I did not plan on doing catechism with the "teen" class this week, but I felt lead to remind them of the question and ask them about the difference between the Bible and other "holy books." I had no idea we'd spend 30 minutes talking about it, or that my dad would take over, so I'm glad we did that. I hope the Holy Spirit used that somehow.
At some point, Dad and I argued over who came first: Erasmus or Tyndale? I know Erasmus got the ball rolling on Bible translation that led to the actual Reformation, but later I figured out that dad was getting Tyndale confused with John Wycliffe and the Lollards. They are the ones in England that first tried to translate the Bible, started a revolution that reached all the way to Prague and influenced Jan Hus.
But for those who are curious: the Bible started as God telling the Ten Commandments to Moses. Then he gave Moses the law and history that compile the first 5 books, the Torah. Then prophets gave histories that the Jews knew were authoritative. This is how we have Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings. We don't know who wrote them now, but they did then and knew them as truthful people. We also have the more famous prophesies from Isaiah et. al. Then, there are the Psalms, Proverbs, Ruth, Jonah, Daniel, Ecclesiastes, Chronicles, Job, and Esther that they consider authoritative and that teach wisdom and songs to the Jewish kids.
Then the New Testament: All the books are by Christ's disciples, brothers, or someone really close to the disciples. And Paul, who Christ appeared to and who even Peter considered Scripture. Nothing in both the Old and New Testaments was done in secret or given by some angel in the woods or in Mecca that no one ever saw. The words had witnesses and knowledge.
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