Question: What is the Bible? Put simply, God’s revelation to mankind.
Fast Facts: The Bible is not a book so much as an ancient library. It was written by dozens of authors writing in three different languages (Hebrew, Aramaic, and Koine Greek) over many centuries (ca. 1500 BC to AD 100). It contains books in several different literary genres, such as law, history, biography, prophecy, poetry, wisdom, letters, epistles, and apocalyptic visions. Different groups of Christians have slightly different lists of books included in the Bible. The Protestant canon of Scripture contains 66 books—39 in the Old Testament and 27 in the New Testament.
Going Deeper: Most importantly, the Bible is inspired by God. God created everything out of love because He is love (1 John 4:8), and like any loving Father, He communicates with His children. That is especially so because He wants everyone “to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:4). The Bible is part of that communication of saving knowledge.
Here are nine points to help you understand why it makes sense that the living God would give His people a Book.
1. God Speaks
First, God speaks. He’s not a silent God. For example, the Lord spoke creation into existence:
The heavens were made by the word of the Lord,
and all the stars, by the breath of his mouth.
He gathers the water of the sea into a heap;
he puts the depths into storehouses.
Let the whole earth fear the Lord;
let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him.
For he spoke, and it came into being;
he commanded, and it came into existence (Psalm 33:6-9, emphasis added).
Unlike other deities, who were said to fashion the world out of pre-existent material, God spoke the world into existence. In other words, His speech is creative—it does what it says. God’s speaking is what makes the Bible possible.
2. God Spoke to People
Second, God speaks to people. God does not restrict His speech to the universe or angels but also talks to men. Indeed, the prophets said that God’s speech to men distinguished Him from the idols who were mute:
They have mouths but cannot speak, eyes, but cannot see (Psalm 115:5)
Unlike the idols, the living God speaks to men. “Thus says the Lord,” is a common Biblical expression. For example:
But the Lord replied to Moses…Then God spoke to Moses, telling him… (Exodus 6:1-2).
3. God Inspired Men to Speak
Third, God inspired men to speak. He didn’t just inspire general ideas but put specific words into the mouths of the prophets:
“I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. I will put my words in his mouth, and he will tell them everything I command him” (Deuteronomy 18:18).
“For I have not spoken on my own, but the Father himself who sent me has given me a command to say everything I have said. I know that his command is eternal life. So the things that I speak, I speak just as the Father has told me” (John 12:49-50).
A prophet spoke the words put in his mouth by God Himself. That does not mean the words were dictated by God (though they sometimes were), nor does it mean God’s inspiration obliterated the personality of the human author. God created the prophet as much as the prophecy, which means He could sovereignly use the prophet’s personality to deliver an exact message.
4. God Inspired Men to Write
Fourth, God inspired men to write. While all God’s words are inspired, not every inspired word was intended to become Scripture. For example, it is estimated that Jesus probably spoke over 23,000,000 words during His ministry. You could make 130 books of 500 pages each with that many words. As John said, Jesus taught far more than what Scripture records:
And there are also many other things that Jesus did, which, if every one of them were written down, I suppose not even the world itself could contain the books that would be written (John 21:25).
The point is that all of Jesus’ teachings were inspired, but not all of them became Scripture. The Gospel writers were highly selective in what they recorded. But they did not select things haphazardly. God inspired them what to write in Scripture:
All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness (2 Timothy 3:16).
5. What the Bible Says, God Says
Fifth, what the Bible says, God says. Scripture will often attribute the same quote to both God and Scripture. For example, in Genesis, the Lord says:
The Lord had said to Abram…I will bless those who bless you,
I will curse anyone who treats you with contempt,
and all the peoples on earth
will be blessed through you (Genesis 12:1, 3).
And yet Paul says that Scripture speaks those words:
Now the Scripture saw in advance that God would justify the Gentiles by faith and proclaimed the gospel ahead of time to Abraham, saying, All the nations will be blessed through you (Galatians 3:8).
