This page has been archived and is no longer updated. Find out more about page archiving. The different books that make up the Christian holy scripture, the Bible. The Old Testament The Law The Hebrew Bible has 39 books, written over a long period of time, and is the literary archive of the ancient nation of Israel.
The Prophets The Prophets is the largest section of the Hebrew Bible, and has two parts 'former prophets' and 'latter prophets'. The Writings These include Psalms songs, prayers and liturgies for worship , Proverbs sayings of homespun wisdom , Job a drama that explores the nature of suffering , plus the 'five scrolls' 'Megiloth' which were grouped together because each had associations with a particular religious festival: Ruth the Jewish Feast of Weeks, also called Shavuot , Song of Solomon Passover , Ecclesiastes Tabernacles , Lamentations Destruction of Jerusalem , and Esther Purim.
The New Testament The New Testament has 27 books, written between about 50 and AD, and falling naturally into two sections: the Gospels, which tell the story of Jesus Matthew, Mark, Luke and John ; and the Letters or epistles - written by various Christian leaders to provide guidance for the earliest church communities.
The Letters Letters were the natural way for itinerant church leaders to communicate with their converts, and the earliest ones were written before the Gospels. The Gospels The Gospels were written to present the life and teachings of Jesus in ways that would be appropriate to different readerships, and for that reason are not all the same.
Disputes and controversies Historical accuracy of Biblical accounts Some Biblical scholars, armed with archaeological evidence, dispute the historical accuracy of some of the books from the Old Testament.
Download the Adobe Flash player to view this content. The Bible's legacy Legacy and impact of the Bible The sheer diversity of literature in the Bible is one of the secrets of its continuing popularity through the centuries.
See also. In this podcast, biblical scholar John Barton considers the historical background to the most influential book in western culture, exploring its creation and how it fits into the histories of Judaism and Christianity:. So what happened next? The Bible is in little doubt. It tells us that Moses led the Israelites out of their captivity in Egypt whose population had been laid low by ten plagues inflicted on them by God before Joshua spearheaded a brilliant invasion of Canaan, the promised land.
The historical sources, however, are far less forthcoming. Like all good autocrats, Merneptah, pharaoh of Egypt, loved to brag about his achievements. And when he led his armies on a successful war of conquest at the end of the 13th century BC, he wanted the world, and successive generations, to know all about it. The medium on which the pharaoh chose to trumpet his martial prowess was a three-metre-high lump of carved granite, now known as the Merneptah Stele.
But it is the final three lines of the inscription that has arguably excited most interest among historians. But the Israelites would survive. It would spawn what is surely the most influential book of all time: the Bible. If the early history of the Israelites is uncertain, so is the evolution of the book that would tell their story. Catherine Nixey and Edith Hall discuss a pivotal moment in religious history, when Christianity became the dominant faith of the Roman empire:.
Until the 17th century, received opinion had it that the first five books of the Bible — Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy — were the work of one author: Moses. That theory has since been seriously challenged. Scholars now believe that the stories that would become the Bible were disseminated by word of mouth across the centuries, in the form of oral tales and poetry — perhaps as a means of forging a collective identity among the tribes of Israel.
Eventually, these stories were collated and written down. The question is by whom, and when? A clue may lie in a limestone boulder discovered embedded in a stone wall in the town of Tel Zayit, 35 miles southwest of Jerusalem, in The boulder, now known as the Zayit Stone, contains what many historians believe to be the earliest full Hebrew alphabet ever discovered, dating to around BC.
These are believed to have been written between A. Authors of the later epistles may have been followers of Paul, who used his name to lend authenticity to the works. By the 4th century A. In the centuries to come, the Bible would only become more central to the lives and faiths of millions of people around the world, despite the mystery surrounding its origins and the ongoing, complex debate over its authorship.
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Live TV. King James eventually agreed and decreed the new translation should speak in contemporary language, using common, recognizable terms. This version of the Bible was not altered for years and is credited as one of the biggest influences on the English language, alongside the works of Shakespeare. The Oxford Illustrated History of the Bible. John Rogerson, ed. The Book: A History of the Bible. Christopher De Hamel.
New Testament History and Literature. Dale B. The Gnostic Gospels. Elaine Pagels. From Jesus To Christ. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Subscribe for fascinating stories connecting the past to the present. Over centuries, billions of people have read the Bible. Scholars have spent their lives studying it, while rabbis, ministers and priests have focused on interpreting, teaching and preaching from its pages.
The Devil, also referred to as Satan, is best known as the personification of evil and the nemesis of good people everywhere. His image and story have evolved over the years, and the Devil has been called many different names in various cultures: Beelzebub, Lucifer, Satan and Followers of Judaism believe in one God who revealed himself through ancient prophets. The history of Judaism is essential to understanding the Jewish faith, which has a rich heritage of law, Today, with about million followers, Hinduism is the third-largest religion behind Christianity and Islam.
Mormons are a religious group that embrace concepts of Christianity as well as revelations made by their founder, Joseph Smith. While billions of people believe Jesus of Nazareth was one of the most important figures in world history, many others reject the idea that he even existed at all. A survey conducted by the Church of England, for instance, found that 22 percent of adults in England did not
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