40 Minute Bible
I’m giving you a 45 minute bible! Some of what I say will seem facile to some of you,
but to others you may be hearing this for the first time.
There are 39 books in the Hebrew Scriptures or Old Testament
There are 27 books in the New Testament.
This means 66 books in the 2 ‘Canons’ of the bible. This means that I have less than a
minute per book; not very satisfactory so I’ve decided to divide them into groups of
books, ie genres of books. Be warned that some fit into more than one type.
Pentateuch
History Books
Poetry Books (maybe we can call some of it ‘wisdom literature’)
The Prophets (these we will divide into major and minor prophets – but also
make a note of how important the exile is)
The Gospels (noting the difference between the synoptics and the 4th gospel)
Acts (Luke Chapter 2)
Letters of Paul and pseudo Paul
The Pastoral Epistles
The so called ‘Catholic Epistles’
Revelation.
1. Pentateuch. The word is made up of 2 Greek words – pente = 5 and teuche
meaning a promise. So it means 5 books of the promise. They make up what the Jews
call the books of the Law. These were thought to have been written by Moses himself,
so they are sometimes sub headed, ‘the First book of Moses’, the 2nd… etc etc.
Moses is such a central character for the people of Israel, the Jews, as it was through
him the people of Israel were led from slavery in Egypt to freedom in the promised
land. It was also Moses who received the tablets of the 10 Commandments, the
’outward sign’ of the first promise, or first covenant.
Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. In these books there are
contained the ‘mythical cycles’ of origins; the first call of Abraham, and the
introduction of the Patriarchal Period. It is also where we learn of Isaac, and Jacob,
and it is Jacob who is given the name ‘Israel’ the one who wrestled with God. In the
latter half of Genesis we have the cycle of Joseph stories that tell us of the slavery of
the Hebrew speaking people, the people of Israel. Exodus, which means a ‘way out’
introduces the ministry of Moses and Aaron, but principally Aaron. Many well known
stories come from Exodus, such as Moses in his basket; the crossing of the Red Sea,
the Golden Calf; the 10 Commandments; the Ark of the Covenant; and Moses
arriving at Mt. Nebo and seeing the promised Land, then dying. It is all about the 40
years of travelling in the wilderness. Leviticus tells us about the traditions of the
Levite priests. Levi was one of the 12 Tribes, and they were given responsibility for
the worship of the people. Leviticus is very much a liturgical book, with rubrics about
how all the sacrifices should be carried out by the priests and the people. Numbers
continues this type of writing and tells us more about the Levitical traditions, and
stories about Aaron, who continues the leadership of the people where Moses had left
off. Worship in the Holy of Holies is described. Deuteronomy means the 2nd Law in
Greek. This gives us the farewell speeches of Moses, so this is a hint that these books
are not written in chronological order. JEDP strands run through the 5 Books of the
Law so there is not a single authorship. Deuteronomy also tells of King Josiah in
whose time the old books of the law were discovered and a revival of the Mosaic
traditions happened, with the re-introduction of the Passover which had not been kept
for decades and had fallen into disuse through the lack of living memory. Josiah was
born in 640 BC.
2. History Books. These include narratives about the period of the Judges, which was
the successor of the Patriarchal period. It also introduces us to the period of the
choosing of the 1st King of the Israelites, the ascendance of David; the supremacy of
the Israelites and establishing of Jerusalem as the capital, taking it from the power of
the tribe called the Jebusites; the beautification of the Temple. In Joshua we have an
account of the 12 tribes fighting against the Canaanites and establishing themselves in
their own land. It looks as if history is formed around the battles of nations and
peoples. In Judges we read of the leadership of those appointed to govern the tribes
(Judges by the way are not legal judges but leaders of the people). In Judges we hear
about Samson, and Delilah. Then there is a female attributed book, the book of Ruth Thought to be written around 380BC. It is a delightful story about a Moabitess who
travels with her mother to Jerusalem to persuade Boaz to marry her under Levitical
law. Being written at this time is ironic, because Israel had become ultra conservative
at this time, and xenophobic. The book of Ruth points out that even King David had a
foreign great grand-mother. In 1 Samuel we have the narratives of Samuel and Saul;
In 2 Samuel the narratives about David. In the former Samuel we read about old Eli
and the call of Samuel. The Ark is captured, and the people clamour for a king to be
appointed so that military and political power might be returned to them. David, the
shepherd, emerges as the one God has called to be King. Important for future
references to Christ, as the father of David is Jesse, and he is a citizen of Bethlehem.
