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More about the Bible
- What is it?

Reading the Bible is important, but we shall only get the best from it when we understand what it actually is.

This study can be followed entirely on screen, but will work best if you have a bible beside you

This thread (More about the Bible):
  1. What is the Bible?
  2. The Old Testament
  3. The New Testament
  4. How to read the Bible
  5. Keeping it up

Recap

In Thread 1 Study 4 we glanced at bible reading as important way to get to know about God. We found that:
  • it is not a single book, but a collection of writings covering a long period of time
  • there are 66 books in the bible; 39 in the Old Testament and 27 in the New Testament.
  • the bible is a record of how God has shown what He is like to human beings, and of how people have responded to Him.
  • it begins with the beginning of time, but its earliest dateable history goes back to about 2000 BC, and the latest New Testament writing is as late as 100-200 AD.

 

Who wrote it?

What sort of people do you think wrote the bible?

A whole range of social types were involved.
The list of authors includes:

  • a fisherman (Peter)
  • priests (Ezra, and the compilers of much of the Old Testament histories)
  • kings (Psalms [by David]; Proverbs [by Solomon])
  • a doctor (Luke; Acts)
  • a well-educated Jewish scholar (Paul's letters)
  • a farmer (Amos)
  • etcetera

 

What sort of literature?

It helps to know what sort of book we are reading. For example we expect a different kind of message and accuracy from a history book than from a poetry book. What different kinds of book are you already aware of in the Bible?

There are some overlaps but the main groups of books are:

  • history - Genesis to Esther
  • wisdom literature (God-given wisdom for living, often, but not always, in poetic form) - Job to Song of Songs
  • Prophecy - Isaiah to Malachi
  • Gospel (the story of Jesus) - Matthew to John
  • the story of the early church - Acts
  • letters - Romans to Jude
  • apocalyptic (highly stylised type of writing with lots of colourful symbols and images) - Revelation [and bits of Daniel and Ezekiel]

 

Exploring

If you have a bible handy, take some time to look at the contrasts in styles. For example, take a few verses of a history and contrast with a prophetic book, or a wisdom book. Try to see any similarities, but also see how one type of book may be saying a different kind of thing from another.

If you prefer a set example, then look at the following:
2 Samuel 11:1-27 - the historical account of David's adultery with Bathsheba and subsequent killing of her husband
2 Samuel 12:1-10- a prophecy by Nathan (embedded in a historical account) confronting king David about the great sin he committed
Psalm 51- David's confession and lament to God about the same incident. Note the poetic form, and how it was kept as a worship psalm to be a pattern for repentance and confession

 

Any questions?

