GETTING TO KNOW THE BIBLE
The bible is a book read by millions of people the world over. Jewish citizens live by the Old Testament portion, while Christians tend to focus on the New Testament. Muslims consider the bible a holy book as well, although they don't revere it as highly as their Quran. The bible is a text that has a vast amount of historical information in it, as well as instructions for how we ought to live. This makes it the most important book that we could read. The purpose of this page is to help those who are unfamiliar with the bible to become familiar with this special book. Let's take a look around the bible and see what there is: The Holy Bible has been re-translated and revised many times throughout history, and it's something you can readily see today. Though many people believe this process has significantly changed the content in the bible, archaeology shows that today's bibles are in agreement with the ancient versions of the manuscripts. If you go to your local library or book store, you can find some of the different bible versions that are in print today. You can also find them online. Some versions will use the names "Jehovah" or "Yahweh" for God, others don't. Some versions use outdated language (thee, thou, etc.), some use contemporary language, and some paraphrase the scriptures. Some contain only the New Testament portion, while others are complete with the Old Testament. Despite these differences, the message in the bibles remains the same. Therefore, don't be confused by the different versions, for they all tell the same story. Any of you who have already perused through this website will see we made the effort to quote scripture from different bible versions. We did this, in part, to help familiarize readers with the various Bible versions available today. The Bible is a book written through the inspiration of God (2 Timothy 3:16-17) and is divided into two major sections: The Old Testament, (a.k.a. "The Torah") and The New Testament (a.k.a. "The Gospel"): The Old Testament gives a vast amount of historical information concerning the beginnings of Judaism and it's ancient culture. It is composed of 39 mini books. It begins with God's creation of everything (Genesis 1:1) and contains the accounts of various kings, and peoples, nations, and biographies. It also contains the prophecies of various Jewish holy men, the book of Psalms (which is mostly poetic songs), and is rich in historical value. Much of what is contained in the bible has been verified by archaeological evidence. Roughly two thirds of the bible is the Old Testament. The first five books of the bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy are called the "Pentateuch", a.k.a. "The Books of Moses". The Pentateuch details the beginnings of creation, the origin of sin, the beginnings of Judaism (from which Christianity sprang from), and details regarding the original Jewish Law Covenant. Many other books in the Old Testament are also historical accounts, such as Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel, 1 Kings, 2 Kings, 1 Chronicles, 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther. These tell of various battles, the lives and visions of prophets, the rulership of Israelite kings, genealogies, and much more. The book of Esther is especially interesting because it tells of a queen who saves her nation from genocide. Then there are the books of prophetic works. Some are called the Minor Prophets, simply because they are the shorter books. The Minor Prophets are: Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi. In the New Testament, you will frequently see these Minor Prophets being quoted. The other prophetic books are called the Major Prophets because those books are much longer. The Major prophets are: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel. These books are also quoted throughout the New Testament. The prophetic books tend to be very deep with symbolism, therefore these can be difficult to understand. The books that are either poetic, or otherwise are: It is important to note here that some bible versions, such as the Douay-Rheims, have alternative spellings for some of these book names, so please do not let that confuse you when you find this. The New Testament starts with the birth of Jesus Christ and proceeds to show the beginnings of Jewish conversion to Christianity. It is composed of 27 books. It contains, not only the account of Jesus Christ's life, but also that of the newly formed Christian congregation that grew after Christ's death. The first four books - Matthew, Mark, Luke and John - contain eyewitness accounts of Jesus Christ's life. Since each of writers weren't always together everywhere they went, each of their accounts is a little different from the others. The book of Acts contains the account of Christ's ascension to heaven, the conversion of Saul/Paul and the history of the beginning of the newly formed Christian church. The next several books are inspired letters written by the converted apostle Paul to the various congregations that Paul evangelized to. These are called the "Pauline Epistles". These books are: