The Scope of the Gospel – The Bible (Part 1)

I think we can determine the scope of the Gospel from studying the Bible to see how they spread the message and how they would have responded to it. I have come to the conclusion that the Gospel would have been the Good News that would have been conveyed by word-of-mouth.

The printing press was not even invented until the fifteenth century according to an article here. There would have been no Bible to speak of and up until the 60^th century AD, only the Old Testament would have been written. A list of the books of the Bible and their approximate year they were written, can be found here.

The Old Testament would have been written on stone and clay tablets – you can read more in an article here. Access to the Old Testament would undoubtedly have been restricted to the Jewish scholarly elite.

As the Gospel would have been communicated via word-of-mouth, it would have been in a local language and dialect that people could relate to. The Bible as we know it is a medieval translation of ancient Greek and Hebrew texts, originating from ancient Middle Eastern culture. So it is little wonder that it is often difficult to understand and relate to against the backdrop of modern, western culture.

I understand the argument in favour of having a literal translation, such as the King James Version or the New American Standard. But I would say that in order to get the true essence of the Gospel message, it would be better to read a modern paraphrase version, such as The Message, or my personal favourite, the original 1971 The Living Bible.

Over the centuries, theologians have poured over the scriptures, analysing them in great depth, to such a degree that the original essence has been lost. The Bible as it has been written is very much open to interpretation and is often the subject of heated debate. Unfortunately, most people tend to be inflexible in their beliefs, only looking for and perceiving what they want to see and believe. The Bible seems to be full of contradictions, but I believe that the Bible must be read as a whole in order to gain the full picture.

Verses of scripture are often taken out of context and repeated like slogans in support of a person’s own personal beliefs and motives. Pro-prosperity Christians become fixated with verse such as 2 Cor. 8:9. Whilst the anti-prosperity crowd often quote Heb. 13:5. There is no doubt truth to each of the verses and arguments, but I believe that a balance can be found.

Photo Gutenberg Bible 02 courtesy of jmwk.