Bible for Dummies

170 Pages·2006·0.92 MB·English

“Bob Smallman understands me better than I
understand myself!”
— Moses
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BB LL OFF THE
BB II PRESS!
NEW COVERAGE OF
Genesis to
Revelation!
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by Robert Smallman
The Fun Way to Get
Introduced to your Bible
A Reference How to Plug into the Bible
(And What to Do Next)
for the
An Adult Seminar Offered
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Bible for Dummies is intended to be a parody based on the concept of the “Dummies”
series of computer manuals produced by IDG Books Worldwide, Inc. It is not intended to
infringe on any copyrights held by that company. Bible for Dummies has been written for
the use of friends and members of Bible Presbyterian Church, Merrill, Wisconsin, and has
been reproduced in limited numbers for their benefit and distributed to them at no cost.
Most quotations from the Bible are taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version®,
(NIV) copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of
International Bible Society.
Chapter 1
The Bible is a Story (a True Story!)
But Not a Textbook
In This Chapter
a The Bible is neither an “answer book” nor a “spiritual cookbook”
a The three themes of the Bible
a The divisions of the Old Testament and New Testament
The Bible is not a textbook on religion nor a systematic treatise on theol-
ogy or philosophy. Nor does it contain — like a cosmic Dear Abby col-
umn — neat lists of specific answers to each day’s problems. It is first of all
a story: a true story to be sure, but still a story. The Bible is the progressive
story of God’s creating us and our world and then relating to us.
If you think of the Bible primarily as a reference book (or a quick answer
book, or a spiritual “cookbook”), you will probably be disappointed because
its wisdom on any one subject is rarely concentrated in a single place. It
is more like a long novel with an involved plot and many characters. You
often learn things almost incidentally as the story line unfolds. And the
farther along you go in the story, the more you learn. Earlier events, confus-
ing when you come upon them, begin to make sense as you work your way
through the chapters. All this is not to say that you will not find help in the
Bible for life’s problems, but only that you will rarely find it in the “sound
bite” form that Americans have come to expect from their media.
The Old Testament
The opening chapters of the Bible foreshadow the book’s three major
themes: Creation, Fall, and Redemption. God creates a good world (includ-
ing men and women), but Adam and Eve rebel against God and bring about
their own downfall as well as the spiritual and physical pollution of the
whole created order. But God — in a demonstration of His gracious charac-
ter — does not give up on His people. Instead, He provides for their salva-
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Bible for Dummies
tion.
It is a cycle that will be repeated continually through the story: people will
rebel against Him, and God will graciously provide a way of forgiveness and
restoration for those who wish it.
Early in Genesis (the first book of the Bible), the story begins to focus on
one man, Abraham, and on his family. Abraham’s son Isaac has a son Jacob,
and Jacob’s 12 sons and their families will eventually form the nation of
Israel. What Christians call the Old Testament is simply the story of God’s
dealings with His people, the nation of Israel.
Divisions of the Old Testament
The story is told in many ways. Sometimes the authors (the Old Testament
has at least 30) use historical narrative. But even behind what may, on
the surface, appear to be simply dry history lies His story — God at work
through the events of history to reveal himself and His will to His people
and work out His purposes in the world.
Other times God speaks directly to and through men called prophets.
“Thus says the Lord,” is a familiar refrain of these ancient preachers. Their
books — some quite long and others just a few verses — are extended ser-
mons of judgment and hope, of condemnation and salvation.
Still other writers use poetry and song to reveal their inner thoughts and
God’s responses. They tell of God’s glory and their own pain and doubts.
They talk of wisdom and foolishness and the common sense in day to day
living that God gives His people.
These then are the divisions we traditionally give to denote the Story’s style
in the Old Testament: Law (Genesis to Deuteronomy); History (Joshua
to Esther); Poetry or Wisdom Literature (Job to Song of Solomon); and
Prophecy (Isaiah to Malachi). These divisions can be helpful as long as
you remember that they are not absolute: history is found in Law, poetry in
Prophecy, and even prophecy in Poetry!
But through all the divisions, through all the different styles, authors, and
historical periods, the Old Testament is really just the story of how God
reveals Himself to and interacts with His people Israel.
The New Testament
What Christians call the New Testament is simply the continuation of the
story of God caring for His people — with an even more personal touch.
