Basic Instructions Before
Leaving Earth
Understanding how to get around the
Bible is very easy once we get the hang of it. Here are a few tips to help you
get started.
The Bible is divided in two parts.
The first is called the Old Testament. It starts at the time of creation and
ends just before the arrival of Jesus Christ. The second part of the Bible is
called the New Testament and starts with John the Baptist and the birth of Jesus
Christ and is the testimony of the salvation brought about by the life, death
and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
The Old Testament is divided into
sections consisting of the Pentateuch, the Historical Books, the Wisdom Books
and the Prophetic Books.
The New Testament is divided into
sections called the Gospels and the Letters or Epistle.
Each section is divided into books.
For example, the Gospels of Mathieu, Marc, John and Luke are four distinct books
of the New Testament
Most books of the Bible divided
into chapters. Again using the Gospels as examples, the chapters (usually from
just a few sentences to a page or so in length) are usually highlighted with the
use of large bold numeric characters such as 14.
1 Chapters are then
divided into verses that are usually a sentence although the are often a bit
shorter or longer. 2 Each verse has a small number in front of it.
So, instead of asking someone to
find the story of the birth of Jesus in the New Testament Book of Luke, Chapter
two, Verses one through seven, it far easier to ask for Luke 2, 1-7. (Hint, most
Bibles have and index in the front listing the starting page of each book).
Confusing, don't worry as most people get pretty good at it with just a few
tries.
Most Protestant Bibles have fewer
books than Catholic Bibles. These include one or more of the following: Judith,
probably written in Aramaic, Wisdom and 2 Maccabees written in Greek, Tobit and
parts of Daniel and Esther written in Aramaic and probably outside of Palestine,
Baruch written outside of Palestine and Sirach and 1 Maccabees written after the
time of Ezra. All of these books are in the Old Testament. Several centuries
before Christ, the Jews of Palestine eliminated some of these books thinking
that they were not in harmony with the law of Moses and of doubtful inspiration.
The Pharisees determined that the books had to be in harmony with the Pentateuch
(the five earliest books), had to have been written before Ezra, had to be in
Hebrew and must have been written in Palestine.
The early Church recognized the
Jewish books of Greek-Roman tradition (Jews living in conquered lands often
spoke only ancient Greek). Additionally, Jesus quoted from these books. During
the Protestant reformation, Martin Luther rejected these books as well as
Hebrews, James, Jude and the Apocalypse of the New Testament. Later, Protestants
reinserted them. Today, Catholic and Protestant New Testaments are identical.
Better yet, consider joining a
Scripture Sharing group at your church. These are most helpful in understanding
difficult verses as what is not understood by one person may well be understood
by another. Membership welcomes people from all walks of life with any level of
education. There's nothing like the value of sharing.
Here's a great link/resource for
you:
The New American Bible
If you've just gotten a new Bible,
or are picking yours up for the first time, consider writing this on the inside
front cover:
"The Bible will keep me from
evil. Evil will keep me from the Bible."
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