Introduction to The Bible

I. The Bible - Also, known as Scripture or Word of God. -The bible contains stories, songs, poems, family histories, letters, wise sayings, parables, prophecies, and much more. -Writings date back to about 3,000 years ago. - A collection of 73 books, broken into 2 parts. The Old Testament and the New Testament.

A. Old Testament - 46 books - First part of the Bible - These writings describe how God revealed himself and knowledge to the Jewish and Hebrew people.

Old Testament 1. Broken up into four parts: a. Law/Pentateuch: -First five books of the Bible * Genesis * Exodus * Leviticus * Numbers * Deuteronomy

b. Historical Books c. Wisdom Books d. Prophetic Books

B. New Testament - Christian Scripture - Collection of 27 books - Tells us about the life and teachings of Jesus.

Parts of the N.T. - Four Parts: 1.Gospels 2. Acts of the Apostles 3. Letters 4. Book of Revelation

Who is the Author of the Bible? Why is it sacred? The author of the Bible is God. With the help of the Holy Spirit, God inspired the various writers of the Bible. Because the Bible is the inspired word of God, we are to treat it with respect and care.

C. Saint Jerome

Who was Saint Jerome? - Priest/ Scholar who helped decide which books would form the canon, or “official list,” of books of the bible. -Translated the bible into Latin from Greek and Hebrew in 400 A.D. - Latin was the major language of the people. *** The Bible was not translated into English until 1384.

Types of Writing in the Bible Songs: poems or hymns that are often prayers. EX. Is The Book of Psalms. Laws: instructions on how to behave EX. The Book of Deuteronomy Parables: tales that teach moral lesson EX. The Prodigal Son Letters: written messages from one person or group to another EX The Book of Romans Myths: ancient stories written to explain life EX. Adam and Eve Prophecies: Messages from Gold told through the words of prophets. EX. Ezekiel

The First Five Stories of Genesis The First Creation Story (Gen. 1:1-31, 2:1-3) - The first creation story is God created the world in 6 days. -God everything from the heavens to the animals. He, also, created man in “his image and likeness” - On the seventh, he rested. Which is how we get the tradition of the Sabbath day.

The First Five Stories of Genesis The Second Story of Creation (Gen. 2: 4-25, 3:1-25) - God created the first man, “Adam” out of clay and blew life into him. He placed him in the Garden of Eden. - After realizing he was lonely, God created animals to be his mate, but none of them worked for him. - One night, God took one of Adam’s ribs and created “Eve.” - The one rule was to not eat from the “Tree of Knowledge.”

The First Five Stories of Genesis The Second Story (Cont’d) - One day, a serpent tricked Eve into eating the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge. Then, Eve gave the fruit to Adam to eat. Upon eating the fruit, they realized they were naked. - Ashamed, they hid from God. After God found them, he realized that they ate from the tree because they knew they were naked. - As punishment, they were forced to leave the Garden forever. Adam has to farm the land for food, while Eve had to give painful births to children.

The First Five Stories of Genesis Cain and Abel Cain was the first born son of Adam and Eve. Abel was the second. The family worked and still prepared offerings to God. One day God appeared to Cain and Abel. After seeing their offerings, God looked upon Abel with favor. Because of his jealousy, Cain murdered Abel. His punishment was to become a restless wander. Eve later gave birth to a son, named Seth. He became the patriarch, or leader, of the family after Adam.

The First Five Stories of Genesis The Story of Noah (Gen. 6-8) Seven generations after Seth, Noah was born into a very wicked world. God decided to start the world over again with a great flood, and having Noah’s family as the first people. He commanded Noah to build an arc and place two animals of every kind on board. It rained for 40 days and 40 nights. The water covered mountains. After many days, Noah sent out birds to see if the water had gone back down. Eventually, a dove did not return. God promised to never flood the earth again, if Noah and his family filled the world with people and looked after creation.

The First Five Stories of Genesis The Tower of Babel (Gen. 11) Generations after Noah, all people spoke the same language. They decided to build a city with a tower to heaven. The wanted to do this to make a name for themselves. Disheartened by this, God changed each person’s language and scattered them throughout the world. It is called Babel because confused all of the languages of the world.