Scripture - An Overview
The word “bible” is from the Greek word “biblos,”
meaning “the books.” It is like a small library (an
anthology) in one book. It was written by many
different people, over a great many years, under
the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
The Bible can be divided into two main sections:
 The Old Testament
 The New Testament
The first section of the Old Testament is called the Torah
 Torah means "law" or "instruction".
 The early Greek Christians called the Torah the Pentateuch - "five scrolls".
 It is also called The Book of Moses because it contains the teachings of Moses.
Torah = law or instruction = Pentateuch = Book of Moses
The five (5) books of the Torah are:
Genesis
Exodus
Leviticus
Numbers
Deuteronomy
Origins
Departure (from slavery in Egypt)
Tribe of Levi
Census at Mount Sinai and Mount Moab
Second law
The first section of the New Testament is called the
Gospels.
 Gospel (Anglo-Saxon “god spel”) means "Good News".
 The Gospels each present a “portrait” of Jesus.
 The four gospels are Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
Over the course of history there has been some disagreement among Christians about
which books should be included in the Bible. The Catholic Bible, or "Canon" (a word
which means “list”), has more books than the Protestant Christian Bible.
Catholic:
46 in Old Testament + 27 in New Testament (73 total)
Protestant: 39 in Old Testament + 27 in New Testament (66 total)