Barely able to breathe, the women stunned Jesus' grieving friends with a startling impossibility: "He is risen!" (Luke 24). Seven weeks later, the Spirit - like some divine tornado - catapulted Jesus' friends out of the upper room and into the streets, where people from all over the planet "heard them speaking in their own language" (Acts 2). At the heart of things, the New Testament is that panting news, that irrepressibly fiery message about the turn of history, the hope of the ages, Jesus. How fortunate, how grateful we are that Jesus' friends ran, told, and finally wrote: "That which we have heard and seen with our own eyes, and touched with our hands... We saw it, and testify to it, and proclaim to you the eternal life which was manifest to us, so that you may have fellowship with us, the Father and his Son Jesus Christ. We are writing this that your joy may be complete" (1 John 1).
A few of the early drafts of portions of the New Testament may have been written in Aramaic, the language Jesus spoke - but the final versions were penned in Greek - and not the hifalutin classical Greek of Plato or Aristotle, but koiné, a more common, popular Greek. Not many of the first Christians knew how to read, much less did they own books: so the writings of the New Testament were intended to be read out loud, and in the gathered company of believers.
The very earliest Christian writings to come down to us are the letters of Paul, penned 20 to 25 years after the death of Jesus. Paul had no idea he was composing a Bible: he was obsessed with what was going on with young Christians he had met, and so he wrote pointed letters to them, clarifying the truth about Jesus, demanding that they behave accordingly. So when we glance over Romans, Philippians, Galatians (and also the many other letters in the New Testament not written by Paul), we are reading somebody else's mail!
Eventually that mail was copied and sent to people for whom it was never intended, gathered with other letters onto scrolls, treasured by believers doggedly trying to be faithful in a culture that despised the faith - and those letters were established (within a century of Jesus' death) as the Scriptures God would use forever in the Church. How fascinating: words intended for a small batch of people with issues peculiar to them became God's Word for untold millions. Isn't this the curious way God speaks to us, in our small gathering, and to our peculiar issues - through those ancient, timely words?
We also find Acts, a narrative of the birth of the Church; Revelation, a bizarre vision about the climax of history; and four Gospels (which we'll consider in eBibleQuestions26). These writings were carried in the backpacks of traders, on board ships, copied and recopied, gathered and revered, together forming Christian Scripture whose purpose is personal and life-changing: "All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness, you may be complete, equipped for every good work" (2 Timothy 3:16).
James
james@mpumc.org
Sunday's sermon on Genesis 28, "Jacob's Ladder," may be heard by clicking here.
The full eBibleQuestions series may be viewed online by clicking here.
Coming up:
eBibleQuestions26 - What is a Gospel? and why are there four?
eBibleQuestions27 - Was Mary a virgin? and did she have other children?
eBibleQuestions28 - Are angels real?
eBibleQuestions29 - Did Jesus' miracles really happen?
