THE BIBLE

Bible Basics

The Bible is God's word, given to us. It explains Who He is, who we are, and what His plan is to save us. It makes sense that we would want to understand His message.

Day One: The Bible
The word "Bible" comes from the Latin and Greek words meaning "book," a fitting name, since the Bible is the book for all people, for all time. It's a book like no other, in a class by itself...
Read More

Day Two: The Author
It is accurate to say that God wrote the Bible. According to 2 Timothy 3:16, Scripture is "breathed out" by God. Throughout the Bible, it is obvious that God is being quoted: over 400 times in the Bible, we find the words "thus says the Lord"...
Read More

Day Three: The Holiness of the Bible
The phrase biblia sacra (holy books) first appeared sometime in the Middle Ages. In English, one of the earliest — if not the earliest—uses of "The Holy Bible" appeared in 1611 on the cover of the Authorized Version, known in the U.S. as the King James Version...
Read More

Day Four: Names and Titles
There are over a dozen names and titles of the Bible found in both the Old and New Testaments. The following is a list of the most well known...
Read More

Day Five: Understanding the Bible
Understanding the Bible is important because the Bible is God's Word. When we open the Bible, we read God's message to us. What could be more important than understanding what the Creator of the universe has to say?...
Read More

Day Six: The Inspiration
When people speak of the Bible as inspired, they are referring to the fact that God divinely influenced the human authors of the Scriptures in such a way that what they wrote was the very Word of God...
Read More

Day Seven: The Books
The Holy Bible is an anthology of writings that includes 66 books in English editions. The Bible consists of two parts, the Old Testament and New Testament. The Old Testament includes 39 books, and the New Testament includes 27 books...
Read More

Day Eight: The Canon
The word "canon" comes from the rule of law that was used to determine if a book measured up to a standard. It is important to note that the writings of Scripture were canonical at the moment they were written. Scripture was Scripture when the pen touched the parchment...
Read More

Day Nine: The Writers
Ultimately, above the human authors, the Bible was written by God. Second Timothy 3:16 tells us that the Bible was "breathed out" by God. God superintended the human authors of the Bible so that, while using their own writing styles and personalities, they still recorded exactly what God intended...
Read More

Day Ten: The Highlights
There are many, many questions in the Bible. It is difficult to give a precise number because ancient Hebrew and Koine Greek did not use punctuation—we can't just pull out the Dead Sea Scrolls and count the question marks!...
Read More

Day Eleven: The Timeline
In the most basic sense, the Bible timeline is endless and eternal, as it chronicles creation and the end of ages. From a more practical viewpoint, the Bible timeline on which most scholars agree begins with Abram's birth, renamed Abraham by God (Genesis 17:4-6) in the year 2166 BC and ends with the writing of the book of Revelation in approximately AD 95...
Read More

Day Twelve: The Chronology
The Bible not being in chronological order can sometimes make studying the Bible difficult. That is why chronological Bibles can come in so handy. A chronological Bible actually puts the content of the Bible in chronological order...
Read More

Image Credit: J. Mark Bertrand; "Jerry Minor's Stack"; Creative Commons