What Is the “Word of God” Really?

Beyond the Question — A New Journey Begins

For the past ten weeks, we have asked questions.

Now I want to begin doing something more.

I want us to examine some of the assumptions behind the answers we have been given.

And perhaps there is no better place to begin than with the book sitting on the table beside us.

The Bible.

Many of us were raised hearing it called simply “the Word of God.”

I believe deeply in the inspiration, authority, and extraordinary value of Scripture. But before we go any farther in this new series, I think we need to ask an uncomfortable but important question:

When we say “the Word of God,” exactly what do we mean?

Because the Bible you may be holding today is probably not arranged exactly like the Bible an English Christian held four hundred years ago.

Most certainly the Bible you hold today is not like the ones Christian’s read in the second and third century. Without question it was not the bible that Jesus, His apostles, or first century Christians read from.

And that fact does not have to frighten us.

It should make us curious.

The Bible King James Actually Authorized

In 1611, during the reign of King James I of England, the translation we now call the King James Version was published.

But there is something many Christians have never been told.

The original 1611 King James Bible contained more than the 66 books found in most Protestant Bibles today.

Between the Old and New Testaments appeared a separate collection identified as the Apocrypha.

Among those writings were 1 and 2 Esdras, Tobit, Judith, Wisdom of Solomon, Ecclesiasticus or Sirach, Baruch, additions associated with Esther and Daniel, the Prayer of Manasseh, and 1 and 2 Maccabees.

King James’s translators did not accidentally leave these writings lying around in the back of the printing shop.

One of the translation companies was specifically assigned to work on the Apocrypha.

That is historical fact.

Yet another fact is equally important.

The Apocrypha was printed as a separate section between the Testaments. Its inclusion does not by itself prove that the translators regarded every one of these writings as possessing precisely the same canonical authority as Genesis, Isaiah, Matthew, Romans, or Revelation.

That distinction matters.

So already our question becomes more interesting than:

“Did somebody take books out of the Bible?”

The better question is:

“How did Christians through history understand which writings belonged to Scripture, which writings were valuable for reading, and which writings carried final authority?”

That is the question I want us to explore.

Then Where Did Our 66-Book Bible Come From?

Here is another part of the story that is often oversimplified.

The Apocrypha did not suddenly disappear from every King James Bible in 1885.

Editions without it existed much earlier.

By the seventeenth century, some English Protestant Bibles were already being printed without the Apocrypha.

Then something very significant happened in the nineteenth century.

In 1826, following a major controversy over the use of its funds, the British and Foreign Bible Society adopted a policy against funding the printing and distribution of Bibles containing the Apocrypha.

Think about the practical importance of that decision.

Bible societies were attempting to distribute Scripture on an enormous scale.

Printing cost money.

Paper cost money.

Shipping books around the world cost money.

A smaller Bible was cheaper to produce and easier to distribute.

Could it actually be that “God’s Word” was determined by economics?

But economics was not the only issue.

There was also a serious theological disagreement among Protestants over whether the Apocryphal writings should be included with the Scriptures at all.

As Bible societies increasingly distributed editions containing only the Protestant canon, generations of English-speaking Christians became accustomed to a Bible containing 39 Old Testament books and 27 New Testament books.

Sixty-six books. Again, can we imagine God’s Word being determined by our habits?

For many Christians today, that arrangement feels as though it must have existed unchanged from the days of the apostles. For the most part that is what we have been told.

Historically, the story is more complicated.

So Which One Is the Word of God?

Now we have reached the uncomfortable question.

Was the 1611 King James Bible the Word of God? Or was its predecessor the Geneva Bible truly the Word of God. They were scripturally almost identical.

Or is the modern 66-book King James Bible the Word of God?

If our definition of “the Word of God” depends entirely upon the table of contents of one printed edition, we have created a problem for ourselves.

Because Christians did not begin reading Scripture in 1611.

The Church existed for centuries before there was an English language.

The apostles did not carry King James Bibles.

Jesus did not preach from one.

Paul did not write one.

And the earliest Christians possessed collections of sacred writings long before anyone bound what we now call “the Bible” between two covers.

Perhaps, then, we need to distinguish between God’s revelation, the inspired writings that bear authoritative witness to that revelation, and the later history of how those writings were collected, translated, arranged, printed, and distributed.

That does not weaken Scripture.

I believe it helps us understand what Scripture is.

The Word Before There Was a Bible

There is something even more important.

The Bible itself uses the expression “Word of God” in ways that cannot simply mean a leather-bound collection of 66 books.

John begins his Gospel:

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

And then:

“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.”

The ultimate revelation of God is not ink.

It is Jesus Christ.

Scripture leads us to Him.

It tells the extraordinary story of God’s dealings with humanity and His plan to redeem us through Christ.

That is why Scripture is so precious.

This Is Our Family Story

This brings us to what I believe is essential for understanding the Bible’s value and purpose. We discussed this in last week’s blog.

When viewed within its clear purpose, its extraordinary value becomes even more apparent.

Scripture introduces us to God and tells us the story of the family into which believers have been adopted.

