6.1 What Is the Bible?
The Bible is the central sacred text of Christianity.
Christians believe the Bible contains writings that reveal God’s character, God’s relationship with humanity, and God’s purposes for the world. It serves as the primary source for Christian beliefs about God, Jesus Christ, salvation, morality, worship, and the history of God’s interaction with humanity.
For Christians, the Bible is more than an ancient collection of religious literature. It is treated as Scripture—a body of writings regarded as uniquely authoritative for faith and practice.
At the same time, Christians do not all understand the Bible in the same way. Different Christian traditions disagree about certain books, interpretation methods, church authority, and the precise nature of biblical inspiration. Despite these disagreements, the Bible remains the foundational text shared by all major branches of Christianity.
Before discussing those differences, it is helpful to understand what the Bible actually is.
The Bible Is a Collection of Books
Many people speak about “the Bible” as though it were a single book.
In reality, the Bible is a collection of many books written by many authors across many centuries.
The word Bible comes from the Greek word ta biblia meaning “the books.” This reflects how the Bible is not one document written at one time by one author. It is a library of writings that were gradually collected and preserved by religious communities.
These writings include:
- Historical narratives
- Laws
- Poetry
- Proverbs
- Wisdom literature
- Prophetic writings
- Letters
- Biographies
- Apocalyptic literature
Some books tell stories about people and nations. Others contain prayers, songs, moral instruction, or theological reflection. Some focus on history, while others focus on visions, symbolism, or future hope.
Because the Bible contains many types of literature, understanding the genre of a particular passage is often important for interpreting it correctly.
A proverb is not read in the same way as a historical narrative.
A poem is not read in the same way as a legal code.
A symbolic vision is not read in the same way as a personal letter.
Recognizing these differences helps explain why Christians sometimes disagree about interpretation.
The Bible Is Divided into Two Testaments
Christians traditionally divide the Bible into two major sections: the Old Testament and the New Testament.
The word testament is another word for covenant.
A covenant is a solemn agreement, relationship, or binding commitment between parties. Throughout the Bible, covenants play an important role in describing the relationship between God and His people.
The Old Testament focuses primarily on God’s covenant relationship with Israel. It contains writings about creation, the patriarchs, the nation of Israel, God’s law, the prophets, wisdom literature, worship, exile, restoration, and God’s promises for the future.
The New Testament focuses on Jesus Christ and what Christians understand to be a new covenant established through His life, teachings, death, and resurrection. It contains the Gospels, the history of the early church, letters written by Christian leaders, and writings about the future hope of God’s kingdom.
Together, the Old and New Testaments form the foundation of Christian Scripture.
The Original Languages of the Bible
The books of the Bible were not originally written in English.
The Old Testament was written primarily in Hebrew, with small portions written in Aramaic. Hebrew was the primary language of ancient Israel and the language in which most of the Old Testament was composed. Aramaic was a closely related language that became widely used throughout parts of the ancient Near East. Small sections of books such as Daniel and Ezra were written in Aramaic.
The New Testament was written in Greek, specifically a form known as Koine Greek. This was the common language used throughout much of the eastern Mediterranean world during the first century.
Because the biblical books were written in ancient languages, every modern Bible is a translation. Questions about translation, manuscripts, and textual history have played an important role throughout Christian history and will be discussed later in this module.
How Many Books Are in the Bible?
Different Christian traditions do not all use exactly the same collection of biblical books.
Most Protestant Bibles contain 66 books: 39 books in the Old Testament and 27 books in the New Testament.
The Catholic Bible contains 73 books. In addition to the books found in Protestant Bibles, it includes several books that Catholics regard as part of the Old Testament.
Eastern Orthodox churches generally include even more books, though the exact contents can vary somewhat between Orthodox traditions.
Despite these differences, the vast majority of the Bible is shared by all major Christian traditions. Christians generally agree on all 27 books of the New Testament, and most of the differences involve certain books associated with the Old Testament.
Later in this module we will examine why these differences exist and how various Christian traditions arrived at different biblical canons.
The Bible Developed Over Time
In ancient societies, oral tradition played an important role in preserving history, cultural memory, religious beliefs, and important events. Before many biblical texts were written down, stories, laws, poems, teachings, and traditions were often passed from generation to generation through oral transmission.
Over time, many of these traditions were written down, edited, collected, and preserved in the books that eventually became part of the Bible. As a result, the Bible reflects both a literary history and a much older oral history.
The oldest portions of the Old Testament may preserve traditions that reach back more than three thousand years. Most biblical books were written between roughly 1200 BC and the end of the first century AD.
As a result, the Bible spans well over a thousand years of history.
The books that Christians call the Old Testament emerged from ancient Israel and reflect centuries of history, law, worship, prophecy, poetry, and wisdom.
The books that Christians call the New Testament were written during the first century and focus on Jesus Christ, His followers, and the growth of the early Christian movement.
These writings were copied, preserved, read publicly, discussed, translated, and eventually gathered into collections that became recognized as Scripture.
This process took place over centuries.
Because of this history, questions naturally arise:
- Which books belong in the Bible?
- Who decided?
- Why do some Christian Bibles contain different books?
- How were the texts preserved?
- How should they be translated?
These questions have been debated throughout Christian history and will be explored later in this module.
Christianity's Relationship to the Bible
Christianity is often described as a religion of Scripture.
Jesus quoted Scripture. The apostles quoted Scripture. Christian theologians appealed to Scripture. Churches read Scripture publicly in worship. Missionaries translated Scripture into new languages. Believers studied, memorized, copied, debated, and interpreted Scripture throughout the centuries.
Because of this, the Bible has played an enormous role in shaping Christian belief and practice.
The Bible influences Christian teachings about God, creation, sin, salvation, morality, prayer, worship, marriage, justice, forgiveness, death, resurrection, and eternal life.
Many Christians also view the Bible as a unified story that begins with creation, continues through Israel, reaches its climax in Jesus Christ, and concludes with God’s final restoration of creation.
Others emphasize that the Bible is a collection of diverse writings produced by different authors in different historical settings.
Most Christians hold some combination of both perspectives: the Bible contains many individual books, yet together they tell a larger story.
A Shared Text with Diverse Interpretations
Although Christians share the Bible, they often do not interpret it the same way.
Catholics, Orthodox Christians, Protestants, Anglicans, Evangelicals, Pentecostals, and many other groups all regard the Bible as Scripture, yet they often disagree about its meaning.
Some disagreements involve theology. Others involve church authority. Others involve history, tradition, language, or methods of interpretation.
For this reason, simply asking “What does the Bible say?” does not always settle a debate.
People must also ask:
- What does this passage mean in context?
- What genre is it?
- What was its historical context?
- How should it be interpreted?
- How does it relate to the rest of Scripture?
These questions have shaped Christian discussions for nearly two thousand years.
Conclusion
The Bible is the central sacred text of Christianity and the primary source for Christian teaching about God, humanity, Jesus Christ, salvation, and the purpose of life.
Rather than being a single book, it is a collection of writings produced across many centuries by many authors and preserved by religious communities that regarded them as sacred. These writings include history, law, poetry, wisdom literature, prophecy, biographies, letters, and symbolic visions.
Because the Bible contains many books, genres, authors, and historical settings, understanding its structure is an important first step toward understanding Christianity itself.
In section 6.2, we will examine how the Bible is organized, including its books, literary genres, and the division between the Old and New Testaments.