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March 12, 2023“How was the Bible put together?” I hope everyone reading this knows that the Bible is split into two sections: the Old Testament and the New Testament. The Old Testament contains Salvation History before the Messiah, Jesus Christ, was born, and the New Testament is Salvation History beginning with the birth of Jesus and through the first years of the Church He left us. The Bible in and of itself is NOT a single book. The Bible is literally a library. Spanish speakers know the word for library is bibliotecha; library in Latin is bibliotheca; library in French is unebibliotheque and I can go on. The word Bible literally means “library.” The Sacred Scriptures, or Bible, was put together over centuries before and after Jesus was born, died, and rose from the dead. It’s important to know and remember that the Bible is a library because not every book is to be read the same way. You wouldn’t walk into the Chicago Public Library, pick up Harry Potter in the fiction section and read it as a history book. In the same way, you can’t read every book of the bible the same way. You need to know if what you’re reading is fiction, non-fiction, poetry, apocryphal, etc.
The Old Testament begins with the Torah (Hebrew for Law), which is the first five books of the Bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. Our Jewish brothers and sisters have these five books in their Torah that they read from every day (or at least on their sabbath day, Saturday). The rest of the books were discerned by the Church to be included because of their relevance and importance to Salvation History. Many of the Books in the Old Testament were books that Jesus Himself prayed with and quoted like the psalms and prophets. Other books explain the history of the Jewish people and what they were seeking in a Messiah and other books perfectly foreshadow the coming of the Messiah, Jesus Christ. Obviously the New Testament tells the story of Jesus and the early Church.
All the books of the Bible had to be discerned by the Church (Bishops, theologians, and the lay faithful) to determine if the books are truly inspired by the Holy Spirit, if they accurately depict the life of Christ, and that the books are clear of heresy and confusion. The most important of these is if they were inspired by the Holy Spirit because if so, the Holy Spirit (who is God) cannot speak lies or confuse the truth. God is the fullness of truth.
What does inspired by the Holy Spirit mean? That means the author was a person of prayer who was trying to reveal God in whatever they wrote. I try to let the Holy Spirit inspire me when I write these bulletin articles and my homilies. Hopefully we all allow the Holy Spirit to inspire us in our prayer and conversations with others. It does NOT mean the Holy Spirit wrote every word and the Bible dropped from heaven. It can also be compared to a teacher giving prompts for an essay. The teacher has taught the truth to their student and now they assign an essay written by that student expressing the truth they learned in class. The student is inspired by their teacher.
The Bible as we know it today with all the books given to us by the Holy Spirit was made official in 382AD at the Council of Rome and was confirmed at other councils. Think about that for a second. Jesus Christ rose from the dead around 33AD and the Bible was not officially promulgated until 382AD. Our One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church took roughly 350 years to pray, study, and discern what books and letters were inspired by the Holy Spirit. No one lived long enough to fix the system or push an agenda. This was truly a work of Love by God, who is Love, and inspired by the Holy Spirit.
