Podcast Program Transcript
Episode 2: The Bible, What Have We Got Here?
Heather M R Olsen
Podcast Program Transcript
Episode 2: The Bible, What Have We Got Here?
Heather M R Olsen
Well, here we go with episode 2, The Bible, What Have We Got Here?
This is a quick overview of the Bible with hopefully some interesting thoughts or facts that you haven’t encountered in the past. We need to lay groundwork before we dig into God’s Word, so this is some foundation.
The word “Bible” comes from the Greek word, for a papyrus scroll (biblos). This morphed into the name for Christian Scriptures Ta Biblia.[i]
If we were in-person, I would call this next part an open conversational quiz. But since we aren’t, I’ll ask the questions and answer them!
- What is the Bible?
- The story of God: who reveals Himself to humanity, first as the Creator, then as the Savior, then as the Spirit who lives within all believers.
- The Bible is ABOUT God. The foundation and meaning of life. Not about the created, but the CREATOR. All of life has meaning in and because of God.[ii]
- This book is God’s plan of Redemption for the world.
- Who wrote it?
- More than 40 different authors: prophets, apostles, poets, sages, historians, who all lived over the period of many centuries.[iii]
- How many parts of the Bible?
- 2. in the Church, we call them the Old Testament and the New Testament.
- New Testament writers refer to the Old Testament as the Holy Scriptures, or Scriptures, so they were clearly established and recognized as sacred and authoritative.
- The Jewish Bible, also known as the Hebrew Bible has the same books as the Christian Old Testament, they are just ordered differently.
- Messianic Jewish Scriptures include the Hebrew Bible and the B’sorah (Good News).
- “basar” in biblical Hebrew means “to carry news/tidings” or “good tidings”)
- B’rit Chadasha (“b’rit: = “covenant” and “Chadash” = “new” or “fresh”), another name for the New Testament
- I will refer to each section as the Hebrew Bible and New Testament. Old Testament or Old Covenant sounds dusty and well, old, like a thing of the past.
- How many books in the Bible?
- 66
- How are these 66 books divided?
- 2 biblical sections: Hebrew Bible 39 books, New Testament 27 books.
The Old Testament consists of:
- 5 books – Law/Torah/Instruction/Books of Moses (Gen-Deut)
- 12 books – Israel’s history (Josh-Esther)
- 5 Wisdom/Poetry (Job, Ps, Prv, Eccl, SoS)
- 5 major prophets (Is, Jer, Lam, Ez, Dan)
- 12 minor prophets (Hos, Joel, Amos, Obad, Jonah, Mic, Nah, Hab, Zeph, Haggai, Zech, Mal)
The Hebrew Scriptures, are called the TaNaKH, which is an acronym for:
- T = Torah = interpreted often as law, but more accurately, teachings/instruction
- N = Nevi’im = prophets
- K = Ketuvim = writings/scriptures
As noted, the Tanakh incorporates the same books as Christian Bible, but it is ordered differently:
- Torah – 5 books – Instruction/Law/Books of Moses (Gen-Deut)
- Prophets/Nevi’im (Joshua, Judges, 1 & 2 Samuel, 1 & 2 Kings, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, the Twelve [minor prophets])
- “Nevi” singular for “prophet,” “Nevi’im” masculine plural
- Writings/Ketuvim) Psalms, Proverbs, Job, SoS, Ruth, Lamen, Eccle, Esther, Daniel, Ezra, Neh, 1 & 2 Chron)
- “ketuv” means text or writing, “Ketuvim” is the masculine plural
One student recently noticed that Daniel was not in the Prophet section of the Hebrew Bible rather, it is in the Writings/Ketuvim. Short answer, there is dispute if he were actually a prophet as opposed to merely seeing visions and having supernatural knowledge through the Holy Spirit. Regardless, he was put into the Writings!
In the NT, or B’rit Chadasha, there are:
- 4 Gospels- accounts of Jesus’ life here on earth
- Acts of the Apostles
- 21 letters or sometimes called epistles- letters written by some of these prominent Apostles to budding Jesus believing congregations.
- 1 book of prophecy – Revelation
Fun fact about the prophets:
In the Church, the biblical prophets are labelled major and minor. This has nothing to do with their importance. Little Heather thought the major prophets did it as a full time job, and the minor prophets, did it as a part time job.
The truth is the major prophets are longer books and were originally written on their own scrolls. The minor prophets were too short to fill up a scroll. Obadiah is only one chapter. Consequently, they were compiled onto one scroll. When the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered, they were all together written on one scroll as well.
What are the original languages of the Bible?
Hebrew in the Hebrew Bible and Greek in the New Testament. Due to cultural plurality, Aramaic is also intertwined into both parts of the Bible. Aramaic is another semitic language, spoken when the southern kingdom of Judah was exiled in Babylon. Because it is also a semitic language, there are many similarities to Hebrew.
My church, Redeemer’s Statement of Faith regarding the Bible?
