1) WHAT IS THE BIBLE?
ETYMOLOGICALLY: (WHAT DOES THE WORD BIBLE MEAN?)
The word “Bible” comes from the Greek ta biblia, which means “the books”. This term bible takes its origin from the plural of the ancient Greek word biblos or biblion (book), which gave τὰ βιϐλία (ta biblia), plural noun which means “the books”, thus emphasising the multiple character to designate all the holy books. which make up the Bible (Old and New Testament).
A COLLECTION OF BOOKS:
The Bible is a collection of different books, written by different authors, at different times, to form one. So the Bible is the book that contains books.
It is a collection of books written over a period of approximately 1,300 years by approximately 40 different authors. And each of these books belongs to a different literary style.
ACCORDING TO THE JEW;
Jews do not use the Christian Bible because they only recognise the books of the Old Testament and not the New Testament. It is for this reason that their holy book is not called “the Bible”, but “Torah” or “the Law”. what it is composed only by the books of the Old Testament.
THE HISTORY BOOK:
History is defined as the set of events of the past,
and The Bible not only contains prophecies, but they tell us about past events. They therefore tell us the history of the Jewish people and their relationship with God. It also reveals the history of the covenant that God sealed with men, first for the Jews, then for the Christians. And some stories from the Bible can today be proven by archeology. So according to this we can of course say that the Bible is a book of history.
This is why, when reading the Bible, we should not rush to discover the prophetic side, but we must first seek to discover and understand the historical side to avoid misunderstanding and interpreting its stories.
THE BOOK OF THE BEGINNING:
The Bible is the Book of the Beginning because it reveals to us the
the beginning of all things. from the creation of the universe (heaven and earth) and the creation of man..ect
A PROPHETIC BOOK:
The Bible is a prophetic book, it is filled with authentic promises and prophecies, from Genesis to Revelation, which have come true throughout history and many of which are coming true today and others will come true in the coming days.
So the ultimate prophecy is the Bible itself, and if you want to know the promises of God and the plan of God for your life, you must not look for a prophet, you must first look for it in the word of God . So if you don't read the Bible, you won't know God's promises regarding your life.
A MORAL GUIDE FOR SOCIETY:
The Bible is like a constitution that God gave for the proper functioning of his people, and it contains religious laws, social laws and moral laws.
God, by giving the Bible to men, he expects all of us: pagans, Jews and Christians, to walk worthily according to his laws, his ordinances and his precepts. And he whose life is not in accordance with his constitution will be judged and condemned in eternal fire.
Imagine we live in a world where everyone obeys the word of God? I really think it will be wow!!! because the word of God is the best moral guide.
WHAT DOES THE BIBLE REPRESENT FOR CHRISTIANS?
For Christians and for the children of God, the Bible has more definitions, it is more prophetic than historical. It means so much more than the black and white scriptures we read.
THE BIBLE IS THE WORD OF GOD:
Some believe that the Bible is not entirely the word of God, but that it contains the word of God. Others believe that the Bible is completely the word of God.
Yes of course we know clearly that everything that is written is not necessarily words coming directly from the mouth of God, for this when reading the Bible you must have the ability and wisdom to know the difference between the words of men and those coming directly from the mouth of God.
2 Timothy 3:15-17
from childhood you know the holy letters, which can make you wise for salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. 16 All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete and equipped for every good work.
2 Peter 1:21
for it was not by the will of man that prophecy ever took place, but it was by the prompting of the Holy Spirit that men spoke from God.
According to the Scriptures, everything written was inspired by God. Therefore all authors were inspired by God, and if we consider the hypothesis that all scriptures were inspired by God, this means that even the words spoken by men are therefore inspired by the Spirit of God,
So they wrote it so that it could serve as a lesson to us today. In these cases, we can say that the Bible is entirely the word of God because it was completely revealed by the Spirit of God to be written.
NB:
By reading the Bible you will notice that there are two kinds of words coming from God, there is the direct word which comes directly from the mouth of God in this type of word God speaks directly to his people without going through a prophet . And the second is indirect speech where God speaks through a prophet and the words coming from the mouth of an authentic prophet are often presented as “Thus says the Lord”.
Freedom House Church accepts the complete Bible and believes that
The Bible is the inspired word of God and remains the supreme and infallible guide for Christians. (2 Timothy 3:15-16; 2 Peter 1:21)
THE WORD PRODUCES LIFE
1.he has the power to create
Psalm33:6-9
John 6:63
THE WORD OF GOD IS LIKE WATER
1.She purifier
2. It helps us live in purity
John15:3
Ephesian5:25-27
THE WORD OF GOD IS A LIGHT IN OUR HEARTS
1. It gives intelligence to our mind
2. It enlightens our mind
4.She guides us on a daily basis
Psalm 19:9
psalm 119, 105, 130
THE WORD OF GOD IS SPIRITUAL FOOD
1. It helps us grow spiritually
Matthew 4:4
1Corinthian 3:1-2
1Peter 2:2
Ephesian 4:12-15
THE WORD OF GOD IS A SEED
Luke 8:14-15
Psalm 1:3
THE WORD OF GOD IS A SWORD
It helps us face our enemies
Ephesian 6:17
THE WORD OF GOD HELPS US TO PRAY
1. It makes our prayer powerful
2. It helps us pray according to God's will
3. It helps us to pray with knowledge
John 15:7
THE WORD OF GOD IS POWERFUL IN YOU
2. It transforms us internally
Matthew 7:24-27
HOW IS THE BIBLE DIVIDED?
