04 What is in the Bible?
Description
This article is from the Bible FAQ, by Michael Paul Johnson mpj@ebible.org with numerous contributions by others.
04 What is in the Bible?
The Holy Bible is a collection of books. These are arranged in
the Old Testament (before Jesus Christ) and New Testament. The
Old Testament is the same as the Jewish Bible, or Tanakh, and
consists of 3 or 4 main sections:
* The Law (Torah), called the 5 Books of Moses. These are
Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. These tell
about creation, the patriarchs, the miraculous way that God
broke the children of Israel out of slavery in Egypt, and more.
* History. These tell how God has intervened, interacted, and
taught people through history. God's mixture of justice, mercy,
and love are clearly seen in these books.
* Wisdom literature (Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and
Song of Songs), also called the poetic books include prayers,
great wisdom, and some prophesy. Many of the things written in
the Psalms were fulfilled by Jesus, the Messiah. The history and
wisdom literature books combined are referred to as "The
Writings" (Kethuvim).
* The Prophets (Nevi'im). These contain God's Word to His people,
both in terms of current activities and in predicting future
events.
The New Testament consists of 3 sections:
* The Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) tell about Jesus'
life and teaching.
* Acts records the history of the early church and some of the
miracles done by the Holy Spirit.
* The Letters (also called the Epistles) contain important
teaching for those who follow Jesus Christ.
* Revelation is a book of prophesy that tells about what is
going to happen, as well as sending some warning messages to the
current assemblies of Christians.
For more information, open up a Bible (or access one on line)
and read it.
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