01.10. Chapter 2 What the Bible contains
Chapter 2 What the Bible contains Birth of a nation
Genesis, the first book of the Bible, opens with a brief account of the creation of the world, as an introduction to the story of the people who live in the world. In spite of their repeated failures, God still loved them and initiated a plan for their salvation. He chose Abraham, a man from Mesopotamia, promising to make his descendants into a nation and to give them Canaan as a national homeland. The book of Genesis deals with Abraham’s descendants over the next two or three hundred years, and closes with them settling down to a reasonably comfortable life in Egypt. This was the beginning of the nation Israel.
During the next four hundred years the Israelites so increased in numbers that the Egyptian government saw them as a threat and issued a law that made them slaves. The book of Exodus describes how Moses became the Israelites’ leader, overthrew Egyptian domination and led his people out to freedom (about 1280 BC). Their goal was Canaan, but they stopped first at Mt Sinai. There, over the next year, they received God’s law and organized themselves before moving on. Many of the laws are recorded in the latter part of Exodus and in the next book, Leviticus.
Additional laws, along with details of arrangements for the journey to Canaan, are recorded in the book of Numbers. But the people rebelled against God, and entry into Canaan was delayed forty years as a punishment. During those years the generation of rebels died and a new generation grew up. When the time approached to enter Canaan, Moses repeated, and in some ways expanded, the law for the benefit of this new generation. The book that records this is Deuteronomy. Moses died before Israel entered Canaan, and Joshua became the new leader.
Israel established in Canaan The book of Joshua records Israel’s conquest of Canaan and the division of the land among its twelve tribes. Over the generations that followed, Israel became increasingly rebellious against God. The book of Judges shows how the people intro- duced foreign religious practices and brought God’s judgment upon themselves in the form of invasions from neighbouring countries. There was no centrally organized government during this period, but certain people (whom the Israelites called judges) rose to positions of leadership because of their ability to settle disputes and overthrow foreign oppressors. The story of one family that lived during this time is told in the book of Ruth. In an attempt to improve national stability, the people decided to establish a monarchy. Their spiritual leader, Samuel, advised against this, for their troubles had arisen because of their unfaithfulness to God, not because of the system of government. But the people rejected Samuel’s advice, with the result that Israel got its first king, Saul (about 1050 BC). Saul was a failure, and the story of events before and during his reign is told in the book of 1 Samuel.
David was Israel’s next king, and the story of his reign is recorded in 2 Samuel. In spite of some mistakes, he was a great and powerful king. He established a dynasty through which God promised to produce a king who would be saviour of the world. This promised king was known as ‘Messiah’ in the Hebrew language (or ‘Christ’, in the Greek). A divided nation The books of 1 and 2 Kings record the history of the Israelite kingdom after the death of David. Solomon succeeded David, but his extravagant program for the development of the national capital, Jerusalem, created widespread unrest among his people. Soon after his death, the ten northern tribes broke away from the dynasty of David and established their own monarchy. The northern tribes still called themselves Israel, and after some early temporary arrangements established their capital in Samaria. The people of the south remained loyal to the dynasty of David, whose kings continued to reign in Jerusalem. The southern king-dom was called Judah, after its leading tribe.
During the time of the divided kingdom, Israel and Judah fought with each other and with neighbouring countries. Political and social conditions in both kingdoms steadily worsened. Few people trusted God or lived to please him, but from those who did, God chose some to be his messengers to his people. These preachers condemned the people’s sin and warned that judgment was certain if they did not turn to God. They were known as prophets, and some of their writings have been grouped together in a separate section of the Old Testament.
Captivity and return As the prophets had warned, both kingdoms were finally destroyed. In 722 BC Assyria conquered the northern kingdom and took its people captive into foreign lands. Assyria, in turn, was conquered by Babylon, who then advanced into the Palestine region. In a series of attacks starting in 605 BC, Babylon gained control of Judah and took its people into captivity, destroying Jerusalem in 587 BC.
There is a parallel account of 1 and 2 Samuel in the book of1 Chronicles, and a parallel account of 1 and 2 Kings in 2Chronicles. However, the books of Chronicles differ from the books of Samuel and Kings in their length, style, content and purpose. They were written much later, after Israel and Judah had been taken into captivity. The books helped preserve the national history and family records, so that they might assist people of a later generation when they re-established the nation. When Persia conquered Babylon in 539 BC, the Persian king immediately gave permission for captive peoples to return to their homelands. As a result, the nation Israel was rebuilt, with Jerusalem as its capital. No longer was there a division between north and south. But since most of those who returned to Palestine belonged to the former southern kingdom Judah, the name Jew (short for Judean) was used for Israelites in general, and has been ever since. The books of Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther deal with the period of reconstruction that began with Israel’s return to its homeland in 538 BC. The three books cover about one hundred years, and with them the historical section of the Old Testament comes to a close.
