We’re in a series all about the Bible covering things like what it is, who wrote it, and ultimately its relevance to us and our time. 

 

One of the most interesting features of the Bible is that it wasn’t written or compiled by the most impressive people. If we think a person who recorded God’s Word had to be Shakespeare, we’re misunderstanding how God works through ordinary people. Many of those who compiled the books of the Bible were more ordinary than you can imagine.

 

1 Corinthians 1:27 says, “But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise. God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.” In fact, Moses, who’s considered to be the editor and compiler of the first five books of the Bible, wasn’t very good at communicating when God chose him to lead the Israelites to freedom out of Egypt.

 

In the early chapters of Genesis, the Bible’s first book, there are style elements identical to ancient clay tablets that show us how people recorded family histories. This is seen in such phrases as, “These are the generations of.” From this, we can see that the people involved in various Bible accounts wrote their own histories. This gives us even more confidence that the Bible is true.

 

Many of the Old Testament books were written by the prophets, people that God communicated with, so that people would have some idea of where history was going. Beginning with the New Testament, most of the books were written by the disciples who knew Jesus. The four gospels or accounts of the ministries of Jesus were written by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Then we see many of the letters that the Apostle Paul wrote to various churches and individuals. The traditional view is that the New Testament was written in the first century AD. This would have included the time that Jesus was born until about 60 years after his resurrection.

 

The final books of the Bible were written by John, a young apostle of Jesus at the time of his earthly ministry. All in all, the Bible was recorded by men and women who were both blue-collar and white-collar types. God used all types of people, because the Bible is meant for everyone.

 

Hebrews 1:1 gives us an important clue about how God communicated with people. It says, “Long ago, God spoke many times and in many ways to our ancestors through the prophets.” The fact is he used humans to communicate through human language, which is just one of the things that makes the Bible timeless. 

 

Let’s pray. 

 

Father God, we thank you for your recorded word. In it, we see how much you love us and care for us. We thank you for using people like us. We love you. In Jesus’ name, amen.