By Lisa Grace
In my last article in the comments section some readers mentioned they feel there are other earlier writings and questioned the authority of the modern Bible, as we know it. Even older than the Bible (Circa 1500’s) are the original works, which would be better described as the Holy Scriptures. The Bible (which simply means book) has some modern additions not found in the older Holy Scriptures, like the words Old and New Testament, punctuation, chapters and verses. Those are recent developments and not necessarily good ones either.
This is actually a faulty man-made way of dividing the four sections and often leads to the interpretation of being two different contracts with man.
The following (in italics) is a quote from the website: http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/Tanakh.html Quote:
Torah: The Books of Genesis (Bereshit), Exodus (Shemot), Leviticus (Vayikrah), Numbers (Bamidbar) and Deuteronomy (Devarim).
Nevi'im (Prophets): The Books of Joshua, Judges, I Samuel, II Samuel, I Kings, II Kings, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habukkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi. (The last twelve are sometimes grouped together as "Trei Asar" ["Twelve"].)
Ketuvim (Writings): The Books of Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther, Daniel (although not all that is included in the Christian Canon), Ezra and Nehemiah, I Chronicles, and II Chronicles.
Then, of course, we have the Good News portion which some call the New Testament.
Before the written word, there was a strict oral tradition of memorization. Most Rabbis (which means teachers) would memorize the whole thing.
The New Testament, which is referred to in the Scriptures themselves as the “Good News”, is mainly repeated parts of the older Torah, Nevi’im, or Ketuvim.
Here is a quote (in italics) from Roger Nicole’s article at:
If clear allusions are taken into consideration, the figures are much higher: C. H. Toy lists 613 such instances, Wilhelm Dittmar goes as high as 1640, while Eugen Huehn indicates 4105 passages reminiscent of Old Testament Scripture. It can therefore be asserted, without exaggeration, that more than 10 per cent of the New Testament text is made up of citations or direct allusions to the Old Testament. The recorded words of Jesus disclose a similar percentage. Certain books like Revelation, Hebrews, Romans are well nigh saturated with Old Testament forms of language, allusions and quotations. Perusal of Nestle’s edition of the Greek New Testament, in which the Old Testament material is printed in bold face type, will reveal at a glance the extent of this practice. These facts appear even more impressive when one remembers that in New Testament times the Old Testament was not as today duplicated by the million but could be obtained only in expensive handwritten copies.
The oral traditions of memorizing before there was printed word, takes the reader/listener back to the times of Adam and Eve. Obviously, Adam started verbally passing on the account of creation and so it spread through different cultures through out the world. This is why so many cultures have flood based stories and creation stories similar to the Holy Scripture accounts.
The Holy Scriptures are the earliest verifiable form (found in abundance) even more so than the Iliad by Homer, which no one questions the validity of. The Holy Scriptures from the Dead Sea scrolls on has thousands of copies to back up its authority.
This is why you can be assured of its authority as the inspired (God breathed) last word on dealing with the supernatural world since you can trace its beginnings to the creation of man.
