BIBLE DOCTRINE I
Lecture 2
Bibliology
The Nature of the Bible
Titles for the “Bible”:
The Book: Mk 12:26, Lk 3:4, 20:42, Acts 1:20, 7:42, Rev 22:10
The word ‘Bible’ is an anglicization of the Greek words biblos (book) and biblia (books).
The Bible is a book of books.
It is commonly referred to as ‘The Holy Bible’.
The Old and New Testaments: Lk 22:20, 1 Cor 11:25, 2 Cor 3:6,14, Heb 9:15, 12:24
The word ‘testament’ means an ‘agreement’ or a ‘covenant’.
In general, the OT corresponds to the Law and the NT corresponds to Grace.
Jesus Christ was the divider of the 2 Testaments.
St. Augustine (aka “Disgustine”) made one correct statement on it: “The New is in the Old concealed – the Old is in the New revealed”.
The Scriptures: 2 Tim 3:15,16
‘Scripture’ is translated from the Greek word ‘graphe’ which means ‘writing’.
Of course, the Bible is not just a collection of any sort of ‘writing’s, but, rather, holy writings.
The Word of God: Rom 10:17, Heb 4:12
This is probably the most significant and special name for ‘the Bible’.
1 John 1:7 states that Jesus Christ is the Word of God.
The Titles in Psalms: Ps 19:7-9, 119:1,2,4-7
Ps 119 is the ‘Word of God’ chapter
‘Law’ (v.1), ‘Testimonies’ (v.2), ‘Precepts’ (v.4), ‘Statutes’ (v.5), ‘Commandments’ (v.6), ‘Judgments’ (v.7).
The Bible’s Symbols:
Mirror (Jm 1:23-25), Seed (1 Pet 1:23), Lamp (Ps 119:105), Sword (Eph 6:17), Hammer (Jer 23:29), Tree (Pv 3:18), Water (Jn 15:3), and Milk, Meat, Bread, and Honey (various other scriptures).
Other titles and names:
1. It is called the word of God (48 times -- 1 Sam. 9:27; Ac. 13:5) and the word of the Lord (256 times -- Gen. 15:1)
because God is its author.
2. It is called the word of Christ because it sets forth the anointed One in His person and offices (Col. 3:16).
3. It is called the oracles of God because it is the word which God spoke (Ac. 3:2).
4. It is called the word of faith because it is to be believed (Ro. 10:8).
5. It is called the word of truth because it is truth without admixture of error (Ep. 1:13).
6. It is called the word of life because it imparts life to the believer (Ph. 2:16).
7. It is called the word of grace because it makes known God’s unmerited kindness to the lost (Ac. 14:3).
8. It is called the word of reconciliation because it tells of a God reconciled and reconciling the world unto Himself
(2 Co. 5:19).
9. It is called the word of salvation because it shows the way and the only way by which men are saved (Ac. 13:26).
10.It is called the word of righteousness because therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith
(He. 5:13).
11.It is called the faithful word because it is credible and unchangeable (Tit.1:9).
12.It is called the word of prophecy because it alone shines through the gloom and reveals what lies in the future
(2 Pe. 1:19).
The Bible’s Theme:
The Lord Jesus Christ (Jn 5:39)
The Bible’s Contents and Composition:
66 Books (39 OT and 27 NT)
40 human writers and written over 1600 years (from Moses ~1500 BC to John ~100 AD).
The Bible’s Languages:
In general, the OT was written in Hebrew and the NT in Greek (koine’, or common).
Some parts of Daniel were written in Syriac; some words in the NT are Aramaic.
