The name Bible comes from the Greek word biblia/biblion meaning “the books” or “the book”. It is a book of books, 66 to be precise. Catholic Bibles add a few more, which many Christians view as uninspired, but both Catholics and Protestants agree that the 66 books found in Protestant Bibles are inspired by God. These books are divided into two sections—The Old Testament with 39 books and The New Testament with 27.
Testament is a word that also means covenant or agreement or promise. This is an accurate description of the contents of the Bible. All the content in the Bible points to the covenant made by God with humans to rescue us from the brokenness that resulted from our choice to sin. Basically, the Old Testament is full of God’s promises to act, and the New Testament describes how God fulfilled that promise. This does not mean that God was not acting in the Old Testament. It is simply that those actions tended to be stopgap measures until the ultimate promise was kept. The great fulfilling action occurred when God became human and kept the covenant for us. He took the results of sin upon Himself. The theme of the whole Bible is that through Jesus’ incarnation, death, resurrection, and position as our high priest today, humanity has been rescued.
Many people associate the Bible with prophecy, but this is not the primary composition of the scriptures. The main format of the Bible is to present God’s interactions with humans through story. These stories can take the form of historical accounts, parables/allegories, and songs. In addition, the Bible contains proverbs, prayers, and sermons, as well as prophecies. The prophecies of the Bible take two forms—local and global. Local prophecies deal with events specific to the situations surrounding God’s chosen people. A global prophecy includes all nations and may reach forward through extended periods of time.
The Old Testament’s 39 books were the scriptures that Jesus used in his instruction. These scriptures were available in both the original languages and a Greek translation called the Septuagint, or LXX. Many of the quotations in the New Testament are taken from the Septuagint rather than from the Hebrew versions of the Old Testament. The scriptures of Jesus’ day were divided into three sections: the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings. The Law is also known as Torah, which was sometimes used to refer to the whole Old Testament. Another name that was only specific to The Law was the Pentateuch or the books of Moses. The Prophets were called Nevi’im, and The Writings were Ketuvim. The Hebrew Bible is often called TaNaKh (Tanakh), which is an acronym taken from the beginnings of the Hebrew words for the three sections of the scriptures. Knowing the manner in which the Jews of Jesus’ day divided the scriptures is relevant to Christians because the New Testament has numerous references to these titles for the different sections of the Old Testament.
The 27 books of the New Testament can be divided into three sections by type: history (the four gospels and the book of Acts), letters also known as epistles (Paul’s epistles and letters by other authors), and prophecy (the book of Revelation, which is also known as the apocalypse). The four gospels tell the story of Jesus from different perspectives. Of these, the gospel of Mark is considered to be the earliest book, and the gospel of John is thought to have been written last. The book of Luke is part of a larger story that is continued in Acts. Paul’s experiences evangelizing the Gentiles are chronicled in Acts, so this book provides excellent background information when reading his letters to the Gentile churches. There is some dispute as to whether Paul wrote the book of Hebrews or not. I personally believe that he did, but I would not argue with anyone who disagreed with me. The other authors of letters to the early church are Peter, James (probably Jesus’ brother), John, and Jude (possibly another of Jesus’ brothers). The final book of the New Testament is Revelation, which was written by John about visions that he received from God while he was in exile on the island of Patmos.
The earliest of the Biblical books to be written was either Genesis or Job. The last of the books of the Old Testament to be written was Malachi. There was about a 400-year hiatus between Malachi, whose message to Israel was that they were not ready for Messiah, and the coming of the actual Messiah, Jesus. The first of the New Testament scriptures to be written were some of Paul’s epistles with either 1 Thessalonians or Galatians being the very first one. The last book of the Bible to be written was probably Revelation. All were written by either an apostle or a close associate of an apostle (Mark and Luke).
Together the books of the Old and New Testament are called the canon. The reasoning for accepting the 39 Old Testament books as canonical is that these were the books that Jesus accepted and taught from during His incarnation. The logic of accepting the 27 books of the New Testament as canonical is their authorship during the lifetimes of the first generation who interacted with Jesus during His incarnation, i.e. apostles and close associates of apostles. Thus, the witnesses of Jesus could repudiate anything that was in contradiction to Jesus’ life and teachings. For this reason, most Protestant Christians reject the addition of any later writings to the canon. With no first-generation witnesses to affirm the contents of a book, there is no authority to make additions to the canon. This is not to say, however, that there cannot be inspired messages from God or even inspired books from God. The Bible makes it clear that God will send messages to His people down to the end of time. It also makes clear that these messages must be judged by the contents of the Bible itself, and if there is disagreement, the Bible is the source of truth and should be consulted first and foremost. No later prophet or messenger will negate the messages that God has already delivered to His people through the canonical scriptures.
The purpose of the Bible is for instruction, transformation, providing strength and comfort, and most of all, to impart the knowledge of salvation through Jesus. This purpose is best expressed in 2 Timothy 3:14-17. “But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” Bible study is a necessity for God’s people if they desire to grow and become strong spiritually.