Page 14 - Advanced OT Survey Student Textbook

Special revelation is that which can be about God through some means of direct communication from
Him (e.g. The Bible, prophetic utterances, visions. Special revelation shows that there are things about
which we can never know or understand just by mere observation of nature. The Bible stands as the
primary source of special revelation beginning with topics such as how the universe came into being
(Gen. 1-2) and the fall of man (Gen. 3) and looking toward future events and what the last days will be
like (Rev.). The controlling influence that God exerted over the human authors who wrote Scripture is
called inspiration. Some scholars have suggested that the authors were merely instruments used by
God, not unlike a pipeline or a conduit, through which information could pass without corruption; this is
sometimes called the dictation theory. The assumption is that Scripture would be subject to
inadequacies and errors if this were not the case. The difficulty with this view is that each of the books
of Scripture conveys the personality of its author. For example, probably due to his training as physician,
Luke uses sophisticated and precise Greek, when describing the life of Christ. John’s Greek, however,
was heavily colored by Hebraism (i.e. Phrases and grammar that are a generally found in the Hebrew
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language) and expressions that are usually employed in standard Greek grammar (e.g. Rev. 1:4).

How the Biblical Canon was formed

What does the word Bible mean?
The most common English term used to refer to Scripture is Bible. It derives from the Latin translation of
the Greek word “biblion”, itself a derivation of the word byblos, one of the names of papyrus. Papyrus,
produced a reed plant that grew along the banks of the Nile river in ancient Egypt, and was used as a
writing material. Multiple sheets of papyrus spliced together to form rolls (scrolls) were wound around
dowels called navels. A reader used one hand to unroll the text on one navel and the other hand to roll
it up on another. This type of scroll was called a biblos in Greek, and thus during New Testament times
the word biblion simply referred to a roll or a book.

15 Notes on “What the Bible is all about… general and special revelation” were taken from Paul D Wegner’s, The
Journey from Texts to Translation: The Origin and Development of the Bible (London: Baker Academic). P. 27-28.
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