The Bible for Blockheads

Copyright © 1999, 2007 by Douglas Connelly

Requests for information should be addressed to:

Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49530

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Connelly, Douglas, 1949 – .

The Bible for blockheads : a user-friendly look at the Good Book / Douglas Connelly. — ­Rev. ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN-13: 978-0-310-27388-2
ISBN-10: 0-310-27388-9
1.  Bible — ­Introductions.  I. Title.
BS475.2.C67 2007
220.6'1 — ­dc22
 2007006709

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible: Today’s New International Version™. TNIV®.
Copyright © 2001, 2005 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from the Holy Bible: New International Version®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by
International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked NASB are taken from the New American Standard Bible, © Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972,
1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

Scripture quotations marked MSG are taken from THE MESSAGE. Copyright © by Eugene H. Peterson 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000,
2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by
any means without the prior permission of the publisher.

Interior design by Mark Sheeres

Interior Illustrations by Patten Illustration

Printed in the United States of America

07  08  09  10  11  12  •  20  19  18  17  16  15  14  13  12  11  10  9  8  7  6  5  4  3  2  1
Contents

Welcome. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
The Bible: What’s with It?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Getting Started. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Tool Time: Study Bibles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Part 1: Foundations
Genesis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Chart: Abraham’s Family. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Exodus. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Chart: The Tabernacle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Tool Time: Commentaries. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Leviticus. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Numbers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Map: Israel’s Wilderness Journey and Entry into Canaan. . . . . . . 62
Deuteronomy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
How the Old Testament Fits Together: Exodus and Conquest. . . . 70

Part 2: Story
Joshua. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
­ People of the Bible: The Canaanites. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Judges. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Chart: The Judges of Israel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Ruth. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
1 Sam­uel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
­ People of the Bible: The Philistines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
2 Sam­uel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
1 and 2 Kings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
How the Old Testament Fits Together: Israel’s Kingdom . . . . . . . . 110
1 and 2 Chron­icles. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
Ezra. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Map: Return Routes from Babylon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
­ People of the Bible: The Persians. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
 How the Old Testament Fits Together: Return from Exile . . . . . . 122
Map: The Persian Empire. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Nehemiah. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
Esther. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129

Part 3: Drama
Job. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
Tool Time: Concordances. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145

Part 4: Worship
Psalms. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149

Part 5: Wisdom
Proverbs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
Ecclesiastes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
Song of Songs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169

Part 6: Prophets
Chart: The Ministries of the Prophets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
Isaiah. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
Jeremiah. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
Map: The Neo-Babylonian Empire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
­ People of the Bible: The Babylonians. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
Lamentations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202
Ezekiel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
Daniel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217
Chart: The Minor Prophets. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
Hosea. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226
Joel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233
Amos. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
Tool Time: Bible Dictionaries. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244
Obadiah. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246
Jonah. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250
­ People of the Bible: The Assyrians. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255
Micah. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256
Nahum. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263
 Habakkuk. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267
Zephaniah. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272
Haggai. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277
Zechariah. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283
Malachi. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289

Part 7: Gospels
Matthew. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299
Map: Palestine in Jesus’ Day. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305
Mark. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308
Luke. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316
John. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324

Part 8: History
Acts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337
Map: Paul’s First Missionary Journey. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343
Map: Paul’s Second Missionary Journey. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344
Map: Paul’s Third Missionary Journey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345
Tool Time: Bible Atlases. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 348

Part 9: Letters
Romans. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 355
Map: The Roman Empire. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 361
­ People of the Bible: The Romans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 364
1 Co­rin­thi­ans. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365
2 Co­rin­thi­ans. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 370
Galatians. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 377
Ephesians. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 383
Philippians. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 389
Colossians. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 395
1 Thes­salo­nians. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 401
2 Thes­salo­nians. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 406
1 Tim­othy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 410
2 Tim­othy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 415
Titus. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 419
Philemon. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 423
Hebrews. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 427
 James. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 34
1 Peter. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 439
2 Peter. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 444
John’s Letters. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 448
Jude. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 455
Revelation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 459

A Word of Thanks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 469
The Bible: What’s with It?

Ñ Discover how the Bible was written — ­and how it survived.

Ñ Learn to find your way around quickly.
Ñ Find out what role God played in the production of the Bible.

