The Foundation of My Faith

The foundation of faith for Christians is the Bible; believed almost to the point of veneration, to the extent that there are those who place it open in a privileged location, attributing powers just for being there, open to a certain text, or those who read it believing that every word in it is inspired or almost, that it was written just as they read.

Some may agree with all of the above, others only with part of it, and many others in absolute disagreement.

Let's see, it was written in three languages: The Old Testament in Hebrew, the New Testament in Greek, and some passages of the Old Testament also in Aramaic; languages that are now read and written differently, given that it was written over a period of approximately 1,600 years and considering that the last book was written in the year 100 A.D. It is obvious that they have undergone changes.

The exact number of writers of the Bible cannot be determined, it is estimated that there were approximately forty. For example: the book of Psalms has more than one author, other books are attributed to a specific writer without having evidence that allows for confirmation, such as the Epistle to the Hebrews, Deuteronomy, which is believed to have been written by Moses, narrates his death; therefore, someone else participated in its writing.

Christians consider the Bible to be a book inspired by God, but the book itself is not. Those who wrote it were. However, not everything an inspired writer says is revealed, for example:

“Bring the cloak I left at Troas with Carpus when you come, and the books, especially the parchments.” (2 Timothy 4:13)

“And to the rest I say, not the Lord: If any brother has a wife who is not a believer, and she consents to live with him, he must not divorce her.” (1 Corinthians 7:12).

Obviously, what the author of the first text says is not divine revelation, and in the second, the same author explicitly indicates that it is he who says it, it was not revealed to him.

We must understand then, that when Paul tells Timothy that all Scripture is inspired by God (2 Timothy 3:16), it is neither literal, nor does it refer to the New Testament because it had not yet begun to be written, but rather to the Tanakh, the Hebrew name for the Old Testament. Peter is more precise when he says that holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. (2 Peter 1:21)

Additionally, we must accept that what we know as the Old Testament, consisting of thirty-nine books, is the same Hebrew Tanakh, only grouped differently into twenty-four. Valued as divine revelation by the religions of Jews, Christians, and Muslims, albeit in different ways.

Just as the New Testament contains no autographs (the one written by the author), all are copies of copies. Of the twenty-seven books of the New Testament, called so, although they are brief letters, there is no book that has been preserved complete. They are copies of fragments of the book found at different times and places, which are joined to form the writing, and to which, in some cases, phrases or even paragraphs have been added that do not appear in the oldest texts. These are the so-called interpolated texts, more than one hundred and twenty among words, phrases, or paragraphs, in the New Testament. In the Old Testament, no significant interpolations are known.

In this regard, to say that the books of the canon, that is, considered as inspired, are thirty-nine in the Old Testament and twenty-seven in the New Testament. Only for Catholics is the Old Testament composed of forty-six books. The canon of the Bible as we know it today dates from the year 382 A.D.

Regarding places mentioned in the Bible, it has not been possible to pinpoint them geographically, for example; where Jesus was baptized, where he was crucified, where he was buried, even less has any physical element been preserved that could confirm the veracity of the accounts.

We recall the Shroud of Turin, which was believed to be the cloth that covered Jesus in the tomb. In 1988 the Holy See, custodian of the cloth, authorized carbon-14 dating of the shroud, which was conducted in three different laboratories and all three laboratories dated the cloth between the 13th and 14th centuries (1260 – 1390). Thus, the last hope for physical evidence from that time was scientifically discarded.

Regarding the Old Testament, even less so. The more time has passed, the less possibility there is of finding such ancient elements. There have been many assumptions regarding the remains of Noah's Ark; however, to date, they remain conjectures.

What archaeology has done in the last hundred years is to verify part of the history contained in the Bible. For example, two of the cities mentioned in the Bible, Sodom and Gomorrah, which were considered mythical for many years, recent excavations at Tell Mardikh, which is now known to be the site of Ebla, uncovered fifteen thousand written tablets. Some have been translated, and they mention Sodom and Gomorrah. So, although archaeology can verify history and shed light on various passages of the Bible, as in the recently mentioned case, the proof that the Bible is the Word of God is beyond its reach.

Nevertheless, the Bible, as it has come to us, contains the truths we need for our salvation and continues to be and will continue to be the only light for Christians. It is the Word of God.

Therefore, the Bible provides the foundation of knowledge for Christians, with the written revelation that allows us to know His redemptive plan in relation to the time, space, and cultural form that individuals are called to live, and the best way that according to these parameters, we can be happy and have harmonious relationships while His plan unfolds. This concept is also valid for Jews with their Tanakh, for Muslims with the Quran, or for Hindus with the Vedas, etc., but, they cannot, according to the above, provide absolute certainty, for the foundation of faith, perhaps it was the Creator Himself who deliberately allowed the absence of concrete evidence in order to promote the development and growth of genuine faith in Him.

“Jesus said to him: Because you have seen me, Thomas, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” (John 20:29).

The other, no less important pillar of my belief in God, the conviction of His existence, of His power, of His grace, full, certain, is acquired through a gradual process of personal relationship, of life experiences with Him.

For some, this faith is strengthened through unequivocal answers to sincere prayers, to the healing granted, to those almost imperceptible miracles, which only those who receive them know, but which, by their nature, when told already seem incredible, or resemble coincidences. It is the repetition of these ordinary or extraordinary facts that consolidates, beyond all reasonable doubt, trust in Him, that is to say, faith.

This personal relationship and the ongoing study of His written Word confirms knowledge and reaffirms confidence. Until reaching full certainty, the conviction that God can be known in part through the revelation of Himself that He allows to be known to men in the Bible and is complemented by a relationship that leaves no doubts, but that also cannot be proven, only recognized by the believer themselves.