scriptures needed to be translated from Hebrew into Greek. In Alexandria, Egypt, 70 prominent Jewish scholars produced a Greek version of the Old Testament called the Septuagint. Jesus and His disciples placed their blessing upon the Septuagint, by preaching and teaching from it. When Peter quoted a scripture, he was quoting the Septuagint. If it was corrupt or faulty, then they would not have used it. The Septuagint became the official Old Testament used in the Apostolic Church.

4. The Dead Sea Scrolls - In the spring of 1947, two young shepherd boys were looking for a lost goat in the wilderness area between Jerusalem and the Dead Sea. One boy saw a cave and threw a rock down into it so see if the cave was deep. The rock struck pottery and the boy heard the smashing of a clay pot. To make a long story short, they had discovered one of the greatest modern day discoveries of scriptural significance: a Jewish sect had hidden over 800 scrolls and fragments carefully wrapped in leather and sealed in clay pots. They dated from before the time of Christ, and gave the world the oldest copies of the Old Testament scriptures in existence. When the manuscripts were checked with our scriptures today, very few mistakes were found. Our modern Old Testament is almost exactly as it was before the time of Christ!

Divisions of the Bible

The Bible is not necessarily in chronological order, but is instead grouped by categories. The Old Testament was largely assembled and grouped by Ezra. The New Testament was compiled by the Early Church. The first five books are commonly referred to as the "Torah" or the "Pentateuch" and were all written by Moses. "Minor" prophets were just as important as "Major" prophets, but wrote smaller books. Here are the divisions of the scripture:

The Old Testament

Major Minor

Pentateuch History Poetry Prophets Prophets

Genesis Joshua Job Isaiah Hosea

Exodus Judges Psalms Jeremiah Joel

Leviticus Ruth Proverbs Lamentations Amos

Numbers I Samuel Ecclesiastes Ezekiel Obadiah

Deuteronomy II Samuel Song of Solomon Daniel Jonah

I Kings Micah

II Kings Nahum

I Chronicles Habakkuk

II Chronicles Zephaniah

Ezra Haggai

Nehemiah Zechariah

Esther Malachi

The "Gospels" tell the story of the Life of Jesus Christ. "Epistle" means a letter. We are not completely sure if Paul wrote the Book of Hebrews or not.

The New Testament

Gospels History Paul's Epistles Other Epistles Prophecy

Matthew Acts Romans James Revelation

Mark I/II Corinthians I/II Peter

Luke Galatians I/II/III John

John Ephesians Jude

Philippians

Colossians

I/II Thessalonians

I/II Timothy

Hebrews ??

The Canon of Scripture

How did the people that put the books of the Bible together know that these particular books were the very Word of God? A Bible scholar would ask this same question by saying "Explain the canonicity of scripture." No serious conservative scholars have ever doubted the authenticity of the books of the Old Testament. By quoting from the Septuagint, Jesus placed His blessing upon the books assembled by Ezra as the Word of God. In 1546, the Catholic Church added a group of books to the Old Testament of the Catholic Bible called the Apocrypha (it means "hidden"). They are Jewish history books written during the time between the Testaments. We do not accept or use the Apocrypha books as scripture because of the following reasons: 1.) The Apostles and the Early Church and the Jewish people did not consider them scripture. 2.) Jesus and the Apostles never quoted or referred to the Apocrypha. There are 263 direct quotations and 370 references to passages of the Old Testament in the New Testament and not one mention of the Apocrypha. 3.) They were written during a time when God was not actively speaking to His people and therefore cannot be "divinely inspired."

The New Testament was assembled by the Early Apostolic Church and is the writings of the Apostles and leaders of the Early Church. The only serious doubt about the authenticity of any book was about the Book of Revelation simply because nobody of that time understood it. There was never a doubt as to the Apostle John being the author. Peter referred to Paul's writings as scripture (II Peter 3:15-16) and Paul referred to Peter's as such (Galatians 2:8). To be able to write scripture, the Apostles had to be "eye witnesses" of the life of Jesus Christ (II Peter 1:16). Every author of the New Testament was an eye witness to the physical life of Jesus Christ and the beginning of the Early Apostolic Church. You and I can write a book about the Bible such as this lesson, but we cannot write our own "scripture" because we were not "eye witnesses" of the life of Jesus Christ and therefore the Holy Ghost will not anoint us in that way.

Bible Translations

The most commonly asked question is which version of the Bible should I use? Most of us cannot read the scriptures in the original Hebrew and Greek, so we must use a translation. There are many different English translations, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. Here are some key points to remember about Bible translations:

1. There is a difference between a translation and a revision. A translation goes to the original languages and translates them into English. A revision rewords a translation.

