The Bible - God Speaks and a People Listen and Answer (Part 1 of 3)

We Christians have as a fountain and source of our faith God’s revelation found in the Holy Scriptures. For Christians, then, the Bible is the fundamental and most important collection of sacred texts, because we believe that they contain the Word of God. In other words, they contain what God has revealed and communicated through history; and in it also we find the answers of some men, (especially the prophets), the answer of a people (Israel), the answer of Jesus of Nazareth, and of the first Christian communities to the saving design of God.

“Bible” is a Greek word which means “collection of books”. It contains 73 different books. Some of these books are very old and were written by different authors whom we call “sacred authors” or “hagiographers”; and in a socio-cultural context very different from ours. Therefore, for the “intelligent” reading, study and living of the Sacred Scripture, it is necessary:

• To know the structure of the Bible.
• To know certain fundamental biblical elements of hermeneutics (interpretation).
• To know the context of the text: that is, to know the people of the Old Testament as well as the space/time when the historical revelation occurred and, therefore, God’s progressive revelation until the time of Jesus of Nazareth, where Christianity emerges.

For all of this, theology, and more specifically biblical theology, has the help of science and methods such as exegesis, hermeneutics, archeology, paleontology, anthropology, sociology, psychology, semiology, etc.

The Languages of the Bible: Originally, the biblical books were written in three languages: Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek.

The Bible’s Literary Styles: We call “literary styles” to the diverse forms and ways of oral and written expressions utilized by the authors in a specific place and time. In the Bible we find, especially, eight great and different literary styles: historiography, the law, the prophets, lyrics, wisdom writings, apocalyptic writings, Gospels and letters.

The Old Testament: contains 46 books which refer to the history of the people of Israel; starting with Abraham (around the year 1,850 B.C.) until Jesus of Nazareth and the birth of the first Christian communities. They are divided in four groups, according to the predominant literary style of each:

The Pentateuch:

		Abbr.	Number of Chapters
1	Genesis	Gn	50
2	Exodus	Ex	40
3	Leviticus	Lv	27
4	Numbers	Nu	36
5	Deuteronomy	Dt	34

The Historical or Narrative Books:

6	Joshua	Js	24
7	Judges	Jg	21
8	1 Samuel	1 S	31
9	2 Samuel	2 S	24
10	1 Kings	1 K	22
11	2 Kings	2 K	25
12	1 Chronicles	1 Ch	29
13	2 Chronicles	2 Ch	36
14	Ezra	Ezra	10
15	Nehemiah	Ne	13
16	Ruth	Ru	4
17	Tobit	Tb	14
18	Judith	Jdt	16
19	Esther	Es	10
20	1 Maccabees	1 Mac	16
21	2 Maccabees	2 Mac	15

The Prophetic Books:

22	Isaiah	Is	66
23	Jeremiah	Jr	52
24	Lamentations	Lm	5
25	Baruch	Ba	6
26	Ezekiel	Ez	48
27	Daniel	Dn	14
28	Hosea	Ho	14
29	Joel	Jl	4
30	Amos	Am	9
31	Obadiah	Ob	1
32	Jonah	Jon	4
33	Micah	Mic	7
34	Nahum	Nh	3
35	Habakkuk	Hb	3
36	Zephaniah	Zep	3
37	Haggai	Hg	2
38	Zechariah	Zec	14
39	Malachi	Ml	3

The Wisdom Books:

40	Job	Job	42
41	Psalms	Ps	150
42	Proverbs	Pr	31
43	Ecclesiastes	Ec	12
44	Song of Songs	Sgs	8
45	Wisdom of Solomon	Ws	19
46	Sirach (Ecclesiasticus)	Si	51

The New Testament: contains 27 books which refer to the life, ministry, passion, death and resurrection of Jesus; and to the life of the first Christian communities (until approximately the year 110 A.D.), and can be divided, also, in four literary styles.

The Synoptic Gospels:

1	Matthew	Mt	28
2	Mark	Mk	16
3	Luke	Lk	24

The Writings of Paul:

4	Romans	Ro	16
5	1 Corinthians	1 Co	16
6	2 Corinthians	2 Co	13
7	Galatians	Ga	6
8	Ephesians	Eph	6
9	Philippians	Phil	4
10	Colossians	Col	4
11	1 Thessalonians	1 Th	5
12	2 Thessalonians	2 Th	3
13	1 Timothy	1 Ti	6
14	2 Timothy	2 Ti	4
15	Titus	Titus	3
16	Philemon	Phm	1

The Writings of John:

17	Fourth Gospel (John)	Jn	21
18	I John	1 Jn	5
19	II John	2 Jn	1
20	III John	3 Jn	1
21	Revelation	Ap	22

The Catholic Letters:

22	The Acts of the Apostles	Ac	28
23	Hebrews	He	13
24	James	Jas	5
25	1 Peter	1 P	5
26	2 Peter	2 P	3
27	Jude	Jd	1