The Bible is also called ‘book of books’ because it is library of 66 books. In other words, Bible is a book that contains 66 books. If one book is excluded then it ceases to become the Bible. Therefore, the combination of 66 books is the Bible.
Divisions of the Bible
The arrangement of the Bible is based upon the type of books and the author as well.
Genesis to Deuteronomy – Pentateuch (Greek for ‘five’) This is the first five books of Moses. They are ‘Torah’ or ‘Teaching’ of the Jews.
Joshua to Esther – Historical Books
Job to Song of Songs or Song of Solomon – Wisdom Books
Isaiah to Daniel – Major Prophets
Hosea to Malachi – Minor Prophets.
Some Books like the three poetry – Psalms, Proverbs and Job, and the five scrolls Song of Songs, Ruth Lamentations, Ecclesiastes and Esther, and other books like Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah and Chronicles are called ‘Ketuvim’ or Writings.
NEW TESTAMENT DIVISIONS
Matthew to John – ‘The Gospels’ – The life and teaching of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
Acts of Apostles – Historical Book.
Romans to Philemon ( maybe Hebrews) – Pauline Epistles
Hebrews (maybe) to Jude – General Epistles
Revelation – Apocalypse (The only book of prophecy in the New Testament).
Languages of the Bible
The original Languages of the Bible are Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek.
The Old Testament was mostly written in Hebrew and some passages in Aramaic. Those passages are: - Ezra 4:8-6, 6:18, 7:12-26, Daniel 2:4-7, 7:28 and Jeremiah 10:11.
Hebrew is called as a Semitic Language because it has it’s roots from Shem, the eldest son of Noah.
Aramaic belongs to the Semitic sub family. It is believed to be the native language of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
The New Testament was written in Greek. It is considered by some that the Gospel of Matthew was written in Hebrew because Matthew, a disciple of Jesus Christ, wrote the Gospel for the Jews, who were eagerly waiting for the Messiah. Now, a large number of Jews spoke Hebrew. So, he could have written his Gospel in Hebrew. Otherwise, how could the Jews understand?
Greek spread throughout Middle East as the result of the conquest of Alexander more than 300 years before Jesus Christ. Greek was spoken by a group of Jews who were called Hellinists or Greek-speaking Jews.
The Bible has been translated into more than 2,300 languages. The first translation of the Bible into the English Language was completed in 1385 by John Wycliffe who is known as ‘The morning Star of Reformation’.
AUTHORS OF BIBLE
The Bible was written by 40 different authors, inspired by the Holy Spirit’. Read 1 Peter 1:21.
These 40 different authors were from different backgrounds and had different occupations, and they wrote their respective books in different times and in different places. Therefore, the interesting fact is that all the messages of these 40 different authors remain the same. There are no contradictions.
The Bible was completed in a span of 1500 years i.e from BC 1500 {Moses} – AD 95 {Apostle John}.No manuscript or book took these years to write. Remember, many changes took place in these periods but none of these changes affected the Bible and it’s message. This is the uniqueness of the Bible and evidence that the Bible is ‘God-breathed’.
MESSAGE OF THE BIBLE – SALVATION OF MAN.
SOME INTERESTING FACTS OF THE BIBLE
1. Bible is the all time best-selling book of the world.
2. More than 14,000 and fragments of the Tanakh exist, as do numerous copies of the Septuagint, and 5,300 manuscripts of the Greek New Testament, more than any other work of .
3. The books of the Bible was divided into chapters in AD 1263 by Cardinal Corah,
4. There are 1189 chapters in the Bible. (OT-929 and NT-260)
5. These chapters were divided into verses in AD 1551 by Robert Stephen
6. There are 31072 verses in the Bible.(OT-20663, NT-10409)
7. The longest chapter in the Bile is Psalm 119.
8. The longest verse in the Bible is Esther 8:9
9. The smallest chapter is Psalm 117
10. The smallest verse is John 11:35 – “Jesus wept”.
11. The longest book in the Bible is Psalms.
12. The smallest book in the Bible is 2 John (1 chapter and 13 verses).
13. The central verse of the Bible is Psalms 118:8
14. The central chapter of the Bible is Psalm 117, which is also the smallest chapter.
15. The central book of the Bible is Micah.
16. The Dead Sea scrolls comprise roughly 825-872 documents, including texts from the , discovered between and in eleven in and around the Wadi (near the ruins of the ancient settlement of Khirbet Qumran, on the northwest shore of the ) in . The texts are of great religious and historical significance, as they are practically the only known surviving Biblical documents written before .
