Isaiah 2:2-4  ² In days to come the mountain of the LORD's house shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be raised above the hills; all the nations shall stream to it.  ³ Many peoples shall come and say, "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths." For out of Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.  ⁴ He shall judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.

Micah 4:1-3  In days to come the mountain of the LORD's house shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be raised up above the hills. Peoples shall stream to it,  ² and many nations shall come and say: "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths." For out of Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.  ³ He shall judge between many peoples, and shall arbitrate between strong nations far away; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.

            Ever has that feeling of déjà-vu?  You might be having that now, as you read the almost identical verses above.  The above verses give us a great detail about the Bible and the way it is written.  Micah, a later prophet, was a student of Isaiah.  Did he copy Isaiah’s work?  We don’t know.  Perhaps he did.  Or perhaps he knew those verses really well and added them into his book.  Or perhaps a scribe centuries later added it to both books.  Or perhaps the people didn’t listen to God’s prophet the first time, so God reminded a later prophet about the same thing.  Whatever the case may be, the Bible is full of verses that are nearly identical to one another. 

            The above verses contain just one example of the similarities of the Bible.  However, there are lots more.  Take a look at Matthew, Mark, and Luke.  There are times that both Matthew and Luke obviously quote Mark, word for word.  Did they use Mark as a source?  Probably.  But there are also times when Matthew and Luke quote an unknown source also word for word.  We call this source “Q” (Short for Quelle which means “source”). This is known as the two-source hypothesis.   Click here for a chart that you can access to show how both Mark and Q fit into Luke and Matthew.   

            Did other books of the Bible use similar tactics, such as copying an already existing book?  Probably.  But then again, we have to be reminded that these stories were originally passed down by word of mouth for many generations before they were written.  To me, that shows God truly at work, because the same story did pass down for many many years, retaining all the details that it has, and was eventually written down.  God provided the means through which the people carried on, which allowed the church to also carry on. 

In our prayers this week: Ann, Norm, and Jane

God’s Peace,