Lesson 14: Where Did We Get the Bible?

“. . . no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:20–21).

Bible

Four hundred years after Jesus Christ returned to Heaven, people began to use the Greek word biblia (meaning “books”) to describe the collection of the sacred writings. Our word “Bible” comes from biblia.

Canon

Canon originally referred to a “reed,” which was used as a measuring rod, much as we use a yardstick or meter rule today for measuring.  The complete list of biblical books is called the canon, meaning the “measuring rod,” or the “authority,” for truth.

Scripture 

This word was used by the NT authors to refer to the sacred books of the OT (Mark 12:10; 2 Timothy 3:15) and also to other books of the NT (2 Peter 3:15–16; 1 Timothy 5:18; 2 Timothy 3:16). Christ Himself cited the Bible as the final authority many times and said, “Scripture cannot be broken” (John 10:35).

Word of God 

The Bible claims to be the “Word of God” over 3,000 times (John 10:35; Hebrews 4:12).  The authors of NT books often begin a quote taken from the OT with the phrase, “God said” (Matthew 15:4–6). And direct quotes of God speaking in the OT are often begun with “Scripture says” in the NT (Romans 11:2; 1 Timothy 5:18). So the NT authors believed the “Word of God” and “Scripture” were the same.

Prophet

A prophet was a special spokesman for God—he spoke, by God’s power, the actual words God gave him.

Apostle

An apostle, as used here, was a man who had seen Christ after His Resurrection (Acts 1:21–22), and who was called by Jesus to be His “messenger.”

Want to learn more? Read the entire Answers for Kids Student Handout Set online!