T he word Bible means “the book.” The Bible is one book, but it is also
a collection of books. Sixty-six books were written over 1,600 years
by at least forty different authors. You will find just about every kind
of writing in the Bible — ­love letters, songs, historical records, diaries,
visions of the future, genealogies, riddles. The Bible was the first book
printed on a printing press, and it still outsells all other books in the
marketplace. You can get the Bible on audio, on video, and online. It
has been translated into more languages and has been quoted more and
memorized more than any book in human history.
The Bible is divided into two main sections — ­the Old Testament and
the New Testament. The Old Testament focuses on God’s interaction
with the ­people of Israel. The New Testament, written later, focuses
on Jesus and his early followers called Chris­tians. The word testament
means “treaty or covenant,” an agreement made between two ­people.
God entered into a contract with the ­people of Israel in the Old Testa-
ment. God’s new contract (in the New Testament) is made with anyone
who will commit to following Jesus. In each Testament the terms of
the agreement are spelled out. The Bible is an instruction manual for
­people who want to do what pleases God.

The Old Testament

The first and longest major division of the Bible is called the Old Testa-
ment by Chris­tians. (Jewish ­people refer to it as “the Hebrew Bible.”)
Thirty-nine individual biblical books are included in the Old Testa-
ment. Some of the books are named for their author — ­like the book of
Daniel.­ Daniel was a prophet (or spokesperson) for God, who wrote that

11
12 The Bible for Blockheads

­particular book. Some books are named for their main characters, who
may or may not be the author. The book of Joshua is about a great leader
named Joshua. The book of Esther is about a Jewish girl who became a
courageous queen. Joshua probably was the author of his book. Esther
probably was not the writer of the book about her.
Other Old Testament books get their names because of the story they
tell. The book of Exodus, for example, tells the story of the nation of
Israel’s “exit” from Egypt. The books of Kings talk about (you guessed
it) Israel’s kings. Some books have unusual names that don’t make much
sense in English — ­Leviticus, Ecclesiastes, Psalms. (I’ve tried to give some
explanation of these titles in the Help File section of each of these books.)
Originally the Old Testament was written in two languages. Most of it
was written in Hebrew. Small sections of a few books were written in a
language related to Hebrew called Aramaic.
Here’s what Hebrew looks like in a modern Hebrew Bible:

.≈r<<a;h;  taE w ]  myim/V; h/  tae  mytI lo a‘  ar: B;  tyviareB]
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

Hebrew is read from right to left (the opposite of English) and from
the top line of the page to the bottom line (the same as English). The
large blocky letters are the consonants (twenty-two in the Hebrew
alphabet). The dots and small marks above or below the consonants are
vowels or vowel “points.” When the Old Testament was first composed,
Hebrew was written with no vowels and no word divisions (mostly to
conserve room on very expensive writing material). Word divisions were
made about AD 100. Vowel marks were added in the ninth or tenth cen-
tury AD to preserve the correct pronunciation of the ancient Hebrew
language.
Hebrew is a very expressive language. It is a language suited to stories
and poetry — ­exactly the forms found most often in the Old Testament.

The New Testament

The second main section of the Bible is the New Testament (twenty-
seven biblical books). Just as in the Old Testament, some of these books
are named for their author. The gospel of John, for example, is the story
of Jesus (a gospel) written by one of Jesus’ followers (John). Other books
 The Bible: What’s with It? 13

are named for their content. The book of Acts records the “acts,” or
deeds, of the early Chris­tians. Many of the New Testament books are
letters and are named for those who first read the letter. Ephesians, for
example, is a letter sent to the Chris­tians in the city of Ephesus. ­People
living in the city of Corinth were called Corinthians — ­and we have two
letters to the Corinthian Chris­tians (1 and 2 Co­rin­thi­ans).
The New Testament was originally written in Greek. When the story
of the New Testament opened, Rome ruled the world of Europe and
North Africa, but the universal language of the Roman Empire was
Greek, not Latin. The New Testament was written in “street Greek.”
It was not the difficult language of the scholars, but the everyday
language­ of the ­people. Today it looks like this in a printed Greek New
Testament:

∆En ajrch/ç h\n oJ lovgoß, kai© oJ lovgoß h\n pro©ß to©n qeovn, kai©
qeoß h\n oJ lovgoß.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with
God, and the Word was God.

Greek is read from left to right, just like English. While Hebrew is a
poetic language, Greek is a very precise language. Its words and struc-
ture are more rigid than Hebrew. It is a great language for precise, clear
communication.