The Bible’s Construction:
Old Testament: Lk 24:44
1. Moses (aka ‘The Torah’, and the ‘Penteteuch’): Genesis to Deuteronomy
2. The Prophets (aka ‘The Nebhiim’): Former – Joshua to Kings (except Ruth); Latter – Isaiah to Malachi (except Daniel
and Lamentations)
3. The Psalms (aka ‘The Kthubhim’): Chronicles to Canticles (Song of Solomon), Ruth, Daniel, and Lamentations.
Another way of dividing the Old Testament is as follows:
Law – Genesis to Deuteronomy
History – Joshua to Esther
Wisdom – Job to Song of Solomon
Prophecy – Major: Isaiah to Daniel Minor: Hosea to Malachi
Following the above example, the New Testament can be divided as follows:
Gospels – Matthew to John
History – Acts
Epistles – Pauline: Romans to Philemon General: Hebrews to Jude
Prophecy – Revelation
Chapters separate the Bible into blocks of text suitable for public reading, study or teaching. The Bible was first divided into chapters about 1250 by Cardinal Hugo for the purpose of reference in a Latin concordance. For this reason, many have questioned the validity of the chapter divisions.
Yet, the concept of chapter divisions is based on Biblical practice. The Psalms are individual songs and were separate from the beginning. In a sermon, Paul quotes from the “second psalm” (Ac.13:33). Lamentations was divided into five separate poems. Four of these five poems are 22 verses each (the number of letters in the Hebrew alphabet). Of all the chapters in the Bible, the most common length is 22 verses. It seems clear that this size of text was providentially chosen for reading, study, etc..
In approximately 1448 A.D., the Old Testament was divided into verses by R. Nathan.
In approximately 1551 A.D., the New Testament was divided into verses by Robert Stephanus.
The Bible has a total of 1,189 chapters. The Old Testament has 929 chapters and the New Testament has 260 chapters.
The middle chapter of the Bible is Ps 117. There are 594 chapters before it, and 594 chapters after it. It reads: “O Praise the LORD, all ye nations: praise him, all ye people. For his merciful kindness is great toward us: and the truth of the LORD endureth for ever. Praise ye the LORD.”
It's longest chapter is Psalm 119, which consists of 176 verses. The number "176" just happens to be 16x11. Our KJV was first published in the year 1611. An accident I guess.
There are 31,174 verses in the Bible. The middle verses in the Bible (# 15,587 and 8) are Ps 118:8,9, which read: “It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in man. It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in princes.”
WORDS: Words distinguish between individual mental concepts. Language is made up of words and God speaks to man in words. Proverbs 30:5 teaches that “every word of God is true.” Men are warned against taking any words from the book of Revelation (Rev.22:19). It is the words that are pure and preserved in Psalm 12:6-7: “The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. Thou shalt keep them, O LORD, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever.”
By one count, there are 773,746 words in the King James Bible. This means that the average verse is approximately 25 words long. There are approximately 8,000 different words in the English Bible. The power of God in using words can be seen when this is compared with Shakespeare. He used about 25,000 different words in his writings. God said much more with fewer words.
The longest word in the Bible is "Mahershalalhashbaz" (Isa. 8:1).
LETTERS: The last division is that of the letters. They separate between the distinct sounds which make up the words. They are important because a change in them can create a new word and meaning. Paul distinguishes between the meaning of seed and seeds in Galatians 3:16. Someone, I do not know who, has said that there are 3,556,480 letters in the Bible. This means that the average word has slightly less than five letters.
The Bible was the first Book ever printed on a press. The first one was printed on the Gutenberg press in the 1450's. The first American printing was in an Indian language in 1663.
Longest book of the Old Testament / PsalmsLongest book of the New Testament / Luke
Shortest book of the Old Testament / Obadiah
Shortest book of the New Testament / 3 John
Middle book of the Old Testament / Proverbs
Middle book of the New Testament / 2 Thessalonians
Middle chapter of the Old Testament / Job 29
Middle chapter of the New Testament / Romans 13
Shortest chapter in the Bible / Psalm 117
Longest chapter in the Bible / Psalm 119
Shortest verse in the Old Testament / 1 Chronicles 1:25
Shortest verse in the New Testament / John 11:35
Longest verse in the Bible / Esther 8:9
God occurs / 4,379 times
Lord occurs / 7,738 times
Over 800,000,000 copies sold since 1611. Over 2,000,000 per year, and over 5000 per day. This is a very conservative estimate, and it doesn't include those translated for missionary work.
[Sources for the above information includes David F. Reagan, David Cloud, and Robert Sargeant.]
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