Saul is of course the first King and he displeases God. David succeeds him. We read
of course of the friendship of David and Jonathan. The prophet Samuel dies. In the
Second book of Samuel we read of the period of King David. Jerusalem is captured
for the Israelites and becomes their capital. The Ark is brought there and the
beginnings of a temple cult emerges. David commits adultery with Bathsheba. His son
Absolam is killed in battle. In 1 Kings Solomon becomes King, and we have the
building and dedication of the first Temple. Solomon has a fling with the Queen of
Sheba. The Kingdom is divided into 2 under Jereboam and Reheboam, and Elijah
emerges as a prophet of God. 2 Kingdoms, 2 places central to worship, both claiming
to be the genuine article. Jereboam goes off the rails and Elijah begins calling the
people back to God and battles with the prophets of Baal on Mt. Carmel. 2 Kings
continues stories about the succession of Kings in the north and the south. We read
again about King Josiah (Remember Deuteronomy) and the discovery of the law
book. Passover is reintroduced into the lives of the people. The southern Kingdom
defeats the forces of the northern kingdom and Jerusalem becomes once again the sole
centre of worship. Clouds on the horizon from Babylon and King Nebuchadnezzar in
587BC takes the city of Jerusalem, and in 586 BC even the Temple is destroyed and
the people go into exile.
In 1 and 2 Chronicles we have a repeat of much of the same period of history form
Samuel through to Josiah and the book of the law.
In Ezra (called Ezra Nehemiah) we have the story of what happens to the people of
Israel in Exile; how Nehemiah gains influence in Babylon and persuades Cyrus II to
send him back to Jerusalem and they begin the rebuilding of the city and the Temple,
but it is a pale shadow of the original. Jewish reform ensues and nationalistic zealotry
becomes their characteristic. One last little history book is written in 125BC. This is
Esther. It tells the story of a Jewish girl in exile in the court of the king, Xerxes, and
how she replaces his wife, Queen Vashti. Eshter’s guardian is a man called Mordecai,
and being Jewish he refuses to bow down to one of Xerxes court dignitaries, and then
persuades the king to destroy the Jews. Esther pleads for the Jews and the King
concedes. Esther is read by the Jews on the Feast of Purim.
3. Poetry. I will be a bit briefer with this section. At times it is better to call this
section ‘Wisdom Literature’ and much of this has its origins not in the Hebrew
tradition but in Egyptian or Babylonian culture and literature. The book of Job is one
of the finest verse –dramas in the ancient world and is a tale of success, ruin, despair,
faithfulness and ultimate restoration. Job is placed as a plaything of Satan by God –
they make a deal with each other. Satan cannot though take Job’s life. 3 ‘comforters’
are sent to help out Job and their advice shows up the folly and vacuousness of human
wisdom. Proverbs is, as it says on the tin - A series of pithy little saying or
‘apothegmata’. Ecclesiastes is a Greek form of the Hebrew Qoheleth and means a
teacher. The author is described as ‘son of David, but it is likely to be from a period
almost 800/900 years later, just before the time of Christ. It is characterized as a
pessimistic, almost fatalistic book, ‘A time for…’ and is perhaps a good example of
waiting for the hope of Christ. The Song of Songs is a beautiful and at times rather
erotic love poem, the lover is called Solomon, and the beloveds are the women of
Jerusalem. Although Solomon is mentioned it is probably a collection of saying from
much later periods. Understood allegorically it is a fine love poem about the love
between God and his people. Then we have the Psalms. Although these are
poems/songs, they are in themselves representative of a whole range of material.
Referred to as the Psalms of David, it is unlikely that this si possible because, for
example, Psalms of Ascent were sung as people ascended to worship in the Temple,
so in David’s time there was no Temple. There is the Psalm that refers to Babylon, a
clear reference to post 587BC. Just because David was noted as a fine musician it
does not mean that he is the author of the Psalms. There are Psalms of Praise, of
lament and despair (such as 130), or railing against God; psalms for worship, or in
praise of Zion.
