Bible

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The Holy Bible, opened to the Book of Isaiah.

The Bible is the collection of canonical religious texts in Christianity. Most Christians believe that the men and women who wrote and translated the Bible were under Divine Inspiration, and/or that the Bible is God's infallible Word to humanity.

The "canon" is the standard set of scriptural books which are deemed to represent the Word of God, as opposed to books which are considered wise or inspirational but not authoritative. The canon has evolved over time.

Some books counted as part of the Bible by the Roman Catholic Church—such as the books of Tobit, Judith, 1st and 2nd Maccabees, The Wisdom of Solomon (or Ecclesiasticus), and ben Sirach—are regarded as non-canonical by Protestants. Some modern Protestant Bibles, following the example set by the original King James Version, include these books but categorize them as Apocrypha; most omit them.

The early church's determination of the canon was based on several criteria, including authorship, consistency with the rest of Scripture, and the level of general acceptance at the time. [1]

Protestants value direct access to the Bible by worshipers, without the need for intervention or interpretation by clergy. The translation of the Bible into "common" languages such as German and English, and the development of printing by Gutenberg, were motivated by the Protestant desire to make the Bible accessible to everyone.

Books of the Bible

The Old Testament

The Old Testament, or Hebrew Bible consists of 39 books. "Hebrew" in "Hebrew Bible" may refer to either the Hebrew language or to the Hebrew people who historically used Hebrew as a spoken language, and have continuously used the language in prayer and study, or both. As used by the Jewish community, the word Tanakh describes the three parts of the Hebrew Bible: the Torah ("Teaching or Law"), and also known as the Pentateuch, the five books of Moses; Nevi'im ("Prophets"), and Ketuvim ("Writings,” or Hagiographa). The arrangment of the books in this way is common within the Jewish community; within the familiar Bibles of the English-speaking world the arrangement differs, however the actual writing of each book remains the same.

Torah

The books of the Torah are also known as the five books of Moses, thus Chumash or Pentateuch (Hebrew and Greek for "five," respectively):

The Torah focuses on three moments in the changing relationship between God and people.

  • The first eleven chapters of Genesis provide accounts of the Creation of the world, the history of God's early relationship with humanity, and the the Deluge of Noah.
  • The remaining thirty-nine chapters of Genesis provide an account of God's covenant with the Hebrew patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (also called Israel), and Jacob's children (the "Children of Israel"), especially Joseph. It tells of how God commanded Abraham to leave his family and home in the city of Ur, eventually to settle in the land of Canaan, and how the Children of Israel later moved to Egypt.
  • The remaining four books of the Torah tell the story of Moses, who lived hundreds of years after the patriarchs. His story coincides with the story of the liberation of the Children of Israel from slavery in Ancient Egypt, to the renewal of their covenant with God at Mount Sinai, and their wanderings in the desert until a new generation would be ready to enter the land of Canaan. The Torah ends with the death of Moses.

Nevi'im

The Nevi'im, or "Prophets," tells the story of the rise of the Hebrew monarchy, its division into two kingdoms, and the prophets who, in God's name, judged the kings and the Children of Israel. It ends with the conquest of the Kingdom of Israel by the Assyrians and the conquest of the Kingdom of Judah by the Babylonians, and the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem. Portions of the prophetic books are read by Jews on the Sabbath (Shabbat). The Book of Jonah is read on Yom Kippur. According to Jewish tradition, Nevi'im is divided into eight books.

Ketuvim

The Ketuvim, or "Writings," contain lyrical poetry, philosophical reflections on life, and the stories of the prophets and other Jewish leaders during the Babylonian exile. It ends with the Persian decree allowing Jews to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the Temple.

Ketuvim contains eleven books:

According to Rabbinic tradition, many of the psalms in the book of Psalms are attributed to David; Solomon is believed to have written Song of Songs in his youth, the Proverbs in his prime, and Ecclesiastes during his old age. The prophet Jeremiah is thought to have written Lamentations at the start of the Babylonian Exile. The Book of Ruth is the only biblical book that centers entirely on a non-Jew, a Moabite) who married a Jew and, upon his death, followed in the ways of the Jews, ultimately becoming an ancestor of King David and Jesus Christ. Five of the books, called "The Five Scrolls" (Megilot), are read on Jewish holidays: Song of Songs on Passover; the Book of Ruth on Shavuot; Lamentations on the Ninth of Av; Ecclesiastes on Sukkot; and the Book of Esther on Purim. Esther is unique as it is the only book in the Bible not to mention God.

The New Testament

The Bible as used by the majority of Christians includes the Hebrew Bible in its part as the Old Testament together with the New Testament, which relates the life and teachings of Jesus Christ, the Epistles, or letters, of the Apostle Paul and other disciples to the early church, and ending with the Book of Revelation.

The New Testament is a collection of 27 books and letters, produced by the early Christian community, with Jesus as its central figure, written primarily in Koine Greek. Nearly all Christians recognize the New Testament as canonical. These books can be grouped into:

The Gospels

The Gospels contain the history of the central figure of the entire Bible, Jesus of Nazareth. The Acts of the Apostles are a continuence of the Gospels, documenting the history of the early church, beginning immediately following Jesus' death and resurrection.

Pauline Epistles

These are letters written to the Christian community by the Apostle Paul.

General Epistles

Revelation

The Book of Revelation is the last work in the New Testament as well as the whole Bible, written close to A.D. 100 by the Apostle John during his exile on the Greek island of Patmos. Revelation is concerned with the condition of the Seven Churches of Asia before going deeply into a description of the last days prior to the beginning of the Millennial Age.

The Apocrypha

The Apocrypha are books which have been rejected as canonical by the Church due to historical, goegraphical, or literal inaccuracies; the teaching of doctrines which contradict inspired Scripture; and a lack of elements and structure which give genuine Scripture its unique characteristic. The Roman Catholic Church includes the Apocrypha in its version of the Bible, the Vulgate. The following are the books which are most frequently referred to by the title Apocrypha:

History of the Bible

Related articles

External links

Bible societies

Bible texts

Hebrew

Latin

English

Turkish

Klingon

Others

Commentaries

Wikis

Analysis

References

  1. ↑ http://www.gotquestions.org/canon-Bible.html
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