Ancient Jewish people knew God before they had their Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament). They composed the Hebrew Scriptures as the record of their experience of God and their relationship with Him. In that sense, the composition of the Hebrew Scriptures was a slow process. Large part of Hebrew Scriptures was not written down immediately. Rather, some of its stories were told and retold for considerable length of time by word of mouth and passed on orally before they were written down. In other words, before anything in the Holy Bible was written down in its final form, there was a stage known as oral tradition. It was a stage of passing down the faith only orally by word of mouth.
Then, gradually those orally conveyed messages came to be written down and attained the status of Holy Scripture. Hence, each book of the Old Testament was written separately throughout thousands of years. The collection of writings that was first compiled and preserved as the sacred books of the Jewish people. The Old Testament is an account of God’s dealing with the Jews as His chosen people, who called themselves Israel. The books in the Old Testament speak how the people of God encountered God in history, in creation or nature, and in the events of their lives. Therefore, they stretched back to the beginning of time, the creation of the earth by God and the emergence of human civilization. Originally, the books of the Old Testament were written in languages like, Classical Hebrew and imperial Aramaic.
If we try to summarize the Old Testament, we can state that after the story of creation, the story of calling of God’s people; Abraham and the Hebrew Patriarchs, Moses and the Exodus,Joshua and the conquest of Canaan, Samson and the Judges, David and Solomon. Then, the books of the Old Testament follow the events of the divided Kingdom, the destruction of Israel and Judah, and Ezra and how God’s people returned from Babylonian Captivity. And as the people of God went through those various experiences, they came to recognize the reality of the presence of God in their lives and His merciful relationship to them.
In writing down the Holy Bible, the authors were functioning more as faith witnesses than as eye witnesses. As faith witnesses, their journey with God through history and how they have often stumbled their way through the care and concern of God, reminds us how they became part of God. The Holy Bible says that we all can be part of God’s family if we believe and live on it. I believe that this is the goal of our faith journey as believers based on the Word of God. We all are called to encounter God in our own historical life situation in light of the Word of God that we regularly read prayerfully.
Overall, the core message of the Holy Bible is to tell us the desire of God to be in a loving relationship with us. The whole Bible reminds us that the story of the loving relationship between God and us is far greater than the difficulties caused by the passing of time. And it is far greater than the cultural differences between the biblical times and our present time. An ongoing relationship with God through His Word is essential to find hope. And the more we read and reflect on the messages of the Bible; it brings us to a deep relationship with God.
— Fr. Niranjan Rodrigo, Ph.D.
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