God who in the Old Testament was content primarily to speak through
events (usually as interpreted by the prophets) and to speak through the
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Bible for Dummies
The Old Testament has four divisions
LAW HISTORY POETRY PROPHECY
e
h
Genesis Joshua Job Isaiah T
LEexvoitdicuuss JuRdugthes PProsavelmrbss LaJmeerenmtaitaiohns Old ment
Ezekiel
Numbers I & 2 Samuel Ecclesiastes Daniel sta
e
Deuteronomy 1 & 2 Kings Song of Solo- Hosea T
1 & 2 Chroni- mon Joel
cles Amos
Ezra Obadiah
Nehemiah Jonah
Micah
Esther
Nahum
Habakkuk
Zephaniah
Haggai
Zechariah
Malachi
The Old Testament contains 39 “books.”
The prophets are usually subdivided into “Major” prophets (Isaiah – Daniel) and “Mi-
nor” prophets (Hosea – Malachi).” They are minor only because of their brevity.
Jewish theologians have traditionally classified the Hebrew Scriptures into three divi-
sions: the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings.
prophets, now speaks through His own Son, Jesus Christ. (See Hebrews
1:1.)
Divisions of the New Testament
Jesus continues the Old Testament story as He is born into a Jewish house-
hold in Israel and focuses His ministry on “the lost sheep of the house of
Israel.” He heals and performs other miracles, but mainly He preaches (so
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Bible for Dummies
much so that John simply calls Him “the Word” in the opening verses of
his Gospel). But as before so now, the people of Israel generally reject His
words and rebel against His teaching.
This time in their rebellion they (Gentile Romans as well as Jews) crucify
Jesus and bury His body. But again God has the last word, for Jesus rises
from the dead and ascends to His Father in heaven. Yet before He leaves,
Jesus commissions His followers (called “disciples”) to go to Israel and
beyond to the whole world, declaring the good news of His death and resur-
rection and His forgiveness to all who will turn from their sin and believe in
Him.
So the New Testament continues the story of God’s interaction with His
people. This time they are not just one family or one nation but one people
arising out of many families and many nations. As those people come to-
gether in groups (“churches”), questions of belief and practice arise. So God
gives instructions to these churches through those who were with Jesus and
were eyewitnesses of His resurrection (the “apostles”).
Finally, in the last book of the Bible (Revelation), God reveals through one
of His apostles that though Jesus has ascended to heaven He will be with
His people — just as before — through their struggles and suffering. We
The Languages of the Bible
The Old Testament comes out of the culture and language of the Middle East and was
written in Hebrew (a small part of Daniel written in Aramaic, a sort of “modern He-
brew”). Hebrew is read from right to left. Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning, God created
the heavens and the earth,” looks like this:
:Xr3a3h= ta2v$ My1m-D}h- ta2 MyhO1la6 ar+b<=
tyDQad2b4<
The New Testament was written in Greek, reflecting the reality that even though the
Romans conquered the Greeks, Greek culture conquered the Romans! John 1:1, “In
the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God,”
looks like this:
∆En ajrch’/ h\n oJ lovgo”, kai; oJ lovgo” h\n pro;” to;n qeovn,
kai; qeo;” h\n oJ lovgo”.
Fortunately we have numerous English translations of the Scriptures that make it pos-
sible for us to read and study the Bible without having to know its original languages!
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Bible for Dummies
The New Testament has four divisions
GOSPELS HISTORY LETTERS PROPHECY
Matthew Acts Romans Revelation he
T
I & 2 Corinthians
Mark
w
Luke EGpahlaetsiaiannss Ne ment
John Philippians sta
Colossians Te
I & 2
Thessalonians
I & 2 Timothy
Titus
Philemon He-
brews
James
I & 2 Peter
1,2,3 John
Jude
The New Testament contains 27 “books.”
The letters (sometimes called “epistles”) are often further subdivided into the Pauline
Epistles (because they were written by Paul): Romans – Philemon; and the General
Epistles (written by others): Hebrews – Jude.
also learn that eventually God will bring his story to a close as Jesus comes
back to earth, restoring not only His people to perfection and glory but
restoring creation as well to what God had intended at the beginning. The
story comes full circle.
So we divide the New Testament into the Gospels: the life, work, and
teachings of Jesus Christ (Matthew to John); History: the birth of Chris-
tianity (Acts); Letters (sometimes called “Epistles”) to churches and indi-
viduals (Romans to Jude); and Prophecy: a glimpse into the future with an
eye on the present (Revelation).
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Bible for Dummies
Summary
Thus, through 66 books, at least 38 authors, and thousands of years, the
Bible is the story of creation, fall, and redemption; the amazing story of
God’s creating, loving and providing for His people.
