The Bible

Introduction
Books of the Bible
Old Testament
New Testament
Online Bibles

Introduction

The Bible is the holy book of Christianity. Many Christians consider the Bible to be the inerrant word of God, by which they mean that the authors were inspired and guided by God and accurately recorded what God wanted them to say, and that the original manuscripts contained no errors. (This does not mean copies and translations of the Bible are flawless.) Christians commonly refer to the Bible as Scripture or the Word of God.

The Bible is divided into the Old Testament (books written before the time of Jesus) and the New Testament (books written after Jesus), often abbreviated as OT and NT. Different branches of Christianity have different Old Testaments. The Protestant Old Testament is equivalent to the Jewish Bible (all books in the Protestant OT are also accepted by Jews as divinely inspired). Other Christian Bibles contain the Protestant OT plus additional books known as the Apocrypha (to Protestants) or deuterocanonical books (to other Christians). The New Testament is the same in all Bibles.

The Testaments are divided into books. Each book is divided into chapters, and each chapter is divided into verses. A reference to a particular part of the Bible is written in this format:

[book] [chapter]:[verse]

For instance, Romans 5:8 refers to the eighth verse in the fifth chapter of the book of Romans; Genesis 1:1-2:4 refers to the passage starting at the first verse of the first chapter of the book of Genesis and ending at the fourth verse of the second chapter.

Old Testament

The books in the Protestant Old Testament (OT):

Genesis
Exodus
Leviticus
Numbers
Deuteronomy
Joshua
Judges
Ruth
1 Samuel
2 Samuel
1 Kings
2 Kings
1 Chronicles
2 Chronicles
Ezra
Nehemiah
Esther
Job
Psalms
Proverbs
Ecclesiastes
Song of Solomon
Isaiah
Jeremiah
Lamentations
Ezekiel
Daniel
Hosea
Joel
Amos
Obadiah
Jonah
Micah
Nahum
Habakkuk
Zephaniah
Haggai
Zechariah
Malachi

These books are commonly grouped into five divisions: the Torah, or books of Moses (Genesis - Deuteronomy), the historical books (Joshua - Esther), the wisdom books (Job - Song of Solomon), major prophets (Isaiah - Daniel) and minor prophets (Hosea - Malachi).

The Roman Catholic OT consists of the Protestant OT plus the following:

Tobit
Judith
Wisdom of Solomon
Ecclesiasticus
Baruch
The Letter of Jeremiah
1 Maccabees
2 Maccabees
Additions to the books of Esther and Daniel

The Greek Orthodox OT consists of the Roman Catholic OT plus the following:

1 Edras
Prayer of Manasseh
Psalm 151
3 Maccabees

The Russian Orthodox OT consists of the Greek Orthodox OT plus 2 Esdras.

New Testament

The books in the New Testament:

Matthew
Mark
Luke
John
Acts
Romans
1 Corinthians
2 Corinthians
Galatians
Ephesians
Philippians
Colossians
1 Thessalonians
2 Thessalonians
1 Timothy
2 Timothy
Titus
Philemon
Hebrews
James
1 Peter
2 Peter
1 John
2 John
3 John
Jude
Revelation

The first four books are known as the Gospels (e.g. the Gospel of Luke) and relate the life and teachings of Jesus. Matthew, Mark and Luke are sometimes referred to as the Synoptic Gospels. Acts gives the history of the early church and Revelation is largely a prophetic book. The remaining books are letters from early Christian leaders (known as the Apostles).

Online Bibles

The Bible Gateway has several translations of the Bible online. A popular, easy-to-understand translation is the New International Version (NIV).

If you've never read the Bible before, I suggest starting with the first two books, Genesis and Exodus. These will give you some basic background information for understanding the rest of the Bible. Reading one or more of the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) is also a good place to start.

Online versions of the Roman Catholic Bible: