Nov. 23 is Bible Sunday. This is a day that the american bible society sets aside to encourage church's to celebrate the writings of the Bible and to encourage people to read the Bible. The A.M.E. church has been a partner of the american bible society since the late 1800's. Dr. Dennis Dickerson the A.M.E. church historian and professor at Vanderbilt university is on the board of the american bible society. Below is a brief synopsis of the history of the bible from the american bible society web site.

How did the book we call the Bible develop into such a classic from its roots in ancient history? These articles will help you understand the lengthy process of its formation and what types of literature you can find in its pages. Plus you will read about the earliest translations of the Bible from Hebrew and Greek, as well as the most recent translations into English. How Did the Bible Come to Us? The Bible is more than a single book. The word "Bible" actually comes from the Greek word biblia, meaning "books." The Bible is really like a small library that contains many books written by many authors over many, many years. It took well over 1000 years for all of these books to be written down, and it was many more years before the list of books now known as the Bible came together in one large book.

Before anything in the Bible was written down, people told stories about God and God's relationship with the people we now read about in the Bible. This stage of passing on stories by word of mouth is known as the "oral tradition."

Eventually, as human societies in the Near East began to develop forms of writing that were easy to learn and use (around 1800 B.C.), people began to write down the stories, songs (psalms), and prophecies that would one day become a part of the Bible. This process took centuries. While some books were being written and collected, others were still being passed on in storytelling fashion.

-- Anonymous, November 23, 2003

Answers

I know I am going to hear from my brothers Bill Dickens and Rev. John Harper;-) but a few minutes after I wrote my initial post I was getting materials together for bible sunday at church, I thought to myself hmm, it's a little chilly in my office. My daughter got up and said "it's cold!" I had to laugh because I just checked the temperature it is 8 below zero. And it is 9:30 AM as I am writing this. It got down to 17 below zero last night,

So, for us rural ministers on sunday we put on our special boots for temps to 40 below, scrape the snow off the car, pray the car starts, sit in the cold car for 10 minutes while it warms up, go to church and pray those coming over the mountain passes and surrounding towns make it safely to church. And pray to God the boiler is on!!!

I am a montanan and this is the most fun I have had as a minister. It is never boring and we all laugh and praise the lord.

-- Anonymous, November 23, 2003

That sounds more like Thule Greenland. I served one year in Yhule in 1959, 1960. Occasionally I will toss out this line to get folk to think about how the Bible was created: "Did you know that the Apostle Paul was not writing the Bible when he wrote those letters?" And to those who are mature: "Jesus, the Christ was not a Christian!"

Be Blessed

-- Anonymous, November 24, 2003