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The Bible Origin
Before we discuss the Nature of GOD, let’s examine the history and origin of the Bible. This way, we ensure that the information and knowledge about the Nature of GOD comes from the Bible. Are the Old and New Testaments the only two valid Bible sources? This post will use terms to help bridge the language for Christians.
When Moses went up to Mount Sinai, the cloud covered the mountain, and Moses stayed there for 40 days and 40 nights with GOD, as reflected in Exodus 24:16-18. I’m pretty sure there’s no wi-fi during that time, so Moses does not need to bring a laptop, cellphone, or recording device like scrolls or any materials used for writing. It may sound funny, but there’s a point: Moses did not have anything from the ground of Mount Sinai that he could use to record what he learned from GOD. The stone tablet was given to him by GOD, as reflected in Exodus 24:10. It is stated in Exodus 31:18 that “Upon finishing speaking with him on Mount Sinai, GOD gave Moses the two tablets of the Pact, stone tablets inscribed with the finger of God.” After Moses descended from Mount Sinai and saw that the Israelites had created a golden calf and were engaged in its worship, he was troubled and, in his distress, threw down and broke the original stone tablets, climbed back to the mountain and interceded with God on behalf of the Israelites where Moses received the second set of stone tablets containing the Ten Commandments.
Moses descended Mount Sinai with the stone tablets and no other writing materials. It implies that all the knowledge that Moses learned directly from GOD are within his memory, in his mind. It is very critical because it shows how the Bible originated. The two-stone tablet alone is not the Bible, but it contains the summarized commandments of GOD. We must put ourselves in the shoes of Moses and the environment at that time. Moses had to orally explain to the Israelites what he learned from GOD on Mount Sinai. Remember, he carried only the two stone tablets. The rest of the knowledge is in his brain. We will call it the Oral Bible (known as the Oral Torah). After a long period of experience of the Israelites and the knowledge directly from GOD handed down to Moses, from generation to generation, written down into a book that we now know as the Old Testament (it is not right to call it Old, because it is the Active Testament where the New Testaments claims to fulfill the prophecies) The written Bible is known as Torah, in a more technical term is known as Tanakh (Download the Save Our Souls for the detailed discussion about it). The important point here is that the Oral Bible came first before the Written Bible.
Mosquito Analogy
A mother came home very late at night. As she approached, she saw many red dots mosquito bites on her son's skin. She asked her son: "Why do you have so many mosquito bites?" The son replied, "Because you taught me that in the Ten Commandments, it states that Thou shall not kill." A few minutes later, his son collapsed, was brought to the hospital, and died of malaria.
It may sound ridiculous that the child did not use his common sense, but it matters because there are commandments, e.g., Honor thy father and mother, that require context and details. We also cannot use the alibi to use our common sense, for many of us have it, but how the common sense gets interpreted by different people will vary. A daughter got raped by his father, and that daughter is in court asked by the judge, should the daughter tell the truth so that justice prevails? Or should the daughter keep her silence to honor his parent? Of course, in this case, the truth precedes the commandment, so the daughter told the judge the truth, and the father goes to prison. The main point here is that there is context and details, and the context and details, in this case, are not detailed in the Ten Commandments of the Old Testament. Why? That is because the context and details are in the Oral Bible (Oral Torah), handed down to Moses and the generations of Israelis. The Written Bible (Old Testament for Christians) is the summary of the Oral Bible, where the Oral Bible contains the details of the case-to-case basis of the Ten Commandments.
To simplify it, imagine you are in the shoes of Moses, repeating the lectures to the Israelites. If I were on that shoe, in my mind, I already have all the things needed to discuss orally, but write the summary in an Index Card to provide a guide to the flow of my discussion. For me, that Index Card is complete, but that completeness is in the summarized version. The Index Card still contains all that we need to discuss, but the details are in my Oral lecture containing the case-to-case basis of the subject matter. In short, the Oral Lecture is the Oral Bible (i.e., the Oral Torah) and the Index Card is the Written Bible (known as the Old Testament for Christians, originally is the Torah, and still is Torah). The Oral Bible came first before the Written Bible. In computer terms, the main source is the uncompressed format (Oral Bible) compressed into zip format (Written Bible i.e., Old Testament).
In my experience, as a former Catholic, we do not emphasize the Oral Bible (i.e., the knowledge given by GOD to Moses, and then Moses handed it down to the next generation and succeeding generations), and we ignore it because most of us assume that what is in the Old Testament is all that there is. We should NOT decouple the Oral Bible from the Written Bible and solely rely on the Written Bible without consulting the case-to-case basis on the Oral Bible. The problem is that when the Roman Catholic started, the channel of the Oral Bible was cut down from the equation and only relied on the Written Bible. Remember that the Oral Bible contains the details that the Written Bible relies on. Removing the Oral Bible from the equation could lead to the wrong interpretation of the Written Bible, leading to the birth of false doctrines, as they can create their interpretation and formulations to make claims for their false doctrines and prophecies.
This post focuses on the Origin of the Bible, and we have covered the abstract view of it, so we will not elaborate on the false doctrines, but it will be for future posts. I was also a Catholic, so I know this variable(i.e., the Oral Bible/Oral Torah) in the equation is removed, so I’m here to help Christians know on what they’ve missed in the equation to see the whole truth and not the partial truth.
May GOD enlighten and bless you for reading this post. Have a good day.