Bible History

What is the Bible?

The word "Bible" comes from the Greek word biblos which means "book". It's made up of 66 books (39 Old and 27 New Testament books) from the ancient Hebrew and Christian writings.

The Bible is the inspired and inerrant word of God. It describes man's origin in the Garden of Eden as well as his fall into sin; therefore, man was no longer in fellowship with God. It continues on and describes how God called out the Israelite people as special unto Himself. God's promise for the future was a Messiah who would bring man back into fellowship or relationship with Him.

The Bible is an accounting of God's historical work bringing to completion His prophetic announcements concerning Jesus. Jesus was born of the virgin Mary, crucified on the cross, and paid for sins, exactly as it was prophesied in the Old Testament and fulfilled in the New Testament.

Old Testament

The Old Testament is the story of God's promises to His chosen people, the Israelites. The English translations are divided into four parts: 1) History (Genesis to Esther); 2) Poetry (Job to Song of Solomon); 3) the Major Prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel); and 4) the Minor Prophets (Obadiah, Zechariah, Nehemiah, Hezekiah, and Malachi).

According to Jewish thinking, the Hebrew scriptures in order of importance are: 1) The Law (Genesis to Deuteronomy) sometimes referred to as the "pentateuch", Greek wording meaning "five books" or "The Book of Moses"; 2) the Prophets; and 3) the Writings (Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Song of Solomon, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther, Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Chronicles).

Below is a list of the 39 books that make up the Old Testament:

Genesis Exodus Leviticus Numbers Deuteronomy Joshua Judges Ruth 1 Samuel 2 Samuel 1 Kings 2 Kings 1 Chronicles 2 Chronicles

Ezra Nehemiah Esther Job Psalm Proverbs Ecclesiastes Song of Solomon Isaiah Jeremiah Lamentations Ezekiel Daniel Hosea

Joel Amos Obadiah Jonah Micah Nahum Habakkuk Zephaniah Haggai Zechariah Malachi

New Testament

The New Testament covers Jesus' life from the virgin birth to His ministry, crucifixion, and resurrection. His message was to love others as much as yourself and to love God as the one and only God. The sacrifice that Jesus made led to the new covenant (testament) of God with all people (Jews and Gentiles [non-Jews]).

Apostle Paul's conversion to a Christian helped spark the early, rapid growth of Christianity even though the believers were greatly persecuted. He told of Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection as well as His expected return at the "last days". The book of Revelation and other writings address the "last days" where believers in Jesus Christ are given eternal life in heaven and non-believers given to "the Lake of Fire". The New Testament is separated into four parts: 1) History (Matthew thru The Acts); 2) Paul's Epistles (Romans thru Philemon); 3) the General Epistles (Hebrews thru Jude); and 4) the Apocalypse (book of Revelation).

Below is a list of the 27 books that make up the New Testament:

Matthew Mark Luke John Acts Romans 1 Corinthians 2 Corinthians Galatians

Ephesians Philippians Colossians 1 Thessalonians 2 Thessalonians 1 Timothy 2 Timothy Titus Philemon

Hebrews James 1 Peter 2 Peter 1 John 2 John 3 John Jude Revelation

Bible Interpretation

One of the reasons why the meaning of certain Bible passages are difficult to understand, is that it was written by many men over a period of 1,500 years. But this shouldn't prevent us from obtaining a clear interpretation of the scriptures. Bible scholars have mentioned that there are four gaps that can cause people to misunderstand the scriptures: 1) a language gap (differences in words); 2) a cultural gap (different customs); 3) a geographical gap (some places that are spoken of in the Bible are not on today's maps; and 4) a historical gap (kings and empires spoken of that existed many years ago).

Below are some principles of Bible interpretation that will help to keep you on the right path and help you to understand:

• Remember that the Bible is the perfect, righteous word of God. The Bible includes everything He wants us to know regarding salvation and how to live a Christian life.
• Interpret the Bible according to its historical setting: 1) study the writer's personal circumstances; 2) study the country's culture and customs when the writing or story took place; and 3) study and interpret according to the actual historical situation and events that took place.

Bible Languages

The original Old Testament was written mostly in Hebrew prior to Jesus' birth; a small portion was written in Aramaic. The Aramaic language was spoken by the people and also by Jesus in His early ministry. The New Testament was written in Greek which was the understood language of the Roman Empire.

There aren't many people who can easily read the languages of the ancient Scriptures; therefore, many Bible versions and translations have been made. As of today, the Bible has been translated into nearly every language of the world either in it's entirety or in part. Due to changes in spoken languages down through generations, translation efforts continue.

The Old Testament manuscripts that have been discovered are similar to today's Hebrew print. Here are some obstacles that made translating the Old and New Testaments difficult:

Hebrew

1. In Hebrew, there were no spaces separating words;
2. All of the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet were consonants;
3. In the synagogue scrolls, the rabbis did not always agree as to the proper reading;
4. The Jewish scholars of that era (the Massoretes) did not consider certain vowel points as part of the sacred text, and as a result, avoided using these vowels on the scrolls;
5. In Hebrew it's difficult to recognize proper nouns from common nouns that mark the start of each new sentence; and
6. The reading of Hebrew is right to left instead of left to right as in English.

Greek

1. A few Greek abbreviations did not include vowels;
2. The oldest and most significant New Testament manuscripts are written in capital letters (uncials); and
3. No spaces separated the words.

In properly translating the Bible, we do not reduce its significance or influence; rather, we glorify God and His Word.

For information on the King James Version of the Bible, click here.

For history on the English Bible, click here.