I want to start off with this statement: I wholeheartedly believe that the Bible is the most important book ever written, or ever will be written, and there is nothing in it that is not valuable to study, and should be studied.
That being said, as a Jewish man raised and having my Bar Mitzvah in a Reform Jewish temple, who over 30 years ago came to believe Yeshua is the Messiah God promised to send, after studying and reading the Bible some two dozen or more times, receiving a Certificate of Messianic Studies from the Messianic Bible Institute, leading Messianic synagogues and teaching, this is what I have come to believe the Bible means, to me.
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The Bible is not God; it is a book about God.
And it is, for the most part, a historical narrative telling how God created us, how he made himself known to a people and through them, the world, and how he has led his chosen people throughout the millennia, giving us his rules for worship and society, and ultimately sending a Messiah to save everyone from themselves.
The first five books contain instructions (we call commandments) directly from God telling us how he wants us to worship him and how he wants us to treat each other. After that it is all history and commentary, including some wisdom writings (Psalms and Proverbs).
The only part of the Bible that is absolutely trustworthy to be as accurate as the day it was first written is the Hebrew Torah scrolls. I say that because when you know all the safety procedures that the Sofer (the scribe who copies from one Torah to another) goes through to ensure that every Torah is the exact copy of the other Torah (even to the point where they count every letter on every sheet!) then you can be sure that the Hebrew is as accurate to the original Hebrew as any human endeavor can provide.
As for every other version of the Bible, of which there are some 450 different English versions, not to mention that all or some parts of the Bible have been translated into over 4,000 different languages throughout the world, well… how can anyone be absolutely certain that what their Bible says is exactly what was first written?
What I consider the most important part of the Bible is the Torah, because (as I have said many times) this is the only place in the entire book where God, himself, tells us exactly what he wants us to do.
After Deuteronomy, the rest of the book is historical narrative.
Yes, God speaks in other places in the Tanakh (Tanakh is the Jewish acronym for everything in the Bible before the New Covenant) but he isn’t giving instructions, he is telling the Prophets what to tell the people to get them back to proper Torah obedience.
In the New Covenant, the only time God speaks is in the Gospels, where he only says Yeshua is his son and to listen to him. Not a commandment, per se’, just confirmation of who Yeshua is.
And all the scripture that is in the Gospels and letters is not new; it is from the Tanakh.
The Gospels tell us of the history of the Messiah, Yeshua, which completes the missing part of the Tanakh in that the Tanakh constantly gives us hope that the Messiah will come, and the Gospels tell us what happened when he did come.
Revelation tells us what will happen at the end, so that is not so much historical as prophetic (along with the messianic prophecies throughout the Tanakh).
The Epistles written by Shaul and the other apostles are not God-breathed or spirit led: I am sorry, but when you read them for what they are, they are directives to the congregations of (mostly) neophyte believing Gentiles who are losing their momentum, being pressured by believing Jews to get circumcised (to be really saved) and having interpersonal relationship problems, as in power struggles within some of the congregations that Shaul started.
For the record: there were no “churches” in the First Century, only Kehillot (community centers) or people’s homes or Jewish temples where these believing Gentiles would attend Jewish services (see Acts 15:21).
If it was up to me (and I am glad it isn’t) I would make my Bible contain the following:
The Tanakh (minus Song of Songs), the Gospels of Matthew and Mark, Acts, and Revelation.
I would leave out Luke because it is, by his own admittance, just third-party hearsay he put together, and John is (as I have shown in some of my messages) a false gospel. The Epistles are, as I explained above, just letters to those new believers having issues of faith and interpersonal problems, so their value would be historical, at best, to show the early problems these believers were facing from inside and outside.
Okay, there may be value in keeping some of the Epistles for historical relevance to show how what was originally a Torah observant Jewish movement, by misinterpreting those letters became a man-made, anti-Torah religion.
So, if anyone is still with me, I congratulate you on being secure enough in your beliefs to withstand something that might be a directly opposing view. I have always said that the truth can stand up to questioning, and when I run into someone who is so adamant about what they believe they immediately become defensive and do not hear anything I am saying, mainly because they are too busy thinking of how to debate me, I just end the discussion because I have learned not to talk to a wall.
I have also become humble enough (though not nearly as humble as I should be) to know when argument turns to insult, pride is running the show and truth has left the building.
So! That is it, and if anyone wants to argue against anything I have said, fine. I am not writing this to change anyone’s mind or to be anti-anything, it is just me sharing my conclusions about what the Bible means to me. I will continue to read it every day, and learn something new every time I read it.
Ultimately, no matter what version you use, in whichever language it is written, I trust that God will make what he wants you to know available to you, so never stop reading your entire Bible.
Thank you for being here and please comment and share these messages with everyone you know, even non-believers. Hey, after all, you never know how fertile the soil is until you plant a seed in it.
That’s it for this week, so L’hitraot and (an early) Shabbat Shalom!