Jesus and the Apostles Endorsed The Bible

Old Testament. At the time of Jesus’ life the only scriptures that existed were the Jewish scriptures - the Tanakh. Jesus quoted from them. He taught them. He believed them. Here is an example. Jesus is speaking,

You search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is these that bear witness of Me; (NASB) John 5:39

Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill. For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass away from the Law, until all is accomplished. (NASB) Matt. 5:17-18

Notice that Jesus refers to the Law and the Prophets. These are two sections of the Jewish scriptures, the Tanakh. The Tanakh was divided into three sections: The Law, The Prophets and the Writings. Jesus clearly recognized them as authoritative. Near the end of the gospel of Luke, Jesus makes another significant statement about the scriptures. He endorsed the last section, The Writings, when He refers to the Psalms, the largest book in the Writings.

Now He said to them, “These are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” (NASB) Luke 24:44

During His ministry, He also endorsed The Twelve or the minor prophets when He referred to Jonah being in the belly of a great sea monster and alluding to him being there three days and nights (Matt. 12:40-41), In short, Jesus recognized the Jewish scriptures from Genesis to Chronicles as real and authoritative.

The Dead Sea Scrolls have proven to modern critics that the Tanakh, as we know it today, has not changed since the time of Christ. In fact, the Dead Sea scrolls pre-date Christ by about by 100-150 years. So when He referred to The Law and The Prophets and The Writings, He referred to the Tanakh we have in A.D. 2001.

New Testament. Many are under the impression there was a great debate about which books should be added to the New Testament. The truth is the apostles affirmed and confirmed the contents of the New Testament. The great church debates were largely attempts to remove certain books which some considered to not be authoritative.

Maybe the most significant statement about the New Testament actually comes from Jesus,

But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. (NASB) John 16:13

Jesus tells His apostles the Holy Spirit will guide them into truth: that is, He will reveal truth to them, just as we have already observed with Paul! This was required since Jesus wanted His church to be built on the apostles,

. . . having been built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone, (NASB) Ephesians 2:20

So Jesus endorses His apostles through the ministry of the Holy Spirit. As the years elapsed, the apostles wrote the majority (81%) of the New Testament books and their companions and Jesus’ brothers wrote the balance. It must have been a surprise to them to discover that Paul the apostle would write just about half of the books. His letters and the letters of the other apostles were passed around for all to read (Col. 4:16; 1 Thess. 5:27). The letters could be reviewed by the other apostles. Peter reviewed Paul’s writing. Listen to this,

. . . just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction. (NASB) 2 Peter 3:15-16

Peter considered Paul’s letters to be scripture (“the rest of the scriptures”). So Peter endorses Paul and then Paul in turn endorses Luke when he writes,

For the Scripture says, “YOU SHALL NOT MUZZLE THE OX WHILE HE IS THRESHING,” and “The laborer is worthy of his wages.” (NASB) 1 Tim. 5:18