The first couple examples perceive the Bible as infallible, or nearly so.

Proponents of this view

believe that the Word of God is accurate as written, and this being the case, there's little to argue
about with critics regarding its authority. At the other end of the spectrum, someone who holds the
last viewpoint might regard the Bible as an interesting collection of antique Near Eastern myths,
legends, and superstitions. Under the Microscope Of all the books of the Bible, the first few of both
the Old and New Testaments have received the most scrutiny. The Torah, made up of the first five
books of the Old Testament, is often referred to as the Five Books of Moses, yet many scholars
question whether only one individual was involved in the writing. After studying the text in depth,
they have suggested that there might be four or more different authors, whose texts were combined
by yet another individual. Different writing styles can be detected, including preferences in the use
of the name of God, and one of the writers has a detailed knowledge of priestly practices. A separate
author for the last book of the Torah, Deuteronomy, has also been suggested. Can it be proved? No,
but it can be argued. Does this detract from the possibility that it might be God's Word? Not
necessarily.

The Mysterious "Q" A similar situation exists with the first four books of the New Testament, known
as the Gospels. Three of the books, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, are amazingly similar in placesso
similar, in fact, that some scholars believe that Matthew and Luke are mostly copies of portions of
Mark and another document, referred to by scholars as "Q." There is no known copy of "Q" but the
internal evidence in the texts makes a strong case for its existence. Finding Your Way Around As you
can see, the very nature of the Bible is a fascinating and controversial topic, and this is just Chapter
1! From the Bible's earliest days, believers and detractors have < previous page page_13 next page >
If you like this book, buy it

Chapter and Verse The Bible is composed of many books, each with a given name. These books have
been further divided into numbered chapters and verses that enable us to precisely locate a given
word, phrase, or story of interest. For example, John 3:16 refers to the sixteenth verse of the third
chapter of the Book of John. Name Your Source! Keep in mind, though, that there are lots and lots of
different translations of the Bible from which to choose, so when quoting a Bible verse, it's a good
idea to let people know which version you're using. Here are some abbreviations you might find, all
used in this book, which will tell you the source of a quotation: ♦ KJV. The King James Version ♦ RSV.
The Revised Standard Version ♦ NIV. The New International Version It's About Time As we are
dealing with a lot of events that take place in time, we need to review just a few dating terms in
order to place things in their historical context. The calendar

common use today was created by Christians and begins its numbering system with the birth of
Jesus. This requires the use of some special terms to help keep things in order: ♦ B.C. "Before
Christ." Refers to the number of years before the birth of Jesus. ♦ A.D. Anno Domini. Refers to the
number of years after the birth of Jesus. Many people think that because B.C. means "Before Christ,"
then A.D. must mean "After Death." Not so. First of all, if that were the case, you'd have to add
about 33 years to your actual date to account for the tenure of Jesus' life on earth and then come up
with a special term for dealing with those years. And, from a theological point of view, Jesus was
only dead for a couple of days before being resurrected anyway. Fortunately, we don't have to worry
about all that: A.D. is actually an abbreviation for two Latin words, Anno Domini, which mean "Year
of Our Lord." From the perspective of a Christian calendar-constructor, every year since the birth of
Jesus would be a Year of Our Lord. Now some folks out there don't care for the theological bias of
these terms. Perhaps they don't share Christian beliefs or simply feel that religion should not be
imposed on such a universal apparatus as a calendar. To address those concerns, there is an
alternative pair of terms that essentially mean the same thing. The terms recognize that our current
Christian calendar is entrenched and in common use and is not going away, but the theological
implications are neutralized