Introduction to the Bible

The Bible is the source of Christian doctrine. By “doctrine” I mean the beliefs, teachings, and theological principles that we accept as authoritative truth. The Bible holds this status because it is understood to be “the word of God” by believers.

What is the Bible?The Greek word for “Bible” is biblia, which means “books”. The Bible is a collection of 66 books, containing 39 books in the Old Testament and 27 books in the New Testament. The Bible is also referred to as “Scripture” and we call the list of biblical books the “canon” of Scripture.

​The Old Testament
The Old Testament was written in Hebrew, with some parts in Aramaic. The history recorded in the Old Testament took place between the creation of the world and the 5th century BC, which does not include the subsequent events that were predicted by Old Testament prophets.

The Old Testament is divided into four sections.

The first section is the Law/Pentateuch/Torah, which includes the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. This section contains the Law of Moses and the events that led up to the giving of that Law, namely, the creation of the world, the fall of man, God’s covenants with Noah and Abraham, and Israel’s exodus from Egypt.

The second section is the History of Israel, consisting of Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel, 1 Kings, 2 Kings, 1 Chronicles, 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther. It contains the account of Israel’s possession of the Promised Land, their various kings, the splitting of the nation into two (Judah and Israel), Assyria’s conquest of Israel, Judah being taken into exile by the Babylonians, and the return of the Jews to their land.

The third section, Wisdom and Poetry, encompasses Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Solomon. In addition to the story of Job, the Wisdom and Poetry books contain wise sayings, songs, and prayers.

The fourth section features the Prophets, which includes Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi. The larger books are known as the Major Prophets (Isaiah – Daniel), while the shorter books are known as the Minor Prophets (Hosea – Malachi). These books contain messages and visions that God communicated to His people (and to other nations) through the prophets during the years of the divided kingdoms, the exile, and the return from exile.

It is important to note that the Hebrew Bible, historically known as the “Tanakh”, was arranged differently to our English Bibles. It had three divisions: Torah (the Law), Nevi’im (the Prophets) and Ketuvim (the Writings).

The Law contained the first five books of Moses (Genesis through Deuteronomy).

The Prophets contained Joshua, Judges, Samuel (1 & 2 counted as one), Kings (1 & 2 counted as one), Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and The Twelve (all twelve Minor Prophets—from Hosea to Malachi—written on a single scroll).

The Writings contained Ruth, Psalms, Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, Lamentations and Esther (often grouped with Ruth), Ecclesiastes, the Song of Solomon, Daniel, Ezra-Nehemiah (counted as one), and Chronicles (1 & 2 counted as one).

Jesus Himself affirmed the threefold division in Luke 24:44, although He used “the Psalms” as shorthand for the Writings because it is the first and largest book in that section.

The Apocrypha
The Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church have additional books that they consider to be part of the Old Testament. These books are known as the Apocrypha. However, these books are not recognised as part of the Old Testament within Judaism and as such do not appear in the threefold division. Furthermore, Jesus Himself held to the Jewish threefold division which didn’t include the Apocrypha (Luke 24:44). The earliest counts/lists of Old Testament books also do not mention the apocryphal books (e.g. Josephus Against Apion c. 93-100 AD; Bava Batra 14b c. 100-200 AD). As such, whilst these books may be useful for other reasons, they should not be considered part of the canon of Scripture.

The New Testament
The New Testament was written in Greek by Christian leaders in the first century AD after Jesus Christ ascended to heaven. It consists of five sections.

The first section is the Gospels which consists of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. These books are four collections of the teaching, actions, and events surrounding Jesus’ ministry. Each Gospel is written with a different style, with different levels of detail, and from a different angle. Matthew, Mark, and Luke are known as the Synoptic Gospels because of their similarities, as synoptic means “seen together”.

The second section is History and contains one book: Acts of the Apostles, which provides an account of events surrounding the early church.

The third section is the Pauline Epistles which consists of Romans, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians, 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, Titus, and Philemon. This section contains letters written by Paul the apostle to churches and individuals.

The fourth section is the General Epistles which consists of Hebrews, James, 1 Peter, 2 Peter, 1 John, 2 John, 3 John, and Jude. This section contains letters written by James, Peter, John, Jude, and the anonymous writer of Hebrews.

The fifth section is Apocalyptic Literature and contains one book, Revelation, which presents a series of prophetic visions. “Apocalyptic” refers to a type of literature that is characterized by symbolic visions that provide hope and encouragement to God’s people.

