Why Is the Bible So Important?

1
Why Is the Bible So Important?

• Record of peoples experiences with God
• Influenced so many throughout history
• Tremendous examples of struggles of life good
  bad
• Best selling book of all time
• Great stories and literature

2
The Bible

• A Collection of documents written over many
  centuries

3
The Bible - Collection of documents written over
many centuries

• Two parts
• Old Testament or First Testament
• New Testament or Second Testament
• Testament Covenant
• First -Covenant with Israel and her ancestors
• Second Covenant with Jesus followers

4
Testament

• Testament or Covenant refers to the story of
  how God chose to work through various people in
  history.
• Old or First God working through the
  descendants of Abraham (The Jewish people)

5
Testament

• The First/Old Testament was Jesus Bible and the
  Bible of the first Christians
• The two testaments are complimentary
• New or Second God working through Jesus and his
  followers (Christians)

6
Old Testament

• 39 different documents (books)
• Law/ Torah
• Prophets
• Writings

7
New Testament

• 27 different documents (books, letters)
• Gospels Life of Jesus
• Acts Beginnings of Christianity
• Letters of apostles to churches individuals
• Book of Revelation written to Christians being
  persecuted by Roman government

8
Canon

• Authoritative collection of writings
• Old Testament accepted by Jews even before Jesus
  time
• New Testament came together throughout the first
  century AD

9
Old Testament Canon

• Some parts initially transmitted orally
• Preserved and written by Priests, Prophets
• Spiritual leaders of Israel
• Accepted by people of Israel as authoritative in
  religious and moral matters
• Process over several centuries
• Completed and agreed on by the time of Jesus

10
Inspiration

• The idea that God worked with the authors of the
  Old and New Testaments to provide reliable and
  useful teachings for helping people
• through the struggles of life
• know the most positive and important values in
  life
• find truth in this life
• know more about God himself

11
Ways People Study the Bible

• Devotional approach
• Religious moral - Spiritual
• Literary approach
• Historical approach
• Political approach

12
Tools for Studying the Bible

• Literary theory
• Linguistics
• Economics
• Musicology

• History
• Archaeology
• Sociology
• Philosophy