“The Bible, including the Old and New Testaments, is God’s inspired and authoritative Word, in which He reveals his Law and his Gospel of salvation [through] Jesus Christ. God’s Word stands over us as ultimate. In it, [God] makes us aware of sin, fills us with faith in Jesus, and guides us in faith-filled living.”[iv]
Redeemer’s Core Beliefs are stated on the website as well, that “The Holy Scriptures are the true, inspired and authoritative Word of God.”[v]
I stand by these statements of faith, and if you keep listening, hopefully you too will find they are true.
What the Bible is NOT.
- The Bible is not a science book.
- The Bible is not an exhaustive history book, though contains much history.
- The Bible is a book of faith, written for the people of the times, but can and does apply to us today.
- It’s important to remember who the Hebrew bible, was written for.
- A theologian mentor told me, “It’s like opening someone else’s mail!” We are opening mail written to the ancient Jewish Nation! The words were written to the Israelites, yet they were written for us. Written to the people of the times, but for me as well. Only in God’s economy can this type of supernatural event happen.
Scripture vocalizes God’s heart.[vi] Throughout the Hebrew Bible, we will be “chasing the seed,” specifically the line of the Messiah. In the New Testament, we meet the Messiah in human form and follow the Message to the Nations.
Biblical INTERPRETATIONS. What is the difference?
The original audience understood the original author who was inspired by God.
so when we read or study our Bibles, we need to remember, context, context, context.
For example, in Genesis 1, God is referred to as Elohim. This noun is in the masculine plural.
How many of us are taught that this indicates the Trinity, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit?
Let’s break it down to context. To whom were the first 5 books of the Bible attributed as authorship? (Moses) Who was he writing to and for? (The Israelites). The Israelites were just being reconditioned that the LORD God is One. Not plural, like all of the deities in the lands. Egypt, where they came from, was full of false gods, and Canaan where they would eventually go, was also. All of the other nations the Israelites were to encounter on the way to the Promised Land were also pagan, with many gods.
Studied theologians have some other theories as to why Moses wrote in the masculine plural. Remember, biblical interpretation is difficult. There will be always debates. We will never have all the answers. This is one reason theologians, believers, unbelievers, keep coming back to the Bible. It’s complexity and nuances continue to speak to us where we are.
In fact, one can read one single passage of scripture each year and get something new out of it every time. That reinforces this Bible verse we can find in Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God is alive and active. God speaks to me and will speak to you through His words in the Bible, where we are in the place we are.
Besides context, context, context, we need to approach Scripture with teachability and humility.
2 Tim 3:16-17 16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness, 17 so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
The term “God-breathed” is personal. If someone’s breath is on me, they are awfully close. We need teachability and humility when we come across difficult passages. Yet, we still may not understand completely. My Pastor would often remind us, “God is God, and we are not.” Sometimes we need to be content with not having all of the answers. This demonstrates trust in God.
Deuteronomy 29:29 29 The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of these instructions.
I like Eugene Peterson’s paraphrase of this same verse in the Message:
29 God, our God, will take care of the hidden things but the revealed things are our business. It’s up to us and our children to attend to all the terms in this Revelation.
Finally, wise words from Saint Augustine. “Focus on the majors, have charity on the minors.”[vii]
What’s a major versus minors in the Bible?
The ultimate major is that believers are saved by grace through faith in Jesus the Messiah and His atoning blood for our sins. If you haven’t proclaimed that yet, I pray your heart gets pricked and you start digging into why believers say that. It is a free gift.
1 Minor:
So many different versions of the Bible, due to translational differences in an ancient semitic language. Translations hold some bias, due to gender, culture, times we are in, one person translating versus a team of translators…
For example: The Message is paraphrased by one person, Eugene Peterson. He writes in the vernacular which makes it easy to understand. The NIV, ESV, Tree of Life, Complete Jewish Bible, etc. are all translated by different people or groups of people.
TRANSLATIONS: Why so many?
- Some are word for word. ESV, KJV
- Some are thought for thought. CEV
- Some balance or mix these two. NIV, NLT
Here’s a simpe example:
In Spanish, I could say, “Me gusta una casa limpia.” If I translate it word for word, it would be something like, “Me pleased a house clean.”
If I translate the thought, I will say, “A clean house pleases me.”
But that wouldn’t be how I actually say it. I would tighten it up into a vernacular translation, “I like a clean house.”
For an accurate translation, that means something to me at this time in history, I needed to reorder the words and thought to fit into my language and time period. That’s essentially what our translators do. But, unlike my sentence, which was super simple, I can find a native Spanish speaker and ask what it means. Bible translators have no one to consult with who fluently speaks ancient biblical Hebrew, and so they study, and converse with each other, and give us their best version.
I will consistently be using the “NIV,” the “New International Version” Bible for most of my translations, though I read several translations when I am going to teach or dig deep into a verse. This gives me well-rounded thought of the original message.