4. The Prophets. This is the second most significant group of writings for the Hebrew
people. Remember Jesus refers to the Law and the Prophets as being the summation
of the relationship with God. Generally speaking Prophets do not prophecy the future
in the sense that we use the word prophet, but rather he calls the people back to God
and to faithfulness. The prophets are divided into major and minor prophets, and
cover a period from about 800BC through to the 300s BC. The major prophets are:
Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentation, Ezekiel, and Daniel, though Daniel is often referred to
as a work of apocalyptic. The 12 minor prophets are Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah,
Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habbakuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi. A
more helpful distinction is whether the prophet wrote before or after the exile in
586BC as this sets the context for the prophecy, and in the group that is before 587BC
it is helpful to remember that after Solomon the Kingdom of Israel was divided. Some
of the prophets wrote in the northern Kingdom that was called Israel, some in the
southern Kingdom, called Judah. The capital of Judah was Jerusalem. Isaiah was a
pre-exilic prophet writing in Judah, so Jerusalem based. Dated to about 740BC700BC Isaiah promises deliverance for Judah. On of the features of Isaiah is that there
could be up to 3 different authors. Jeremiah covers a period of 630BC-586BC (crucial
date). We know he is a priest from Anathoth. He predicts the Exile and what happens
to the people for their faithlessness. He covers the fall of Jerusalem and the
deportation of the people into Babylon. Lamentations are attributed to Jeremiah a he
laments the fate of Jerusalem. Lamentations material is frequently used in Holy Week
relating to Christ’s crucifixion. Ezekiel was a priest in Jerusalem, and then also in
Babylon, so his ministry covers this crucial period of exile as well. He speaks of the
return to Jerusalem and the reunion of the 2 old Kingdoms of Judah and Israel. Daniel
focuses on that period when the Jews were in exile and how they became corrupted in
the courts and pleasure pots of Babylon. He is an interpreter of dreams, and has many
visions (hence the association with apocalyptic material). Among the minor prophets
Hosea and Amos are pre Exile in the northern Kingdom of Israel, Micah in 720ish in
the southern Kingdom of Judah. The others are all from a period either during the
exile or post exilic. Among these Zephaniah wrote in the time of King Josiah when
that codification of the Law of Moses was discovered in the ruins of the Temple. A
number of them speak directly about the re-building of the Temple and encourage the
people not to lose heart.
These then are the principal types of books in the Old Testament. So we have covered
39 books already, with only 27 to go.
5. The Synoptic Gospels. Mark is the first gospel, Luke and Matthew follow. Each
tells of the life of Jesus. We looked last week at the ways in which they agree, and
where they diverge we looked briefly into the reasons why they do so, such as Q and
special material for Luke, and special material for Matthew. Note that no life of Jesus
was ‘written’ down until about 70AD, so letters of Paul are an older written source.
Matthew’s gospel is considered the most Jewish of the synoptic gospels and he is
concerned to begin his life of Jesus with a genealogy proving the ‘authenticity’ of
Jesus’ historic lineage through the generations of the Jewish past. For Matthew it is
important that Jesus is descendent of David (born in Bethlehem) and descendent of
Moses (delivery of the new commandments on the Mt. of Beatitudes). Matthew has
the greatest number of direct quotes from OT sources showing that Jesus is the
fulfilment of the Law and the Prophets. Mark’s is the briefest and most direct of the
synoptic gospels. He begins ‘The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son
of God’ and ends rather abruptly ‘and they said nothing to anyone, for they were
afraid.’ This ending has been considered rather unsatisfactory so other possible
endings have been attempted form various ancient manuscripts. There is no need to
accept either as original. Luke’s gospel is Vol. 1 of a two volume work. He addresses
both to the same person, possibly a high ranking Roman official who is curious about
Jesus. Luke’s emphasis is for the gentiles and he says a great deal about ministry of
Jesus to the gentiles, to women, outcasts and the poor. 3 of our canticles at Morning
or Evening Prayer come form Luke’s gospel – the Benedictus (song of Zechariah), the
Magnificat, (both of which have more ancient forms in the Old Testament) and the
Nunc Dimittis. Many of the most graphic and best loved parables exist only in Luke,
so he revels in story telling. Tradition has it that Luke is a doctor, and that he is an
artist, being the one to paint the first ikon of Mary the Mother of Jesus. John’s gospel
- Very evidently a different way to present Jesus. It may be the fruit of considerable
theological reflection on the life of Jesus rather than attempting to present an accurate
life and sayings of Jesus. It is quite possibly the past of the 4 to be written
chronologically. There are long speeches or discourses as a feature of the 4th Gospel.
