Can I Trust the Bible?Sample

What Makes Scripture, Scripture? (Part 1: Old Testament)

When Christians use the word Scripture, we are referring to the sacred writings that belong to our faith, the Holy Bible. These are the texts that alone are authoritative for the purposes of teaching and forming the doctrines of the church.
Even though many of us own a Bible, it wasn’t originally a single text like we have today.
Before it was a singular book, the Bible was a series of scrolls and parchments, written over a period of 1,600 years, across three continents, by around 40 different authors, in three different languages. Its authors ranged from kings and prophets, to shepherds, fishermen and even tent-makers!

More than a book, the Bible is a library of different forms of literature.

In today’s reading from Luke 24, Jesus refers to the distinct types of writings that constitute Scripture: the Law, Prophets, and Psalms, each corresponding to the Hebrew Bible.

Sometimes, Christians will speak of the Old Testament in a twofold manner, speaking generally of the Law and the Prophets, while others have specified three parts: the Law (Torah), Prophets (Nevi’im), and the Writings (Kethuvim). These three types of literature form the acronym commonly used to describe the Hebrew Bible, the Tanakh.

Regardless of how the writings of Scripture are grouped together, these verses are important for highlighting the fact that Jesus identified these texts as Holy Scripture and the Word of God. Importantly, this means the early Christians did not compile any of these texts themselves, but inherited the Jewish Scriptures as their own (the same 39 books which we now call the Old Testament).

Jesus cited these ancient texts regularly. His favourite writings to reference were the Psalms and Isaiah, but he made frequent use of the Law and the Prophets, often citing Exodus and Deuteronomy, Daniel, and Zechariah. In total, Jesus referenced 13 different books from the Old Testament, and at times alluded to others. In many of these sayings, Jesus explicitly refers to the words of the Old Testament as God’s own.

Moreover, in our second reading from Luke 11 (and its parallel in Matthew 23), we see Jesus affirm the authority of the prophetic texts that would later be included in the Christian biblical ‘canon’—a term derived from the Greek kanōn, meaning “rule” or “measuring stick.” Jesus references the blood of Abel (from Genesis) and the blood of Zechariah. According to 2 Chronicles 24:20-24, Zechariah was the last canonical prophet to be killed, indicating that Jesus was referencing the full scope of Scripture through these two examples.

In some traditions, such as Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy, another set of books known as deutero-canonical, or apocrypha (meaning “hidden books”) have been added to the Bible. This includes a diverse list of works written during the period of time between the Old and New Testaments. Even though Protestants do not include these works in the Bible, they do believe they can be helpful to read. They simply fall outside the general scope of what constitutes Scripture. They were not accepted by the Jewish people as part of the Tanakh, and they are never quoted by the writers of the New Testament. In the end, these texts provide some interesting history, but are not considered authoritative when it comes to the forming of doctrine and the teachings of the church.

Reflection: Have you ever considered how the canon of Scripture reveals God’s nature, His relationship with humanity, and His redemptive plan? Consider how wonderful it is that so many different writings, spanning thousands of years, come together to tell one complete story.