It is hard to do the Bible justice in a few pages. In this review, I’ll
only attempt to provide an outline. In particular I’ll discuss
-the major themes of the book,
-its major division, and
-the types of literature you’ll find in it.
THEMES
The primary theme of the Bible is the relationship
between God and
man. It’s a broken relationship. The authors of the various books address this
in many ways. A couple of metaphors they use that I find particularly
compelling are that of a marriage
or a parent-child
relationship. In these analogies, mankind is depicted as a cheating wife or
a child who has run away to a destructive life. God is depicted as the
faithful, loving husband or father who is reaching out to redeem, rescue and
reconcile the one he loves.
God’s character
is on display throughout the Bible. He is just and righteous, and
his character is the foundation of morality.
He also has great love
and mercy.
Fortunately, all of these traits are perfectly harmonized in God and shown to
man in Jesus
Christ. For those who have faith in Christ, the Holy Spirit
works from within to recreate this character in them.
DIVISIONS
The major divisions of the Bible are the Old Testament
and the New
Testament. The Old Testament was written before the coming of Christ. It
describes the fall of mankind into sin and God’s work to reconcile mankind to
Himself with a focus on how this occurs in the formation (and eventual fall) of
ancient Israel.
The New Testament describes the coming of Christ and the establishment of the church, which is
a fulfillment of the promises of God described in the Old Testament.
The major division of the Old Testament are
-history,
-writings,
and
-prophets.
The historical books describe the history of man as a moral being,
beginning with the fall into sin, and the God’s plan to save man worked out
over time. As this plan unfolds, the history increasingly focuses on the
Israelite kingdom. The writing are a set of poetic books.
The prophets focus on a period of time leading to the ultimate decline of
ancient Israel and predict the coming for Christ.
The New Testament can be roughly divided into
-the gospels,
and
-the epistles.
The gospels describe the life of Christ and (in the related book of Acts) the
establishment of the church. The epistles are message to the church that often
deal with the practicalities of living the life Christ called his believers to
live.
TYPES OF LITERATURE
The Bible is an assembly of many books, and there are many types of
literature in each book. While the highly symbolic language of parts of the
Bible get a lot of attention in some circles, most of it is written in a
straightforward style. For instance, a lot of the Old Testament is historical
narrative and a lot of the New Testament is letters from the apostles to the
churches. Poetry is also commonly used. When reading the Bible, it’s important
to know if the part your reading is a narration of events, a parable, a poem,
or some other literary form.
The Holy Bible. New King
James Version. Nashville,
TN: Thomas
Nelson, 1982.
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