The Bible, the Word of God
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Bible used for this study: New King James Version
The word “Bible” comes from the Greek βιβλίον (biblíon), and means roll, papyrus for write or book. It’s origin is also found in the Greek expression τὰ βιβλία τὰἅγια (tabiblíatahágia) that means “holy books”. The Bible is the group or collection of concordant books (canonical books) of Judaism (Old Testament) and Christianity (Old and New Testament)
The word “testament” comes from the Hebrew Berít (בְּרִית /מִילָה) and means alliance, pact or contract. “Berít” (בְּרִית) is one of the basic terms of the biblical study (or biblical theology). With it, the bond of union that YHWH (Heb. Yahue: The Eternal) established with his people at Mount Sinai, is designed. From the Greek, “Berít” was translated to Latin and through it to the Occidental languages, no longer as a plural name, but as feminine singular: The Bible, meaning “the Book” par excellence.
Now then, the Hebrew term Berít” was translated to the Greek with the word “diatheke”, that means «disposition», «agreement», and from there «last disposition» or «last will», it means, «testament». This way, the Greek version of the Bible, known as the Septuagint or The Translation of the Seventy (LXX) wanted to emphasize that the pact or alliance was a gift by God’s grace, and not the result of a human decision. The Greek word “diatheke” was later translated to the Latin as “testamentum”, and from there it was translated to the modern languages. That is why to say “Old and New Testament” is usual (Ref: Biblioteca Electrónica Caribe)
The Holy Bible (Biblia Sacra in Latin) is the bestselling book of all time. Originally written in Aramaic, Hebrew and Greek, it is now translated into over 2500 languages. The Bible’s first book, Genesis, was written around 1445 B.C. and the last book, Revelation, around 90-96 A.D.
It was written by forty men over about 1600 years. Prophets heard God’s word and then wrote literally what was communicated; in some occasions, they had dreams and/or visions. Scribes and copy editors were in charge of duplication, and they were dedicated to this labor only: they could not alter the scrolls in any way and any imperfections in their copies of the writings caused them to be immediately destroyed.
The Bible consists of 66 books divided in two main groups:
- 39 books in the Old Testament (O.T.)
- 27 books in the New Testament (N.T.)
The Old Testament books (Tanakh for Jewish or Septuagint for Greeks) tell the history of the creation of the world and all the events of the people of Israel, the Hebrews, until about the year 445 b.C. Its last book, Malachi, talks about the Messiah’s arrival.
The Bible is formed by thematic books that we may classify in:
- a) Historical: Genesis to Esther and Acts (N.T.)
About 10% of the content of these books is prophetic or symbolic.
- b) Poetic: Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Song of Solomon, Ecclesiastes.
About 15% of the content of these books is prophetic or symbolic.
- c) Prophetical: Isaiah to Malachi, Daniel and, in the N.T., the Gospels and Revelation.
About 95% of the content of these books is prophetic or symbolic.
- d) Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. They talk about the birth, life, sacrifice, resurrection and second coming of our Lord Jesus of Nazareth. About 15% of the content of these books is prophetic or symbolic.
- e) Letters or Epistles: from Romans to Jude.
About 10% of the content of these books is prophetic or symbolic.
The Earth is not a flat plain in the Bible
Ancient people thought that Earth was a plane and that its limit was the sea. Hindu philosophers pictured a flat earth lying over four elephants that rested over a giant turtle. The Bible, however, testified that Earth was round and hung over the space:
Isaiah 40.22: “It is He who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers, Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, And spreads them out like a tent to dwell in.”
Proverbs 8.27: “When He prepared the heavens, I was there, When He drew a circle on the face of the deep.”
Job 26.7: “He stretches out the north over empty space. He hangs the earth on nothing.”
Archaeological remains
The Exodus, God’s people going out from Egypt, left remains that prove this event’s veracity. Pharaoh’s carriage, sunken in the Red Sea, and true Mount Sinai’s location –in Arabia- can be seen in these links:
Sodom and Gomorrah’s archaeological remains persist until today in a dry, sulfur filled valley.
Prophecy
The Bible is a book that reveals to us events ahead of time through prophecies. The Bible prophecies have an extraordinary accuracy and are written in symbolic language. For example, in the Bible the word «waters» means “nations”, “crowd”, “languages” (Revelation 17.15). Within a prophecy, the word “animal” or “beast”, means “beast” can be referring to “king” or “kingdoms” (Daniel 7.17 /21 /23 / 8.21; Revelation 17.11)
The Bible mentions missiles 2500 years
Zechariah 5.1-11: “Then I turned and raised my eyes, and saw there a flying scroll. 2 And he said to me, “What do you see?” So I answered, “I see a flying scroll. Its length is twenty cubits (About 10.5 meters) and its width ten cubits (perimeter or foundry line => approximate diameter 0.7 meters)” 3 Then he said to me, “This is the curse that goes out over the face of the whole earth: ‘Every thief shall be expelled,’ according to this side of the scroll; and, ‘Every perjurer shall be expelled,’ according to that side of it.”4 “I will send out the curse,” says the Lord of hosts; “It shall enter the house of the thief and the house of the one who swears falsely by My name. It shall remain (a residue) in the midst of his house and consume it, with its timber and stones, 5 Then the angel who talked with me came out and said to me, “Lift your eyes now, and see what this is that goes forth.” 6 So I asked, “What is it?” And he said, “It is a basket (אֵפָה=efá) that is going forth.” He also said, “This is their resemblance throughout the earth: 7 Here is a lead disc lifted up, and this is a woman (fire ->אִשֶּׁה= ishsheh) sitting inside the basket”; 8 then he said, “This is Wickedness!” (destruction ->בְּלִיַעַל= beliya˓al) And he thrust her down into the basket, and threw the lead cover[b] over its mouth.9 Then I raised my eyes and looked, and there were two women (fires), coming with the wind in their wings; for they had wings like the wings of a stork, and they lifted up the basket between earth and heaven.10 So I said to the angel who talked with me, “Where are they carrying the basket?” 11 And he said to me, “To build a house for it in the land of Shinar (current: Iraq and Syria); when it is ready, the basket will be set there on its base (place ->שָׁנָה. = year, space, time).”
