Confirmation Part 1/10: The Bible
This is part of a series of mix-and-match curriculum resource for UMC Confirmation Classes and Teachers
Also available in paperback and ebook
This is designed to be read out loud with high school confirmation groups. (Students can take turns reading sections, and pause between each section for comments, observations, pushback, and questions.)
Don't forget to schedule a session to talk about personal experiences with Jesus, and to learn about the congregation!
The Bible is one of the most influential collections of writing in human history. The word Bible comes from the Greek biblia, meaning "books." It's not a single book written by a single author. It's a library of sacred writings concerning God's dealings with humankind and the revelations of God's will, assembled across centuries and continents.
Why does that matter? Because the Bible has shaped the course of civilizations, political development, literature, art, and ideas about truth, justice, and purpose. It continues to influence the world today — at its best, helping humanity to be more humane. For Christians and Jews, the Bible is their Holy Book: a source of religious belief, truth revealed by God, laws for living according to God's plan, guidelines for worship, and historical documents. And for anyone willing to open it, the Bible can be a source of inspiration and insight, a guide for living a just and loving life, and a place to bring the big questions.
How Did the Bible Come Together?
All of the Bible's richness was not always available in one book. The Bible evolved over the course of something like 44 generations. That's roughly a thousand years of writing, editing, and arguing about what belongs. It was written by many authors, in several languages (Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek), and in many places (Mesopotamia, Greece, Babylonia, Egypt, Palestine, and Rome). After much controversy over which books to officially "canonize," the individual books were gathered together into the Holy Book we know today.
The Hebrew Bible (Old Testament)
The Hebrew Scriptures tell the story of God's agreement (covenant) with Abraham, and a history of Abraham's descendants' struggles to form a nation of faithful worshippers.
When Christians read the Hebrew Bible, we are reading someone else's scriptures — texts that belong first to the Jewish people and their ongoing tradition. We are guests at that table, and it's worth remembering.
Timeline:
~1100 BCE — Hebrew tribes and the ancient Kingdom of Israel accumulate oral and written traditions
~400 BCE — Collections of important Law, Prophets, and Writings become standardized, with disputed inclusions
3rd–1st century BCE — Translated into Greek for Jewish colonists; this translation is called the Septuagint
~98 CE — Rabbinic discussions at Yavneh address which books belong in the scriptures; criteria include antiquity, Hebrew language, and moral character of contents. The process remains disputed.
Ongoing — Interpretive traditions develop, including the Talmuds, the Zohar, and modern scholarship
The Hebrew Bible is traditionally organized into three sections: Law (Torah), Prophets (Nevi'im), and Writings (Ketuvim). Some traditions also include the Deuterocanonical books.
The New Testament and the Christian Bible
The New Testament is considered the basis of Christian faith. It tells the story of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth as Christ, his teachings, and the stories and letters of his early followers.
Jesus and his earliest followers studied from the Hebrew Bible. They also sent letters to one another, teaching about the life of Jesus, the formation of the Christian church, and how to be a church together.
Timeline:
~50–65 CE — Paul's letters are written and begin circulating
~65–100 CE — Oral traditions about Christ are written down as Gospels
~95 CE — Paul's letters and the book of Acts become part of public worship life
~100–105 CE — Letters from James, Peter, John, Jude, and others are read in public worship and added to collections alongside Paul's
~140 CE — Marcion publishes a list of sacred books rejecting the Hebrew Bible, highlighting the need for standardization
~150 CE — Gospels are gathered and standardized
~180 CE — The Muratorian Canon combines Gospels, Epistles, Acts, Jude, John, and Revelation into collections of Christian faith
~200 CE — The dominant church limits the definition of sacred texts to those written by Apostles (or those close to them) and used in worship
2nd century — Christians gradually recognize the inspiration of the Hebrew Bible books as the "Old Testament" of Christ and his earliest followers
Early 3rd century — Origen lists the accepted books
367 CE — Athanasius resolves the argument with a canon resembling today's
383–405 CE — Jerome produces the Latin Vulgate
Later Developments
Reformation Protestants reject the Deuterocanonical books as "Apocryphal"
1546 — The Roman Catholic Council of Trent defines the canon including the Deuterocanonical books
1672 — The Eastern Orthodox Church at the Synod of Jerusalem accepts some disputed books
The Anglican Church accepts the books of the Apocrypha
Different Christian traditions ended up with different answers. So who won? You actually have to look! Some Bibles have Maccabees, some don't.
— What do you think?
A Good Habit
Here's a good habit for reading the Bible: when someone quotes a single verse to make a point, read the verse before it and the verse after it. Context changes everything. The Bible was not written in isolated sentences — and it shouldn't be read that way either.
This is part of a series of mix-and-match curriculum resource for UMC Confirmation Classes and Teachers
