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The foundation · Lesson 1
The Bible is God's word (Matthew 4:4)
In one line
The Bible is God's word: true, and it cannot be broken.
All churches hold this. Of the Holy Ghost, "who spake by the prophets" (the Nicene Creed, 381)
Start here: what it is, and how to live it.
“As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby:” (1 Peter 2:2)
All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: 2 Timothy 3:16
For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. 2 Peter 1:21
Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. John 17:17
Tempted three times, Jesus answers three times with the same words: "It is written." The first: “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” (Matthew 4:4) The Son of God himself fights with Scripture, “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:” (Ephesians 6:17)
Jesus had the Scripture ready because he knew it. “Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.” (Psalm 119:11) “This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night,” (Joshua 1:8) That is why every lesson ends with a verse to learn by heart.
“But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.” (James 1:22) Jesus put it as a house on a foundation: “whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock:” (Matthew 7:24) When the storm came, “it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.” (Matthew 7:25)
This is the first lesson because the word is the rock everything else is built on.
History, not Scripture All Christians who hold the Bible to be God's word say it is true. Some, like this site, say it is without error in every detail it affirms, as in the Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy, signed in Chicago on October 28, 1978: "Scripture in its entirety is inerrant, being free from all falsehood, fraud, or deceit" (Article XII). Others say it is without error in what it teaches about God and salvation, but allow that small details of history or science may reflect the writers' own times. This site holds the first, and shows the second so you can answer it.
The written word leads to the living Word, and that opens the door to the lessons on who Jesus is.
King Jehoiakim had Jeremiah's scroll read to him, and as each part was read “he cut it with the penknife, and cast it into the fire” (Jeremiah 36:23) God's answer: “Take thee again another roll, and write in it all the former words that were in the first roll,” (Jeremiah 36:28) The king burned the page; the word came back.
“But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age,” (Hebrews 5:14)
History The first question ever raised against God's word, by the serpent: “Yea, hath God said,” (Genesis 3:1) then “Ye shall not surely die:” (Genesis 3:4)
The answer from the word Jesus answers temptation with "It is written" (Matthew 4:4). “Every word of God is pure:” (Proverbs 30:5)
History Common today
The answer from the word Men wrote, but “holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.” (2 Peter 1:21) “not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God,” (1 Thessalonians 2:13)
History Marcion, put out of the church at Rome in AD 144; he kept only an edited part of Luke and ten of Paul's letters (source)
The answer from the word Jesus: “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets:” (Matthew 5:17) “For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning,” (Romans 15:4)
History Common today
The answer from the word “the word of our God shall stand for ever.” (Isaiah 40:8) The burned scroll was written again (Jeremiah 36:28).
History Common today
The answer from the word Read verse with verse; see "When two verses seem to disagree" below.
History Many groups, past and present
The answer from the word “Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar.” (Proverbs 30:6) “But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.” (Galatians 1:8)
History, not Scripture The Great Isaiah Scroll was found in a cave near the Dead Sea in 1947 (the scrolls came from 11 caves, found between 1947 and 1956). Its handwriting dates it to about 150 to 100 BC (Isaiah Scroll, Wikipedia). That is about a thousand years older than the oldest complete Hebrew Bible known before it, the Aleppo Codex of the 900s AD. The two are very close; they differ mostly in spelling, with a few differences in meaning, such as one word in Isaiah 53:11.
See the scrolls yourself:
The word does not contradict itself. If two things seem to, we need more context, or we are reading it wrong, or interpreting it wrong.
The Bible shows how this is done, in the wilderness:
Observation, not Scripture Matthew 4:6 does not have "to keep thee in all thy ways." The promise is for keeping in God's ways, not for leaping from the temple to test him.
Two sayings that sit side by side on purpose:
Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou also be like unto him. Proverbs 26:4
Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own conceit. Proverbs 26:5
Explanation, not Scripture each gives its own reason, so each fits a different time.
One God, but "us"? The word says “The LORD our God is one LORD:” (Deuteronomy 6:4) Yet God speaks of himself as "us": “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness:” (Genesis 1:26) and before Adam and Eve were sent out of the garden, “And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil:” (Genesis 3:22) Again at Babel, “let us go down,” (Genesis 11:7) and to Isaiah, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” (Isaiah 6:8)
Explanation, not Scripture both are true, so we read further. Christians have read the "us" as the first hints of what the New Testament shows plainly: one God who is the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost (“in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:” (Matthew 28:19)). Jewish readers have read it as God speaking with the angels of his court, and some read it as a king's "we". The full lesson is Lesson 3, In the Name, under "Hints in the Old Testament".
Steps you can use:
"Isn't it circular to prove the Bible from the Bible?" The Bible is not one book quoting itself. It is 66 books by more than forty writers, written over about 1,500 years on three continents in three languages, and they tell one story that points to one Savior.
History, not Scripture the 1,500 years run from Moses (the 1400s BC by the traditional dating) to Revelation (about AD 95): 1,400 + 95 is about 1,500. Some scholars date some books later. The figures are the common count (Blue Letter Bible).
The lesson also shows how Jesus treated it (John 10:35; Matthew 5:18), the care its writers took (“having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write unto thee in order,” (Luke 1:3)), and history outside it (the scrolls above).
Learn it by heart
Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. Psalm 119:105
Every verse here is the King James text, checked word for word before the site goes up. Notes marked "not Scripture" are explanations, history or observations, labeled so you can tell them apart. Tap a place to read it in the Bible.