“Lesson 5: The Bible,” Old Testament Seminary Student Material (2018)
“Lesson 5: The Bible”
Lesson 5
The Bible
Prepare to Learn
Take some time to prepare your mind and heart to learn. Music, especially the hymns of the Church, can play a significant role in helping you feel the influence of the Holy Ghost in your gospel learning experience. Consider beginning your study by singing along with or listening to a hymn.
Begin your study with prayer.
As members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we rejoice that the Lord has made the Book of Mormon available to us. We likewise rejoice that we have the Bible.
President Russell M. Nelson explained how these two sacred books work together to strengthen our testimonies of the Savior. You can access the text for this video here: “Scriptural Witnesses,” Ensign or Liahona, Nov. 2007, 43.
1. At the end of the last lesson, you were invited to search for a principle or statement of doctrine in your personal scripture study. Write the principle or doctrine you found, along with the scripture reference. What study aids did you use, if any?
A Miracle
Think of as many miracles that have occurred in the history of the world as you can.
President M. Russell Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles identified one of these miracles:
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M. Russell Ballard
“My brothers and sisters, the Holy Bible is a miracle! It is a miracle that the Bible’s 4,000 years of sacred and secular history were recorded and preserved by the prophets, apostles, and inspired churchmen. …
“It is not by chance or coincidence that we have the Bible today” (M. Russell Ballard, “The Miracle of the Holy Bible,” Ensign or Liahona, May 2007, 80).
In addition to writing Genesis, Moses wrote Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. The book of Moses in the Pearl of Great Price also contains Moses’s writings. Moses wrote about the Creation, the Fall of Adam and Eve, and the lives of earlier prophets. Notice where Moses is on this timeline.
Read Moses 1:40. How did Moses know about things that happened many years before he was born?
According to what you read in Moses and in the Bible Dictionary, how did Moses and other writers of the Bible know what to write?
The Word of God
You may have noticed in Moses 1:40 that the Lord revealed to Moses what he should write. The records of Moses and other inspired writers have been a blessing to Heavenly Father’s children throughout the ages. President M. Russell Ballard declared how members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints feel about this sacred book:
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M. Russell Ballard
“We love the Bible and other scriptures. … [We believe] in the Bible as the revealed word of God” (M. Russell Ballard, “The Miracle of the Holy Bible,” Ensign or Liahona, May 2007, 80).
What truth about the Bible can we learn from Moses 1:40 and President Ballard’s statement?
From Moses 1:40 and President Ballard’s statement we can learn the truth that the Bible contains the word of God.
The Bible is composed of two main parts: the Old Testament and the New Testament. The word testament means “covenant.” In a gospel context, a covenant is a special agreement between God and a person or a group. The Old Covenant is the law the Lord gave to His people anciently. The New Covenant is the law the Lord, Jesus Christ, gave during His mortal ministry. The Jews who lived during the Savior’s mortal ministry had scriptures that are found today in the Old Testament. (See Bible Dictionary, “Bible.”)
The books of the Old Testament were originally written on material such as leather or papyrus. These were eventually transcribed and preserved on scrolls, which were written mostly in Hebrew (see Bible Dictionary, “Bible”).
If you had been in charge of compiling all of these scrolls into one book, how would you have organized them?
Several efforts were made to collect and organize the books in the Bible. A few hundred years before the time of Jesus Christ, Jewish scholars decided to organize all the books in the Old Testament by category. We still use this order today.
Open to the table of contents page of the Bible, which is titled “The Names and Order of All the Books of the Old and New Testaments.” You may want to mark and label this page with these four categories:
The Law (Genesis–Deuteronomy)
The History (Joshua–Esther)
The Poetry (Job–Song of Solomon)
The Prophets (Isaiah–Malachi)
Scribal Errors
Concerning the Bible, the Prophet Joseph Smith said:
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Prophet Joseph Smith
“I believe the Bible, as it ought to be, as it came from the pen of the original writers” (in The Words of Joseph Smith: The Contemporary Accounts of the Nauvoo Discourses of the Prophet Joseph [1980], 256; see also Joseph Smith Journal, 15 October 1843, Joseph Smith History, vol. E-1, 1755).
However, we do not have any of the original documents on which the books of the Bible were recorded. The oldest known sources of Bible text are copies of copies. As copies of the Bible texts were made, translated, and transmitted, scribal errors—both unintentional and intentional—were perpetuated with each succeeding copy (see 1 Nephi 13:24–28).
Quiz 2
Which of the following statements would the Prophet Joseph Smith say are true?
The writers of the Bible recorded only a few important doctrinal points about salvation.
The Bible was correct when the original writers wrote it.
All of the errors in the Bible were careless mistakes.
A Caution
The Lord commanded the Prophet Joseph Smith to go through the text of the Bible and translate, restore, and revise it through inspiration. This collection of revisions is called the Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible, and it restores many lost truths and clarifies certain passages (see Bible Dictionary, “Joseph Smith Translation”). The Prophet Joseph Smith taught that “the Bible [is] the word of God as far as it is translated correctly” (Articles of Faith 1:8). However, we should not think that the Bible is less important than other books of scripture just because there may be flaws in the text. Consider this caution from President Ballard:
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M. Russell Ballard
“Without the Bible, we would not know of His Church then, nor would we have the fulness of His gospel now. …
“… Do not discount or devalue the Holy Bible. It is the sacred, holy record of the Lord’s life … [and] the bedrock of all Christianity” (M. Russell Ballard, “The Miracle of the Holy Bible,” Ensign or Liahona, May 2007, 81, 82).
The Bible—of Great Worth
Think carefully about President Ballard’s further explanation that follows of why the Bible is of such great worth.
You can access the text for this video here: M. Russell Ballard, “The Miracle of the Holy Bible,” Ensign or Liahona, May 2007, 80, 82.
Think carefully about President Ballard’s further explanation that follows of why the Bible is of such great worth.
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M. Russell Ballard
“The Holy Bible is a miracle! …
“It is a miracle that the Bible literally contains within its pages the converting, healing Spirit of Christ, which has turned men’s hearts for centuries, leading them to pray, to choose right paths, and to search to find their Savior. …
“I bear solemn witness that we are true and full believers in the Lord Jesus Christ and in His revealed word through the Holy Bible. We not only believe the Bible—we strive to follow its precepts and to teach its message. The message of our missionaries is Christ and His gospel and His Atonement, and the scriptures are the text of that message” (M. Russell Ballard, “The Miracle of the Holy Bible,” Ensign or Liahona, May 2007, 80, 82).
2. What is one scripture in the Bible that has been meaningful to you and why? How has the Bible helped you to draw nearer to the Savior?
Just as with any book of scripture, the greatest evidence of the Bible’s truthfulness comes through the witness of the Holy Ghost.
Continue your study of God’s word as found in the Bible throughout this year in seminary. As you study, seek the companionship of the Holy Ghost so that you can receive a witness that the Bible contains the word of God.
As you conclude this lesson, take some time to try memorizing the order of the books of the Old Testament. By memorizing the book order, you will be able to find your way through the Old Testament more easily.
Consider memorizing the books by category.
The Law: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy
You may want to try writing down the first letter of each book and see how many you can remember. For example, if you are working on the books of the law, you could write G-E-L-N-D and see if you can say all five books in order by using only the first letter.
The Primary song “The Books in the Old Testament” (Children’s Songbook, 114–15) may also help you memorize the books in order.
