Thinking about the Bible What do you know about the Bible?

What does the word Testament mean?

The old Testament The New Testament This tells us about the history, thoughts, beliefs and stories of the Jewish people. It shares with us the things they thought were important to say about God This tells us about the life of Jesus About what people believed to be true about Jesus About the Early Church About the lives of People within the Early Church

The Bible is like a Library It contains 73 books altogether 46 in the Old Testament 27 in the New testament It has different types of writing within in it Some of those types of books are:

Books about the Prophets Letters History Books Stories Poetry Books Books about the Prophets Gospels Law Books

Different Books were written at different times. The New Testament is about 2000 years old The Old Testament is older still When we read the books of the Bible we have to think about the world they were written in

The Bible was not written in English! Some of it was written in Hebrew some in Greek When we read the Bible it is translated into English Not all translations are exactly the same so different versions of the Bible can read slightly differently

A Bible Reference To look things up in the Bible you need to know the Book, the Chapter and the Verse Mark 4:35-41 Verses Book Chapter

For Catholics The Bible is the Word of God When we look at a piece of scripture we ask the question what does this mean- what does this teach us about God, about ourselves, about our relationship with God.

Asking Questions People have always asked themselves questions about life. Look at the sheet. Which questions do you think are the most interesting? Which questions have you asked yourself?

The Creation Stories Read the first Story of Creation told in Genesis ch1 (GENESIS means origins or beginnings) What do you think this story means?

Remember: When people wrote the first story of creation they were not trying to tell you how the world or the universe was scientifically created. They wrote a poem to express their feelings about creation and about what God meant to them They also wanted to share what they believed to be true about the world

These are some of the things they wanted to share Everyone, no matter who, is created in the image of God and loved by God

Creation is meant to be good Men and women are equal God cares about creation. However the universe came into being God is ultimately responsible Without God there would be Chaos God brings light and hope into our lives

Now read the second creation story Work out what you think they were trying to say. What do you think this story was meant to say about; God Our relationship with God Our relationship with the world

Second creation story We and all the animals are made out of the same stuff. We are connected We have a responsibility to care for the planet and everything on it God breathes life into man. Breath in scripture symbolises the Holy Spirit. We have God’s spirit within us. We are different than other examples because we know God and can respond to God It is not good for us to be alone. We need other people. Community is important

This painting is called the Creation of Adam It is by a painter called Michelangelo He wanted to share his views on creation What can you see?