The Bible is the most revered, most widely read, and most influential book in the world. It has been translated into over 3,500 languages and it is read daily by people all over the world. It has impacted countless lives, spoken to people from different cultures, backgrounds and religious faiths, and it continues to be an important book today in the 21st century.
Simply put, for Christians, the Bible is the written Word of God. When Christians talk about the Bible as the Word of God, what we mean is that it is God’s message or communication to humanity in written form. It is worth mentioning that the words ‘Bible’, ‘Word of God’, ‘Canon’, ‘Scripture’ and its plural ‘Scriptures’ are often used interchangeably to refer to God’s written Word.
The word ‘Bible’ comes from the Greek word βιβλία (pronounced ‘Biblia’) which means ‘Books’. The etymology of the ‘Bible’ reflects the reality that it is indeed a collection of distinct books – 66 in total – that are divided into two Testaments: the Old Testament (the first 39 books) and the New Testament (the remaining 27 books). A Testament is a covenant, a life-long binding relationship between two parties based on a set of agreed promises. The Old Testament (OT) focuses on God’s covenant and history with His chosen nation Israel and the New Testament (NT) focuses on His incarnation as Jesus and His New Covenant with the Church that include people from all nations.
I’ve written more on the relationship between the Old and the New Testament (or Covenant) in “There is no New Testament without the Old Testament”, click here to read it.
The Bible was written in Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek (NT) by many human authors under the inspiration of God (2 Timothy 3:16-17) over an estimated period of 1500 years. The books of the Bible vary in genres that include:
As a genre, a narrative tells a story. In Understanding the Bible for All Its Worth, Fee and Stuart point out that narratives have got ‘three basic parts: characters, plot and plot resolution.’ They add that characters include a protagonist who is the main character of the story, an antagonist who is the instigator of conflict or tension and agonists who are other major people involved in the story. Fee and Stuart highlight that biblical narratives tell God’s story. And in that story ‘God is the protagonist, Satan (or opposing people/powers) is the antagonist and God’s people are the agonists.’ We will look into the plot of the Bible as a whole and its resolution later on.
A prophecy is a message from God spoken to His people through His messengers, His prophets. In the Bible, God spoke to His people a lot through the medium of His Prophets who faithfully recorded and preserved what He told them to share with them. The prophecies were usually a reminder who God is, what He’s done in the past and what He will do in the future and a call for His people to repent from deviating from His ways and to return to Him.
Fee and Stuart describe psalms as ‘inspired Hebrew prayers and hymns’. Psalms include skillful poetries that are usually very relatable because in them their authors transparently share with God their most vulnerable emotions and experiences whether they be negative or positive.
The wisdom literature consists of a variety of poetry, proverbs & thought experiments all designed with the intention to convey the wisdom of God. This genre takes for granted that life is not always black and white and that we need the wisdom of God to navigate it well and in a godly way.
An epistle is an ancient letter written and addressed to a particular audience with a particular message for a particular occasion. Epistles make up the majority of the books of the New Testament. The apostles wrote these to churches who were grappling with doctrinal issues (Christian beliefs) and corresponding practices. They also wrote these to pastors in charge of leading churches and who needed encouragement and instruction.
Epistles usually follow the following structure: the author’s introduction with a greeting to his audience, a prayer, the message and a final greeting.
Not all books of the Bible fit neatly into one category of genres. Scholars still debate this. Whilst some books will predominantly be of one genre, they may also include one or more subgenres. An example of this is the Gospels, they are usually considered as narratives (although some may argue that they are a distinct genre). The Gospels include parables (Matthew 13:1-53, Luke 15), prophecies (Matthew 24, John 21:15-19) as well as quotations of Old Testament Psalms (Matthew 22:41-46) and other OT passages (Luke 4:16-21, Mark 12:28-34).
It is very important to recognize that the Bible has got books of different genres. Being aware of this helps to grasp the message of each book as each genre has got particular conventions to convey a particular thought or message.
As a whole, the Bible tells a unified story –or plot– of the one true and eternal God –the protagonist– who created the Heavens and Earth and everything that exists. He also created human beings in His image –the agonists– to reflect His character and His reign in how they would relate to Him, to one another and look after the rest of His creation (Genesis 1-2). Humanity eventually sinned against God by disobeying Him and choosing to live life in their own terms after they were tempted by the serpent –the antagonist– in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3). This is how sin and death entered this world –the conflict or tension. Sin is a condition or state that is the result of missing the mark or departing from the ways and instruction of God. Sin leads to death and separation from God (Romans 6:23). The same God had the plan to make things right and to restore humanity back to life and a right relationship with Him from the very beginning (Genesis 3:15).
In the rest of the Old Testament, we see God’s redemption plan for humanity slowly unfolding through His chosen nation Israel whilst the New Testament reveals how He has fulfilled it in the person of Jesus-Christ, His Son. As God incarnate and living among us, Jesus lived, taught and preached the Word of God and performed many signs and wonders including healing the sick and casting out demons from the oppressed. His greatest act of service was His death on a cross where He paid in full the penalty for humanity’s sins so that whosoever would put their trust in Him would be saved from their sins and receive eternal life (John 3:15-16). Jesus was raised from the dead in victory and promised to come again to judge the living and the dead and to make all things new –the plot resolution. The final chapters of the Bible point to that glorious end where the Lord will right every wrong and will usher those who have put their faith in Him into life eternal, fully restored, rid of the devastating consequences of sin and death, and they will dwell in His presence forevermore (Revelation 21:3-5). That’s the glorious message and story of the Bible.