The Bible

651 the bibleBooks, letters and apocrypha

The word Bible comes from the Greek and means books (biblia). The "Book of Books" is divided into the Old and New Testaments. The evangelical edition consists of 39 writings in the Old Testament and 27 writings in the New Testament as well as the 11 late writings of the Old Testament - the so-called Apocrypha.

The individual books are very different in character, they vary in scope as well as in the focus of content and stylistic representations. Some function more as history books, some as textbooks, as poetic and prophetic writing, as a code of law or as a letter.

The contents of the Old Testament

The Law books comprise the five books of Moses and tell the story of the people of Israel from their beginnings to their liberation from slavery in Egypt. The other books of the Old Testament deal with the conquest of the Israelites in Canaan, the kingdoms of Israel and Judah, the exile of the Israelites and finally their return from exile in Babylon. Songs, lyric and proverbs can be found in the OT as well as the books of the prophets.

The History books dedicate themselves to the history of Israel from the entry into the promised land to the banishment to the return from the Babylonian exile.

The Textbooks and poetic books convey wisdom, knowledge and experience that have been written down in succinct mottos and sayings or even in a lyrical quality.

In the Books of prophets it is about incidents and processes of that time, in which the prophets make the actions of God recognizable and remind them of a corresponding way of acting and living for people. These messages, which were created through visions and divine inspirations, were written down by the prophets themselves or their disciples and thus recorded for posterity.

Overview of the contents of the Old Testament

The books of the law, the five books of Moses:

  • 1. Book of Moses (Genesis)
  • 2. Book of Moses (Exodus)
  • 3. Book of Moses (Leviticus)
  • 4. Book of Moses (Numbers)
  • 5. Book of Moses (Deuteronomy)

The history books:

  • The book of Joshua
  • The Book of Judges
  • The book of Ruth
  • The 1. Book of Samuel
  • The 2. Book of Samuel
  • The 1. Book of kings
  • The 2. Book of kings
  • The Chronicle Books (1. and 2. Timeline)
  • The book of Ezra
  • The book of Nehemiah
  • The book of Esther

The textbooks and poetic books:

  • The Book of Job
  • The psalms
  • The Proverbs of Solomon
  • Solomon's preacher
  • The Song of Solomon

Prophetic books:

  • Isaiah
  • Jeremiah
  • Lamentations
  • Ezekiel (Ezekiel)
  • Daniel
  • Hosea
  • Joel
  • Doms
  • Obadiah
  • Jona
  • Micha
  • Nahum
  • Habakuk
  • Zefaniah
  • haggai
  • Zechariah
  • Malachi

The contents of the New Testament

The New Testament describes what Jesus' life and death means to the world.

The History books with the four Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles tell of Jesus Christ, his ministry, his death and the resurrection. The book of Acts is about the spread of Christianity in the Roman Empire and about the first Christian communities.

The letters were probably written to Christian communities by the various apostles. The largest collection is the thirteen letters of the apostle Paul.

During the Revelating of the Johannes it is about the Apocalypse, a prophetic representation of the end of the world, combined with the hope of a new heaven and a new earth.

Overview of the contents of the New Testament

History books

  • Gospels

Matthew

Markus

Lukas

John

  • Acts of the Apostles

 letters

  • Paul's letter to the Romans
  • The 1. and 2. Epistle from Paul to the Corinthians
  • Paul's letter to the Galatians
  • Paul's letter to the Ephesians
  • Paul's letter to the Philippians
  • Paul's letter to the Colossians
  • The 1. Letter from Paul to the Thessalonians
  • The 2. Letter from Paul to the Thessalonians
  • The 1. and 2. Epistle from Paul to Timothy and to Titus (pastoral letters)
  • Paul's letter to Philemon
  • The 1. Letter from Peter
  • The 2. Letter from Peter
  • The 1. Letter from Johannes
  • The 2. and 3. Letter from Johannes
  • The letter to the Hebrews
  • The letter from James
  • The letter from Jude

Prophetic book

  • The Revelation of John (Apocalypse)

The late writings / apocrypha of the Old Testament

The Catholic and Protestant Bible editions differ in the Old Testament. The Catholic version contains a few more books:

  • Judy
  • tobit
  • 1. and 2. Book of the Maccabees
  • wisdom
  • Jesus Sirach
  • Baruch
  • Additions to the book of Esther
  • Additions to the book of Daniel
  • Manasseh's prayer

The old church took the Greek edition, the so-called Septuagint, as a basis. It contained more books than the traditional Hebrew edition from Jerusalem.

Martin Luther, on the other hand, used the Hebrew edition for his translation, which thus did not contain the corresponding books of the Septuagint. He added the scriptures to his translation as "Apocrypha" (literally: hidden, secret).

Source: German Bible Society http://www.die-bibel.de