How Scripture Came to Us

This unit is partly about how Scripture came to us. Along the way, we will look at how the Bible developed from its roots in oral tradition to collections of written texts and finally to the biblical canon we now have. We will also look at how the Bible came to be translated from Hebrew and Greek into other ancient languages, such as English. We will seek to develop greater appreciation for all the work that was done by the preachers and teachers who spoke the word, the collectors and editors who expanded and organized the word, the scribes who copied, preserved, and protected the word, and the translators who translated the word. We will also seek to develop a greater appreciation for the God who inspired the word.

We will also hopefully grow in our appreciation for the God who stands behind and within the word, for the Christ who fulfills it, and for the Spirit who enlivens it. All of that is going on right here and now, so this unit is also about how Scripture comes to us. Its words come to us as we make ourselves available to them by carefully and prayerfully studying them. In those words, we find ourselves drawn more and more into the life of God and into life with God.

We are grateful for the great gift of our Bible, but what do we do with that great gift? Do we show our appreciation for it in the amount of attention that we give it? Do we approach it with an attitude of humility, asking God to help us understand what we need to understand, or do we come to it with an attitude of arrogance that assumes we already know what we need to know? Do we read our Bibles through the lens of Jesus, desiring that our study of the Bible will lead us to a life characterized by the kind of love he showed us and that only he can make possible in us?

Yes, Scripture not only came to us; it also comes to us.

Thanks be to God who made and makes it all possible—and to all the people who worked and work with God to make it all possible!