15/06/2025
Why was the Bible written? #1
The purpose of the Bible remains sacrosanct to how it’s to be read, interpreted, understood, and received.
This purpose is clearly spelt out within its pages.
2 Timothy 3:15
and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.
When St. Paul sent this memo to Timothy, the New Testament books were yet to be collected. So, scriptures here would mean the Old Testament texts.
These writings gave one the knowledge of salvation through faith in Christ.
The purpose remained same when all books that make the Old Testament (Torah, Nebiim, and Ketubim) and New Testament (Gospels, Epistles, and Revelation) were compiled to give us the Bible.
2 Peter 3:15-16
and consider that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation—as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written to you,
as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures.
The summit/summary of Apostle Paulʼs writings was salvation. The rest of the Scriptures, too.
2 Peter 3:18a
but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Weʼre to grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus as Lord and Saviour.
Itʼs no coincidence that of all descriptions Jesus would have announced His arrival on earth, He chose that of a saviour.
Luke 2:11
For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.
His name reflects same function.
Matthew 1:21
And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”
He will save. His death, burial, and resurrection will accomplish this.
Ergo, salvation is the theme of the Bible.
We find this in the opening words of Genesis.
Genesis 1:1
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
St. John, in explaining that narrative, shifts the attention from the mundane to the man, Christ Jesus.
John 1:1
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
Put more succinctly, Genesis 1:1 would read: the revelation of God’s plan for man’s salvation.
The darkness that is observed next wasnʼt focused on the earth, but on man’s heart.
Genesis 1:2
The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
Earth is man.
Formless means he’s created incomplete (so he can be completed in/by God).
Void means he’s empty on the inside.
The deep is his spirit; one without the life of God.
What follows is God’s solution to the dark condition of man’s heart – light!
Genesis 1:3
Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.
This light isn’t creative, but revelatory; redemptive even. That’s why there’s a distinction of functions between this light and the “lights” created on the 4th day.
This light, although the solution to man’s plight, isn’t coercive but elective.
John 1:5
And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.
The term for comprehend there is the Greek word “paralambano”. In context, it means the darkness did not receive, seize (but repelled) the light.
How? Man’s freewill.
Yet, God’s solution is obvious and prevails upon reception. He doesn’t just want to woo man.
He wants to win man. God wants man to choose Him.
God wants to save man from himself and his selfish ambitions and the deathtrap that lies ahead.
Salvation.
That’s the purpose of the Bible.
I hope you see this.
Apr. 13, 2023