At one time considered to be the most Greek, or Hellenistic of the gospels, this is now
being disputed as more recent scholarship identifies the theology of John as being
very temple based, full of traditional Jewish ideas and references. It is to John we look
for the ‘I am’ sayings of Jesus, and his baby in a stable, wrapped in a blanket, is
transformed into the Word of God made flesh and dwelling among us. Another
feature of John’s gospel is the emphasis on ‘signs and wonders’ as being proofs for
the divinity of Jesus. One English theologian (Anthony Harvey) has suggested that the
whole of the gospel is presented rather in the form of a court case, with Jesus on trial
and various witnesses for the defence are brought forward to counter the witnesses for
the prosecution, and the reader (or hearer), have to make a judgement. Is Jesus, or is
he not, the Word of God made flesh.
6. Acts. This is Luke Vol II and should in a sense be placed side by side with the
gospel. For neatness the 4 gospels have been put together shoving Acts out of the
way. This book tells of the time from the Ascension into heaven, Pentecost, and the
first activity of the church founded on faith in Jesus. IT tells of the division of
ministry between Peter and Paul. Peter remains more in Jerusalem with a Jewish
based message, while Paul goes off to share the gospel with the gentiles. Luke II tells
of the journeys of Paul, his shipwreck, his imprisonments, latterly in Rome, and his
death. Paul is first presented as a zealous Jew – a rabbi trained by Gamaliel, but then
converted, possibly by a vision of Christ. His ministry is basically one of teaching the
faith. IT is often by way of cross reference to Acts that we are able to piece together
the more doubtful attributions of letters that claim Pauline authorship.
7. Paul’s letters (and pseudo Paul). Paul corresponded with the early Christian
communities he had personally visited by letter. These he dictated. The following are
more or less undisputed in authorship – Romans, 1& 2 Corinthians (though some
think these are 3 letters reduced into 2) Galatians, Philippians, 1 Thessalonians, and
Philemon. The others are pseudo Paul, namely Ephesians, Colossians, and 2
Thessalonians, though scholars are divided in their views. It is almost universally
agreed that 1 and 2 Timothy are not by Paul. In his letters Paul wrestles with the
impact of his conversion to Jesus, and is a break through in early Christian theology.
It is interesting for us to note that 1 Cor 10 is the earliest written reference we have to
the Christian eucharist taking place in a church community. He deals with immorality
right through to matters of salvation, often drawing on the Old Covenant material of
his earlier religious Jewish convictions. He contrasts Law and Grace, flesh and the
Spirit. I wonder if he thought, I’ll write that lot a letter and in 2000 years they will still
be reading it and basing their arguments about women and gay people on what I say.
Hebrews is clearly not Pauline, and the material would suit an audience such as
Alexandrian Jews and feature highly on Moses and assumes a deep understanding of
the OT and its Temple (sacrificial) theology.
8. Pastoral Epistles. Timothy was an associate of Paul on his travels and he is much
commended by Paul from when he visited the church in Ephesus. However these 2
letters of Timothy and Titus are from a late date and not Pauline. In these letters the
ordering of the life of the church shows signs of later development that the time of
Paul. Household rules are presented in these letters (German ‘Haustafel’) and are to
do with the ordering of Christian homes and the household of God (oikia). Located in
Ephesus they reflect the need for Christians there, especially women, to be distinct
from the women who were initiates of the great Temple of the goddess Artemis,
hence the regulations about wearing jewellery and female behaviour in the assembly.
In passing, the letter of James, called by Luther an ‘epistle of straw’ is dismissed by
the reformation because it speaks of good works, when the reformation was insistent
that faith, and not good works is where salvation is to be found.
9. Catholic Epistles. This is the title sometimes given to the letters of Peter and John.
These are most likely late authorship, though some think that the Petrine letters were
written by Paul in Rome and that references to Babylon really mean Rome. Sylvanus
(Silas) is the one who carried the letters to the Christian community in Northern Asia
Minor. John’s letters show signs of an early ‘gnosticising influence on Christianity,
with an emphasis on the spirit and the flesh being opposed.
10. Lastly, The Book of Revelation. The author gives his name as John. The setting
is Patmos. It is a piece of apocalyptic writing – full of visions and a revelation for the
7 ancient churches of Asia. Towards the end it speaks of a great vision of a new
Jerusalem. Some interpret this book as a sign of the end of time, and it is frequently
quoted by millenialists and those who have a keen sense of ‘parousia’ ie the second
coming of Christ. The book is possibly dated to 95AD in the reign of the Emperor
Diocletian when the churches were being persecuted. Some think that the author is
John the disciple, who is said to have taken Mary with him to Ephesus. It should be
noted that almost every verse contains a quote from the Hebrew scriptures. The seven
churches to whom the revelations are addressed are: Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum,
Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, Laodicea.