The Christian Bible is divided into two parts:
the Old Testament, which includes the books which precede the coming of Christ, and the New Testament which is composed of books which speak of Jesus and the Church. (Etymologically, the word testament means Covenant.)
The Old Testament consists of 39 books and the New Testament, 27 books. In total, this gives us a collection of 66 books that make up the Protestant Christian Bible.
Current Christianity is divided into two major currents: Catholicism and Protestantism. Likewise, we have two Christian Bible formats: the Protestant Bible and the Catholic Bible.
THE CATHOLIC BIBLE AND THE PROTESTANT BIBLE:
The Catholic Bible is different from the Protestant Bible and the difference lies in the fact that the Catholics add 7 additional books which are not taken into account by the Protestants. which means that the Catholic Bible contains 73 books instead of 66 for the Protestants.
Thus, the Catholic canon contains 46 books in the Old Testament and 27 in the New (Total: 73 books). The Protestant canon recognises 27 books of the New Testament, but only 39 in the Old (for a total of 66 books) Catholics call them the deuterocanonical books. (meaning second canon) (canon meaning inspired or revealed) and Protestants call them apocryphal books. Which means uninspired.
WHY DID THE PROTESTANTS REJECT THESE BOOKS?
Historically, Protestants reject these additional 7 books added by Catholics because they consider them not inspired by God. Because most of it was written during the intertestamental period between the two testaments and according to history, during this period God does not speak, so it was a silent, transitional period where God does not speak and send no messages or prophets in Israel.
INTERTESTAMENTARY PERIOD:
The intertestamental period is the period which separates the two testaments, the old and the new. This period covers a historical period of approximately four hundred years, extending from the ministry of Malachi until the appearance of John the Baptist in the early 1st century.
It all began with the Protestant reformers, Luther who had chosen to follow the thought of Jerome and the Hebrew truth, recognizing for the Old Testament only the 39 books of the Jewish canon contained in the biblical version of the Septuagint, which was the bible of the Jews of Greek language and culture.
Thus, the books of Judith, Tobit, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch (including the Letter of Jeremiah) and the two books of the Maccabees – as well as the Greek passages from the books of Daniel and Esther – are not perceived by the Protestants as divinely inspired in the same way as the 39 books of the Hebrew Bible.
But Luther nonetheless considered them “useful and good to read.”
and some Protestants are in contact with these books thanks to the chatolic editions called TOB bible.
LET’S RETURN TO THE DIVISION OF THE BIBLE:
The Bible in Christian usage is a collection of works inspired by God and forming two collections: the Old and New Testaments.
OLD TESTAMENT:
(HISTORICAL)
1.THE PENTATEUCH: (Law given by Moses)
Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy
2.HISTORICAL BOOKS:
(History of the Jewish people and their leaders.)
Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, 1 and 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther.
(EDUCATIONAL:)
3.BOOKS OF WISDOM AND POETICS:
(NB: This is about grammatical style and not content because when you read the book of Job you will notice that you are reading a historical book but nevertheless it is classified as a book of poetry not because of the content but because of the grammatical style used by the author.) Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Solomon
(PROPHETIC)
4.MAJOR PROPHETS:
(NB: It is not about the big name or the titles but about the messenger.)
Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel and Daniel.
5.MINOR PROPHETS:
Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi.
NEW TESTAMENT:
The New Testament contains 27 books written in Greek by 15 or 16 different authors between 50 CE and 120 CE. It can be divided into 4 groups: the Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, the Epistles and the Apocalypse.
(HISTORICAL)
1.THE GOSPELS:
(THE SYNOPSIS: "synopsis", which means "similar", because all these authors relied on many of the same sources and even on each other. but differences and often due to the way in which the author presents the person of Jesus Christ. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
The reason there are four gospels is to allow us to experience the life and work of Jesus from multiple perspectives in order to understand the whole story coherently.
In the gospels, Jesus is presented as the Messiah, son of man, God and King.
ACTS OF THE APOSTLES:
(The works of the apostles, the beginnings of the Church, and the challenges they faced.)
(EDUCATIONAL)
THE EPISTLES: (21)
(There are 21 epistles which are letters written to the churches for the edification of believers.)
Romans, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians
Philippians, Colossians,1 Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians,1Timothy, 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon, Hebrews, James,1Peter, 2 Peter,1John, 2John, 3 John, Jude.
(PROPHETIC)
REVELATION OR APOCALYPSE:
(the book that talks about the mysteries of the end times)