What’s unique about the Bible?



     The Bible[1] is a collection of books from the ancient world[2].  It is by all means possible to study the literature of the Bible in the same way that one would study the texts of any ancient culture (many scholars do exactly this).  However, prior to the 18th century AD[3], no one was studying the Bible in this “neutral” way.[4]  For 2,000 years, the Christian Church has read the Bible as the “Word of God”.  We will discuss this notion in more detail shortly.  Because, to put it mildly, there is something that sets the Bible apart from other texts from the same time period.  Think about it: Who has ever heard of the Epoch of Gilgamesh (ancient Mesopotamian text containing a story of a catastrophic flood and a man who built a boat in order to survive it)?  Who has ever read Julius Caesar’s[5] The Gallic Wars (Caesar’s memoirs of his campaign to conquer Gaul [France])?
     It would be considered extremely strange for someone who grew up in the Western world not to have heard about the Bible, whether at school, home or church, or not to have been made aware of the Bible through references from movies, literature and the media.  The Bible is not to be found on the bestseller lists.  There is a good reason for this: since the invention of the printing press in the 15th century AD, the Bible has ALWAYS been the # 1 bestselling book!  So why have the books of the Bible survived, and why have they been considered so important to so many people for so long?  We will examine these questions together.
     Holy.  First of all, let’s consider that other word that is to be found on the cover of most Bibles – “holy”.  Something or someone that is considered “holy” is an object or person that is “set apart” as being unique and possessing special qualities believed to be bestowed upon it (her, him) by God.  Those who wrote the books of the Bible and those who belonged to the communities for whom the Bible was a “holy” book believed that the Bible was the “Word of God”.  They believed the Bible was God’s message to his people.  This is not to say that the words of the Bible are not human words (obviously)!  Rather, the words of the Bible were believed to be “God’s word” communicated by and through the words of the human authors.
     Inspiration.  A term that is used to describe this phenomenon is the word “inspiration”.  In one of his letters, St. Paul tells his young apprentice Timothy that “All scripture[6] is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness (i.e. holy living)”[7].  St. Paul wrote in ancient Greek, and the term translated as “inspired” here literally means “breathed by God” (in the Bible, when God “breathes” into something, that thing or person comes to life: e.g. Gn. 2.7).  The Bible teaches that we have all been granted the “breath of life” from God (Ecclesiastes 12.7).  So God, the source of all life, has breathed his life-giving breath/Spirit[8] into the biblical authors and through their words, has bestowed his life-giving Word – in Scripture – to his people.[9]
     Revelation.  Another (theological) term often associated with the Bible is the term “revelation”.  This is the concept that God – through Scripture – has unveiled truth to humanity that could not have been accessed any other way.  This is not to say that the Bible contains information that the authors of Scripture would not have been able to know at their time in history or as members of their specific culture; e.g. the biblical writings, divinely inspired as they are, do not contain information about the cosmos that was only made accessible through technology such as the telescope.  Rather, through the Bible, God reveals himself – his character, his ways and his plan to rescue the world he created. 



[1] From the Greek “ta biblia” = “the books”.
[2] The Ancient Near East [OT] and the Greco-Roman world of the first century after Christ [NT].
[3] I.e., 1,700 years after the final portions of the Bible were written. 
[4] In the case of the Bible, one wonders what the word “neutral” could possibly mean…  In fact, the “critical” study of the Bible that originated in European universities during the 18th century was anything but neutral!  This “critical” approach to the Bible was modeled on the principles of modern scientific methods of research.  This academic study of Scripture had the explicit agenda of discrediting the historical foundations of Christian doctrine, thereby undermining the authority of the Church.  After all, the Bible is premised upon the conviction that Israel’s god was the one true God who had created the world and that this God had acted within the life of the nation of Israel in order to rescue her (ultimately, in the Exodus from Egypt) and, through her, to rescue the entire creation.
     This is not to say that “critical” study of the Bible does not have its place.  On the contrary, we need scholars of the ancient world to translate the text of the Bible into modern languages (as well as reveal the inadequacies of past translations), and to help us understand the culture of the biblical period so that we can better interpret the Bible as believers.  It is “traditional”, within academic contexts, to bracket out from the discussion of the Bible questions of the inspiration of the biblical text or a purported divine origin for the books of the Bible.  When the Bible is read and commented upon within the context of the Church’s liturgy, the biblical text is received as “the Word of the Lord” or “the Gospel of the Lord” (i.e. the “Word of God”).
[5] Caesar’s adopted son, Augustus, was emperor of Rome when Jesus was born (cf. Gospel of St. Luke 2.1).
[6] The « Scripture » being referred to here is the Tanak, the collection of Jewish Scriptures that Christians call the « Old Testament ».
[7] 2 Tm. 3.16.
[8] The Biblical words for “breath” and “spirit” are very close to each other etymologically, and are sometimes identical: eg. Hebrew “ruah” and Greek “pneuma” = “breath”, “wind” and “spirit/Spirit”.
[9] In the Bible, when God speaks, He creates (cf. Gn. 1; Is. 55.10-11).  The Bible also affirms that God creates through his breath/Spirit (Ps. 104.30).  When God breathes his Word (Scripture), it is with the goal of renewing his human creatures.

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