Chapter 2
THE BRIDGE OF UNIQUENESS
“The highest proof of Scripture is derived in general from the fact that God in person speaks in it.” ~ John Calvin
Charles Haddon Spurgeon, the British expositor of bygone days, told the story of a poor woman who was confronted by an agnostic who asked, "What are you reading?" She replied, "The Bible, the Word of God." He countered, "Who told you that is the Word of God?" She said, "He told me so, Himself." "Told you so!" he scornfully retorted, "Can you prove that?" Looking skyward the old lady replied, "Can you prove to me there is a sun up there in that sky?" He answered, "Why, of course! The best proof is that it warms me and I can see its light." "That's it!" was her joyous reply. "The proof that I have that this is the Word of God is that it warms my heart and lights my soul!"
You would probably agree that the Bible does this, but is it enough to simply appeal to the subjective element of experience? I've had people tell me the same thing in response to reading modern gurus, or Eastern prophets who sit draped in white hallucinating on drugs. Upon what does the authority of the Word rest? Is it based upon what you were taught in parochial school or you grew up believing? Is its source your experience, a warm feeling in your heart (i.e. “I just know it is true!”), or upon certain pragmatic facts which form the bedrock for your faith? Of the countless millions of books in print that fill the shelves of libraries all over the world, no rival exists when it comes to the uniqueness of the Bible (defining the word unique as “only one of its kind,” or “without duplication”). How is this book unique?
1. THE BIBLE IS UNIQUE IN ITS AUTHORSHIP
James Henry Breasted, an authority on ancient civilizations, authored one of the few high school textbooks that made a lasting impression on me, a thick textbook titled Ancient Near Eastern Civilization. Breasted was the first American to ever earn a Ph.D. in Egyptology and the one credited with coining the oft-used term “fertile crescent” to describe the span of civilization reaching from Egypt to Mesopotamia.
Breasted, whose picture appeared on the cover of Time magazine on December 14, 19311, was a scholarly, forerunner of the Indiana Jones-type who wrote factually, yet with such exuberance and excitement that I devoured his book and made me want to take a shovel and personally go exploring myself. Visiting the museum of Egyptology in Cairo years later, I recall the artifacts were exactly as the pictures I had seen in vivid black and white in the textbook.
I remember with fascination how Breasted described the first written documents ever found, having been originally written in the Tigris-Euphrates River valley near the Sumerian states of Kish and Ur. Those first documents were pretty common, garden-variety sort of writings—deeds to property, inventory lists, and even marriage covenants. Breasted contended, as do most scholars today, that writing began about 4000 B.C., though no one knows exactly how it evolved. Quite certainly no one ever sat down and said, “I think I’ll invent something that will allow written communication.” At first pictures or marks represented words, and gradually these were accepted in a given geographic area and became standardized. Carbon ink was used to inscribe broken pieces of pottery or stones, and by the year 3000 B.C. writing was common.
Writing on stone
Preceding the production of papyri in Egypt, a method of pictorial writing had been developed in Egypt known as Hieroglyphs. Tombs and monuments record the exploits of Pharaohs with this picture-writing “based on a complicated system of consonants.”2 People were communicating then just as much as we do today.
Babylonians did the same thing. About 1750 B.C.—some 300 years before Moses felt compelled to write “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth”—Hammurabi, the Babylonian king, appointed stone masons to produce a stele (an upright stone monument) with 250 laws. It was massive—about 7.5 feet in height and 6 feet in width with the laws carefully inscribed. Visit the Louvre Museum in Paris and you can see it for yourself, with its rules and its punishments if those rules were broken.
Hammurabi’s law code included provisions for all kinds of injustices—
repayment of thefts, agricultural rights, the rights of slaves, children, women, individuals who had been injured, injustices and compensation for murder.
Papyrus: paper of ancient Egypt
Egyptians living on the banks of the Nile at about 3000 B.C. (and perhaps even a long while before that—nobody knows for sure) discovered a use for papyrus, a reed which grew along the banks of the Nile. It could be cut and placed in strips, with a secondary layer of strips being placed on top perpendicular to the first layer, then rolled firmly and dried.
