WHAT IS THE BIBLE

The Bible (or the Holy Bible) consists of two parts: The Old Testament and the New Testament, an extensive collection of books mentioned in the revelation of God in human history.

The Bible is not the product of an author or an era, but includes texts covering a long period of time, reflecting the linguistic peculiarities and expressive means of each era, philosophical, theological and religious ideas and concepts together with political and social data.

But the Bible in not only the work of man and divinity, as it is not an office product, fruit of theological pursuits of an intellectual person or a priesthood construction, but behind every biblical text is the revelation of God to his people who experienced and kept the tradition of the experience alive. And it is precisely this experience of the revelation of God in human history, the element which constitutes this collection of diverse texts in one single body and gives a wonderful unity in it from the first to the last book.

Old Testament  The first part of the collection above of divinely inspired books, which was the first “Holy Scripture” of the ancient Christian Church.  It is recognized even by Judaism as the Holy Bible (39 books).

The term “Testament”, which literally means the last expression of the will of a person, in biblical language is a translation in Greek of a Hebrew word that means “treaty”, “alliance”, “contract” or “agreement”. Apart from the meaning it could have on human relationships, the term used in the Bible in particular is to indicate a peculiar character agreement that governs the relationship between God and man, and aims to create the conditions for salvation of all mankind. Thus, the collection of books that contain the general principles and conditions of this “testament” or refer to the consequences resulting from it, called the Church “Old Testament”, as opposed to the later on “New Testament”.

New Testament A collection of 27 books refer to the fulfillment of the promises of the old and the conclusion of the new “testament” though Jesus Christ, which governs the relations of God with the new people, the Christians. The conclusion of the new “testament” already announced in the old by the prophets, an announcement that the church saw fulfilled in Jesus Christ’s face (Matthew 26,28 and elsewhere).

Deuterocanonical books. A group of ten books from the Old Testament, the originals are in Ancient Greek and not in Hebrew, and that is why they are not included in the Jewish rule 39 of the Old Testament books. These were included in the translation of the Old Testament in Greek by seventy-two Jewish scholars (the famous Septuagint 370 BC) for the sake of the Jewish mission. Some churches accept that these books belong in the canon of the Old Testament and others don’t. For this reason, there are two versions of the Bible: The full rule of 49 Old Testament books and only the 39 books of the Jewish rule, without the so-called “Deuterocanonical”.

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