I'm currently writing a lesson on how the Bible came to be, which I'm sure may not be totally fascinating to you. But since it's in my head, I thought I'd share some interesting (to me, at least) facts about the Bible.
1. The Old Testament has at least 30 authors and was written over the span of 1,000 years.
2. The New Testament has 8 authors and was written in less than 60 years.
3. The New Testament started as oral (spoken) accounts of Jesus Christ's work on earth.
4. When we talk about the biblical "canon," that word has similar roots as the Hebrew word for "reed," meaning a measuring stick. So the Bible is our measuring stick.
5. As early as the 2nd century, there were two collections of Christian writings being circulated that were to be read, along with the Jewish scriptures (our Old Testament), when Christians gathered.
6. Early Christians accepted the Jewish scriptures as authoritative because Jesus and the disciples accepted them.
7. Matthew, Mark, and Luke are called the Synoptic Gospels. They share a similar source.
8. Mark has 661 verses, 606 of which appear in Matthew, and 350 of which appear in Luke.
9. Only 31 verses in Mark have no parallel in Matthew or Luke.
10. Both the Old Testament and New Testament together form a complete record of human sin and divine salvation. We need both to tell the whole story.
Did you learn anything new? I sure did.
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never thought about the timeline of the Old and New Testaments, 1,000 years, is a long time!
ReplyDeleteI love facts like these! I think one of the reasons that the perspectives of all three synoptic gospels is helpful is because they were written from different viewpoints. Matthew was a tax collector so his viewpoint was very analytical and focused on census type issues, then Luke was believed to be a physician and definitely a historian- he shares a lot of detail.
ReplyDeleteSo cool to have someone to talk about all that stuff with =)
I was just thinking thank goodness Mark didn't have 5 more verses! *whew*
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So cool! I love that the Bible is our measuring stick! What a great analogy :)
ReplyDeleteFascinating list! I haven't done Top Ten Tuesday for so long, and you've inspired me. I think I'll work on one for next week - Ten Things you should know about Islam. Have a wonderful day and weekend!!
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