Origins, history, language

Who made the Bible?

Humanly speaking, early Christian communities created, assembled and preserved the Christian Bible. Many Christians believe that God was involved in inspiring and writing the books of the Bible and also in the process of preserving and selecting the collection.

But the Churches have never simply ‘controlled’ the Bible. The process has really been much more symbiotic, and interactive: as prophetic figures have appealed again to what they have seen as forgotten aspects of the Bible’s message, the churches have been reformed. Examples include Martin Luther’s insight from the Letter of the Romans, that ‘the just shall live by faith’, or George Fox’s, from the Gospel of John, that ‘Christ will come to teach his people himself.’ Bible and church have helped to shape each other.