WHAT IS IN THE BIBLE?

Today in the Seminary, I received a bible as a gift alongside my classmates. We got an information that one of our formators wanted to see us in the class. At first we thought it was for lectures until he came and distributed a nice Catholic bible to us. According to him, they were sent from his friends in the United States of America.

God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spoke in times past to the fathers by the prophets, last of all in these days had spoken to us by his son, whom he had appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the world. (Hebrews 1:1)
The bible is a collection of writings which were written by men who were inspired by God. Thus, all scriptures are inspired by God. For prophecy came not by the will of man at any time but the holy men of God spoke, inspired by the holy Spirit. (I Peter 1:21)

The word bible comes from the Greek word biblia which is the plural of biblion and means books. This is why the bible is a collection of books. For nearly 400years of Christianity, the books recognized as the new testament were not universally accepted in the early church.
Infact the first person to recognize a New testament was the 2nd century heretic Marcion around 140AD. He showed the difference between the God of the old testament and the God of the new testament. And he only accepted one Gospel which is Like.
In 170AD another list was compiled which was known as the muratorian Canon. It was compiled on Rome. St. Irenaeus ov Lyons published another Canon in 185AD. This list had 22 books of which 21 make the list in our New testament today. The one that is missing is the shepherd of Hermas. The last decision as to which books were to be added in the Canon was in the council of Carthage in 397AD.
Those books called apocryphal by Protestants and deuterocanonical books by Catholics were those which were considered as part of the Canon at the time of the reformation.

It is important to note also that the bible was not originally in chapters and verses. These were later systematization. For instance, the chapter divisions as commonly used today we're created by Stephen Langton.

Well a lot of things could be said of the bible but one thing is important. The bible was written by men even though they were inspired by God. The reading of the bible has to be done bearing in mind, the historical, cultural and political situation of the time and the persons living at the time and the entire worldview of the time.

I want to thank Rev. Fr. Dr. Louis Mary Ocha and his friends from the United States for this gift. It will be forever treasured.

Don't forget to read the Bible. There are truths therein.