Lesson Notes:

Introduction to Bible
The bible is a collection of sacred writings which the church solemnly recognized as the: Word of God written by men
through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. The Bible was written by inspired human writers in their own styles. The
human writers of the Bible wrote only what God wanted them to write. The whole Bible, properly interpreted by the
church, is true and completely without error. The works which make up the Bible are different from other writings. Even
though they were written by human authors, the ultimate author of the whole Bible is God. (Hann, 2008)
Discussion
God revealed Himself on many occasions and it was experienced by His chosen people though different eras and culture.
As an embodied spirit, we are making an effort to re-connect our self to the Divine. Thus, it invites us to know Him more
through the Bible.
The Bible is a large and sometimes difficult book. It was written over several thousand years, by writers who lived in
times very different from ours. Without help, we might misunderstand what some of the Bible writers are trying to tell us.
But we are not left without help. The church, founded by Jesus Christ himself, and guided by the Holy Spirit interprets the
Bible without falling into error. Just as Christ promised, the Catholic Church is always here to teach us how to understand
the Bible in light of the living Tradition. (Hann, 2008)
Etymological Meaning of the Bible
Greek: “Ta biblia” – “the books”- refers the whole sacred volume.
Latin: “Biblia” – “the book”- designates the eminence of the. bible
Because the Bible was written by men, then through the Bible God is able to speak to us in human language-
something we can understand and relate to.
 "All Scripture, Inspired Of God, Is Profitable To Teach, To Reprove, To Correct To Instruct In Justice" 2
Timothy 3:16
Inspiration
 Lt. “in spirare” – to breathe into
“By supernatural power God so moved and impelled the human authors to write - he so assisted them
when writing - that the things he ordered and those only they first rightly understood, then willed
faithfully to write down, and finally expressed in apt words and with infallible truth.”
~Providentissimus deus, pope leo XIII
 Inspiration is the special influence of the Holy Spirit on the human authors, such that they were able to write
down what God wanted them to write.
INSPIRATION IS NOT:
DICTATION – God did not dictate the words to the human authors. As stated earlier, the human authors had to go
through all the processes involved in coming up with a written work.
POSSESSION– The human authors were not coerced by God to write. They did not lose their free will when they put
God’s Word into writing. On their end, they had to cooperate with inspiration.
The Historical Background of the Bible
The Bible is more than a book; it’s a library with a number of different works.

2 Groups:

1. The Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament)

2. The Christian Scriptures (New Testament).
Testament is from the Latin ‘testamentum’. In the scripture, it means “agreement” or “covenant”. Most of the writings in

the Old Testament were mutual agreements made by God with the Jewish people.
 Bible is from the name of the place “BIBLIOS” (near Gubla, Egypt), where a plant named “Papyrus” grow in

abundance which is the material used in writing the Bible.

How does the Bible come into writing?

From Greek word “Kanon” – a stick; measuring rod. -The word implies “norms” or “standards”.
• Canonicity is the church’s official declaration that a book is inspired, and is therefore a
worthy basis of faith and morals.

• When a book fails to meet the standards, it is labeled as apocryphal i.E. Of doubtful authority
• When a book has passed the standards, it becomes part of the canon of scriptures. The canon of
scriptures refers to the official list of inspired books.

Roman Catholic Bible - 73 (72) BOOKS 46 Books in the Old Testament (45 if Jeremiah and Lamentations are
counted as one) and 27 Books in the New Testament.
Protestant Bible - 66 BOOKS 39 Books in the Old Testament and 27 Books in the New Testament.
Reason for the difference:

The Deuterocanonicals
• The word “Deuterocanonical” literally means: “second canon”. These refers to the second set of
canonical books.
• During the Council of Trent, before the Catholic Church finally closed the Canon (which means from
then on, no other books will be added to the bible), the Church also declared as canonical some Old
Testament books which were recognized ever since as inspired but were not formally declared as part
of the canon of scriptures.

Unfortunately, the Protestants have already deviated from the Catholic Church when this happened so they do not have

the Deuterocanonicals in their Bible. If ever they include it, they simply label the books as Apocryphals. One thing is for

sure, the Protestant Canon was still a product of the prudent judgment of the Catholic Church before the split took place.

3 Biblical Languages

1. Hebrew
2. Aramaic
3. Greek
• The Holy Bible is a collection of 73 different books divided into two sections (Old and New Testaments).
• Forty six (46) books make up the Old Testament, and twenty seven (27) books make up the New Testament.
• It is written by over 40 different authors over a span of 1,500 years in three different languages (Hebrew, Aramaic,
and Greek).
• Yet it presents a unified message of God’s plan and purpose for humanity.