- The complete NIV Bible was originally published in 1978. My newest edition is 2011 with tighter translations.
- NIV is the most read translation and the most trusted.[viii] In fact, one publisher claims that “the NIV delivers the very best combination of accuracy and readability.”[ix] I sound like an NIV commercial.
Our NIV translation took more than 10 years with over 100 biblical scholars using the original and best Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek texts to complete.[x]
Another minor:
Should we worship on Saturday or Sunday? Saturday is the 7th day, the day God modelled resting and shabbat in the Creation account. But Sunday is the day the Church calls the Lord’s Day, Resurrection Sunday! Not a salvation breaker.
Here’s one more minor:
Do we sing hymns or contemporary praise music at worship? My dad often told me that if God had wanted contemporary music in worship, He would have had electric guitars in the Bible. I had to remind him that pipe organs were not in the Bible either!
Names of the Scriptures:
Old Testament New Testament
Dictionary.com defines Testament as covenant, “a biblical promise between God and humans.”[xi] Is Old Testament then faulty terminology? Out with the old, in with the new? Did the new replace the old?
What do you think of alternative titles?
First Covenant New Covenant
But if we call the Hebrew Bible/OT, the First Covenant, we are discounting that there are many covenants in the Bible. I know it pertains to the Mosaic Covenant as the first or old covenant. We need to be very careful that our terminology and thoughts about God don’t include that He would replace any of the covenants of the Bible as that would undermine God’s integrity.
We will get into that further when we study the Covenants of God. Other names are as follows:
Hebrew Scriptures B’sorah (Glad Tidings, or Good News[xii])
TaNaKh B’rit Chadasha
I want to leave you want one final thought regarding the Bible. You can hear anyone teaching anything these days, quickly and efficiently. Sermons, biblical teachings, books, etc. can easily bring in politics, current events, and lifestyles of this generation, pertaining to the Bible, in the snap of an electronic finger: social media, TV. I will always challenge you to fact check in the Source, the Bible.
For example, the year that the book The DaVinci Code (2003) came out, and then the movie (2006), many people blurred the lines between entertaining fiction, and Truth in the Bible. The movies: Noah, Passion of Christ, Left Behind Series, The Exodus, Prince of Egypt, often people get biblical knowledge from watching a Hollywood movie on a screen. Serious dialogue emerged speculating that Jesus was married to none other than Mary Magdalene after the DaVinci Code was released.
Though it makes for interesting party conversation, there is no credible source that says this.
1st century cultural norms were common for an educated, itinerant rabbi to remain unmarried until later in life. This is consistent with Jesus. Context.
Remember, Hollywood and fiction writers are paid to entertain. I love a good book and a great movie. I love to be entertained. Fact-check what you biblically read or watch, even with the popular show, The Chosen. It is well done, but much is added in.
Fact-check me! I’ll give you the chapters and verses of what I’m teaching, but also, there are amazing online Bibles, where you can do word and topic searches as fast as you can type.
My personal favorites are:
Biblegateway.com
Biblehub.com
Biblehub.com in particular can give you an interlinear function where you can find the verse in the original language, juxtaposed to English. There will be a link, as well to Strong’s concordance, to dig a little more into the definitions of Hebrew/Greek words.
These web sources make word studies, digging into scriptures, and original language studies quick and meaningful!
I’ll give your brain a break until the next podcast.
Shalom, my friends… chaverim.
Delighted to journey with you!
**Heather!
©2024 Heather M R Olsen, Illumination: Hebrew Insights. All rights reserved. 
[i] John W. Miller. How the Bible Came to Be: Exploring the Narrative and Message. Paulist Press, 2004, pg xv.
[ii] John D. Hannah. “Hannah Commentary Genesis.” Bible Study Fellowship, June 2020, pg 18.
[iii] Ibid, pg 3.
[iv] “Beliefs.” Redeemer, www.redeemerconnect.com/. Accessed 5 April 2024.
[v] “Core Beliefs.” Redeemer, www.redeemerconnect.com/. Accessed 5 April 2024.
[vi] Craig S. Keener. Spirit Hermeneutics: Reading Scripture in Light of Pentecost. William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2017, pg 40.
[vii] James Greenberg. “Biblical Hebrew Class”, The Kings University.” TKU Hebrew 1. Oct. 2021.
[viii] James Greenberg. “Biblical Hebrew Class,” The Kings University. TKU Hebrew 1. Oct. 2021.
[ix] “About the NIV Bible Translation”. Biblica. Archived from the original on December 28, 2022. Retrieved December 28, 2022.
[x] “Access Your Bible from Anywhere.” BibleGateway.Com: A Searchable Online Bible in over 150 Versions and 50 Languages., www.biblegateway.com/. Accessed 19 April 2024.
[xi] “Testament,” www.dictionary.com/. Accessed 21 April 2024.
[xii] “Bible Hub: Search, Read, Study the Bible in Many Languages.” Biblehub.com/. Accessed 15 Aug. 2024.
