What is the Bible?
It is good that you want to read from the Bible but maybe you do not know where to start. The word ‘Bible’ means ‘book’ but it is not just a book; it is a library of 66 books.
We call the first 39 books the Old Testament, and we call the last 27 books the New Testament.
God caused many different people to write these books over a long time. In the Bible, there are different types of books: history, poetry, letters and much else.
To start reading the Bible
At first, the Bible may seem to be difficult to understand.
- The Old Testament tells us how God made everything. It then records the history of God’s people and his promises that he would send Jesus.
- The New Testament tells of the life of Jesus and what it means to us and for the future.
The first four books of the New Testament are Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. We call these books the Gospels. They are a good place to start reading the Bible.
They record the life of Jesus while he was here on earth. They each tell of the wonderful works that Jesus did. In them you will read what Jesus taught and how he healed people. Matthew and Luke tell of his birth, which we remember in December as ‘Christmas’. All of the Gospels record how he died on a cross and how he came to life again after three days. We remember these events in the spring of each year as ‘Easter’.
The Gospels show us that Jesus is the Son of God. He came to show us what God is like. God loves us so much that he sent Jesus to us. The problem is that our bad actions, that we call sin, have made us strangers to God. Jesus died to take away all our sins, so that if we turn from them and believe in Jesus we can come back to God.
On our website, we have a book called "30 Days with Jesus". It contains some short passages from the Gospels that explain what Jesus said and did. After each passage from the Bible, there is a helpful comment to help you understand the passage.
The Bible is God’s book. We call it the Word of God because it is his message to us. So, before you start to read it, ask God to help you to understand what you read. We hope that you will enjoy the Bible and learn about God’s love for you. In it, you will find a lot to help you in your life and it will guide you for the future.
We also have a book called "Meet Jesus". It is ideal for people who don't know much about Jesus but would like to find out more about him.