Books of the Bible

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For a complete list of all chapters, see Bible chapters
Books of the Bible
Genesis 1:1 - Revelation 22:21
Super-section Special Revelation
Form through, 7-parts

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The Bible is a universe unto itself. It is both a unity (having but one author, the Holy Spirit) and a diversity (being written by human hands over 1500 years, in a variety of genres). The traditional, Protestant count is that there are 66 books within this one book. 39 were written before Christ, 27 after. In the beginning, the revelations of God were given in a small geographical locus, so a majority of Scripture is written in Hebrew, the language of the Jews. After a time, the Jews were displaced and took on the language of their captures, so some later books were written in a mix of Hebrew and Aramaic. Finally, the Ancient Near East conquered by Alexander the Great and Greek became the lingua franca of even the Jews. All the books of the Apostolic Age were written in it.

Like this piece of modern art, the Bible is a collection of books!

Contents

Old Testament

The first 39 books of the Bible are in a variety of genres, all of which were had parallels in the Ancient Near East. Unfortunately, much of the literary culture of that time had been lost for millenia. While there is precious little that our present age does well, Semitic Studies and Hebrew culture are better known now then they ever have been.

Historical Literature

Christianity hangs on the historicity of the events in the Bible, and so it is no surprise that the Bible begins with history. The Bible is unlike modern history books, instead taking pains to show us the theology or teleology of events. The Bible opens in a specific sub-genre of history, an ANE Treaty Document; the Book of the Law is a covenant between God and His chosen people Israel. Buttressing it fore and aft is their history leading up to and then away from the receipt of the pact at Mount Sinai. Moses was given much of the first few books (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers) directly from the Lord, but he also appears to have included existing ancient documents. Moses is, therefore, our first Redactor (editor) in God's Word.

We need not fear accepting the idea of editors. God providentially guides the events of history and those events being written down in letters and the compilation of those documents into His Word. Moses could not have recorded his own death, so in Deuteronomy we must find our second redactor, who edited five out of the next six books. He provides material that examines events already recorded from a different perspective and so we have the first case of Biblical Overlap. The Book of Joshua rounds out the Hexateuch.

The next two books bridge the gap from Moses and Joshua, to the ascension of kings in Israel and the division of the kingdom. The Book of Judges is part of the Deuteronomic History, negatively painting Israel's decline into a civil war. The Book of Ruth contrasts this unfaithfulness of God's people with the faithfulness of a foreign woman.

Technology and analysis play key roles in what one believes to be real. In the West, most call the next books "First and Second Samuel" and "First and Second Kings". But we know that these splits were the result of the scrolls being only so long, not actual divisions within the texts. Furthermore, even the Greeks and the Romans knew that these four books formed a coherent whole by calling them First through Fourth Kings. We will call all four books the History of Kings, but retain the titles Books of Samuel and Books of Kings, each of which others count as two books.

The next redactor we find is The Chronicler and his books are called the Chronicler's History. The first half of this history is the traditionally bifurcated Books of Chronicles (First and Second Chronicles). The other half is two books who have undergone a bewildering array of misnomers and mislabeling. What most Protestants know as Ezra and Nehemiah, are in fact, a unified whole. The Greeks and Romans knew them to belong together and called them the Book of Esdras, but also accepted extra-canonical works of the same name (2 Esdras, 3 Esdras, etc.). We call the canonical book, the Books of Esdras, in the plural.

Another book about a woman rounds out the historical books. The final chapter of the book of Esther ends abruptly, though there are apocryphal endings and inserts.

Wisdom Literature

Hoqma is the Hebrew word for "wisdom". It is an expansive term, encompassing "instinct", "skill", "insight" and "imagination". Five books of the Bible extol and expound this virtue in poetry. The Book of Job is the story of one man whom God tested and whose friend's lectured without wisdom. The Book of Psalms contains 150 songs written over a 1000 year span, praising God and revealing the inner-life of some of the most important saints throughout time. Proverbs is an anthology of aphorisms and conversations, beginning with a rich dialogue between a father and son, exemplifying the transmission of wisdom. Ecclesiastes is supposed by most to teach the life is meaningless or that it is so only to the ungodly. In fact, it is a treatise on the reality that mere men cannot know what God is doing or the meaning of every event. Also misunderstood, Song of Songs is both an allegory, and a paean to romantic love and the wise way to enter into it.

Prophets

New Testament

Everything in the Bible to this point has been an anticipation of the one who was to come. The last iteration of the covenant between God and men came in the person of Jesus Christ. We are given the salient facts of his life, the story of his ambassadors carrying out his commission, and letters from these apostles to the faithful churches around Asia Minor, all in the first century of our era.

Gospel Accounts

After a 400 year gap where God sent know Prophets to Israel, John the Baptist emerged as the last of the old order. He heralded the coming of the Messiah, who was his cousin, Jesus of Nazareth. After Christ's vindication through his resurrection, his story was told directly by the Apostles who'd witnessed it. As they began to age, their accounts were written down, to be preserved for the next generation of believers. John Mark wrote Simon Peter's story down first (Mark). Almost at the same time, Matthew Levi wrote (perhaps originally in Hebrew) the same story expressly for Jewish Christians, connecting with the Old Testament (Matthew). Under a commission, the Apostle Paul's friend Luke the Physician wrote his own Gospel Account (Luke). It was the first half of his two-part work (Luke-Acts), continued in the story of the early church, the book of Acts. Lastly, twenty years later, the Apostle John wrote his gospel, having read all the others and mainly inserting what they left out (John).

Epistles

Pauline

General

Apocalyptic Literature

See also

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