1.3.1 The Bible

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  • The Bible
    • The Old Testament
      • The Torah: first five books of Moses containing all the laws of Judaism, including the Decalogue.
      • The Prophets: the history books, such as Joshua and Judges, and the books by prophets such as Isiah and Jeremiah who believed they had a message from God to people.
      • The Writings: poetry such as Psalms, wise sayings such as proverbs and apocalyptic writings such as Daniel.
    • The New Testament
      • Four Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. They record the life and teachings of Jesus Christ.
      • Acts of the Apostles: records the history of the early Church from the ascension to St Paul's arrival in Rome.
      • The Letters: written by St Paul, St John, St Peter, St Jude and St James to encourage and instruct early groups of Christians.
      • Revelation: an apocalyptic, prophetic book about the last things.
    • Importance
      • It records the teachings of Jesus which shows Christians what to believe, how to live and how to make decisions.
      • It records the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, which is the basis of Christian faith.
      • It contains the Decalogue, which are God's basic guidelines on how to live.
      • It reveals what God is like and what he has done for Christians.
    • Different Understanding about the books in the Bible
      • In the early days of the Church there was no agreement as to which books were to make up the Bible. The Churches did not agree until the Council of Carthage in 397.
      • The Greek Old Testament (Septuagint) and the Carthage New Testament was accepted by Catholics and Orthodox Christians. It was translated into Latin by St Jerome.
      • At the Reformation the Protestant scholars used the Hebrew Old Testament. This means Protestant Bibles have 39 books in their Old Testament whereas Catholic and Orthodox Bibles have 47 books.
    • SOWA
      • St Paul said in his second letter to Timothy tat "All scripture is inspired by God".
      • The Catechism says that God is the author of Sacred Scripture and so the Bible teaches without error God's saving truth.

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