Page 10 - Old Testament Survey Student Textbook

that 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
language) and expressions that are usually employed in standard Greek grammar (e.g. Rev. 1:4). i

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 and matches of the Nile river in ancient Egypt, was
used a writing material. Multiple sheets of papyrus spliced together to form rolls (scrolls) were wound
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. Once a scroll reached a certain size, however, it
became awkward to use, as was the case with several of the larger biblical books. For example, the
Isaiah scroll found Qumran measured approximately 23 feet, about the limit for a scroll. Thus, a new
format was necessary to conveniently handle a book as large as the Old or New Testament. As times
past, it was discovered that sheets could be pressed on top of each other, folded in the middle, and
bound, resulting in an easy-to-use book called, a “codex”, David Ewert, former president of Mennonite
Bible college in Winnipeg, Manitoba, explains: “the Latin word codex originally meant the trunk of a
tree, and then a block of wood split up into tablets or leaves. Such wooden tablets or leaves (perhaps
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