Bible Basics - 1

What is the “Bible”? Interestingly, the term “Bible” is not found in the Bible. The English word Bible is derived from the Greek word biblion (book), which came from the word for the bark of the papyrus plant which was used as writing material in ancient times. “Bible” refers to the collection of books that make up “the Scriptures,” writings that are considered to be of divine origin. “In Jerome’s time the whole collection was known as the divine library (Bibliotheca), which draws attention to the diversity within the whole. The Bible is simultaneously ‘the book’ and ‘the books,’ both a single volume and a library” (Zondervan’s Pictorial Encyclopedia, Vol. 1, p. 553-554).

What is the Old Testament? The Old Testament – a term offensive to modern Jews, as “old” implies a now-defunct status – is a collection of books written and preserved by the Jewish people. The Old Testament (cf.2 Cor 3:14) covers two basic periods of ancient history:

• The Patriarchal Age – This is the earliest phase of human history when God interacted with mankind through heads of households/clans. There is no written account of God’s commands during this period, but in the historical record (chiefly the book of Genesis, and also Job) there are many references to known expectations/laws among ancient people.

• The Mosaic Age – This comprises the bulk of Old Testament material and reflects a special covenant and relationship that God had with one particular nation, Israel, or the Jews. Moses was a special leader and mediator between God and the Jews, and the law he instituted is often called the “Law of Moses,” even though there were many other “amendments” to the law through writing prophets (i.e., Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, etc).

Why is the Old Testament so hard to understand? Any book would be hard to understand if you mixed up all the chapters and then tried to read the story straight through. This is what many people do with the Bible. They don’t realize that the books are, for the most part, not arranged in chronological order. The Jewish people, who compiled the writings, arranged them by subject matter. So, it will help to commit the following numeric sequence to memory: 5, 12, 5, 5, 12. This sequence represents the topical headings of the 39 OT books:

5 – Books of law (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy). These contain the written laws between God and Israel.

12 – Books of history (Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 & 2 Samuel, 1 & 2 Kings, 1 & 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther). Some of these are chronological, but the last three actually come at the end of the OT time frame.

5 – Books of poetry (Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon). Don’t think of modern poetry; Jewish poetry isn’t based on rhyme and meter.

5 – Books of major prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel). These are “major” prophets only because they are generally longer books than the “minor” prophets.

12 – Books of minor prophets (Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi).

Again, these are shorter books, but the word of God is just as powerful and authoritative no matter how numerous the prophecies or how prominent the prophet. The most important aspect of understanding the OT is learning the story line in proper sequence. All of us have the ability to follow a plot, and when learn where each of the OT books fits into the plot, the meaning of the OT will become much clearer to us.