What is the Bible?

The Bible is the written record of "the Word of God."  This record came to prophets, apostles, and other spokesmen and "became flesh" in Jesus Christ.  Christians believe Jesus Christ was the Word of God in a unique sense.  Through Jesus, God communicated the perfect revelation of himself to humankind.

Before written forms of the Bible came into existence, the Word of God most likely circulated in spoken form.  Narratives of the life and ministry of Christ were probably repeated orally for two or more decades before they were given literary form.  But the Bible owes its preservation to the fact all of these oral narratives were eventually written.

The original biblical documents - referred to by scholars as the "original autographs - have not survived the ravages of time.  No remnants of the authentic biblical authors remain.  However, before the original documents disappeared, they were copied.  It is on these reproductions of the original writings that modern day biblical translations are based.

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