If you have any queries, or comments, then e-mail us and we'll get back to you

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Bible references

2 Samuel 11:1-27
1In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with the king's men and the whole Israelite army. They destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained in Jerusalem.
2One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful, 3and David sent someone to find out about her. The man said, "Isn't this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite?" 4Then David sent messengers to get her. She came to him, and he slept with her. (She had purified herself from her uncleanness.) Then she went back home. 5The woman conceived and sent word to David, saying, "I am pregnant."
6So David sent this word to Joab: "Send me Uriah the Hittite." And Joab sent him to David.7When Uriah came to him, David asked him how Joab was, how the soldiers were and how the war was going. 8Then David said to Uriah, "Go down to your house and wash your feet." So Uriah left the palace, and a gift from the king was sent after him. 9But Uriah slept at the entrance to the palace with all his master's servants and did not go down to his house.
10When David was told, "Uriah did not go home," he asked him, "Haven't you just come from a distance? Why didn't you go home?"
11Uriah said to David, "The ark and Israel and Judah are staying in tents, and my master Joab and my lord's men are camped in the open fields. How could I go to my house to eat and drink and lie with my wife? As surely as you live, I will not do such a thing!"
12Then David said to him, "Stay here one more day, and tomorrow I will send you back." So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day and the next. 13At David's invitation, he ate and drank with him, and David made him drunk. But in the evening Uriah went out to sleep on his mat among his master's servants; he did not go home.
14In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it with Uriah. 15In it he wrote, "Put Uriah in the front line where the fighting is fiercest. Then withdraw from him so he will be struck down and die."
16So while Joab had the city under siege, he put Uriah at a place where he knew the strongest defenders were. 17When the men of the city came out and fought against Joab, some of the men in David's army fell; moreover, Uriah the Hittite died. 18Joab sent David a full account of the battle. 19He instructed the messenger: "When you have finished giving the king this account of the battle, 20the king's anger may flare up, and he may ask you, 'Why did you get so close to the city to fight? Didn't you know they would shoot arrows from the wall? 21Who killed Abimelech son of Jerub-Besheth? Didn't a woman throw an upper millstone on him from the wall, so that he died in Thebez? Why did you get so close to the wall?' If he asks you this, then say to him, 'Also, your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead.'"
22The messenger set out, and when he arrived he told David everything Joab had sent him to say. 23The messenger said to David, "The men overpowered us and came out against us in the open, but we drove them back to the entrance to the city gate. 24Then the archers shot arrows at your servants from the wall, and some of the king's men died. Moreover, your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead."
25David told the messenger, "Say this to Joab: 'Don't let this upset you; the sword devours one as well as another. Press the attack against the city and destroy it.' Say this to encourage Joab."
26When Uriah's wife heard that her husband was dead, she mourned for him. 27After the time of mourning was over, David had her brought to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing David had done displeased the LORD.

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2 Samuel 12:1-10
1The LORD sent Nathan to David. When he came to him, he said, "There were two men in a certain town, one rich and the other poor.
2The rich man had a very large number of sheep and cattle, 3but the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb he had bought. He raised it, and it grew up with him and his children. It shared his food, drank from his cup and even slept in his arms. It was like a daughter to him.
4"Now a traveler came to the rich man, but the rich man refrained from taking one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare a meal for the traveler who had come to him. Instead, he took the ewe lamb that belonged to the poor man and prepared it for the one who had come to him."
5David burned with anger against the man and said to Nathan, "As surely as the LORD lives, the man who did this deserves to die! 6He must pay for that lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and had no pity."
7Then Nathan said to David, "You are the man! This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: 'I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul. 8I gave your master's house to you, and your master's wives into your arms. I gave you the house of Israel and Judah. And if all this had been too little, I would have given you even more. 9Why did you despise the word of the LORD by doing what is evil in his eyes? You struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and took his wife to be your own. You killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. 10Now, therefore, the sword will never depart from your house, because you despised me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own.'.

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Psalm 51
1 Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your unfailing love;
according to your great compassion
blot out my transgressions.
2Wash away all my iniquity
and cleanse me from my sin.
3For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is always before me.
4Against you, you only, have I sinned
and done what is evil in your sight,
so that you are proved right when you speak
and justified when you judge.
5Surely I was sinful at birth,
sinful from the time my mother conceived me.
6Surely you desire truth in the inner parts;
you teach me wisdom in the inmost place.
7Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean;
wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
8Let me hear joy and gladness;
let the bones you have crushed rejoice.
9Hide your face from my sins
and blot out all my iniquity.
10Create in me a pure heart, O God,
and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
11Do not cast me from your presence
or take your Holy Spirit from me.
12Restore to me the joy of your salvation
and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.
13Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
and sinners will turn back to you.
14Save me from bloodguilt, O God,
the God who saves me,
and my tongue will sing of your righteousness.
15O Lord, open my lips,
and my mouth will declare your praise.
16You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it;
you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.
17The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart,
O God, you will not despise.
18In your good pleasure make Zion prosper;
build up the walls of Jerusalem.
19Then there will be righteous sacrifices,
whole burnt offerings to delight you;
then bulls will be offered on your altar.

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