In years past, the Bible was a book that was talked about a lot in secular and religious circles.  Listen to what some of the following famous people said about the Bible.

 John Quincy Adams:

So great is my veneration for the Bible, that the earlier my children begin to read it the more confident will be my hopes that they will prove useful citizens to their country and respectable members of society . . .1

I speak as a man of the world to men of the world; and I say to you, “Search the Scriptures!”  The Bible is the book of all others, to be read at all ages; and in all conditions of human life; not to be read once or twice or thrice through, and then laid aside, but to be read in small portions of one or two chapters every day, and never to be intermitted, unless by some overruling necessity.2

Lady Jane Gray:

The highest earthly enjoyments are but a shadow of the joy I find in reading God’s Word.3

Daniel Webster:

I have read the Bible through many times, and now make it a practice to read it through once every year.  It is a book of all others for lawyers, as well as divines; and I pity the man who cannot find in it a rich supply of thought and of rules for conduct.4

Benjamin Franklin:

A Bible and a newspaper in every house, a good school in every district – all studied and appreciated as they merit – are the principal support of virtue, morality, and civil liberty.5

And we could quote from other men and women about how great the Bible is.  In fact, I don’t know if I have ever heard someone say, “The Bible?  Why on earth would you read the Bible?  It’s a piece of junk!”  Everyone – Christian or otherwise – seems to have some respect for the Bible.  They either appreciate it for its literary quality or for its spiritual value or for its insights into ancient societies.  But for whatever reason, everyone seems to have some appreciation for the Bible.

But what is it?

1. The Bible is “the books” 

The word “Bible” in English is taken from the Greek word la biblia or “the books.”6  The Bible is a collection of “the books.”  To be specific, it is a collection of the 66 books that the ancient Jews and Christians considered to be the sacred words of God.  The first book, Genesis, was written around 1445 B.C.7 and the last book, Revelation, was written around A. D. 90.8  And in between these two books are 64 other books written by more than 40 different authors.

Why were the books of the Bible divided up the way they were?

If you have ever looked at the Table of Contents at the front of your Bible, you might be asking yourself that question.  Why on earth were those books placed where they are?  They are not in alphabetical order.  If you have read them, you’ll know that they are not in chronological order, either.  And they are obviously not placed in the order of the easiest and hardest to spell.  So why were the books of the Bible divided up the way that they are?

The Bible is divided up into two major sections: the Old Testament and the New Testament.  The Old Testament refers to everything that happened from creation right up until a few centuries before Jesus was born.  The New Testament refers to everything that happened from Jesus’ birth until the end of the world.  Another way to look at the division is this: the Old Testament was written before the cross and the New Testament was written after the cross.  The Old Testament refers to the old covenant that God made with Israel and the New Testament refers to the new covenant that God makes with His Church.9

When this topical division occurs, there are four major sections of the Old Testament and three of the New.  We will look at the sections of the Old Testament first.

The first is the Law.  The Law includes the first five books of the Bible: Genesis; Exodus; Leviticus; Numbers; and Deuteronomy.  The word “Law” may be a little misleading because there is some history and poetry and prophecy included in these books but they are primarily about the Law.

These five books contain the rules that the nation of Israel was commanded to follow.  In Hebrew it was called the torah or the book of “direction and instruction.”10  It was also called the “Law of Moses” because it was written by Moses.  One Bible Dictionary said this about the Law:

In Israel all crimes were crimes against God.  Consequently, He expected all His people to love and serve Him.  As the final Judge, God disciplined those who violated His Law.  The nation of Israel was responsible for upholding this Law and insuring that justice was done.11

God made the people of Israel responsible for obeying and upholding His law on the earth.  The Israelites were to be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.

The Law was put at the front of the Bible because it was to set the tone for the rest of the Bible.  If you read the Bible cover-to-cover, you will see that there is a basic theme written into its pages.  God gave man a Law.  Man could not keep that Law.  And, because God was rich in mercy, God Himself came to live as a man named Jesus Christ to perfectly fulfill the Law and to allow Himself to be punished in the place of all those who broke the Law and believed in Him.  That is the Bible in a nutshell.

But it all starts with God’s Law.  The first five books of the Bible set the tone for the next 59.  The Apostle Paul even says in Galatians 3:24, “Therefore, the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we m ay be justified by faith.”  The Law was put in charge at the front of the Bible to lead us to Jesus Christ towards the end of the Bible.  The Law shows us our need for a Savior and it does so at the very beginning of the Bible.

