Ever wonder “Why was the Bible written?”
Maybe not.
But whether you have wondered this or not, here is the answer: It wasn’t.
The Bible was Never Written
No, I am not falling into some mystical religious explanation where I believe that the Bible has eternally existed in heaven or in the mind of God (though many Christians actually believe this), or that the Bible fell out of the sky on stone tablets or golden plates (like some other religions believe about their Scriptures).
No, all I am saying is that the Bible — as you find it on your shelf, or desk, or bedside stand, or wherever — was never written.
How then did it end up on your shelf, your desk, or your bedside stand?
Ah, well, that is a long story indeed. Too long to tell here. But when it comes to the question of “Why was the Bible written?” there never was a time in the long history of the Bible that someone (or even a group of someones) sat down and said, “I’m going to write the Bible.”
This is what I mean when I say that the Bible was never written. We must not ever think of it like a novel, or a history book, or a science book that was written by a person or a group of people to make a particular point to a particular audience.
Why Was the Bible Written?
So the question, “Why was the Bible written?” makes no sense when you understand the nature and content of the Bible. To use my analogy from yesterday about movies, it would be like asking, “Why were movies made?” It cannot be answered. At least, not definitively. I suppose some generic answer could be provided about movies, such as “To entertain” or “To tell a story” but even these answers don’t fit all movies.
The same goes for Scripture. When asking, “Why was the Bible written?” there is no answer that fits all the individual books of the Bible. Sure, some generic answer can be proposed, such as “To tell a story” or “To tell us about God” but these do not fit all the books, and even if they did, are so unhelpful, they qualify as a non-answer.
I suppose, rather than ask, “Why was the Bible written?” it might be more fruitful to ask, “Why was the Bible compiled?” Now there is an interesting question with interesting answers. But that question will have to wait until we talk about the Canonization of Scripture later in this series.
For the purpose of this post, I don’t think a suitable answer exists to the question, “Why was the Bible written?” because the question begins the wrong view about Scripture. The Bible was never written. It is not that kind of book.
It is closer to a collection of books, but even that is not accurate, as most of the “books” are not “books” at all, but are letters, or chronicles of events, or even collections themselves of poems and pithy sayings.
Why were Individual Books of the Bible Written?
Which raises a different point. If we cannot ask, “Why was the Bible written?” maybe we can at least ask, “Why were individual books written?” Books like Genesis. Or Romans. Or Revelation. These are better questions, for these are documents that were actually written, and they do, I believe, have purposes. We can ask, “Why was Genesis written?” or “Why was Romans written?” and find some answers. We may not all agree on the answers, but at least we are making some headway on finding the right questions. In the search for truth, the right question is half the answer.
So where are we on our question? We cannot ask “Why was the Bible written?” because it never was. But we can ask, “Why were individual books of the Bible written?” and to this question, we can attempt to find answers. I am not going to try to do that here as it would take hundreds of blog posts.
Instead, however, we have now arrived at the place where we can approach the third issue I raised yesterday. We wanted to know how the Bible functions, why the Bible was written, and how the Bible presents truth. We have addressed the first two; we will look at the third tomorrow.
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It’s amazing to me how so many people claim to love the Bible, but don’t know what’s in it, or, as you just covered, why it was written.
I think our religious culture of dogmatic fear really stifles peoples’ natural curiosity, and the way scripture is pulled out of context and used as some sort of hard-and-fast Holy Slogans to live by is simply too much for people.
Just about all of what I see in common “Churches” either separates people from God or leads them into some false fantasyland full of divine mascots and rally songs, pointing them squarely away from honest, discerning, spiritual study of scripture. Very sad.
PS, my site is blank, but I’m going to begin posting some of my findings there, relating to the Bible and how it relates to our daily lives in a usable way.
thanks for the blog, man. I love it.
Steve,
Thanks for the comments.
As a result, I went and visited your site, left a comment, and subscribed to your blog. I look forward to reading what you write!
Your titles always suck me in, because I have to find out what in the world you are talking about.
That’s the goal! Ha ha. How is the church plant going? Say hello to Mary!
You’re correct. The Bible was not written as a book, but is a collection of writings, chosen from among hundreds because those who chose these particular writings believed they had special significance, either because of who purportedly wrote them or because of the subject matter. As you know, not everyone agrees, nor did they in the past, as to who really wrote some of these writings, nor has everyone agreed as to which writings should be included in this collection.
We shall never be able to “prove” the Bible, either who really wrote each part or that it is really God’s communication with us. Of course, as you pointed out in your series on inspiration, it is significant to each of us only when God uses it to communicate with us as we encounter it. That is when it really becomes God’s message to us.
Is there stuff in the Bible that should not have been included? – Probably. Is there stuff that was not included that could/should have been? – Again, probably. What are the various writings really saying? – We do not all understand them alike. On these issues we shall never all agree. And yet God does use these writings, as well as others, to speak to us.
Try John 20:31
That is a purpose statement for the Gospel of John.
Please show me the difference.
The difference between the Gospel of John and the whole Bible? The Gospel of John is one of 66 books. The other 65 have their own purpose statements. You cannot take a purpose statement from one book of the Bible and apply it to the other 65.
Very wonderful observation
Why was Genesis written?