+

The Bible: An Introduction

Brett Opalinski

Christ Church UM

+Religion of the Book

Judaism and Christianity are

religions of a book.

Judaism was the first of

Western Civilization.

Other religions, put more

emphasis on ritual ceremonies

and sacrifices.

+Bible Basics

Hebrew Bible (Old Testament)

and the New Testament.

Library/Collection of Books (66

not counting the Apocrypha)

Different authors, settings,

places.

+Hebrew Bible/Old Testament

Many books across a wide

range of time.

Written in Hebrew.

+Basic Parts of the Hebrew Bible

Torah: Books of the Law

Prophets

Poems

Wisdom

History

+New Testament: Basic Information

27 Books.

Written in Greek.

Between the Years 50-120 CE

(Earliest I Thessalonians)

+Types of Writings in the New

Testament

Letters

Gospels

History

Sermons

Apocalyptic Literature

+Basic Dates for Early Christianity

6-4 BCE – Birth of Jesus

10 CE – Birth of Paul

29 CE – Death and Resurrection of Jesus

31-33 CE – Paul’s Transformation

50-60 CE – Letter’s of Paul

64 CE – Death of Paul and Peter

65-70 – Gospel of Mark written

+What Scriptures did Early Christians

Use

Hebrew Scriptures (Old

Testament)

Jesus’ words and teachings.

Paul’s Letters

Gospels

Later Writings

+There Were Many Early Christian

Writings

Gospels

Acts/Histories

Revelations

Which ones should be used?

+Athanasius: Bishop of Alexandria

367 CE – Letter to his

Churches in Egypt.

Instructed them to use the 27

books that made up the New

Testament.

+Council of Carthage – 394 CE

Finalized the List of Books that

we use today in Western

Christianity.

Eastern Christians still used: I

Clement, Barnabas, Shepherd

of Hermas. Omitted

Revelation.

+Criteria for Which Books Were

Selected

Rule of Faith: Consistent with basic teaching of the Apostles.

Apostolic Authorship.

Accepted and Used by Many Churches.

No agreement over which was the most important.

+What About the Apocrypha

Books that are from the Hebrew

tradition, but not part of the Old

Testament. Valued and used

by Early Christians.

Baruch, Tobit, Psalm 151, 1-4

Maccabees, Wisdom of

Solomon, Letter of Jeremiah.

Some Bibles include these

today!

+Manuscripts

We do not have the original

copies of the books.

There are over 5,500

manuscripts, fragments or

papyri.

Copying was done by hand, not

by printing presses.

+How Do We Get Our Bibles Today

Scholars work with Manuscripts

and Fragments to determine

what the originals may have

looked like.

Put together into a common

Greek version. (Hebrew for

OT).

Different translations from that.

+Final Thoughts

Translations: Common English

Bible or New Revised Standard

Version (NRSV).

Don’t just read the Bible, study

it!

If you would like to know more,

email me at:

bopalinski@echristchurch.org