The second topical division in the Old Testament is the History Books.  The History Books include the next 12 books: Joshua; Judges; Ruth; First and Second Samuel; First and Second Kings; First and Second Chronicles; Ezra; Nehemiah; and Esther.  And, again, the title “History” may be a little misleading because there is more than just history in these books.  But the bulk of the material in them is history material.

The History Books scan about 1,000 years of Israel’s history.12  After Moses wrote God’s Law and brought the nation of Israel out of slavery in Egypt, he died.  The books of Joshua through Esther tell us what happens after Moses’ death until the Jews are enslaved again, this time to the Babylonians.  In these books, Israel conquers the Promised Land and demonstrates the pattern we mentioned earlier.  While they are settling into their new home, they break God’s law again and again and again and again and again until God is finally fed up with their sins.  At which time, he allows the king of Babylon to capture the land and take Israel captive and drive them out of Palestine.

When the History Books end, most of the Jews are still in captivity in Babylon but some of them have been allowed to return and rebuild the Temple and the walls around Jerusalem.  You can read about that rebuilding process in Esther and Nehemiah.

The third topical division in the Old Testament is the Poetry Books.  The Poetry Books refer to the five books after Esther: Job; Psalms; Proverbs; Ecclesiastes; and the Song of Solomon.  These five books are all lumped together because they are poetic in nature.

Just to give a one-word description of the poetry in each book: Job is the poetry of suffering.  Psalms is the poetry of praise.  Proverbs is the poetry of wisdom.  Ecclesiastes is the poetry of life.  The Song of Solomon is the poetry of romance.

If you have read any of these books, you will notice that Hebrew poetry is very different from English poetry.  Hebrew poetry is not so much interested with rhyming as it is with rhythm or sequence.  Hebrew poetry considers things like the number and order of words in a sentence/paragraph.  In some Old Testament poems, the first sentence will have ten words, the second sentence will have eight words, the third sentence will have six words, the fourth sentence will have eight words, and the fifth sentence will have ten words.13  They will decrease in number and then increase towards the middle or vice versa.  That was poetry to the Old Testament Jews.

Other poems would have every sentence or section start off with a letter of the Hebrew alphabet in sequential order.14  The longest chapter in the Bible is Psalm 119.  It has 176 verses and is divided up into 22 sections.  Each section starts off with the next letter of the Hebrew alphabet in order and every first word of every sentence starts off with that letter.  If it was written in English, verses one through eight would each start off with the letter A.  Verses nine through 16 would start off with the letter B.  Verses 17 through 24 would start off with the letter C.  And so forth and so on.  That was poetry to the Israelites.

But the Jews were not interested in rhyming.  Hebrew, the language the Old Testament was written in, does not sound very pretty when it is read or spoken.  It is earthy.  It sounds like cave-man talk.  To be to the point, Hebrew would not sound pretty if it rhymed or not.  So the Old Testament poets did not bother making their words sound alike.  That would not have added any beauty to their material.  Because of that, they just stuck with sequence and word order.

The fourth topical division in the Old Testament is the Prophecy Books.  The Prophecy Books number 17 in all and they are divided up into two sections: the Major Prophets and the Minor Prophets.  The terms “major” and “minor” do not refer to the importance of the books but to the size of them.  The Major Prophets refer to the larger prophetic books and the Minor Prophets refer to the smaller prophetic books.

The Major Prophets are listed first in the Bible and they include the books of Isaiah; Jeremiah; Lamentations; Ezekiel; and Daniel.  The Minor Prophets are listed second and they include the books of Hosea; Joel; Amos; Obadiah; Jonah; Micah; Nahum; Habakkuk; Zephaniah; Haggai; Zechariah; and Malachi.

The word “prophecy” has been taken in our culture to refer only to messages about the future but the word actually refers to any message from the Lord.15  A prophet was someone who told people what God wanted to say to them.  Sometimes what a prophet said referred to the future and sometimes what he said referred to the present in the form of a command or a rebuke.

So these Major and Minor Prophetic Books refer to the future of Israel and they refer to what Israel was doing at the time.

Just as there are four major divisions of the Old Testament, there are three major divisions of the New Testament.  The first is the History Books.  The History Books of the New Testament are Matthew; Mark; Luke; John; and Acts.  They occur first because they lay the foundation that the rest of the books in the New Testament are built upon.

Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John tell about the events of the life of Jesus Christ.  These books are called the “Gospels” or the “Good News.”16  The authors wrote about the “Good News” that there is a Savior for law-breakers: the Lord Jesus Christ.  The Gospels record Jesus’ birth and Jesus’ miracles and Jesus’ sermons and Jesus’ parables and Jesus’ crucifixion and Jesus’ resurrection.  The Gospels give us the history of Jesus Christ.

