How do we know that it’s God’s word? Because it says so, of course!
That does it for me. Although I find it difficult to beleive that the pentateuch is Moses writing word-for-word the word of God.
I mean even if God did transmit the contents of these books, what are the chances that poor old Moses would have scribed them with 100% accuracy? I suppose that lending more credence to his writings goes hand in hand with his ability to perform miracles.
I would imagine that if God is taking the trouble to tell Moses the Pentatuch word for word; and it’s in our (and His) best interests to “get it right,” that He’ll make sure Moses doesn’t make a transcription error.
Zev Steinhardt
It’s too bad that Jesus didn’t write any of the books of the Bible.
Worse yet that the words attributed to him were written by his friends (who clearly had an agenda) decades after he supposedly said them.
Actually, most scriptural historians would agree that His words were written by His Apostles soon after His death. Many of the Gospels were composed with the earnest desire to record an accurate history of Christ’s life.
Many early Christian writers were disciples of the Apostles, and research would indicate that the sayings of Christ were taken from written sources pre-dating the canonized Gospels.
The primary sayings of Christ were recorded in several sources before the canonized Gospels, and passed to several different writers rapidly after the death of Christ. The Gospels of Thomas, Peter, Nicodemus, and the writings of the early churches indicates that there were other existing sources.
We can say wityh some certainty what Christ did, and did not actually say by cross referencing uncommon sources.