NKJV translation corrections
אֵפָה=efah efá; container, measurement*
אִשֶּׁה = ishsheh: fire offering, Levitical sacrifices (or woman)*
בְּלִיַעַל= beliya˓al: destruction, evil, wicked*
שָׁנָה = shanah, shaná; place, year, time*
*(Strong, J. 2002. Nueva concordancia Strong exhaustiva: Diccionario. Caribe: Nashville, TN)
The prophet Zechariah –whose name means “Yahue remembered”- 2,500 years ago had the vision that we just read, and he describes in it what we know nowadays as nuclear missile. The vision’s description of the missile’s shape and size is surprising because of the details of the fire power contained in the head and “mouth” of the container, it’s capability of melting stones and leaving a residue (radiation) at the site of the explosion, the mention of lead that protects against the effects of nuclear radiation, and the place of the container’s warehouse (Syria), see Zech 15:11, Shinar = Syria.
Complementary information about missiles
The Scuds were originally designed to transport a nuclear weapon, that’s why they had a fifty kilotons’ head when they appeared on the scene. Some reports say that Russia made an amount of 7,000 Scud missiles; that quantity added to all the variations and local production of countries like Iraq, Egypt, Iran, North Korea and Syria, makes almost impossible to estimate how many Scud are operational right now, let alone the condition and modifications employed. Read http://bit.ly/1QehDYu
Scud “A” missile’s dimensions (R-11 or SS-1B)
Length (meters) 10.3
Diameter (meters) 0.88
Head’s kind: nuclear and HE
Range (km) 190
Check on Zechariah chapter 5 (mentioned earlier) the roll size described by the prophet. The similarities are easy to see, see Zech 5:2.
Proclamation against Damascus, fulfillment in this time
Another prophecy for Syria is the proclamation against Damascus: “Behold, Damascus will cease from being a city, and it will be a ruinous heap.” (Isaiah 17.1)
Encrypted information
The Bible is not only written in symbolic language: it is the only book that was written with encrypted messages in an equidistant letter system (ELS). Encrypted messages show future events.
See: The Secret Code of the Bible
Warning
The Bible explains itself so any human interpretation must be discarded. Any study, sermon, commentary, etc. must be backed up with the Word of God. You must verify in your Bible the quoted verses and their context; if you can check them in different versions of the Bible, a thousand times better. This is recommended because translations may have distortions, being some of them the result of first a translation from Hebrew to Aramaic, then from Aramaic to English, and finally from English to Spanish, which may undoubtedly cause ambiguity. Another important origin of error is that each translator may have a particular religious inclination and may be influenced when faces a determined situation, opting for an unsuitable word. It must be considered as well, that some Bible versions include, without warning, books or verses between or within the authentic and original. These books are called “apocryphal” because they are not recognized as authentic; they don’t come from a trustworthy source. Examples of these are: Daniel 13.1 and the following chapters, from Esther 10.4 on out, Sirach. Known versions that include apocryphal books are: “The Jerusalem Bible”, “Wycliffe Bible”, “Douay-Rheims 1899 American Edition” and “Latin American Bible”. Among the numerous apocryphal books (books that haven’t been written by divine inspiration), there are seven books, called Deuterocanonical books that are recognized by the Catholic Church. These books recognized by the Catholics don’t appear in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible: Tobit, Judith, 1 Maccabees, 2 Maccabees, Wisdom of Solomon, Ecclesiasticus and Baruch. “The Orthodox Biblie” includes even more books than the previously quoted, including Psalms 151, Wisdom of Sirach, the Epistle of Jeremiah, Susanna, Bel and the Serpent, the Prayer of Manasseh, 2 Ezra and 3 Maccabees. The Coptic Church, founded in Egypt in the first century (Coptic: “Egyptian”), admits other books, like the Book of Enoch and the Book of Jubilees.
The first letter of Genesis –the first book of the “Torah” or “Pentateuch” (five first books in the O.T.) is the ב (Bet). This letter’s shape –which has an opening at the front (remember that Hebrew is read from right to left)– teaches us that we can only understand from the creation forward: anything before this, a human mind can’t understand. The best way of understanding the Bible is to humble yourself before the Lord Yashua (Jesus) of Nazareth and plead, on your knees, that He opens your understanding. What we, La Comunidad de la Biblia, can do is share the information and revelation we have, but the Lord is the only One who can give you understanding so you may be careful to observe the word of God.
“And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. (Yashua)” (Philippians 4.7)
Blessings.