The fifth book in the list of New Testament History Books is Acts.  Acts is the history of the early church.  It tells how the church began.  It talks about the ascension of Jesus Christ into Heaven and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost and the missionary endeavors of the Apostles.  It describes the lives of Peter and Paul in detail and tells us how the teachings of Jesus and His followers quickly spread all over the known world.

The second topical division in the New Testament is the Letters.  The vast majority of books in the New Testament are letters that the Apostles sent to the early churches.  The Jews did not do this in the Old Testament but the leaders of the New Testament churches sent letters to their congregations to tell them how those churches were to operate, what they should be teaching, and what they should be looking out for.

The Letters are divided up into two sections: the Letters of Paul and the General Letters.  The Letters of Paul make up the first 13 books after Acts.  They include Romans; First and Second Corinthians; Galatians; Ephesians; Philippians; Colossians; First and Second Thessalonians; First and Second Timothy; Titus; and Philemon.  Paul was a converted Jew who was used by the Lord to start churches all over the Ancient Near East.  If you take a casual glance at the titles of the letters Paul wrote, you will notice that some of his letters were named after places and some of his letters were named after people.  Romans and Galatians and Ephesians all refer to cities in the ancient world.  Timothy, Titus, and Philemon all refer to people.  Paul wrote some of his letters to churches in the cities where he had ministered to and he wrote some of his letters to people.

The General Letters comprise a much smaller list than the Letters of Paul.  They refer to the eight books after Philemon.  The General Letters include Hebrews; James; First and Second Peter; First, Second, and Third John; and Jude.  Other than the Book of Hebrews, all of the General Letters are named after their authors.  James wrote James.  Peter wrote Peter.  John wrote the letters of John.  Jude wrote Jude.

The identity of the author of Hebrews is unknown.  The letter was written anonymously.  No writer is mentioned in the book.  One ancient scholar said that the writer wrote like Paul but God alone knows who wrote it.17

The third topical division in the New Testament is the Prophetic Book.  There is only one Prophetic Book in the New Testament: Revelation.  Revelation is a description of what the end of the world will be like.  It is written with some warnings for the churches in John’s day but the majority of the book gives us insight into what is to come.

Because Revelation is a book about the future, a lot of its material is symbolic or figurative, which can make for a confusing read.  Winston Churchill once described the Soviet Union as “a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma”18 and a lot of people look at Revelation like that.  They think it is a hopelessly confusing book.  But Revelation is actually a very rewarding book if you take the time to read it carefully.  Revelation 1:3 says, “Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy, and heed the things which are written in it; for the time is near.”  You will be blessed if you take the time to read Revelation.

2. The Bible is Understandable 

There are mysteries in the Bible but the Bible is not a mystery itself.  It is understandable.  It can be grasped.  God was not hiding when He wrote His “books.”

Just to help explain this a little more, there are five ways in which you can understand the Bible.  First, hear the Bible.  The Bible is a book, so you cannot literally “hear” it but you can hear it explained to you in a sermon or in a Bible Study.  You can hear it read to you at your church or in your home.  And that act of hearing helps you to understand.  It aids in your comprehension of the Scriptures.

In fact, Romans 10:17 says, “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.”  No one can become a Christian . . . No one can have “faith” if they do not first hear the message.  And the message is heard through the word of Christ.  It is heard through the Bible.  To know Jesus, you must first have Jesus explained to them and He can only be explained to you if His Word is explained to you.  And His Word is in the Bible.

So to understand the Bible and to even become a Christian, you must first hear the Bible.

Second, read the Bible.  It only makes sense that if you want to understand a book, you must first read that book.  You cannot understand your science textbook if you don’t first read your science textbook.  And you cannot understand the Bible if you don’t first read the Bible.

It is very discouraging to me as a pastor to come across people who complain that they “can’t understand the Bible” but, at the same time, they admit that they “have never read the Bible.”  Or they tell me that they try to read the Bible by opening it up to the middle somewhere around Job or Ezekiel and start reading and quit when they get confused.

That discourages me because I know that they wouldn’t read The Count of Monte Cristo like that.  They wouldn’t tackle a John Grisham novel with that approach.  If you want to read the Bible, I would encourage you to read it like you would read any other book.  Start at the beginning and, when you come to a History Book, read it like you would read a history book.  When you come to a Poetry Book, read it like you would read a poetry book.  When you come to a Prophetic Book, read it like you would read a prophetic book.19

But whatever you do, if you want to understand the Bible, read it.

