Bible Courses

Part 1

The Bible

The Bible is a unique book. In fact, it is not one book but is made up of many books bound together in one volume. Yet although written by different men at different times, all the books claim to have the same author - God Himself, the Creator of the Universe.

The books were written to teach men and women about God and His plan for the earth and to show them how they can find a place in that plan. Nowhere else can we obtain this knowledge.

Jesus said, "All things must be fulfilled, which were written in the Law of Moses, and in the Prophets, and in the Psalms concerning me". If we would be followers of Christ, we must have the same confidence in the books of the Bible. Every book is valuable and the lesson which follows is designed to help you understand what the Bible is, what it contains, and why we must believe that it is the WORD OF GOD.

The Book Itself

The Bible. Remember that the Bible is really a collection of books bound together - a library of books. Now look at the list of books, or index, at the beginning of your Bible. The books are in two main divisions

01. The Old Testament

The Books of Moses - (the first five books).
Historical books - from Joshua to Esther.
Books of Poetry - from Job to Song of Solomon.
Books of the Prophets - from Isaiah to Malachi.

Look at the Titles. In the New Testament they are described in Luke 24 v 27 & 44-45

02. The New Testament.

The Gospel Records - the first four books -which are four records of the life and teaching of Jesus.
Acts of the Apostles - which describes the work of the Apostles in spreading the Gospel. Various Epistles (or letters) written to groups of Christians or to individuals.
Book of Revelation -this book and its objects are described in Revelation 1 vs. 1-2.

Look at the opening verses of some of the books and notice who wrote them, the occupations of the writers, their place and time of writing.

Some examples are listed below:

In other cases no example is given, e.g. The books of Kings and Chronicles.

Name Of Book	Writer	Some Details
Isaiah	Isaiah	BC 700 (approx) in the days of some of the latter kings of Judah
2 Timothy	Apostle Paul	Written while in prison in Rome
Revelation	Apostle John	Received in the Island of Patmos where he was in exile.

Read: Isaiah lv1; II Timothy 1 vs. 1-5; II Timothy 4 vs. 6-8 & 16-17; Revelation 1 vs. 1-3 & 9.

The writers of the books of the Bible lived during a period of about 1,600 years and wrote in places many miles apart. Many books were written in Israel. The book of Daniel was written in Babylon and some of the New Testament letters were written from Rome.

For the most part the OLD TESTAMENT was written in HEBREW and the NEW TESTAMENT was written in GREEK.

Our Bible is an English Translation.

Some of the names of the books of the Bible appear strange to us.

The first book is called GENESIS - the name means "beginning". LOOK AT THE OPENING OF THE FIRST CHAPTER AND SEE WHY IT IS SO CALLED. (Genesis 1 v 1).

EXODUS means "way out" and the book describes how Israel were led out of Egypt where they had been slaves. The word is related to the word "exit".

It is important to become familiar with the order of the books of the Bible.