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{{quote | text={{web_verseBible verse|2 Timothy|3|16|lang=WEB}} [[2 Timothy 3:16]]}} 

subtopics = [[Books of the Bible Index]], - [[Old Testament]], [[New Testament]]* [[Ancient Languages Index]] - [[Biblical Hebrew|Hebrew]], [[Aramaic]], [[Koine Greek|Greek]]* [[Ancient Texts Index]] - [[Apocrypha]]* [[Translating the Bible]]* [[Interpreting the Bible]] - [[Hermeneutics]]

* [[Hebrew]], [[Aramaic]], [[Koine Greek]]* [[Formation and translation of the Bible]], [[Distribution of the Bible]]* [[Timeline of Biblical History]], - [[Historical accuracy of the Bible]], [[Biblical criticism]]* [[Biblical inerrancyCharacters of the Bible]], [[Sola Scriptura]]* [[Characters of the BibleBiblical Places Index]] |

* [[Scripture (EBD)|Easton's Bible Dictionary entry on Scripture]]* [[The Bible in 50 words]] |

{{dictionary}}The '''Bible ''' is the collection of documents acknowledged by Christians to be inspired by God. The Protestant Bible contains 66 books (Catholic and Orthodox contain 73, while the Ethiopian Orthodox Bible recognizes the most books: 81 in total) and is divided into the [[Old Testament]] and the [[New Testament]]. It tells of the story of the [[creation]] of the universe and [[man]] by [[God]], the rebellion of man against God and his rescue plan for humanity through his Son, [[Jesus Christ]].

===[[Old TestamentBooks of the Bible]]=== Three sections make up the Old Testament - The Books of the Law, History and Poetry, and the Books of the Prophets. The Old Testament is a Christian term for the original Hebrew Bible which is known as the Tanak (which is an acronym for what the OT contains Law, Prophets, and Writings). The Old Testament sets the stage for what happens in the New Testament it provides the rules, the nature of God, the promise of GOD which are fulfilled further in the New Testament.

====The Bible is divided up into two main sections - the [[Old Testament]] and the [[Books of New Testament]]. Before 1804, practically all protestant Bibles were divided into three main section - with the additional section being between the Old and New testament: the Law[[Apocrypha]]====. By the mid 1820s, a vast majority of protestant Bibles did not include the apocrypha due to controversies surrounding them as well as to make a Bible cheaper to produce.

The first 5 books of the Bible ====[[GenesisOld Testament]], [[Exodus]], [[Leviticus]], [[Numbers]], [[Deuteronomy]]. These five books tell us of [[Creation]], [[the Fall]], the emergence of the children of [[Israel]] and the legal codes that God gave them. ====

Three law codes The Old Testament tells the story of ancient Israel and God's intervention in their history. There are three main sections that are relevant to Christians are make up the Old Testament - The Books of the [[Ten Commandments]]Law, Shema (Love History and Poetry, and the Books of the Prophets. The books of the Law tell the very early story of the history of Israel and lay out the LORD your covenant or agreement between God and his people with their laws for living. The books of history and poetry continue the story of the people of Israel starting with their invasion into Canaan and ending with all your heart), their kingdom splitting into two and being conquered and exiled. The books of the prophets describe some of the visions and Love thy neighbourwords of the prophets who continually called the people to account for their abandonment of God.

====Prophets[[New Testament]]====

The Prophets take up a large body of space. They range from New Testament tells the [[Book story of Isaiah]] Jesus and the [[Book of Jeremiah]] who are classified early church. The New Testament contains different categories as well including the major prophets to [[Book of Hosea|HoseaGospels]]which describe the birth, ministry, [[Book death and resurrection of Joel|Joel]]Jesus, and [[Book the book of Acts which tells the story of the formation of Jonah|Jonah]] who are minor prophets. Prophets were divinely appointed spokesman for Godthe early church. The New Testament also contains a number of letters or [[Hebrewepistles]] word for prophet 'nabi' means spokesmanto various early Christian communities. They preached about It finishes with the corruption Book of Israel, God's judgement and His future restoration. One vital cornerstone Revelation which is apocalyptic prophecy that has bearing for us would be the coming paints a picture of the [[Messiah]]. This is mentioned in [[Isaiah 53]] in the major prophets and last chapters final victory of Zechariah in the minorChrist, calling on his followers to persevere despite persecution.

====History and poetryExtra-Biblical texts - [[Apocrypha]]====

Writings range from the historical such as [[Book A number of books are not considered to be part of Joshua|Joshua]], the Samuels, ChroniclesBible by Protestant Christians, or Kings but are by other denominations - these books are referred to poetry such as [[Song of SolomonApocrypha|apocryphal literature]]. Although not considered canon by Protestants, or [[Psalms]] and wisdom such generally they are not regarded as [[Book of JobHeresy|Job]], [[Ecclesiastes]], and [[Proverbsheretical]]either (although there are exceptions). They describe The reasons some of the apocryphal books were omitted from the nature of God such as [[Psalm 23]], original Hebrew Bible used by the wisdom of God and man's reaction such as in [[Job]]Jews, or was due to their original language not using the History of Israel and God's involvement such Hebrew Script (as establishing [[King David]] Hebrew and his legacy which led to Aramaic does). The [[Jesus ChristBooks of the Maccabees]] his most famous descendant of allwas written in Greek so it was regarded as divinely inspired but not scripture.

===Protestants generally point to the fact that [[New TestamentJesus Christ]]===did not approve of the 46 canonical books used in the Old Testament, neither did He ever quote from the additional 7 apocryphal books. Catholic and Orthodox Christians place less value on Scripture and instead Tradition which is why this fact doesn't seemingly bother either of those Christian branches.