Our human family begins with Adam and Eve.

And what a family it is.

We see their strengths.

We see their weaknesses.

We see faith.

Jealousy.

Courage.

Cowardice.

Obedience.

Rebellion.

Love.

Betrayal.

And remarkably, thousands of years later, we recognize many of those same characteristics in their grandchildren.

Us.

But there is another theme running through the entire family history.

God does not give up on them.

Adam fails.

Abraham struggles.

Jacob deceives.

Moses loses his temper.

David sins terribly.

Peter denies Jesus.

And still God continues working.

That does not excuse sin.

It reveals grace.

And somewhere in that long family story comes a lineage leading to Jesus Christ and the redemptive plan through which you and I are invited into the family of God.

When we understand that purpose, Scripture stops being merely an encyclopedia from which we extract verses.

It becomes the unfolding account of God’s relationship with humanity and His determination to redeem His creation.

Then What About Other Books?

This is where I believe Christians sometimes become unnecessarily frightened.

If the Bible is true, why should discovering another ancient document threaten it?

It shouldn’t.

An ancient document does not become inspired Scripture simply because it is ancient.

But neither does it become worthless simply because it isn’t Scripture.

Those are two completely different questions.

Suppose we are studying the world of Jesus.

Would it be wrong to study Roman history?

Of course not.

Would understanding first-century Judaism help us understand conversations between Jesus and the Pharisees?

Certainly.

Would archaeology showing us what first-century homes, synagogues, tombs, roads, coins, and cities looked like help us understand the Gospel narratives?

Absolutely.

None of those things replace Scripture.

They provide context for Scripture.

Christian and Non-Christian Sources

And we should go one step further.

Useful historical information does not have to come from a Christian writer.

Josephus can help us understand first-century Jewish history.

Roman historians can help us understand the empire in which Christianity emerged.

Archaeology can illuminate cities mentioned in Scripture.

The Dead Sea Scrolls can help us understand Jewish beliefs and biblical manuscripts from around the time of Jesus.

Ancient Near Eastern writings can help us understand the cultural world surrounding the Old Testament.

And writings such as 1 Enoch, Jubilees, the Wisdom of Solomon, Sirach, and the books of Maccabees can help us hear ideas and understand events circulating within the Jewish world before and around the time of the New Testament. Even books like The Book of Giants, The book of Mary Magdelene, and others.

Does that mean we declare all of them Scripture?

No.

It means we read intelligently.

We examine.

We compare.

We test.

And above all, we distinguish between authority and information.

That distinction will become extremely important throughout this new series.

Scripture as the Measuring Line

Here is the principle I want us to carry forward.

We do not need to choose between believing in Scripture and learning from history.

Scripture remains our measuring line.

But a measuring line does not require us to close our eyes to everything around it.

Quite the opposite.

Historical evidence can sometimes help us understand why biblical writers said what they said.

Language studies can reveal meanings obscured by translation.

Archaeology can illuminate places and customs.

Ancient Jewish literature can help us understand concepts the original audience may have immediately recognized but modern readers do not.

The purpose is never to find something that replaces the Bible.

The purpose is to understand the Bible more fully.

Maybe We Have Been Asking the Wrong Question

So. which is God’s Word?

The Geneva Bible of 1560?

The 1611 KJV containing the Apocrypha?

The modern 66-book KJV?

The Hebrew Scriptures?

The Greek New Testament?

The Vulgate Scripture?

The Septuagint Scripture?

Perhaps the question itself needs refinement.

God’s truth did not begin when a printer bound a particular number of books beneath one cover.

And God’s Word did not suddenly become truer because fourteen writings or others stopped being printed between the Testaments.

The history of the Bible is the history of manuscripts, languages, communities of faith, canon discussions, translations, printers, publishers, churches, scholars—and yes, disagreements.

Learning that history does not have to destroy faith.

For me, it makes the story more fascinating.

Because despite wars, persecution, political upheaval, lost manuscripts, competing translations, theological disputes, and nearly two thousand years of history, we can still open these ancient writings and encounter the story of God’s redemptive work.

That is remarkable.

So Today…

We begin Beyond the Question with permission to investigate.

Permission to read.

Permission to compare.

Permission to learn from archaeology and history.

Permission to examine ancient Jewish and Christian writings.

Permission even to read what people outside our faith wrote about the world in which biblical events occurred.

But we do so with discernment.

Historical sources can inform us.

Tradition can teach us.

Archaeology can illuminate.

Ancient writings can provide context.

But none of them automatically becomes God’s authoritative Word simply because it is old, fascinating, or religious.

And perhaps that is exactly why we should not fear them.

Truth has nothing to fear from investigation.

So as we begin this new journey, I want to ask you to bring something with you.

Your Bible.

Your faith.

Your curiosity.

And perhaps most importantly…

Your questions.

Because next week we’re going to open another door.

And ask:

What books did the writers of our Bible themselves know, read, and sometimes quote—and what can those writings teach us about the world of Scripture?

Welcome to Beyond the Question.

Our journey has only begun.

— Carl Schulz

Insight Ministry

What If — The Journey