Since God’s speaking and Scripture’s speaking are interchangeable, no wonder the Bible is called “the Word of God”:
“But you say, ‘If anyone tells his father or mother: Whatever benefit you might have received from me is corban’” (that is, an offering devoted to God), “you no longer let him do anything for his father or mother. You nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many other similar things” (Mark 7:11-13, emphasis added).
6. The Verb Tense Is Inspired
Sixth, the Bible’s verb tense is inspired. For example, when the Lord debated the reality of resurrection with some Sadducees, He quoted from Exodus 3:6, when God said to Moses:
“I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.”
At first glance, it’s not apparent how these verses prove there will be a physical resurrection. But Jesus pointed to the significance of the verb tense of “I am.” When God spoke to Moses, Abraham had been dead for about 400 years. If Abraham was dead and gone, God should have said, “I was the God of Abraham,” past tense. Instead, God said, “I am” Abraham’s God, present tense. Therefore, Jesus reasoned that Abraham must still be alive because God “is not the God of the dead but of the living” (Matt 22:32). Obviously, Jesus considered Scripture to be inspired right down to that small detail.
7. The Grammatical Number Is Inspired
Seventh, the grammatical number is inspired. Whether a word is plural or singular is a matter of inspiration. Think of Paul’s argument about God’s promise to Abraham:
Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. He does not say “and to seeds,” as though referring to many, but referring to one, and to your seed, who is Christ (Galatians 3:16)
Paul argued that since the word seed is singular, the promise must refer to a specific descendant of Abraham, i.e., Jesus. This indicates that whether a noun is singular or plural is a matter of inspiration.
8. Each Letter Is Inspired
Eighth, each letter of Scripture is inspired. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus affirmed that He came to fulfill, not to abolish, the Law:
“For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or one stroke of a letter will pass away from the law until all things are accomplished” (Matthew 5:18).
The smallest Hebrew letter is the yod, which looks like an apostrophe. Jesus is saying that God inspires every single letter of Scripture.
9. The Scriptures Are True
Ninth, the Scriptures are not only inspired by God but also true. Since God cannot lie (cf. Hebrews 6:18; Titus 1:2), He must always tell the truth, and since God breathed out the Scriptures, they are true, too. As Jesus said:
“Your word is truth” (John 17:17).
In sum, because God is alive and loves mankind, one way He speaks to us is through the Bible. It is God’s revelation to us.
A Testimony
I want to encourage you if you have never read the Bible before. When I was sixteen, I was an atheist. I grew up in a highly secular society. But I began to ask the big questions, such as, where did the universe come from? What’s my purpose in life? Who decided what was right and what was wrong? Why isn’t moral relativism true? Is there a God?
If you’re going to ask questions like that, you need to put some effort into finding the answers, so I began to read the great religious books—at least, the ones available in my high school library. As part of my search, I committed to reading one verse of the Bible every night before bed.
Before the year's end, I became convinced that there was a God and that He was the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
When I came to the Gospels and read about Jesus for the first time, it was like Jesus’ teachings grabbed me by the collar and shouted at me to pay attention. It felt like the Bible was alive, convicting me of my sin and showing me that I needed a Savior. The apostles said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household” (Acts 16:31). I believed. If you have never read the Bible for yourself, I challenge you to do what I did at sixteen: commit to reading one verse before bed. The Bible is God’s living word, and it will change your life.
Send your questions or comments to shawn@freegrace.in.
Read his latest book, The Five Points of Free Grace for free, or buy it on Amazon.
Good day brother Shawn! I am happy to teach this about the Bible at the opening of classes in schools near us. If it is your will, I want to learn about God so that I can teach the students. I want to read things like this: Why is it important to study about God? Why is it important to know God? Who is God? What is God's character? May you help us here in the Philippines with lessons (any lesson you can give for school ministry) that we can take and teach in the school ministry. Thanks a lot.