The
Bible
The word Bible comes from….
A
Greek word, “biblia” meaning Books
 It is a collection of ancient writings about
God and God’s relationship with His
people
 There are TWO parts to the Bible:
a) The Old Testament (The Hebrew
Scriptures)
b) The New Testament (The Christian
Scriptures)
When was the Bible written?
 Over
a period of 1000 years
 The earliest writings date back to 900 B.C.
(or B.C.E.) and the latest ones in 100 A.D.
(or C.E.)
 A.D. stands for “in the year of our Lord”
 B.C. stands for “before Christ”
 B.C.E. stands for “before common era”
 C.E. stands for “common era”
The Hebrew Scriptures
include…
 Histories
 Codes
of Laws
 Orations
 Reflective Literature
 Poetry
The First Five books are called








The pentateuch which means “5 books”
(Greek word)
The Torah which means the Law (Hebrew
word)
The first five books are….
Genesis
Exodus
Leviticus
Numbers
Deuteronomy
Genesis: beginnings
 How
the world began (starting with TWO
creation stories)
 Origin of the Jewish people (God’s
chosen people and how they became
the chosen people)
Exodus: To leave
 The
story of the Israelites fleeing Egypt
 Moses receiving the Commandments (or
Laws
Leviticus:
 This
book is basically the laws for the
priests to follow:
 A) Sacrifice rules
 B) Consecration of the priesthood
 C) Laws on what is clean and unclean
 D) the Holiness code
Numbers
 It
is a book with the census of the people
Deuteronomy
 Second
telling of the story of Moses
 Repeats for a second time all the Laws
 The
word Deuteronomy means
Second
Law
A number of the books are
called “The Prophets”
 There
are 6 historical books about
prophets ( In these books are myths,
fables and real history of some of the
Jewish peoples greatest leaders)
 There are 3 major prophets: Isaiah,
Jeremiah and Ezekiel
 There are 12 minor prophets
 Add them up, there are 21 books in this
section
The third section of the
Hebrew Scripture is called the
Writings
 This
section has history books, poetry
books and philosophy books all in it.
Philosophy texts like Proverbs
We believe the Bible contains
truth….but what is truth?






Religious truth: proclaims the presence of
God
Moral truth: how we should act with/toward
one another
Symbolic truth: read between lines to get the
message
Proverbial truth: wise sayings
Historical truth: History of the Jewish people
Scientific truth: Not too scientific but was
written before the great discoveries.
The New Testament (Christian
Scriptures)
 First
four books are called….
The Gospels (a word meaning “Good
News” ) which are the stories of the life and
teachings of Jesus
They are….
a) Matthew
b) Mark
c) Luke
d) John

After the four Gospels comes
 The
Book of Acts of the Apostles by
 Written by
LUKE
 It is the only early account of the Christian
community and how it spread from Israel
to Rome.
He is my
second
book, I call it
Acts…
Then come the Epistles
 Epistles
means
“letters”
 There
are 21 Epistles, most of them written
by Paul.
 Paul’s letters were actually written BEFORE
the Gospels.
Ladies and Gentleman,
the Beatles…
As I Write this letter…..
The Last book of the Bible is
 The
Book of Revelation (written by
John…the Gospel writer)
 A book that talks about the struggles, but
in the end, the Kingdom of God will be
triumphant.
Paul writes letters, but
I am here to say, in
the end, all you need
is love, and God is
love