GENERAL BIBLE KNOWLEDGE!         DO 2357          France, 3/80


THE AUTHOR OF THE BIBLE!

         1. WOULD YOU LIKE TO KNOW A LITTLE SOMETHING ABOUT THE GENERAL CONTENT OF THE BIBLE? We should know something about how the Bible is composed or constituted, how it's set up and organised; and believe it or not, it's very well organised. There are 66 Books in the Bible, and do you know how many authors? (Fam: One!)--Right, one Author, God, but He used MEN. Have you any idea about how MANY men?
         2. AS I RECALL, IT BOILS DOWN TO ABOUT 40 MEN WHOM GOD USED TO WRITE THE BIBLE, because quite a few Books were written by the same man. The first five Books of the Bible were written by Moses, and several of the Epistles were written by one man. Five Books were written by John and I don't remember how many Books were written by Paul. So the Bible has 66 Books and about 40 authors.
         3. BUT IT'S NOT REALLY THAT IMPORTANT BECAUSE WHO'S THE AUTHOR OF THE BIBLE? (FAM: GOD!)-Right! In fact, the Lord later says JESUS! How do we know it was Jesus? (Fam: Because He's the AUTHOR and the Finisher of our faith!) That's a good one, but He's also called the WORD OF GOD.-Jn.1:14; Rev.19:13. So the Lord must have used Jesus to inspire those writers, PTL?

HISTORICAL BOOKS!

         4. THE BIBLE IS REALLY VERY WELL ORGANISED AND IT WAS PUT IN THIS ORDER TO MAKE IT SIMPLE FOR YOU. The first five Books have long been in that order, since the days of Moses, and as we pointed out before, they were called what? (Fam: The Pentateuch.) Or what? (Fam: The Books of Moses.) And also spoken of by Jesus and others as the LAW. But there are a whole lot of other Books in the Bible, and when they decided to put them all in one Book, they wanted to try to get them well organised, so how do you suppose they did it? (Fam: Partly chronologically and partly according to what kind of literature it was.)--Partly chronologically and partly according to content.
         5. WHAT WOULD YOU SAY THAT MOST OF THOSE FIRST BOOKS ARE ABOUT? THEY'RE HISTORY, RIGHT?--The history of the World, history of God's people, history of God's dealings with Man, history of the Bible.
         6. NOW WHERE WOULD YOU SAY THE HISTORICAL BOOKS STOP? (FAM: ESTHER.) Esther is the last of what are called the Historical Books. All those first Books from Genesis to Esther then are Historical Books. Now a good way to illustrate this is just like I have in my Bible. Draw a line across the page under Esther, and then between the page numbers and the columns write vertically there "History." They're the Historical Books of the Bible.

POETICAL BOOKS!

         7. AND WHAT COMES NEXT THEN? READ THE NAMES OF THE NEXT CATEGORY OF BOOKS: (FAM: JOB, PSALMS, PROVERBS, ECCLESIASTES AND SONG OF SOLOMON.) Why do you stop there? (Fam: They're Poetry.) Those five Books are called the Poetical Books, the poetry of the Bible, five Books of poems, and they were put together because they were used largely in devotional services and read for devotions and sung. When the people got together for inspiration and songs, they would use these beautiful Poetical Books.

THE PROPHETS!

         8. MAYBE WE COULD GET THROUGH THE MAJOR DIVISIONS OF THE BIBLE. WHAT ARE THE FIRST TWO MAJOR DIVISIONS? (Fam: Historical and Poetical?) Wait a minute, I tricked you! The MAJOR divisions are the Old Testament and the New Testament! Next we come down from that, and you were right, there are, as I recall, five major divisions of the Old and New Testaments. First of all the Historical and Poetical Books, then what are the next names, who are they? (Fam: The Prophets.)
         9. WE ALSO CAN DIVIDE THE PROPHETS INTO MAJOR AND MINOR PROPHETS. Look at the names, how would you divide them? (Fam: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel.) You missed one. (Fam: Lamentations.) And Lamentations was by whom? (Fam: Jeremiah.)--Very good! See, here's another man who wrote two Books of the Bible. So those are called the MAJOR PROPHETS. Actually you're right, the men themselves are just four, but there are five Books. Then come the MINOR PROPHETS, and they run down through whom? (Fam: Malachi.) All the way through Malachi, the end of the Old Testament when the Lord stopped speaking to Israel because they wouldn't listen.

NEW TESTAMENT DIVISIONS!

