Table of Contents
Epimenides and Menander. 1 Enoch and 2 Esdras, and the Assumption of Moses. What do each of these authors and books have in common?Their commonality is that they are all quoted in the New Testament.The Bible is a real-world Bible.
Sometimes Christians can be concerned by the fact that the Bible quotes non-biblical material: does it mean that the Scriptures depend upon authorities that are not from God?
It should not worry us, however, that the Scriptures refer to extra-biblical literature. The authority of the Scriptures come from God as its ultimate author, and the use of other materials to illustrate a point the biblical author is making is not a cause for concern. Instead, it can actually serve as a great encouragement. It testifies to the fact that the Bible was written in the real world to real people. The Bible has historical context; it isn’t an abstract document, but is grounded in space and time.Like any other historical document, the Bible uses sources to gather information. Luke is explicit in this approach (Luke 1:1-4). Like other literary works, the Bible quotes and alludes to literary canons that were in the ether of their time – like Shakespeare is in our day.
And it’s not just the New Testament, either. The Old Testament cites numerous sources – nearly all of which we no longer have copies of, but which the Old Testament explicitly cites. We just saw this, for instance, in Joshua 10, which references the ‘Book of Jashar.’
In addition to encouragement, when we get these glimpses we also see something of the depth, texture, and ‘life’ of the text, which makes reading it more real to us as well.
