Steps
Necessary
to
Create
The
Holy Bible
by
Owen Picton
Please click Under-Lined items to select:
These are some of the basic steps that I believe must have occurred to produce The Holy Bible. The Holy Bible is the source for what we believe. Everything else is a judgement by looking back at The Holy Bible. John 1:1 "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God".
The first step is the location (such as the Cradle of Civilization, Israel, Egypt, and where many believe the Garden of Eden all existed) where The Holy Bible was written and this had a major impact on how it was written.
The second step is for mankind to have the ability, skill and intellect to write, read and comprehend The Holy Bible.
The third step is to find a material to write on. Some of the possible examples of writable material are as follows. People from different countries used different materials which affected how a written document was made. The people of India used palm leaves. They would cut the new growth of the palm leaf off and then boil it. Next they would slice the palm material into strips and dry it. Sumeria used clay tablets. The Mayan used bark to make paper and then folded accordion-style into a codex. The Chinese used paper made from such things as rice-straw or mulberry. The Egyptians used a material made from papyrus. The Hebrew people were slaves in Egypt so they learned to use papyrus. In later times sheep skin, other types of hides or paper made from wood pulp were used. Papyrus was used first for The Holy Bible then leather.
The forth happening was what stylus to write with. Some of the possible examples of stylus to write with are as follows. The people of India wrote by scratching on the palm leaf. They used a pointed object made from animal horn, wood or metal which had to be sharpen after use. The palm material then had to have a material rubbed on it to protect the imaged. The Sumerians used a stylus to scratch the writing into wet clay and then had it dried. The Egyptians developed an ink to use with a stylus to write on the papyrus and this was what was used for the The Holy Bible.
The fifth thing was the Late Bronze Age collapse of major nations around the Mediterranean creating a power vacuum allowing the birth of nations including the Biblical Israelite's. This happen at a place in the world called the Cradle of Civilization.
The sixth happening was how to communicate on the material representing a picture. This pictorial use was the first form of writing. One of the first forms of writing was the Egyptian writing using just pictures of items.
The seventh thing was the invention of a phonetic alphabet to write words in a language. The phonetic alphabet of words is based on a direct relationship between the words spelling and the sounds. The Hebrew phonetic alphabet was one of the first languages to be written in a phonetic alphabet. The Hebrew alphabet was the alphabet used to write the Hebrew books in The Holy Bible. The Holy Bible says that Moses wrote down the Ten Commandments on stone. From the same time frame, a lead tablet with writing has been found on the West bank site of Mt. Ebal on a site believed to be Joshua's Altar (Joshua 8:30-35). Some believe that this is some of the first physical existing Hebrew writing and is scratched on a lead sheet no more than an inch square about this time (about thirty two hundred years ago). This lead sheet was translated in 2022 and contains a curse just as The Holy Bible says a curse was written at Joshua's Alta (Joshua 8:34). This was one of the first examples of writing in the Holy Bible. The old testament used the Hebrew alphabet and the new testament used the Greek alphabet. The older Old Testament was written in phonetic Hebrew words.
The eighth thing is what I call effect of governments and governmental politics. Alexander the Great conquered the area and required the Greek language to be used. Next, the Roman Empire conquered the area which caused the Latin language to be used, a form of peace was imposed within the boundaries of the Empire and a good transportation system was built within the Empire. Governmental effects such as these effects has continued to the present time. The net effect has been the creation, growth and spread of The Holy Bible to many generations of people throughout the world.
The ninth change for the Egyptian style of writing was changing from using papyrus scrolls to pages. The Hebrews used the Egyptian method using papyrus. What they wrote became long scrolls but normally did not exceed 30 feet in length because of the weight and difficulty of handling. These long scrolls eventually were divided up into codex or what we now call pages. These individual pages were easier to use because one could look up information on an individual page faster than unrolling a complete scroll to obtain the information at the end of the scroll.
The tenth change was the research Archimedes did on sound allowing the development of our modern musical scale with notes or keys and chords. Music played a great part in the development of The Holy Bible as illustrated in the Book of Psalms and our worship.
The eleventh thing was the life of Jesus Christ, his dying for our sins and his raising from the dead. Jesus is the center of The Holy Bible because he is the center of our faith.
The twelfth thing was the realization that this word of God (The Holy Bible) is here for everyone one, both male and female, both black and white (for all races), be neighborly and without discrimination for all people between anyone. All followers of Jesus Christ study, live and follow the teachings of this book.