Third, study the Bible.  Read it with the intention of understanding what you read.  The Bible was written thousands of years ago, so a lot of its references are confusing to audiences today.  The Bible mentions events and people and places that happened a long, long time ago.  So to understand what it is talking about when it mentions those events and people and places, you must work.  You must pour over it.  You must study.  Ask yourself: “What did this mean when it was first written and what does it mean for me today?”

Here are a few resources to help you study the Bible:

A. Study Bibles

Study Bibles provide charts and diagrams and brief explanations about what each verse of the Bible is saying.  They aid you ininterpreting the Bible so you can make sure that you are not misunderstanding anything.  Some good Study Bibles are The MacArthur Study Bible and The Reformation Study Bible.

B. Bible Dictionaries 

These are set up just like regular dictionaries with the exception that they only talk about events, places, and people from the Bible.  Allthe words are in alphabetical order and each entry provides helpful information and verse references to help you understand the concept.  Some good Bible Dictionaries are Nelson’s New Illustrated Bible Dictionary, Unger’s Bible Dictionary, and The Zondervan Pictoral Encyclopedia of the Bible. 

C. Bible Commentaries

Bible Commentaries are an extended version of the Study Bibles.  In the Commentaries, every verse in the Bible has a comment or an explanation on it.  Some of these explanations are rather long and you can find commentary sets that encompass dozens of books.  Some good Bible Commentaries that are not too extensive are The Bible Knowledge Commentary, The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, and William Hendriksen & Simon J. Kistemaker’s New Testament Commentary. 

Fourth, memorize the Bible.  The more you remember the Bible and the more you think about the Bible, the more you will understand the Bible.  Now in saying that you need to memorize the Bible, I am not advising you to try and memorize the entire Bible.  Very few people on the planet have the time and the mental capacity to do that.  But there are key verses in the Bible that you can memorize that capture major themes.  These are definitely worth memorizing and anyone with a low degree of education can do it.  Here are a few of the verses that would be worth your time to memorize.

John 3:16,

For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

John 3:36,

He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.

Acts 4:12,

And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.

Romans 6:23,

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Second Corinthians 5:21 says,

He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

The more you memorize verses like these, the better you will understand the Bible.

Fifth, meditate on the Bible.  To meditate on something is to mentally chew on it.  It is to turn it over and over and over again in your mind.  To say it another way, meditation is thinking on something until its meaning becomes clear to you.

Some truths take time to understand.  The Bible is full of them.  And the right way to spend time trying to understand those truths is to meditate on them.  To think deeply on them.  Go over them again and again until their meaning is obvious to you.

1. The New Dictionary of Thoughts, ed. by Tryon Edwards, (Standard Book Company, 1959) 46. [↩]
2. Ibid., 48. [↩]
3. Ibid. [↩]
4. Ibid., 49. [↩]
5. Ibid. [↩]
6. New Bible Dictionary, ed. by J. D. Gouglas (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 2006 ed.) 135. [↩]
7. John MacArthur, The MacArthur Bible Commentary (Nashville, Tenn.: Thomas Nelson, Inc., 2006) 4. [↩]
8. Ibid., 1999. [↩]
9. F. Unger, Unger’s Bible Dictionary (Chicago: Moody Press, 1966) 1085-1086. [↩]
10. A Concise Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament, ed. by William L. Holladay (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1988) 388. [↩]
11. Nelson’s New Illustrated Bible Dictionary, ed. by Ronald F. Youngblood (Nashville, Tenn.: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1995) 747-748. [↩]
12. The MacArthur Bible Commentary, 255, 553.  Joshua talks about events that occurred from 1405-1385 B.C. and Esther talks about events that occurred around 473 B.C. [↩]
13. The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, Volume Three, ed. by Geoffrey W. Bromiley (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1986) 892-896. [↩]
14. Ibid. [↩]
15. Ibid., 986.  “A wide range of persons with diverse associations were called prophets because each in some way claimed to be communicating a divine message.” [↩]
16. New Bible Dictionary, 426. [↩]
17. Donald Guthrie, New Testament Introduction, Revised Edition (Downers Grove, Ill.: Inter-Varsity Press, 1990) 669.  The author mentioned here is Origen.  His exact words on the authorship of Hebrews are “While the thoughts are Pauline, only God knows who wrote it.” [↩]
18. Quoted John MacArthur’s Because the Time is Near (Chicago: Moody Publishers, 2007) 7. [↩]
19. For more information about reading and interpreting the Bible, please see our Frequently Asked Question, “How am I supposed to interpret the Bible.” [↩]