St. Jerome – translated the whole scripture from Greek to Latin.

God’s covenant with His chosen people

1. The First covenant we read about in the Bible is the covenant with Adam. In Hebrew, the name “Adam” is also
used to refer to the whole human race. So this first covenant is really the one from which all the other covenants
spring.
2. The second covenant is with Noah and his household after the flood.
3. The third covenant is with Abraham and his whole tribe.
4. The fourth covenant is with the whole nation of Israel through Moses.
5. The fifth covenant is with all the nations through David and Solomon.
6. The sixth covenant is the New Covenant with all humanity through Jesus Christ.
 7. Finally, at the end of time, with the general resurrection, comes the fulfilment of the New Covenant, as God’s
people finish their earthly pilgrimage and enter into heavenly glory for all eternity.

Our day to day life experiences teaches us to become a better, stronger, and wiser person. Looking back at the
significant events of our lives give us a better understanding and evaluation of ourselves. With this, as we trace the
historical development of the Bible, we learn that there were happy and sad events experienced by the people from the
past. Thus, we need to know the significant event in the Bible by making a covenant timeline.
The Bible is a collection of many works written by different human authors at different times and in different
languages. These different authors had different ways of thinking and writing. Some of them wrote beautiful poetry, as in
the Psalms. Others, like St. Luke, wrote detailed history based on accurate research. Some, like Ezekiel, had symbolic
visions that they wrote down. Just as with writers of other books, the personalities of the authors comes through in what
they wrote. (Hann, 2008)
The works which make up the Bible are different from other writings. Even though they were written by human
authors, the ultimate author of the whole Bible is God. (Hann, 2008)
The Bible not only inspires us, but also explains life and God to us. It does not answer all the questions we might
have, but enough of them. It shows us how to live with purpose and compassion. How to relate to others. It encourages us
to rely on God for strength, direction, and enjoy his love for us. The Bible also tells us how we can have eternal life.
(Recalling the discussions on weeks 1 and 2)
By definition, the bible is a collection of sacred writings which the church solemnly recognized as the:
Word of God written by men under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
As “Word of God” - God is the author of sacred scripture because he inspired its human authors; he acts in them and by
means of them. He thus gives assurance that their writings teach without error His saving truth (Dei Verbum 11). To
say that the bible is the word of God is to acknowledge its divine authorship.
THE BIBLE IS THE WORD OF GOD.
The word “OF” tells us three things about the BIBLE:
1. It is WORD ABOUT GOD – We learn about God through the Bible
2. It is the SPOKEN WORD OF GOD – Sacred Scripture contains God’s revelation of Himself
3. It is WORD THAT BELONGS TO GOD – God is the Bible’s author, custodian, interpreter, and teacher.
As “written by men through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.” u The Bible did not fall from heaven. When God gave
us His word, He inspired some men to put it into writing. The Bible was written by persons who lived in a particular
context, using the means available to them as they went through the natural process of data gathering, selection, and
finally writing down scriptures.
The theological explanation above explains why God is the ultimate author of the Bible. The bible did not just fall
from heaven instead he chooses persons as living witnesses of His nature as God.

