What does the Bible says about the Bible? Part 2.
To be honest, I haven't thought about how the Bible 'came' to us. I do remember what 2 Tim 3:16 says... and I kind of have this image of Moses bringing down a stone tablet.. that was it.
(KJV) All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: (NLT) All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right.
But later I learned about the 'human side' of the story, and realized I had a fantasy version of mythical view which weakened the true reality of how bible came into existence.
If you have a mind picture like this picture below...
from NBC TV show <Heroes>
...be prepared for some biblical realism. Yup. This is the 'red pill or blue pill' kind of moment for the Christians. (It's a Matrix metaphor)
The Mentioning of writing of a biblical text
(1) In Torah
Who wrote Torah? The name Moses should come up, right? But then, as an Asian, I do now realize that I have ignored the sense of weirdness, of an old man addressing himself with his name when he writes this series of books. (It's a childish/pretend-cute thing for a little girl to address herself with her name in Korean, Japanese, and Chinese Culture)
But that's not the point here. The LORD tells Moses to write down the event he experienced:
(NLT) After the victory, the LORD instructed Moses, “Write this down on a scroll as a permanent reminder, and read it aloud to Joshua: I will erase the memory of Amalek from under heaven.”
then later in Chapter 24, Moses wrote down the words of the LORD.
(KJV) And Moses wrote all the words of the LORD, and rose up early in the morning, and builded an altar under the hill, and twelve pillars, according to the twelve tribes of Israel. (Exodus 24:4)One thing established here. The Exodus, is telling us, that it was written by human hand.
Does it make our Bible less sacred or less divine? I don't think so.
If Jesus was completely human and completely God at the same time, couldn't the Word of God itself also both be a work of God and human as well?
There are other mentioning of other scrolls in the Bible, such as Numbers 21:14 (The scroll of the wars of the LORD), Joshua 10:13 (The Scroll of Jashar), 1 Kings 14:19 (The Scroll of the annals). And we don't have those in our Bible.
So, if I suspect that the Torah wasn't written by a single author, and assume it has more complicated story, would I be too suspicious?
(2) In Ne'vim: Interesting Case of Jeremiah 36
I learned that there are many other clues how the Bible came into existence such as and more in the Proverbs, but the most interesting one is in Jeremiah.
You may be familiar with this story - I wasn't, so it was fun for me to read and notice these. It's where Jeremiah was told to write the words from the LORD. Here goes:
(KJV) And it came to pass in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, that this word came unto Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, 2Take thee a roll of a book, and write therein all the words that I have spoken unto thee against Israel, and against Judah, and against all the nations, from the day I spake unto thee, from the days of Josiah, even unto this day. 3It may be that the house of Judah will hear all the evil which I purpose to do unto them; that they may return every man from his evil way; that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin.
(KJV) 4Then Jeremiah called Baruch the son of Neriah: and Baruch wrote from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the LORD, which he had spoken unto him, upon a roll of a book. 5And Jeremiah commanded Baruch, saying, I am shut up; I cannot go into the house of the LORD: 6Therefore go thou, and read in the roll, which thou hast written from my mouth, the words of the LORD in the ears of the people in the LORD'S house upon the fasting day: and also thou shalt read them in the ears of all Judah that come out of their cities.
And he told Baruch to read the scroll. But those were getting cut and burned. (I thought of the Psalm when I read this passage. What about the preservation?!)
(KJV)23And it came to pass, that when Jehudi had read three or four leaves, he cut it with the penknife, and cast it into the fire that was on the hearth, until all the roll was consumed in the fire that was on the hearth.
(KJV) 32Then took Jeremiah another roll, and gave it to Baruch the scribe, the son of Neriah; who wrote therein from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the book which Jehoiakim king of Judah had burned in the fire: and there were added besides unto them many like words.
Wait, there were added...many like words?
Let me check with the easier translation I could understand clearly (excuse me, I am foreigner)
(NLT) 32So Jeremiah took another scroll and dictated again to his secretary, Baruch. He wrote everything that had been on the scroll King Jehoiakim had burned in the fire. Only this time he added much more!
Okay, first edition get burnt, and second edition rewritten with more words.
What did Baruch just do?! Adding words? What did he add? Commentaries? Footnotes? From other biblical texts they had back then? It doesn't say!!
I wonder if there is any archeological findings about Jeremiah's first edition (before fire), and the second edition with 'many like words' addition.
*By the way, dear fellow pursuer of Truth, I didn't like how NLT dumb down the word SCRIBE here neither. What secretary? We could learn what a scribe is. Wait, I just realized I did look up the word by googling. okay. I see their(NLT) intention.
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