The dispute over the Old Testament would wage on for over a millennia and the Catholic Church agreed at the end of the [[GospelCouncil of Trent]] is in 1563 that the Old English word god-spiel (good speak) Testament would be comprised of 46 books with some books being added onto. The books officially added included the original following: [[GreekBook of Tobit|Tobit]] word was , [[EvangelBook of Judith|Judith]]. Gospel means Good News. The Good News was that , [[JesusFirst book of Maccabees|1 Maccabees]] had arrived and was the Messiah that would fulfill the Old Testament, as Jesus himself declared of his death and resurrection, "As written in the Law, Prophets, and Psalms." There are Four Gospels - [[Gospel Second book of MatthewMaccabees|Matthew2 Maccabees]], [[Gospel Wisdom of MarkSolomon|MarkWisdom]], [[Gospel Book of LukeSirach|LukeSirach]], and [[Gospel Book of JohnBaruch|JohnBaruch]]. Mark is the oldest Gospel ; and the most barebones books altered are [[Book of all the Gospels, he wrote in AD 60 and served as a secretary for Peter. After Peter's death he wrote the first account of Jesus' life and times. Matthew was written towards a Jewish audience, he constantly emphasised how Jesus fulfilled the prophecies laid out in the Old Testament and was therefore the Messiah. Luke is the only non-Jewish author in the Bible. He wrote for a Esther|Esther]] ([[GentileAdditions to Esther|additions]] audience. Luke tended to use historical context of his day such as the Census ) and who was in charge in [[RomeBook of Daniel|Daniel]] and ([[PalestineAdditions to Daniel|additions]] during Jesus' day ). The controversial decision at Trent was brought upon due to back up his claims that Jesus was the Saviour. Because Matthew, Mark, and Luke contain similar stories and sayings they are known as the [[Synoptic GospelsProtestant Reformation]] (Gk for to-be-seen-together). John is slightly different. It contains Jesus' I AM statements in , which created [[JesusProtestantism]] testifies that He is the Saviour. These four books tell the story All branches of Jesus and show why He came to Earth. To die on Protestantism don't recognize the Cross and to rise again so decision that our sins were taken away and we would be was made right with GODduring the Council of Trent.

{| class="videos" style="width: 20em; float:right; font-size:95%" cellspacing="4"!<big>'''The Books of The [[Translating the Bible Song'''</big>|-| <YouTube>movie_url]]=http://www.youtube.com/v/DmEp7OJHbDgembed_source_url=http://www.youtube.com/v/DmEp7OJHbDgwrap=yeswidth=425height=355</YouTube>|-|}

====The original languages of the various books of the Bible were [[EpistlesBiblical Hebrew|Hebrew]]====(for Old Testament books) and [[Koine Greek]] (for New Testament books). A small amount of the [[book of Daniel]] was originally written in [[Aramaic]].

Epistles are letters to Christian communities. The major letter writers in In the first few centuries after Christ the Early Church were Paul, Peter, James, John, and Jude. Peter and Paul were Bible was translated into a few other ancient languages (for example [[Latin]]) but it wasn't until the major missionaries in their day and they wrote letters to Protestant [[Reformation]] that widespread translation of the communities they preached to. Paul wrote towards Gentile communities Bible into many languages (such as Corinth, Ephesus, and Rome. He would talk about Jesus Christ, how Christians should act, German and advise them on certain issues such as eating meat, dealing with others, and how English) really began to behave in worship. Peter and James also wrote likewiseoccur.

This is seen in the ===[[Book of ActsInterpreting the Bible]]. Acts was written by Luke and it tells of the persecutions, the work of Peter and Paul, and provides us with a great historical context of Mediterannean culture in the 1st century. It too shows God's hand in the founding of the Early Church with the Holy Spirit coming down upon the 12 disciples and gives us our mission that all peoples must hear the Gospel.===

Prophecy is a thread constant in the Gospels and the Epistles, but it also has itBiblical '''s own separate book in the form of [[Book of Revelation|RevelationHermeneutics]]. Revelation gives us a symbolic understanding of ''' is the technical term for the Last Days with vivid descriptions study of interpreting and understanding the End TimesBible and applying it to today's context. It is advised that one read this book carefully and with closely related to '''[[prayerexegesis]]. The main message in Revelation ''' which is that [[Jesus|Jesus Christ]] is coming back for us the study of understanding what the Biblical author's meant and that is what we must look forward totheir audience would have understood.

===Some Christians hold a literalistic or inerrant view of the Bible. [[ApocryphaBiblical inerrancy]]===is the view that the Bible, as the inspired Word of God, is without error and is accurate in all aspects, including in aspects of history and science. [[Biblical infallibility]] on the other hand is the view that the Bible is free from errors on issues of faith and practice, but minor contradictions in history or science can be overlooked as insignificant to its spiritual purpose.

A number of books are not considered to be part of the Bible by Protestant Christians, but are by other denominations - these books are referred generally hold to as [[Apocrphya|apocryphal literatureSola Scriptura]]which is the teaching that the Bible is the final authority on matters of faith and that it alone gives sufficient information for all matters of faith. Below is a list This stands in contrast to Orthodox and Catholic Christianity which accept tradition as playing an equally important role in matters of the apocryphal booksfaith.

===Formation of the * [[Matthew Henry's Concise Bible===Commentary]]

===Translation of the Bible=Dictionaries==

: ''Thomas Huxley'': The Bible has been the Magna Carta of the poor and oppressed. The human race is not in a position to dispense with It.

: {{web_verseBible verse|2 Timothy|3|16|lang=WEB}}

* [http://bible.crosswalkbiblestudytools.com/ CrosswalkBibleStudyTools.com]

* [http://biblebiblestudytools.crosswalkcom/ BibleStudyTools.com/ Bible Study Tools]