The Bible’s Function
The Bible serves many essential functions. It teaches us (Romans 15:4), corrects us (2 Timothy 3:16), trains us to live righteously (2 Timothy 3:16), and equips us to do good (2 Timothy 3:17). It also encourages us and gives us hope (Romans 15:4), makes us spiritually strong (Acts 20:32), enables us to grow spiritually (1 Peter 2:2), and shows us the way to salvation (2 Timothy 3:15; James 1:21). Furthermore, the Bible makes us wise (Psalm 119:98-100), gives us understanding (Psalm 119:130), guides us (Psalm 119:105), and teaches us God’s will (Romans 2:18).

The Uniqueness of the Bible
Although various religions have sacred books, the Bible stands out uniquely from all of them.  Four words that define the uniqueness of the Bible are “revelation”, “inspiration”, “authority”, and “sufficiency”.

1. Revelation
The word “revelation” is derived from a Latin noun meaning “unveiling”. In the context of our present discussion, it speaks of the fact that God has taken the initiative to “unveil” Himself, that is, to make Himself known to humanity. There are two kinds of revelation: “general revelation” and “special revelation”. The Bible is the written record God has given us of His special revelation to humanity. In order to appreciate this, let us first consider God’s general revelation to mankind.

General Revelation
This refers to God’s self-revelation through His creation. The things God has made testify of His skill, glory, existence, and provision (Psalm 19:1; Acts 14:14-17). However, in addition to God’s general revelation, humanity needs a special revelation.  There are several reasons for this.  One is that since the fall of man, people have turned the general revelation of God into perverse practices, worshiping creation instead of the Creator (Romans 1:20-25). Furthermore, the general revelation of God does not tell us about God’s plan for our salvation and other details about God’s purposes.  Therefore, in addition to God’s general revelation through nature, a special revelation is needed.

Special Revelation
In addition to giving general revelation to all people, God also gave special revelation to particular people.  He spoke verbally to the likes of Adam and Noah. The Angel of the Lord also appeared to individuals.  God also gave dreams and visions to people and spoke by prophets.  The ultimate special revelation given by God was through His Son Jesus Christ (Hebrews 1:1-3). The aspects of special revelation that God wanted retained for all time are recorded for us in the Bible.  It contains His promises, plan and purpose for humanity, as well as further details about His character, counsel, will, and nature.

2. Inspiration
Paul wrote that “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God” (2 Timothy 3:16). In the original Greek, the phrase “given by inspiration of God” is literally “God-breathed”. What the human authors of the Bible wrote was breathed out by God. Therefore, the Bible is the word of God.

There are two important things to note about the inspiration of the Bible. First, the Bible’s inspiration is plenary. This word means “entire”. There is no part of the Bible that is not inspired by God. As Paul said, “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God”, not just some of it. This doesn’t mean that every statement in the Bible is a command from God. For example, the Bible records what Satan said to Eve. We obviously should not suppose that Satan’s words are God’s instructions for us. Yet, the recording of those words was inspired by God, as He wants us to know what happened. Second, the Bible’s inspiration is verbal. This means that God did not only inspire the writer’s thoughts. He also inspired the way the writer expressed those thoughts. Therefore, Peter said that the Bible’s prophecies are the product of those who “spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:20-21). God did not give His special revelation to prophets and then leave them to communicate it however they wished. Their very words were shaped by the Holy Spirit, so that they were in fact speaking the very words of God Himself. Whilst God still allowed the writers to write in their own particular style, God used their particular style, made it His own (taking full control of it), and determined what they wrote.

3. Authority
Because the Bible is inspired by God, it has God’s authority. As there is no higher authority than God, the Bible is the final authority on all matters of faith and conduct and must therefore be obeyed (John 17:17; 1 Corinthians 14:37; 2 Timothy 3:16; 1 Thessalonians 2:13; 1 Peter 1:25; 2 Peter 1:20-21; 3:15-16). Therefore, should earthly authorities require us to do something that God’s word forbids, or tell us to stop doing what God’s word commands, then “we ought to obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29).

4. Sufficiency
Paul wrote that Scripture was given “that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17). By using the words “complete”, “thoroughly” and “every”, Paul indicates that the Bible contains all the words of God that a person needs to obey Him completely. The Scriptures are therefore the final, finished, and all-sufficient guide for faith and life, requiring no supplemental human traditions, modern revelations, or outside philosophies to effectively govern our lives.

This post has been adapted from my systematic theology book - Christianity Explained: A Comprehensive Guide to Biblical Doctrine.