A Survival Story
The original documents of the Bible have all disappeared, but copies of
the originals have survived. We take making copies for granted. Every
drugstore and post office has a ten-cent copy machine. Before the print-
ing press, however, every copy of a book or letter had to be made by
hand. Some of the most respected ­people in society were scribes, those
who could write or copy words. Think of how long it would take you
to copy by hand even one book of the Bible or the latest John Grisham
novel! ­People in the ancient world copied only the most important or
treasured documents.
Hand-produced copies of the Hebrew Old Testament and the Greek
New Testament are called manuscripts. Some of the manuscripts
we possess are very old. We are confident that these manuscripts are
14 The Bible for Blockheads

accurate copies of the original writings because the Jews and later the
Chris­tians who copied the text took extreme care in their work. They
were fanatics about accuracy!
So many copies (manuscripts) have survived that we can compare
the places where minor discrepancies occur. Less than 1 percent of the
accuracy of the New Testament text, for example, is seriously ques-
tioned. That is just one word out of every four thousand words. More
significantly, none of the teachings of the Bible are affected by any
variation in the text.
Over four thousand Greek manuscripts of the New Testament have
survived. Compare that to some other ancient writings:
• Homer’s Iliad has the most surviving copies of any other ancient
document — ­643 manuscripts. Five percent of the text is
questionable.­
• Julius Caesar’s Gallic Wars rests on only ten surviving copies.
• Tacitus wrote seventeen books of Roman history. Only four and
one-half books survive in two copies.
Two of the oldest complete New Testament manuscripts that survive
were copied about AD 350 — ­some 250 years after the New Testament
was completed. In addition we have fragments of various New Testa-
ment books that can be dated 100 to 200 years earlier, to within 150
years of the writing of the New Testament. Other ancient writings don’t
even come close.
Scholars of the Greek dramatist Sophocles tell us that we have an
accurate text of his seven surviving plays. But the manuscript on which

Chapter and Verse

The books of the Bible were not divided
into chapters until the year 1214. Stephen
Langton, who was England’s leading clergy-
man, proposed chapter divisions that were
adopted not only by the Chris­tians but also
by the Jews.
Verse divisions didn’t appear until 1551.
Robert Estienne, a French printer, decided to
divide the chapters of the Bible into smaller
sections. His son later wrote that Estienne
had constructed the verse divisions while
on a journey on horseback — ­which may
explain why some of the verse divisions
appear in such unexpected places!
The New International Version of the
Bible is divided into 1,189 chapters and
31,086 verses. It contains 726,109 words — ­
and a vocabulary of 14,462 words!
 The Bible: What’s with It? 15

the text is based was copied more than 1,400 years after the poet’s
death.
The earliest surviving copies of the dialogues of Plato date from
1,300 years after their original writing.
We don’t have the actual letter written to the Chris­tians in Ephesus
(our New Testament book of Ephesians), but we can put our confidence
in the accuracy of the text we do have. The Bible has survived attacks
from every direction. Dictators have tried to destroy it, critics have tried
to shred it, skeptics have tried to ignore it, and enemies have tried to
burn it, but it has survived them all.

Finding Your Way Around

Once Bibles began to be printed as books on a printing press (around
AD 1550), chapters and verses were added to make it easier to find a
specific text. Today we have a standard way of writing references to
Bible verses. John 1:12, for example, means the gospel of John (the
biblical book), chapter 1 (the chapter is listed to the left of the colon),
verse 12 (the verse number is listed to the right of the colon). The Bible
reference is the “address” of the verse in the Bible. You can pick up any
Bible and find the gospel of John (the fourth book in the New Testa-
ment section). In the first chapter at verse number 12, you would read
something like this:
Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his
name, he gave the right to become children of God.

To refer to more than one verse, a dash is used to connect the first
and last verses. John 1:12 – 14 indicates the section of John, chapter 1,
from verse 12 through verse 14. Individual verses in a chapter are sepa-
rated by a comma. John 1:12, 14 refers to John, chapter 1, verse 12 and
verse 14. Sections of a book covering more than one chapter are also
indicated by using a dash. Acts 15:36 – 18:22 refers to the book of Acts,
chapter 15, verse 36, through chapter 18, verse 22. Sometimes a Bible
reference just includes the chapters of a book. John 14 – 17 means the
gospel of John, chapter 14 through chapter 17.
A few biblical books are just one chapter in length. A reference to
those books mentions only the book name and verse number. Jude 8
refers to the book of Jude, verse 8.
Occasionally a reference will be made to a small section of a verse
rather than the whole verse. A lowercase a or b (and sometimes c if the
16 The Bible for Blockheads

The Evil Bible

In 1631 one enterprising group of printers
produced a thousand copies of the Bible.
There was just one little problem. One key
word was missing from one of the Ten
Commandments in Exodus 20. This Bible
read, “Thou shalt commit adultery.” The
printers left out the word not and were
fined thousands of dollars (three thousand
English pounds). Their Bible became known
as “The Adulterer’s Bible.”

verse is long) is used in the reference. John 1:12a refers to the first part
of verse 12 in the gospel of John, chapter 1.
The Bible is also divided into paragraphs or stanzas of poetry. Differ-
ent versions of the Bible have different ways of indicating those divi-
sions. Sometimes the editors of a version of the Bible will insert section
headings describing the content of a section or “passage” of Scripture.
As you read and use your Bible more, you will become familiar with
the “mechanics” of its layout. What is most important in your Bible, of
course, is not the layout or size of the print or color of the cover. What is
most important are the words of the Bible themselves.

