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Bible, the English form of the Greek name
Biblia, meaning “books” the name which in the fifth century began to be given
to the entire collection of sacred books the “Library of Divine Revelation.”
The name “Bible” was adopted by Wickliffe, and came gradually into use in our
English language.
The Bible consists of sixty-six different
books composed by many different writers in three different languages, under
different circumstances; writers of almost every social rank, statesmen and
peasants, kings herdsmen, fishermen, priests, tax gathers, tent makers;
educated and uneducated, Jews and gentiles; most of them unknown to each
other, and writing at various periods during the space of about 1500 years:
and yet, after all, it is only one book dealing with only one subject in its
numberless aspects and relations, the subject of man’s redemption.
It is divided into the Old Testament,
containing thirty-nine books, and the New Testament, containing twenty-seven
books.
There is a break of 400 years between the
Old Testament and the New
The Old Testament is divided into three
parts:
1.
The Law (Torah), consisting of the Pentateuch, or five of Books of Mosses
2.
The Prophets, consisting of…
2.
the latter, namely, the greater prophets,
Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, and the twelve minor
prophets.
3.
The Hagiographa, or holy writings, including the rest of
the books. These were ranked in
three divisions:
1.
The Psalms, Proverbs, and Job, distinguished by the Hebrew name, a word formed of the
initial letters of these books,
emeth, meaning truth.
2.
Song of Solomon, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, and Esther, called the five rolls, as being written for
the synagogue use on five separate
rolls.
Between the Old and the New Testament, no addition was made to the revelation God
had already given.
The period of New Testament revelation, extending over a century, began with the
appearance of John the Baptist.
The division of the Bible into chapters
and verses is altogether of human invention, designed to facilitate reference
to it. The ancient Jews divided the Old
Testament into certain sections for use in the synagogue service, and then at a later period, in the
ninth century A.D., into verses. Our modern system of chapters
for all the books of the Bible was introduced by
Cardinal Hugo about the middle of the thirteenth century (he died 1263). The
system of verses for the New Testament was introduced by Stephens in 1551, and
generally adopted, although neither Tyndale’s nor Coverdale’s English
translation of the Bible has verses. The division is not always wisely made,
yet it is very useful.
The Bible was written over a 1500 year
period (approx 1400BC -100AD).
It was written by one author the Holy
Spirit through 40 different people as mentioned earlier This is explained in
2Pet1.21 (NKJ)
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