Page 5 - Advanced OT Survey Revised

General revelation

General revelation is that which can be known about God through natural elements, human processes,
or intuition. (Rom. 1. Ps. 19:1-6). In classic Christian thought two arguments for the existence of God fall
within the category of general revelation. First is cosmological argument builds a case for the existence
of God upon the majesty and beauty of creation. This can be seen from Romans 1:18-20 which says that
the creation reveals God’s greatness. The second argument is teleological. It looks at the argument from
nature but argues that for the existence of God based upon the design and order evidenced in nature.

Special revelation

Special revelation is that which can be about God through some means of direct communication from
Him (ex. The Bible, prophetic utterances, visions. Special revelation shows that there are things about
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
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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
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFEBwfYZBJY&t=4s

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,

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