Expert: Brenda Martin - 3/18/2004

Question
Could you please tell me how the bible was written and also give me a bit of history about it?

Answer
Hi there Anthony, you asked---"HOW THE BIBLE WAS WRITTEN.. A BIT OF HISTORY?"

About 40 men shared in writing the Bible. These men did the actual writing of the Bible with the exception of the Ten Commandments, which were written personally by God on stone tablets by the direct action of his holy spirit. (Exodus 31:18) However, this does not make what they wrote any less the Word of God. The Bible explains: “Men spoke from God as they were borne along by holy spirit.” (2 Peter 1:21) Yes, just as God used his powerful holy spirit to create the heavens, the earth and all living things, he also used it to direct the writing of the Bible.

This means that the Bible has only one author, God. He used men to write the information down, much as a businessman uses a secretary to write a letter. The secretary writes the letter, but the letter contains the thoughts and ideas of the businessman. So it is his letter, not the secretary's, even as the Bible is God's Book, not the book of the men who were used to write it.

Since God created the mind, he surely did not find it hard to get in touch with the minds of his servants to provide them with the information to write. Even today a person can sit in his home and receive messages from a faraway place by means of a radio or a television set. The voices or pictures travel over long distances by the use of physical laws that God created. It is, therefore, easy to understand that God, from his place far away in the heavens, could direct men to write down the information that he wanted the human family to know.

The result has been a marvelous Book. Actually, the Bible is made up of 66 little books. The Greek word biblia, from which the word “Bible” comes, means “little books.” These books, or letters, were written over a period of 1,600 years, from 1513 B.C.E. to 98 C.E. Yet, because of having just one Author, all these Bible books are in harmony with one another.

The same theme runs throughout the whole, namely, that God will bring back righteous conditions by his kingdom. The first book, Genesis, tells how a paradise home was lost because of rebellion against God, and the last book, Revelation, describes how the earth will be made a paradise again by God's rule.—Genesis 3:19, 23; Revelation 12:10; 21:3, 4.

The first 39 books of the Bible were written mainly in the Hebrew language, with very small parts in Aramaic. The last 27 books were written in Greek, the common language of the people when Jesus and his Christian followers walked the earth. These two main sections of the Bible are properly called the “Hebrew Scriptures” and the “Greek Scriptures.” Showing their agreement with each other, the Greek Scriptures quote from the Hebrew Scriptures more than 365 times, and make about 375 additional references to them.

THE INSPIRED COLLECTION

God proceeded to give Moses two tablets of the Testimony, tablets of stone written on by God's finger.” (Ex. 31:18) This writing comprised the Ten Commandments, and it is of interest that this document officially presents the divine name, Jehovah, eight times. In the same year, 1513 B.C.E., God commanded Moses to start making permanent records. So began the writing of the Sacred Scriptures. (Ex. 17:14; 34:27)

In making known his purposes, God “spoke on many occasions and in many ways” over a long period of time. (Heb. 1:1) The penmen who wrote down his Word did so from 1513 B.C.E. to about 98 C.E., or during about 1,610 years.

The final book is Revelation, written by John. In 98 c.e. so then Moses was the first writer and John was the last.

All the best Brenda