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Why Would Anyone Believe the Bible? - originally posted 23/05/2011

(This is the original version of this post. The new version, which has now replaced it, can be viewed here)

To begin with I'd just like to say that I'm not going to take the standard evangelical Christian line on this question - which often seems to consist of something along the lines of, "Because it's the Word of God - Duh!" - or words to that effect (although this is actually more like the standard fundamentalist evangelical position and is probably not a fair reflection of the majority view - it's just that those at the more fundamentalist end of the spectrum often tend to be the most vocal with their opinions).

There are of course a whole spectrum of beliefs out there regarding what the Bible is exactly and how it should be treated, ranging from the opinion that it's about as significant and reliable as an ancient version of Harry Potter (thanks for that one, Gary! :-) ), through to an unshakeable conviction that it's the inerrant, indisputable Word of God, perfect in every detail, effectively (or perhaps even actually) dictated word for word by God Himself.

Evangelicals do tend to have a very high view of the Bible and do generally refer to it as the Word of God, but there are a range of views - even amongst evangelicals - regarding what this means exactly, how literally certain parts of it are meant to be taken, etc.  Personally I would say I'm more towards the liberal end of this spectrum - certainly as far as evangelicals are concerned - but the Bible still means a great deal to me and remains a crucial and central part of my faith.

The "Bible" as we know it, is not really a single book, it's a whole set of books written at different times, under different circumstances and for different purposes, which for various historical reasons have ended up together in the collection we use today.  The Christian Bible consists of two main parts:

1. The "Old Testament", which is known to Jews as the "Tanakh" and is their primary scripture (they now also have the Talmud and some other writings). This is the "Bible" (more or less) as it was known to Jesus and the early Christians, before any of the New Testament existed. It consists of 39¹ books in various genres, including songs (no music unfortunately!), poetry, proverbs, prophecy, story and "history" - where "history" is the story of the Jewish people in particular, told in the context of their relationship with God.
   

2. The "New Testament". This consists of:
   
   • The gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) - which are the primary accounts of the life, teachings, death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth, written by his followers a few decades after these events.
   • The "Acts" - a single book describing the birth and initial rise of the early church.
   • The letters - a number of books written by various respected leaders of the early church to different parts of the church in different parts of the world, in the first few decades of its existence.

We have no serious historical or archaeological reasons to doubt that the New Testament books are basically what they claim to be - at least on the outside. However, whether the gospels for example, are a reliable and accurate account, somebody’s best attempt based on what they and other people could remember, or just part of an elaborate hoax (it would have to be one hell of a hoax in my opinion - of significantly more than Da-Vinci-esque proportions!), is of course a matter of opinion and debate. Many people just dismiss the gospel narratives out of hand for example, because they talk about God as if He was real, and obviously God doesn’t exist, or because they talk so much about miracles, and everyone knows that miracles don’t really happen! If you’ve encountered God or experienced a miracle however, then they become much easier to believe. If you haven’t and you’re prepared to be open-minded about it, then you could get a taste from reading them of what might actually be possible...

The origins of some of the Old Testament books are a lot more difficult to determine. The first 5 books of the Old Testament for example, are collectively known to Jews as the "Torah", and are traditionally attributed to the prophet Moses (although the books themselves don’t make this claim). Modern textual analysis has shown however - beyond reasonable doubt in my opinion - that these books have been spliced together at some point from a number of more-or-less parallel sources, written by different authors, probably at different times and for different reasons. There is much scholarly conjecture regarding how and when this might have happened, where the original sources might have come from (we don’t have any copies) etc.

We do know however, that all these books were very precious to the Jews, and archaeological evidence shows that they have been well preserved for at least the last 2,200 years. The oldest manuscripts we have of the Old Testament in Hebrew (the original language) are in the Dead Sea Scrolls, and agree substantially with the second oldest Hebrew manuscripts we have - copies of the version known as the “Masoretic” - which date from another 1,000 years later on².

We can also see that these books are not always kind to the Jews and have yet remained a central part of their cultural heritage and identity. These books document - to a large extent - the relationship between the Jews and their God, and the Jews often don’t come out of it looking too pretty (although they do seem to provide a fairly accurate reflection of human behaviour in general!). Their heroes too, are fallible, and are not always portrayed in a favourable light. There’s certainly no air-brushing going on for example, of Abraham - the founder of the Jewish faith (e.g. see Genesis 12), or of David - the greatest and most loved of their kings (e.g. see 2 Samuel 11).

From the gospels, we can see that Jesus himself had a high opinion of the Bible as He knew it and quoted from it frequently. Crucially, He saw Himself as the fulfilment of many of its prophecies and interpreted His own life and mission in the light of the story that it presents.

There do seem to be some differences in tone and emphasis between the Old and New Testaments however. At times in the Old Testament, God seems harsh and vengeful, whereas Jesus’ God seems more forgiving and compassionate. At the same time though, Jesus’ standards for morality go further than the Old Testament ever did and He does dish out some pretty stern prophetic warnings - especially to members of the religious establishment!

I have to confess that there are places where I find it hard to recognise the God of the Old Testament, or to reconcile Him with the God I worship and who Jesus seemed to represent. This is certainly not true across the board however. Some of the prophecy books in particular, do a brilliant job of describing just what the Jews sometimes put God through and His painful and long-suffering patience with them, usually culminating in eventual judgement, but always with a yearning for their healing and for reconciliation. The Psalms as well, do a good job of presenting God’s loving and compassionate side, although this is unfortunately also sometimes coupled with, e.g., the Psalmist’s bloodthirsty desire for vengeance on all his enemies!

The New Testament does contain a sense of progression, where for example, Jesus acknowledges the natural desire for revenge, which seems to be treated as standard in the Old Testament, but calls His followers to something new - forgiveness - which is one of the foundation stones of His life and ministry. There seems to be an implication that the Old Testament Jews were not ready for that yet, but this is the start of a new era - which is indeed what the early Christians believed Jesus’ life, death and resurrection had ushered in.

So there you are - a few thoughts on the Bible. A little rambling and inconclusive perhaps, but I hope you can see why I and many others might take it seriously - although obviously not all for the same reasons. Of course, the best way to form an opinion is to read it for yourself, although might I suggest that if you want to get a Christian perspective then you start with the stories of Jesus (see the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) and take it from there...

1 In the Protestant Bible. There are 46 books in the Old Testament used by Catholics although not all are considered equally significant or reliable.

2 We also have much older copies of the "Septuagint" - a Greek version of the Old Testament which was translated from the Hebrew some time in the last 3 centuries BC.