There's this common thing that happens when people first receive the Holy Spirit.
A lot of people go look for a bible to read it.
So what is the conspiracy?
The brain in the body experienced stimuli that it cannot control or understand, it seeks knowledge so it can go back to that state of reality.
The brain can understand the human language in the bible, and makes a mathematical jigsaw puzzle out of it amounting to "what God said"
Well, the brain is physical, and we have our deeper spiritual being. And the Holy Spirit is almighty. And the peace of God is almighty to keep us safe from fear and worry and arguing and unforgiveness. So, this is part of all we appreciate which has come with trusting in Jesus.
"'Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.'" (
Matthew 11:29)
Jesus shares with us, like this . . . deeper than what our physical brain can control.
So, with this I will say that I mean that the brain is not the interpreter of the Bible, and the Bible means we have in Christ what is deeper . . . spiritual . . . than what can happen in our brains. So, our brains are not in charge of how we understand the Bible and certainly our physical brains do not control if and how we experience God, including how Jesus gives us "rest for your souls." (Matthew 11:28-30)
On that note, what did the pre-canonical christians reach for in this regard?
I guess you mean what they would reach for to read, before there was an established "Canon Scripture" which I understand started centuries after Jesus was on this earth.
I don't know. But I'll be glad to offer something >
In the time of Jesus, Christians had Jesus and the disciples to give them the message of Jesus. It possibly was by word of mouth.
Then the apostles were available, for some time, as witnesses to Jesus and His resurrection, and there was word of mouth preaching. But during the time of the Apostles, ones of them wrote letters which Christians could use.
But Paul says the Thessalonians became "examples" (1 Thessalonians 1:7) to people they were reaching to. So, I see from this how the Gospel could have been spread by preaching and personal example. Good teaching includes demonstration, right? Even if a church had a letter, the message by individuals could have been spread by word of mouth with example.
And then there was copying of any letters which were written, I would say.
How it worked, for each individual Christian, to get something to read, I don't know. But, like I offer, ones who became Christians could spread God's word by mouth and the demonstration of their example.
By the way > something I just thought of > all through those times, there always were the early scriptures which Jews read in their synagogues. And Christians could have been taught how to understand synagogue manuscripts with a New Covenant meaning.
For all I know, the book of Hebrews could have been meant to enlighten Christians with the New Testament message, plus help them see how they could get the New Testament's meaning through the Old Testament scriptures. Then, even if they did not have any New Testament writings in their possession, still they could listen to scripture readings in a synagogue and use the early scripture readings like a code, to get and remind them of the New Testament meaning and application.
And as the Holy Spirit changed people, they became a living demonstration of what God's word means > not only in words and talk, but how the Holy Spirit changes our character so we are gentle and humble like Jesus and first seeking to please and submit to our Father, and love any and all people.
How the Holy Spirit changes us is the living meaning of God's word.
So, I do not think the brain has anything to do with this. We are spiritual, deeper than our brain function. But what is going on in us, spiritually, has a major effect on how our brains can work.
I have talked with people who trusted Jesus to save them, and ones would say, "Wow, what you are saying puts into words what I have been experiencing, but I just didn't have the words for it!" So, may be such people were more or less like the pre-canonical ones.
