Its Meaning and Origin
The word “bible” comes from the word “biblia,” which is the plural of the Latin word for “books.” So “bible” simply means “a collection of books”- sixty-six, to be exact. The word holy means, “that which belongs to God” or “that which comes from God.” So The Holy Bible is, literally, “The holy little books of God,” or, “a
collection of books belonging to and coming from God.”
The Bible is also referred to as the Word of God. Why?
Because of statements made by apostles, like Peter and Paul. Second
Timothy 3:16-17 is a good example:
“The whole Bible was given to us by inspiration from God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives; it straightens us out and helps us to do what is right. It is God's way of making us well
prepared at every point, fully equipped to do good to everyone.”
Over and over, we are assured that the Bible is not merely a
collection of human writings about God. Instead, it contains the
words of God Himself, written through the pens of men, perhaps as
many as forty or more over a period of 1500 to 1600 years.
The process by which God moved these men to write these books is called inspiration, which literally means, “to breathe in”. Peter
described it this way:
“No prophecy recorded in the Scripture was
ever thought up by the prophet himself, for the prophecy never had
its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were
carried along by the Holy Spirit.” (2 Peter 1:21)
The Greek word for “carried” presents a beautiful image. It is
the word “phero”. Imagine being in a boat carried along by the tide,
or blown along by the wind in the sails, and you have the idea of
inspiration as it is presented here by Peter.
Its Organization
Having established what the Bible is, let us now look at how
it is organized. Contrary to what you might expect, the books do not
appear chronologically, nor are they grouped by author. Instead, they
are organized by type and message. The two main groups of books
are the Old Testament and the New Testament. This has not always
been the case, for obvious reasons. In the days of Jesus, for instance,
there was no such thing as an Old Testament and a New Testament.
The New Testament had not been written yet, so the books that
existed in the days of Jesus were simply called “The Word of God”
or “The Scriptures.” It was after the New Testament was written and
brought together into a collection of books that the distinction was
made between Old and New Testaments.
The essential message of the Old Testament books is this:
“Jesus is coming.” In the beginning, according to the Scriptures, God
and man were in harmony with each other. But God made man a
creature of choice and man chose to turn away from God. Because
God cannot tolerate rebellion (sin), God turned away from man.
Thus, there was a “divorce” between God and man. That divorce
between God and man is the fundamental problem with which the all
the Scriptures deal.
In the Old Testament, God says to us, “Will you believe Me
when I tell you I'm going to do something about that divorce?” In the
New Testament, God is saying to us, "Will you believe Me when I
tell you that I did do something about that divorce?" You see, the
Old Testament books say, “Jesus is coming, and He is going to
reconcile that divorce between God and His creatures.” The New
Testament tells us this good news: “Jesus came, and when Jesus
came He did reconcile that divorce between God and man.”
Besides the major division of the Old and New Testaments,
there are further divisions within each Testament. The books of the
Old Testament books come under five different headings.
First, there are the five books of the Law. In these books,
God tells us what is right and what is wrong, giving us His standard
for righteousness.
Next come the ten History books, which tell us, essentially,
that sometimes the people of God obeyed those Law books and
sometimes they did not. Their stories serve as examples and
warnings for us. The key verse for all the history recorded in the
Bible is found in the New Testament. Paul told us that everything
happened to the people we read about in the Bible for examples and
warnings. When they obeyed the Word God gave them, they were
examples for us. When they did their own thing, they were and are
warnings for us.
The History books are followed by the books of Poetry. In
the Poetry books God speaks to the hearts of His people as they try to
live out His Word in this world. For instance, the Book of Job speaks
to the hearts of God’s people when they are hurting. The Book of
Psalms speaks to their hearts when they are worshipping. The Book
of Proverbs speaks to their hearts when they need the kind of wisdom
that equips them to do business and relate to people. The Song of
Solomon speaks to their hearts when they are making love. Each of
these books contains practical help and encouragement for believers.
The next section of the Old Testament is the largest. It is
called The Prophets. This section is further broken down into the
Major Prophets and the Minor Prophets - not because of the
importance of their messages, but simply because of their length. It
took the major prophets longer to say what they wanted to say!
In the New Testament we have five kinds of books as well.
First there are the four Biographies of Jesus (also called the Gospels),
written by Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Next comes one History
book, the Book of Acts. Then there are the epistles, or letters. They
fall into two categories: the Epistles of Paul and the General Epistles.
Half the New Testament consists of letters written by the Apostle
Paul to fledgling churches established after the Resurrection. The
other letters were written by an assortment of people. Finally, there
is one Prophetic book, The Book of Revelation.
As we study the Bible, come to the Old Testament realizing
what its primary message is: Jesus is coming. That is what the Old
Testament is really all about. Come to the New Testament looking
for this message: Jesus came. That is what the New Testament is all
about.
By Dick Woodward, Mini Bible College