But I Don’t Speak Greek!

Down through the centuries, the Bible has been translated from
Hebrew and Greek into other languages. A translation of the Bible is
usually called a version of the Bible. The Authorized Version (AV; also
called the King James Version [KJV]) of the Bible is one of the most
famous English translations. It was completed in 1611 and was the main
version of the Bible used by Protestant, English-speaking Chris­tians for
more than three hundred years. But the English language has changed
in the past four centuries, and the KJV has become more difficult to
understand. In the mid-1900s several contemporary English-language
versions of the Bible were produced.
One popular English version is the New American Standard Bible
(NASB for short). This very accurate translation converts the Hebrew
and Greek text into English as directly as possible. The NASB was
updated in 1998.
The New International Version (NIV) is the most widely used Eng-
lish version today. It translates the original languages accurately but in
a more readable style than the NASB. In this book I use the TNIV — ­
 The Bible: What’s with It? 17

Today’s New International Version. It’s a revision of the NIV that

eliminates most instances of the generic use of masculine nouns and
pronouns, and it speaks clearly to today’s culture.
Other widely used versions in English are:
• New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
• New King James Version (NKJV)
• New American Bible (NAB) (used by many Catholics)
• Jerusalem Bible (JB) (used by many Catholics)
• New Living Translation (NLT)
• Contemporary English Version (CEV)
• English Standard Version (ESV)
All versions or translations of the Bible attempt to express accurately
the meaning of the original writings in a new language.
The best version for you to use is the one you will actually read! If
you like and can understand the English of the KJV, fine. If you enjoy
the NASB, plunge in. If you are new to the Bible or have never read the
Bible much, the NIV or the TNIV is an excellent choice.

Is the Good Book God’s Book?

Chris­tians look at the Bible as more than just a collection of ancient
religious writings. The Bible is God’s Word — ­God’s truth written in

The Apocrypha
Some Bibles have more than sixty-six books.
Catholic Bibles, for example, have more than
thirty-nine books in the Old Testament (an
extra seven books). Some Protestant Bibles
include a separate section between the Old
Testament and New Testament called the
Apocrypha.
The fourteen or fifteen books of the
Apocrypha (the word means “hidden”)
were written between 300 BC and AD
100. Jews and Protestant Chris­tians do not
accept these books as part of the Bible.
The books are not connected directly to a
prophet (authorized spokesperson for God),
nor are the books quoted by the New Testa-
ment writers. The Roman Catholic Church
does view the books of the Apocrypha as
part of the Bible. Some Protestants (Angli-
cans and Lutherans) point to the value of
these books as religious writings but do not
put them on the same level as the books
of the Bible. They believe the books can be
read for enrichment but not as the basis for
Chris­tian teaching.
18 The Bible for Blockheads

human language. The Bible itself claims to originate with God, not
with those who wrote it. One of Jesus’ followers, Peter, wrote that the
authors of the Bible “spoke from God as they were carried along by the
Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:21). Paul, another New Testament writer, said,
“All Scripture is God-breathed” (2 Tim­othy 3:16). Over four thousand
times in various ways the Bible claims to record the very words of God.
The Bible speaks with God’s authority and tells us the truth about God,
about the world, and about ourselves.
God did use human authors to communicate his truth. The writers of
the Bible were not robots, mindlessly recording the dictation of an inner
voice. They wrote letters and historical summaries and wise sayings for
­people who lived in a particular culture at a specific time and place in
history. But God guided what they wrote so that their writings commu-
nicated exactly what he wanted said. God still speaks to us in the Bible
even though we live thousands of years later than the original writers
and readers of the Bible.
You may not agree that the Bible is God’s book. You may not even
think that the Bible is true. It’s OK to think that way. Clever arguments
won’t convince you differently, so don’t expect any “pulpit pounding”
from me! I encourage you to pursue your interest in the Bible at any
level. What you will discover as you read is that the Bible can defend
itself. God will begin to speak to your mind and your life when you least
expect it.

To learn more about how the Bible was written and preserved over the centuries,
check out one of these books:
✗ F. F. Bruce, The New Testament Documents: Are They Reliable? Revised
edition. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2003.
A defense of the reliability of the New Testament as an accurate record of real
events.
✗ Norman Geisler and William Nix, From God to Us: How We Got Our Bible.
Chicago: Moody, 1980.
A concise and readable account of how the Bible came to be.