2. English translations can be roughly grouped into four categories:

Literal translations - the translators try to keep the wording and scriptures as close to the original text as possible. The King James Version is the most popular literal translation. The strengths of literal translations is that they are much more accurate to the original text and are therefore better to study doctrines and great truths. Their chief drawback is that it often takes some extra study to learn Hebrew figures of speech, culture, customs, and the original meaning of the words. Some of the literal translations such as the King James Version, and the Revised Standard Version are so old that some of the English words used have become obsolete or changed in the way that they are used. Their have been revisions that have tried to correct these flaws such as the New King James Version.

Free translations - where possible, translators try to somewhat follow the original text, but will occasionally rephrase a passage or substitute an appropriate figure of speech to make the text more "readable." The New International Version is a good example of a "free translation." The strengths of such translations is that they are easier to read and often help explain difficult verses involving customs, feasts, or ancient manners. The downside is that translators sometimes get their facts wrong and may misrepresent what the scripture is saying. Carefully checking a free translation against a literal one will ensure that the translator has rendered the passage correctly.

Paraphrase - In these translations the translator rephrases the verses so they convey in plain language what he/she feels is the primary meaning of these verses. Some paraphrases can be quite helpful. Others are quite misleading. The most popular paraphrase ever published is called The Living Bible. Another recent one is entitled The Message. Paraphrases are extremely easy to read and understand an often read like a novel. Unfortunately they also tend to leave out many facts and tend to be highly reflective of the translator's religious views.

Expanded - In expanded translations a Greek or Hebrew scholar seeks to provide in English all possible meanings of a word in the text. For example, let's say that a translator comes across the Greek word phrisso. It can mean to bristle and react in defense. It can also mean to shudder with chills or fear. Most translators choose the meaning that they think fits best in the context and the word is rendered as "tremble" in James 2:19 KJV. An expanded translation would try to put both meanings in the verse. One common expanded version is called Phillips Modern English. They can be very helpful in understanding scripture but can sometimes also be extremely hard to read.

To outline the difference between the translations, let's look at one verse of scripture in each category. We will use James 2:19 as an example. Here's the original Greek:

James 2:19 su\ pisteu/ei$ o%ti eiü$ e)stin o( qeo/$; kalw=$ poieiÇ$: kai\ ta\ daimo/nia pisteu/ousin kai\ fri/ssousin. (original Greek)

If we just literally translated the words into English it would say "You believe that is one God do well the demons also believe and tremble" ("tremble" could be translated as "bristle" or "shudder").

Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble. (King James Version - literal translation)

You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe-- and tremble! (New King James Version - literal translation, revised)

You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that-- and shudder. (New International Version - free translation)

Are there still some among you who hold that "only believing" is enough? Believing in one God? Well, remember that the demons believe this too-- so strongly that they tremble in terror! (The Living Bible -- paraphrase translation)

Do I hear you professing to believe in the one and only God, but then observe you complacently sitting back as if you had done something wonderful? That's just great. Demon's do that, but what good does it do them? (The Message - paraphrase translation)

To the man who thinks that faith by itself is enough I feel inclined to say, "So you believe that there is one God? That's fine. So do all the devils in hell, and shudder in terror!" (Phillips Modern English - expanded translation)

Our most accurate English translation is probably the New Kings James Version because it has the same literalness of the original but also used the Dead Sea Scrolls to check many passages. Some of the outdated English words such as "thous" and "shalts" have also been changed. You have probably noticed that our church uses the King James Version for our preaching texts. That is because it continues to be the most popular translation and the most familiar. Every translation has it's faults, including the KJV and the NKJV. For that reason, I use many different translations in addition to the original Hebrew and Greek to make sure that I understand exactly what the scripture is saying. Parallel Bibles, Bibles which have two, four, or even eight translations side by side are a great investment for a Bible scholar. "Interlinear Bibles" which have an English translation beside the original Greek or Hebrew can be helpful. I have several of these types of Bibles and I keep them handy at all times. For those of you who are interested, here is a list of the translations that I commonly consult throughout the week:

King James Version, New King James Version, Revised Standard Version, New American Standard, New International Version, The Living Bible, New Century Version, Contemporary English Version, New Living Translation, The Message, New English, Phillips Modern English, and the Complete Jewish Bible.

Closing Thoughts

2 Tim 2:15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. (KJV)

2 Tim 2:15 Make every effort to give yourself to God as the kind of person He will accept. Be a worker who is not ashamed and who uses the true teaching in the right way. (New Century Version)

God has given us His Word. Peter said the written Word of God was a "more sure prophecy." Jesus said that "heaven and earth shall pass away, but my word shall never pass away." It is up to us to study it and "use the true teaching in the right way." God's Word cannot fail when it is used correctly. It is more than just a good book full of inspiring stories. It is a letter from God directly to us for our life. When Jesus Christ was tempted by Satan, He responded all three times by quoting scripture. Correct use of the Word of God is the key to having victory over Satan, life, and in every area of our life!