Romans, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians,Philippians, Colossians, 1 Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians, 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, Titus, and Philemon. After Philemon is a book called Hebrews, written by an unknown person. The next books are called the "General Epistles", and consist of these books: James, (written by the human half brother of Jesus), 1 Peter, 2 Peter, (written by the apostle Peter) 1 John, 2 John, 3 John (written by the apostle John, not John the Baptist) and Jude (another human half brother of Jesus). The last book, Revelation, is sometimes called The Apocalypse. Revelation/The Apocalypse is prophetic of the future, beginning with the time period that will happen just before Christ returns. Throughout the bible, each book is divided into sections called "chapters", and each chapter is divided into smaller sections called "verses". Therefore, when you come across a scriptural reference, you can find exactly where it would be in the bible. For example, if you are given the reference of "Genesis 1:2", that means it is in the book of Genesis (which is the very first book in the bible), chapter one, verse two. It goes from largest to smallest: The book, its chapter, and its verse. Some bible versions, such as the Douay-Rheims, contain sequences of chapters and verses that are different from most other versions, so be aware of this to avoid confusion. There is a wide variety of bible versions printed. Some of the most common English language versions are the King James Version, the New King James Version, the American Standard Version, New American Standard Version, New International Version, and The Living Bible . These are only some of the many versions that contain solely canonical scripture. Canonical scripture is that which is contained in the "canon"; the canon is scripture that is fully determined to be inspired from God across all Christian denominations. Some versions, such as the New American Bible, Douay-Rheims, and the New Jerusalem Bible, contain other scriptures aside from the canon. These other scriptures are called the "Apocrypha". The apocryphal books are determined to be inspired of God by only some denominations, or are known to be uninspired though historically significant. The Apocryphal books include writings such as: The Book of Tobit (or Tobias), The Book of Judith, and the book of Wisdom, among others. There are various little tidbits of information in the bible that some people find interesting. For example, the passages at 1 Kings 10:1- 26 and 2 Chronicles 9:1- 25 are nearly identical accounts. There are two mentions of left-handed people: Judges 3:15 and Judges 20:16. There are two different men named "Saul" mentioned in the bible: One was the Jewish King Saul in the Old Testament (1 Samuel chapters 9-10), and the other was a Jew who was converted by Christ in the New Testament (Acts Chapter 9). The first man to play the harp and the pipe was named Jubal (Genesis 4:21). Anyone who reads through the bible will find these and other interesting little things in the pages. One thing that many people fail to notice is that several bible versions actually give us the proper name of God. In some versions, it is "Jehovah"(American Standard Version, The Bible in Living English, Darby Translation, King James Version, The Living Bible, New World Translation, Young's Literal Translation), and in some versions it is "Yahweh" ( Bible in Basic English, Holman Christian Standard Bible, New Jerusalem Bible, Rotherham's Emphasized Bible, World English Bible). There are also place names in the bible that incorporate God's proper name into them: Genesis 22:14, Exodus 17:15, Judges 6:24. For many people, study of the bible can be made easier by using a concordance. A concordance is a book that indexes all the words in the bible so that you can find an appropriate scripture. For example, if you want to look for that scripture that says something about a rooster crowing just before Christ's murder, but aren't sure where it is, you'd look in the concordance under words such as: rooster, cock, or crowing. Under each of those words the concordance will list little blurbs of scripture in biblical order, and you can find the one which matches what you're looking for. However, a concordance can only work for you if you have one that matches the bible version you're using. Here are some links for online concordances for those of you who are interested: Some bibles include little footnotes and other notations in the margins and between columns for cross-referencing purposes. These little notes are well worth your while to look into when doing your personal bible reading. Therefore, we invite you to get a bible, take a good look, and don't rush the reading. If you don't have your own bible, we have listed a few online places in which you can order a free bible for yourself. Even if you just read one page a day, you will still be doing yourself a great service! Free Bibles: For online bibles in languages other than English, please browse the link in the "Foreign Language Online Bibles" section in the following link:
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