Who wrote the Bible?
Christians claim that God is the ultimate Author of the Bible,
but assert that He used human authors to convey His mes-
sage. In a later chapter we will investigate how
we can know whether the Bible is true; for now we
will simply note what the Bible itself claims about
its source.
Writing to a young pastor named Timothy, Paul
— one of the apostles (leaders) of early Christi-
anity — said, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is
useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in
righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good
work.” 2 Timothy 3:16–17. Paul claimed that the Bible (what he calls “Scripture”)
was breathed out or spoken by God. That is why Christians — as well as the Scrip-
tures themselves — often refer to the Bible as the “Word of God.” (Hebrews 4:12)
Peter, another early leader, also claimed that the ultimate source of Scripture was
not with the prophet but with God Himself: “Above all, you must understand that no
prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation. For prophecy
never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were car-
ried along by the Holy Spirit.” 2 Peter 1:20–21. The image that Peter uses here is a
sailboat being “carried along” by the wind.
Christians do not believe that God “dictated” the Bible word-for-word to people who
acted only as recording secretaries. Rather, God — through His Holy Spirit working
in them — “moved people along,” using their languages, cultures, and personalities
to convey His good news message.
The books of the Bible were gradually assembled by the early Christians as they
came to a consensus of which books written by the apostles (leaders who were
eye witnesses of Christ’s ministry and resurrection) were timeless and which simply
addressed local issues of the day. The former were brought together into the New
Testament. Early Christians readily accepted the Jewish Scriptures (assembled in a
similar manner by Jewish believers over a period of 1,500 years) and came to call
them the Old Testament.
Chapter 2
The Bible is the Story
of God and Creation
In This Chapter
a The Bible is about God’s revealing Himself to mankind, not our search for God
a The Bible’s first theme is creation
a The events of creation teach us about who God is
a God and His creation are good
The Bible is not primarily the record of men’s and women’s search for
God. It is rather the story of God’s revealing Himself to us. Fittingly, it
begins, therefore, not with us but with Him.
Creation teaches us about who God is
Genesis begins, “In the beginning God….” The Bible nowhere seeks to prove
God’s existence; it simply assumes that while the universe has a beginning,
God had none. He is eternal and self-existent. He had no beginning.
Navigating through the Bible
The Bible is obviously a huge book — really, as we have seen, a library of 66 books
— so finding your way around it may seem a bit daunting at first. Although the origi-
nal authors did not divide their books into chapters and verses, fortunately for us,
later editors have.
References to a particular Bible passage use these divisions to make it easier to
find. Genesis 1:2, therefore, refers to the book of Genesis, chapter 1, and verse
2. Most Bibles have a table of contents in the front where you can locate the page
number for each book.
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Bible for Dummies
God is creative
“In the beginning, God created….” The first thing we learn about God — oth-
er than His existence — is that He is creative. He took nothing and made
something: the universe. (The Hebrew word in verse 1 implies a creation
from nothing.) We also learn that God is separate from the creation. While
this may seem obvious to us, many Eastern and New Age religions teach
that the world is god and god is the world (“pantheism”). Judaism and
Christianity teach that God is “transcendent,” that He is above and apart
from creation (although He is not totally removed from his creation, as
some other religions teach).
Does the Bible prove the existence of God?
Genesis (and the rest of the Bible) assumes that God exists but
makes no effort to prove it. Throughout history philosophers
and theologians have offered various “proofs” of God’s exis-
tence, some more valuable than others.
One of the more helpful is the argument from “First Cause.”
Since everything has to be caused by something (you
were “caused” by your parents, etc.), you can keep
moving back through the causes until you come to
the beginning of the universe. At that point you have
two alternatives: either you can believe that matter (in
some form) always existed and somehow, without any external
help, formed itself into the universe as we know it; or you can
believe that there is an eternal, powerful, intelligent God who
created the universe. Christians believe the second alterna-
tive poses far fewer problems than the first.
Of course, attempting to prove God’s existence and enjoying a personal relation-
ship with Him are two different things.
“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” Contrary to many
popular notions, the first event in the Bible that we can date with relative
certainty is the appearance of Abraham (around 2,070 B.C.). It is, therefore,
impossible from the Bible to date when “the beginning” occurred — even
though many older Bibles contain the date 4,004 B.C. Significantly, the Bible
itself seems uninterested in the “when” of creation. Later references to cre-
ation in the Psalms and prophets and in the New Testament refer to God’s
power in creating the world but ignore the issue of when He did it.