Unit 2: Our Story Students will be able to understand the composition and interpretation of Scripture

“The study of the Bible is absolutely necessary to the development of the Christian life. The facts which the Scriptures present are basis of faith in the Christ and in the whole series of providential events which prepared the way for his final disclosure of the life and purposes of God.”

Definitions: Bible: derived from the Greek word biblos, which means book. Used as a title it means The Book, so called by the way came into use among believers after the Bible was completed.

The titles, Old Testament and New Testament, also came into use after the completion of the Bible The word Testament coming from the Latin word Testamentum which is the translated word for covenant. The Old Testament referring to the covenant between God and ….? The New Testament referring to the covenant between God and….?

The Old Testament The first five books are commonly grouped under the title, The Pentateuch. Pentateuch is a Greek word which means a five-fold book. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy

The Jewish people call it "Torah" (instruction) which is often rendered in English by "Law" The books contain a chronological and theological progression: The re-establishment of God's rule on earth through man over evil and over all creation.

Ancient tradition, and many fundamentalists today, name Moses as the author of the Pentateuch. Why would people question this? Evidence suggests that most of the Pentateuch was written hundreds of years after Moses’ death. The stories being passed down by oral tradition.

Next we have sixteen historical books, containing a connected history of Israel from the death of Moses to the restoration after the Babylonian captivity. Two of these, First and Second Chronicles, repeat large portions of the history given in other books, but they also furnish much additional information. RuthEzra Tobit

Next are the seven books of wisdom of poetry which are placed without regard to their time of composition.

Nearly every one indicates in the opening verses the time of its composition by giving the names of the kings under whom its author lived and prophesied. The last division of all is composed of eighteen books which are styled prophetical