The 10 Literary forms of the Bible

“The Bible is sacred literature because God is its author. Because Sacred Scripture is written in human language, it is
possible for humans to understand it. Understanding it correctly, however, sometimes requires some preparation. (Hann,
2008)”
“The first things to remember about the Scripture is that it is literature. That means it uses literary forms and techniques to
convey its meaning. Unless we understand how those forms and techniques work, we cannot understand the meaning the
inspired authors wanted to convey to us. (Hann, 2008)”
Since the Bible was composed by so many people over so many centuries, it is not surprising that it includes many
different types of writings.
The Ten literary forms of the bible:
Myth: Traditional stories that answer the primary questions: Who is God? What are the origins of the universe?
Who am I? What is good? The Bible contains many myths. The first eleven chapters of Genesis contain many mythic
elements.
Law: Rules of behavior and moral principles established by God. God gave the first law, also called Torah, to
the Hebrew people. The Torah is recorded in the first five books of the Bible (called the Pentateuch by Christians).
Christians believe that the law of the Old Testament has yielded to the Good News of salvation as proclaimed by Jesus in
the Gospels.
 List: Itemized series of names or objects usually recorded in a specific order. Both the Old and New
Testament contain many types of lists genealogies being most prevalent (lists of ancestry). Many different lists can be
found in the book of Numbers.
History: Stories of past events usually written in a chronological order. Though the Bible is not a history textbook
it does contain record of the history of the Jewish people. The sixteen books following the Pentateuch (from Joshua to 2
Maccabees) are considered to be historical books.
Psalm: A sacred song or poem used to praise and thank God or to seek forgiveness or ask for some request from
God. The book of Psalms contains one hundred and fifty of these sacred hymns. Psalms are one of the most important
parts of Christian worship.
Proverb: A short saying of wisdom that express a well-known practical truth or fact. Many
hundreds of proverbs can be found in the six books of wisdom in the Old Testament (Job through Sirach), though
examples of proverbs show up throughout all of the Scriptures.
Prophecy: Any message from God directed to humankind through an intermediary (prophet), especially those
messages that judge the present situation in light of future expectations for obedience to the will of God.
Christians believe that in Jesus all prophecies are fulfilled. The last eighteen books of the Old Testament are mainly
concerned with prophecy.
Parable: (from the Greek word "parabole" meaning "comparison") Short dramatic stories that use
comparison to teach a message. Jesus used parables about everyday life to teach His listeners about the coming
kingdom of God. Often Jesus' parables contained paradoxical twists that challenged his listeners to greater
understanding. The Gospels are full of parables.
Sermon: A serious and long religious speech. The most famous sermon found in the Bible is Jesus' "Sermon on
the Mount" found in Matthew's Gospels. This solemn sermon takes up three chapters and includes the Beatitudes (Matt
5:3-10).
Letter: A written message usually personal in nature concerning a specific topic. Twenty-one books of the New
Testament are all letters.
The Pentateuch

The first five books of the Bible (both Hebrew and Christian) are foundational to all of Scripture and rank as one of
the most important portions of the Word of God (Wolf 1991:17). This is so because its theological and historical
revelations are necessary for an understanding of the rest of the Old Testament and the New Testament as well.
These five books contain, for example, God's revelation about the origin of the world with its emphasis on the
creation of manmade in the image of God, how sin entered human history and the judgment that followed, and the
origin of the nation of Israel and its covenant–relationship to Yahweh.
For the Jew, these five books contained an authority that the rest of (their) Scripture—the prophets and the
writings—did not seem to match. This is evident in that when the Jews were driven into exile, it was the books of
Moses that were read most frequently in the synagogues. The first five books of the Bible have from the earliest of
time been taken by the Jews to constitute a unity known to them as the Torah or Law. To the Jews, the
word Torah best described this part of Scripture as this biblical Hebrew term means not only the "law" but also
"teaching" or "instruction" which more completely characterizes God’s communication to the Israelites through
Moses (Wolf:1991:18).
What is Pentateuch?
 In Greek, the Torah is called Pentateuch, meaning five books.
 Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy
 Central to the Jewish people’s faith commitment and identity is their understanding of the covenant with God,
Yahweh.
 Covenant is an agreement which brings about a relationship of commitment between God and his people.
 What does it contain?
 Written teachings
 Commandments
 History of the ancient Jewish people
 The center and lifeblood of the Jewish community
1. Genesis – tells the story of the creation of the world and the beginning of the nation of Israel.
It explains the origins of the people and customs that most concerned the Israelites.
“In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth.” Genesis 1:1
2. Exodus – tells the story of the Israelites’ escape from Egypt and their wandering in the desert on the way
to Canaan, the Promised Land. It also includes the most important laws of the Old Testament: the Ten
Commandments which God gave to Moses on Mount Sinai. And tells how the people of Israel failed to
live up to their unique relationship with God, so that a lesser law had to be given to them.
"I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery." Exodus 20: 2
3. Leviticus – is a book of laws, most of which have to do with religious observance. Every detail of their
worship life is made explicit, because the Israelites have proved that they cannot be trusted to worship God
properly.
“Then Moses took the anointing oil and anointed the tabernacle and everything in it, and so consecrated
them.” Leviticus 8:10
4. Numbers – is so named because it gives a census of all the tribes of Israel. But it also tells the story of their
forty years in the desert, and their constant rebellion against the authority of God and of his prophet Moses.
"Take a census of the whole Israelite community by their clans and families, listing every man by name,
one by one." Numbers 1:2
5. Deuteronomy – repeats some of the laws in the earlier books: for example, the Ten Commandments are
repeated from Exodus. It also gives a new laws specifically about how the Isralites will live in the Promised
Land. In fact, the heart of Deuteronomy is a new constitution for the state of Israel. Finally, it gives a
prophetic road map of Israel’s history – a prophecy that will be fulfilled in the historical books that follow.
“These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts.” Deuteronomy 6:6