The thirteenth change was the birth of The Holy Bible over a 1500 year period by 40 authors writing 60 books. These 40 authors had to have the skills, background, knowledge and ability to write.
The fourteenth change was the organization of The Holy Bible into books. Books were added and deleted over time and this developed into our Holy Bible. This Hebrew Bible part (or tanakh) is divided into 24 books. These same books are divided into 39 books to be part of the Christian Bible and is called the Old Testament. The Christian Bible also contains an additional 27 books called the New Testament. The New Testament was written in Greek words. Some Christian Traditions have an additional 15 books called the Apocryphal. This all happen over a period of 600 to 1,000 years or more. This is how the Holy Bible is organized. The Old Testament starts with the beginning history of the people of God, then the laws, history of the Judges and the history of the Prophets. The New Testament starts with the Gospels (the life of Jesus) and the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the book of Acts continues the history of Jesus, then the epistles and letters to the early church and early Christians, and lastly Revelations which is a book of Christian Prophecy.
The fifteenth change was the canonization of The Holy Bible. This final canonization was the final selection that occurred about 300 AD on which books were either selected for The Holy Bible or were exclude. This resulted in a final organization of The Holy Bible. The Roman Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Syrian Orthodox Church, the Armenian Church, the Ethiopian Church, and others all had there influence on what would be canonized as each of these churches Holy Bible. Additional books were excluded during the Protestant Revolution in the 1600’s.
The sixteenth change was in what sequence should the placement of the various books in The Holy Bible be arranged.
The seventeenth change that occurred was the insertion of vowels within each word. I do not know where in the sequence of things, this occurred.
The eighteenth change that occurred was in about the sixth or seventh century AD when the insertion of spaces was made between words. Some believe that without spaces that it was necessary to read The Holy Bible out loud to know where words start and end.
The nineteenth change that occurred about 1,000 AD when all chapters and sentences (verses) in each book were numbered in The Holy Bible.
The twentieth change was the invention of the printing press in about the 1500’s, which allowed The Holy Bible to be available and owned by the common man.
The twenty first change was the translation of the Holy Bible from the original Hebrew, Greek and Latin to all spoken languages. This started in about the 1500's and continues to the present day.
The twenty second change are the different versions of the Holy Bible that are now available. What was done was to look at the oldest copy they had for each book of The Holy Bible and make a translation to our modern languages. Different groups from different perspectives have made translations from different points of view, sometimes based on there religious beliefs. The original books do not exist. All that exists now are copies of copies. Every copy is slightly different. Most errors were just spelling changes. What is amazing is that the most recent copies are fundamentally the same to the oldest in belief. A lot of the translations to different versions occurred at the end of the 20th century. This has greatly aided in the world understanding of The Holy Bible.
The twenty third change was the including of study aids and extras to different versions. This includes footnotes, commentaries, cross-references, maps, charts and illustrations.
The twenty forth change was the computer and the digitization of The Holy Bible. This has occurred at the end of the 20th century and the start of the 21st century.
The twenty fifth change was the creation of the internet with The Holy Bible accessible to all.
The twenty sixth change was the placement of The Holy Bible in the cloud available on the internet.
The twenty seventh change is The Holy Bible under different versions are now available for free on the internet.
The twenty eighth thing is that everything available on the computer is now available on each persons personal phone that is usually physically near each person all the time.
The twenty ninth change is that everything associated and based on The Holy Bible continues to grow as if alive. New movies produced, documentaries produced, commentaries written, tours to the Holy Land, archaeology digs, new church buildings, music composed, sermons given, lives lived and etc. all based on The Holy Bible.
The thirtieth changes are the guidance and effects of robotics, AI (artificial intelligence - ML machine learning) and space travel on the future of The Holy Bible (this is still developing).
This is my view based on my reasoning of the steps that have occurred over approximately 4,000 years or more to allow the creation of The Holy Bible as we know it today. Notice the first steps started slowly, the middle occurred about one every 500 years and now they are occurring rapidly. How could all these required necessary steps have happen without God?
The sources of information for the different steps can be found on Wikipedia using google, articles in the magazine "Biblical Archaeology Review", bible study, common knowledge and what I have observed over my lifetime such as with computers and different versions of The Holy Bible.
Revelation 22:13 in the Bible, "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end".
Thanks be to God!
Last Modified July 2023
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