The
Bible for Beginners
The Bible is not a single book but
two libraries of Books. The first library, called The Old Testament,
is the Holy Book of the Jews, written over thousands of years before Jesus
was born. It was written in Hebrew but in the time of Jesus there was a
Greek translation and those who wrote about Him (in Greek) in the second
library called The New Testament quoted from that Greek version.
It is thought that Jesus actually spoke in Aramaic, a dialect of Hebrew.
Anyone approaching the Bible today
has
to understand something about the problems of translation. If you have
studied French or German at school you will know that is rarely possible
to translate from one language to another exactly. Every language has its
sayings and idioms. Imagine someone in 2000 years time translating what
will then be Old English. What will they make of the expression "at
the end of the day"? That nothing ever happened until evening?
Fortunately the Bible has had more
work devoted to it than any other book in the world. Some Christians
regard it as The Word of God without any error, but it is
as well to remember that which Books were included and which excluded was
decided by the Church and no-one claims that the church has been without
error! Saint Jerome translated it into Latin around 400 AD and we still
use his division into chapters and verses. English translations did not
appear until Saxon times. King James the First (6th of Scotland) ordered
the Authorised Version (c1610) which became the standard English Bible
for ordinary people until the 1950's. Since then there have been any number
of versions in Modern English and their content still causes much
confusion amongst the older generation brought up on the King James Bible.
Its language ranks alongside Shakespeare in its beauty. The modern translations
do, however, make the Bible and its meaning much more accessible. No-one
should criticise them without some understanding of the problems of translation.
The Old Testament
contains three groups of books:
-
The Pentateuch
(The first five books). Known to Jews as The Law (Torah). They contain
much more than the Ten Commandments, especially the stories of Moses.
-
The Prophets.
Prophecy is not principally about the future but about pronouncing to the
people what God had to say.
-
The Writings.
Including Stories, Poetry, Songs and the History of Kings. In places these
are very blood thirsty and appear to show God directing Genocide and Ethnic
Cleansing. In others they reach sublime heights of devotion and understanding.
(For example Psalm 23)
All of the Old Testament relates to
the relationship between God and His chosen people the Jews. But it also
looks forward to the coming of the Messiah, for which the
Greek word is Christ.
You may well have heard that the
Old Testament "says" that the World was made by God in seven days. It does,
but most people now regard that as picture language used to tell the more
important truth about creation. You may also have heard that it "says"
that the Earth was created in 4004 BC. It does not, Bishop Ussher did that
calculation. You can find it on the web if you put him into a search engine.
The New Testament (less than
a third of the size of the Old Testament) contains
-
Four Gospels;
Four accounts of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. The earliest,
Mark, is incomplete, but may have been dictated by Peter, chief Disciple
(Apostle). Matthew and Luke have much content in common with Mark. Matthew
is very Jewish. Luke gives us well known stories like The Prodigal
Son and The Good Samaritan. John is very different
from the other three and is much more theological.
-
The Acts of the Apostles;
Luke's second book describes the birth of the Church and introduces (Saint)
Paul a convert to Christianity. It might better be called the Acts of the
Holy Spirit.
-
Letters to the Churches;
The Longest are from Paul but there are also letters from James, John and
Peter.
-
Revelation;
A vision of the last days written probably by John in old age. Because
of its difficult language and strange descriptions it has unfortunately
become happy hunting ground for all manner of cranks.
Everyone who reads the Bible finds
it to be a fantastic treasure house which can never be exhausted. By way
of a taster, how about this from Paul's letter to the Colossians Chapter
3:
12 Put
on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies,
kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering;
13
Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel
against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.
14 And
above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness.
15 And
let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called
in one body; and be ye thankful.
16 Let
the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing
one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace
in your hearts to the Lord.
17 And
whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus,
giving thanks to God and the Father by Him.
This is from the Authorised Version,
have a look at a modern
version
If that is too deep for you, open a Bible and find Mark's Gospel
in the New Testament and read that
May God Bless you as
you read His Holy Word
Return to Jesus for
Beginners