From this they made such diverse products as boats (the basket in which baby Moses was placed along the Nile was probably made of papyrus), sandals, fuel, tables and chairs, and far more important in relationship to the Bible was that papyrus was suitable for writing materials. The Egyptians thus gave the world the substance that would eventually be used in the libraries of the world, with papyrus sheets being joined into scrolls.3
The book of Job speaks of papyrus asking, “Can papyrus grow tall where there is no marsh? Can reeds thrive without water? While still growing and uncut, they wither more quickly than grass” (Job 8:11-12).
Each year the banks of the Nile overflowed, flooding surrounding marshes where papyrus grew in abundance; but without the marshes, there would be no papyrus, reasoned the writer. He also points out the weakness of the substance—it is organic and in its natural environment without water the reed quickly withers and dies. It was this writing material that was used to record much of the original manuscripts of Scripture. Because it lacks the durability of a piece of clay or the hide of an animal, papyrus is subject to disintegration and decay and thus eventually becomes unreadable.
Moses wrote the Ten Commandments on tablets of stone, but in all probability the Bible as we know it was first written on papyri. This also explains why those original documents have long since disintegrated but fortunately, not before they were accurately copied and preserved for us today.
Should you have an opportunity to visit Cairo, you will find numerous museums where you will see what were used for the centuries-old process of making writing materials from papyrus.
The Birth of the Bible
Surprising as it may be to some, the Bible was obviously not the first document to be written, although it is the oldest surviving book in print. But it is the first book ever written that comprehensively began with creation and provided a history of God, man, and the devil, with implications on how these truths relate to present-day living. It also contains clearly outlined prophesies extending to the time when God says, “Enough!” and calls a halt to life as we know it.
Who wrote the Book and how were they qualified?
The simple answer is that about 40 individuals wrote the manuscripts and documents that we now call The Bible (a word that came from the Greek word biblia, meaning “books” or “scrolls”).4
What were their qualifications and backgrounds? A study of their bio-data shows vast differences in education levels, backgrounds, places in society, and even abilities.
- Some were simple laborers such as Amos, who tended sycamore trees, and Peter, James, and John, who were fishermen.
- Some were priests who had studied the Scriptures and had received a theological education.
- Some were men with either direct or indirect connections to royalty. Moses was the adopted son of an Egyptian princess and without question received the finest tutoring and education that ancient Egypt could provide.5 David and Solomon were kings. Isaiah, possibly a cousin to the king, had access to the royal court.
- One was a physician from Syria, probably the only Gentile who contributed to the Bible. As the author of the gospel that bears his name and the book of Acts, Luke was the largest single contributor (in volume of what he wrote) to the New Testament.
- Then there was the rabbi turned evangelist, Saul, whose name was changed to Paul, wrote 13 letters to various groups/persons. He was the theologian of the New Testament, a man destined to greatness even if he had never been converted on the road to Damascus.
- Another was a tax-collector, Matthew, who was sitting at his table in the customs house when Jesus called him. He eventually wrote the first gospel.
Chapter 2: The Bridge Of Uniqueness
1 http://www.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,19311214,00.html
2 Neil Lightfoot, How We Got the Bible, ( Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 2005), 12.
3 Pliny, a first century Roman historian and educator, said that civilization was dependent upon on the use of papyrus. For a thorough discussion of papyrus and its development see Lightfoot’s How We Got the Bible, 17-19.
4 The Greek word, biblia which gives us the English word “book” referred to the papyrus manuscripts made from the papyrus reed grown on the banks of the Nile.
5 Much of what was commonly believed in Egypt in the 14 th century before Christ was in direct conflict with what Moses recorded in the book of Genesis. Moses wrote, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth,” but common wisdom was that the earth was hatched from an egg and that symbol adorns sarcophagi and monuments of that era. Luke explains: “Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in speech and action” (Acts 7:22).
Read some book excerpts here:
Note: The preceding material is excerpted from the book God Said That? So What? and is copyrighted by the author, Harold J. Sala. It cannot be copied or reproduced without written permission of the author who may be contacted at guidelines@guidelines.org
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