         10. ALL RIGHT, THEN WE GET INTO THE NEXT MAJOR DIVISION OF THE BIBLE AS A WHOLE, THE SECOND DIVISION, WHICH IS WHAT? (FAM: THE NEW TESTAMENT.) And it is also divided into more minor divisions. First of all, the four Gospels, then what? (Fam: The Book of Acts.) And do you know how these first five Books are similar to the Old Testament? (Fam: They're historical.)--Right, they're the historical Books of the New Testament. The first four are the history of the Life of Jesus, and then Acts is the History of the Church. Then what? (Fam: The Epistles.)
         11. DO YOU KNOW WHAT "EPISTLES" MEANS? Epistles is just a nice Greek word meaning letters, and they run down through what? (Fam: All the way to Jude.) Then there is only one last Book, and it's called what? (Fam: Revelation.) And what kind of a Book is it? How is it similar to the Old Testament? (Fam: It's prophetic.)--A Prophetic Book, very good!
         12. REVELATION IS THE ONE GENUINELY THOROUGHLY PROPHETIC BOOK IN THE NEW TESTAMENT, although there are many other Bible prophecies throughout ALL those Books and lots of them deal with Bible Prophecy. But Revelation is the only Book of the New Testament devoted ENTIRELY to Bible Prophecy, like the Prophetic Books of the Old Testament.
         13. (FAM: WHY DO THEY CALL THESE EPISTLES "GENERAL EPISTLES"?) Well, one reason may be that the first ones are specifically to certain people. The Epistles to the Romans, Corinthians, Galatians and Ephesians are all to specific people and are named after who the letters were TO. The last ones, from James through Jude, are named after who they're FROM, so that's probably why they divided it that way. That's not a bad idea! General Epistles are not to anybody in particular, but to everybody!
         14. SO GENERALLY SPEAKING, THE NEW TESTAMENT IS DIVIDED INTO WHAT THREE MAJOR CATEGORIES? (Fam: History, Epistles and Prophecy.)--Right!
         15. NOW IF YOU KNOW THOSE DIVISIONS, THEN YOU KNOW WHAT THOSE BOOKS ARE ABOUT, RIGHT? If you hear one of these, for example Ecclesiastes, you remember the classifications and you know that's what kind of a Book? (Fam: Poetry.)--Right, it's a Poetic Book. And what's Genesis? (Fam: History.) And Nahum? (Fam: Prophetic.) Acts? (Fam: History.)--Right! So now you've got a general idea of the content of the Bible in those major divisions. I'm trying to make it as simple as I can, and the purpose is to try to help you remember what's IN them and what they're ABOUT and why they are put in that order in the Bible. The Books of the Bible are very orderly and well organised.

THE SEPTUAGINT!

         16. THIS GROUPING OF THE OLD TESTAMENT THAT YOU STUDY TODAY WAS PUT IN THIS FINAL CANONICAL FORM AND ORGANISED IN THIS ORDER BY A GROUP OF 70 VERY OUTSTANDING GREEK SCHOLARS. The accepted Canonical Books are the Books upon which they agreed were genuinely inspired of God by the Holy Spirit, written by genuine Prophets of God and men of God.
         17. ALEXANDRIA, EGYPT, WAS WHERE THE 70 FAMOUS SCHOLARS MET AND ORGANISED THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THIS FORM and decided on which were authentic Books, thoroughly translating all of the Old Testament Hebrew-language Books. Their product was a translation into Greek and became the accepted Authorised Greek Version of the Bible, which was the common language of the people of that day, of both the Greek and Roman Empires. They called it the SEPTUAGINT, meaning the one produced by 70 men, and that has been the accepted Authorised Version of the Bible ever since.

THE APOCRYPHAL BOOKS!

         18. THERE WAS SOME ARGUMENT IN THOSE DAYS AS TO WHETHER SOME OF THE BOOKS WERE INSPIRED OR NOT, and those scholars finally agreed that there were some books which were appearing as works of various writers which were not necessarily inspired.
         19. THEY WERE SPLIT ON THE ISSUE, SOME OF THEM THOUGHT THEY WERE INSPIRED AND SOME OF THEM THOUGHT THEY WERE NOT. Some thought they were fairy tales, some thought they were just history. But they finally decided to include them in the Catholic Bible, and what do you suppose they are called? They're not in the Protestant Bible at all. (Fam: The APOCRYPHAL Books.) You'll find them right in the middle between the Old and New Testaments. Susanna is one of them, Judith, and the I and II Maccabees etc.
         20. THE MACCABEES ARE STRICTLY HISTORICAL BOOKS ABOUT THE MACCABEE BROTHERS, WHO LED THE REVOLTS OF ISRAEL between Malachi and the Coming of Christ, and they're very interesting. They're factual informative history of this silent period of our Protestant Bible, and the Catholics thought they ought to be included to kind of tie the Book together to continue history. But these Maccabees were pretty rough characters who were really violent, sort of Stern Gang or Irgun types of Jews who really fought the established power of the day, which was Greece first and then Rome.
         21. THESE BROTHERS LED CONSTANT REVOLTS, in fact for awhile they actually jerked Israel free of any dominating power. For about one hundred years, Israel under the Maccabees was almost independent, it was in rebellion. This was in what period according to your Bible?--Between the days of Malachi and the days of Christ.
         22. NOW DON'T CONFUSE APOCRYPHAL WITH APOCALYPSE, THE CATHOLIC NAME FOR REVELATION! Apocalypse means in Greek the same as the Latin word Revelation, but that's not Apocryphal, don't get them confused. The APOCALYPSE is the Greek name of the Latin-named Book of Revelation; APOCRYPHAL is the name of the several Books in the middle of the Catholic Bible, very interesting reading and historical etc.
         23. NOW YOU'VE GOT THE MAJOR DIVISIONS OF THE BIBLE. What are the two major divisions? (Fam: Old and New Testament.) And the three major divisions of the Old Testament? (Fam: History, Poetry and Prophecy.) Three major divisions of the New Testament? (Fam: History, Epistles and Prophecy.) That should be pretty easy to remember! That'll give you a little faint idea of what's in these Books, if you know where they are and which ones they are.

THE BOOK OF JOB!

         24. AND WHAT IS THE OLDEST BOOK IN THE BIBLE? (FAM: JOB!) The reason the scholars contend that is because it was obviously written before the Law and before Moses and at a time when apparently the Law and Moses had never been heard of. For example, Moses' five Books were written by Moses, but covered a historical period from Genesis through Deuteronomy. Nevertheless, although the Book of Job was not before this period covered by the five Books of Moses, it was WRITTEN before those Books were written and before the time of Moses.--Not before Genesis, but before Genesis was WRITTEN, think of that!--A beautiful poetic Book!

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