Wisdom teachers and songwriters
After the historical section of the Old Testament is a group of five books, all of them markedly different from the previous books. The first of these, Job, is what is called a wisdom book. Wisdom teachers were people who examined the common affairs and problems of life with the aim of teaching people how to live rightly. The book of Job consists mainly of a debate between Job and his friends about God’s direction of affairs in people’s lives. The book of Psalms is a collection of 150 songs and poems that express the writers’ feelings during their many and varied experiences. David wrote almost half the psalms, but the authors of many others are unknown.
Proverbs is a collection of wise sayings, most of them from Solomon. Ecclesiastes, another wisdom book, is concerned with the search for life’s meaning. The Song of Songs (also called the Song of Solomon) is a collection of love poems recounting the exchanges of love between a young man and a young woman.
Words of the preachers The final section of the Old Testament contains the writings of the prophets. These were the preachers who brought God’s message to his people during the periods of the monarchy, the captivity and the later re-establishment of Israel. Each book is named after the person who wrote it.
Isaiah and Jeremiah were probably the two most important prophets. Isaiah brought God’s message to the people during the time of the divided kingdom; Jeremiah preached during the forty years leading up to and including the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians. The horrors of the final siege of Jerusalem are the subject of the small book of Lamentations.
Ezekiel and Daniel were among those Jerusalemites taken captive to Babylon; but whereas Ezekiel lived in one of the workers’ camps, Daniel was taken into the palace and trained to be an administrator. Each served God where he was and brought God’s message to those who needed it. The next twelve prophets are sometimes called the Minor Prophets, not because they were junior to, or less important than, the previous four (the so-called Major Prophets), but because their books are shorter. Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk and Zephaniah all belong to the period that began with the division of the kingdom and ended with the destruction of Jerusalem. The final three, Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi, belong to the period of national re-construction that followed Israel’s return to Palestine as recorded in Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther. At the time the Old Testament story closes, Israel, though back in its land, was still under foreign rule, namely, the rule of Persia. When Greece conquered Persia (334-331 BC), Israel fell under the rule of Greece, and in the second century BC regained its independence. But in 63 BC it lost its independence to Rome, and was still under Roman rule when Jesus Christ was born.
Jesus and the early Christians The books Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, known as the four Gospels, are concerned with the life and teaching of Jesus Christ. They do not cover the whole of his life, but mainly his birth and the last three years or so, which concluded with his death and resurrection. Sometimes they tell the same stories, but always the individual writers record events and teachings in a way fitted to their separate purposes and to the needs of those for whom they write.
After the resurrection and ascension of Jesus, his chosen messengers (called apostles), with other enthusiastic Christians, spread the good news of the salvation he had brought. This is recorded in the book of Acts, sometimes called The Acts of the Apostles. The first part of the book is mainly concerned with the work of Peter, John and others in Jerusalem and surrounding areas. The second and larger part of the book is concerned with the work of Paul, who made missionary journeys through Asia Minor and Greece, and finally reached Rome.
Letters to churches and individuals
Most of the remainder of the New Testament consists of letters by some of the leading Christians of the first century AD. These have been arranged in separate sections. First are the letters that Paul wrote to various churches in the course of his missionary activity. The letters are named after the churches to whom they were written, and are arranged in order of length, with the longest first – Romans 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 and 2 Thessalonians.
Then come the letters Paul wrote to individuals. They are named after the people to whom they were written, and again are in order of length – 1 and 2 Timothy, Titus and Philemon. The next group consists of eight letters from five writers. An unknown author wrote a letter (which we call Hebrews) and sent it to Hebrew Christians who were being tempted to give up their belief in Jesus. The other seven are named after their authors. James the brother of Jesus wrote a letter, Peter the apostle wrote two, John the apostle wrote three, and Jude (probably another brother of Jesus) wrote one.
Finally, there is a book called The Revelation. Though also containing letters to churches, it is different in style from all the other books of the New Testament. It is largely a book of visions intended to reassure persecuted Christians that Jesus Christ is still in control and that final victory for his people is certain.