This book contains chapters on the Old Testament, the New Testament, a primer on how to study the Bible, and a summary and outline of every book of the Bible.
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Table of Contents
1) The Bible – a “Book of Books.”
2) The Story of the Bible – Old Testament
3) The Storyof the Bible–New Testament
4) The Literature of the Bible
5) How to Study the Bible
6) Books of the Old Testament
7) Books of the New Testament
Sample Chapter:
Chapter 1 – The Bible: A “Book of Books”
For most Christians, the final authority for everything important about Christianity is the Bible. It is the only document thought to be from God.
The word “Bible” comes from a Greek word meaning “a little book.” But the Bible is not just one book, and it is far from little.
The Bible is composed of 66 separate books.
It is divided into two sections. The first section is called the “Old Testament” and contains 39 books. The second section is called the “New Testament” and contains 27 books. These books were originally written in three languages. The books of the Old Testament were written in Hebrew and Aramaic. The books of the New Testament were written in Greek. They were all written over a period of 1500 years (from about 1400 B.C. to A.D. 100) by about 40 different authors. Some of these writers were political leaders. Others were religious leaders. Most were just ordinary people with a heart for God through whom God did extraordinary things.
The Story of the Bible
Though these forty men were separated by time and geography, the Bible tells just one story: God’s great love for mankind and his determination to build a relationship with humanity.
The story begins with God creating all things, including the first man and woman. Though God gave the first man (Adam) and woman (Eve) everything necessary for a happy life, the Devil, God’s enemy (also known as Satan), made them dissatisfied with their blessings and tempted them to disobey God. This disobedience is called “sin.”
God is a perfect moral being, totally just, but all loving and merciful. God could not overlook their sin, continue their fellowship, and be just. So from the moment mankind disobeyed, God set about creating a way to bring mankind back into fellowship with Him. All of this happens in the first three chapters of the first Bible book, Genesis. From that point on, the story is about God’s on-going effort to help man deal with His sins and live the kind of life God had in mind for him from the very beginning.
Testaments
God chose to work with mankind through agreements called “covenants.” There are a number of these agreements mentioned in the Bible, but there are two main ones. The story of the first main covenant is found in the Old Testament. The story of the second covenant is found in the New Testament. One of the Latin words for covenant is “testamentum.” When the Bible was translated into Latin in the 4th century A.D. (called the “Vulgate” translation), the translator divided the books into “Old Testament” and “New Testament.” Before that time, the Bible had no such divisions.
Copyright 2008, Mike Tune