Foundations Of Our Faith: How Was Old And New Testament Compiled? (The First Inspired Leader)

Why?

The first aspect this paper will investigate is why the Bible was written.  To understand why or how something happened you must essentially understand the background which led up to the event.  A widely held  misconception  about the Bible is that it is the direct word of God or a blueprint on how to run your life.  Although the words in the Bible were written by Holy men under the influence of God or the Holy Spirit, the truth is much different.  The Bible was created by the Church to serve the Church.  A quick answer to the question appears when you ask the question which came first- the Church or the Bible?  The answer reveals that the Church existed way before the Bible came into existence. If this is the case, then why did the Church put the Bible together? This question is essentially the same no matter what you are studying.  In real estate it is location, location, location.  In religion it is standardization, standardization, standardization.  Standardization here allows for proper growth and development of people all over in a Church.  By unifying a Church it in turn unifies a collection of people into common belief or group of people with a shared principle.  Therefore, the Bible was compiled by people for unifying experiences.  This doesn't take away any of God's power.  In fact it may actually go a long way in establishing or reinforcing many of the truths contained in the Bible.   

Therefore, if this theory of complying with the Bible is correct, all one has to do is look at certain periods of time and see if books were compiled because of a need of certain people.  This principle of shared experiences (unification) has played an important part throughout the entirety of the Bible.  In fact without this principle there wouldn't be a Bible today.  This shared principle is desired by all enlightened political leaders as a reasonable way to unify mixed groups of people into one country.  With this in mind there are three distinct leaders who played a pivotal role in establishing the Old and New Testaments.  

The First Inspired Leader

The first inspired leader that influenced the Bible was Cyrus the Great. Interesting?  On 12 October 539 BCE Cyrus, "without spilling a drop of blood", annexed the Chaldaean empire of Babylonia – and on October 29 he entered Babylon, arrested Nabonidus and assumed the title of "King of Babylon, King of Sumer and Akkad, King of the four corners of the world". Almost immediately he then extended his control over the Arabian peninsula and the Levant also quickly submitted to Persian rule. Although Cyrus did not conquer Egypt, by 53 5BCE all the lands up to the Egyptian borders had acceded to Persian dominance.  Newly conquered territories had a measure of political independence, being ruled by satraps. These (usually local) governors took full responsibility for the administration, legislation and cultural activities of each province. (The Circle of Ancient Iranian Studies, 2011)

In Ezra 1 1-5  we can see just how important Cyrus was to the reestablishment of  Jerusalem as the center of Jewish state. 

Cyrus Helps the Exiles to Return (English Standard Version)  Ezra 1

• The Proclamation of Cyrus 

1. In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also put it in writing:.

2"Thus says Cyrus king of Persia: The LORD, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. 3Whoever is among you of all his people, may his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and rebuild the house of the LORD, the God of Israel— he is the God who is in Jerusalem. 4And let each survivor, in whatever place he sojourns, be assisted by the men of his place with silver and gold, with goods and with beasts, besides freewill offerings for the house of God that is in Jerusalem."

5Then rose up the heads of the fathers’ houses of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and the Levites, everyone whose spirit God had stirred to go up to rebuild the house of the LORD that is in Jerusalem.

Clearly without Cyrus' enlightened leadership- the Jewish captivity would have lasted much longer and there would have been some serious problems with reestablishing Jerusalem as center for Jewish thought and culture.  This one event impacted a great deal of the Old Testament and the New Testament events.  For example: how could Jesus have thrown the money changes out of the Temple if a Temple was never built?  How could Jesus have been crucified right outside of the city of Jerusalem unless the city was indeed populated with Jewish people?  How could the Jewish people have had the sect of Jews- Sadducees that was established with the building of Temple in 519 BCE, which was instrumental in orchestrating  the charges against Jesus which led to his Crucifixion and the complete repudiation of life after death.  Thereby could you imagine how the Bible would have been written without Cyrus' help?  The answer is plain, simple and to the point.  NO!  So without Cyrus the Great being a leader when he was and without him allowing or encouraging the Jewish people to go back to Jerusalem, the entire rest of the Bible could not exist in its present form.