What is the Bible, Really?

Yeah, yeah, the Christian book — we know.

Fair enough. But there are many kinds of books: dictionaries, phone books, cookbooks, novels, encyclopedias — you get the idea — and while they’re all books, they play by completely different rules and serve completely different purposes.

So, what kind of book is the Bible? (Ah, great question!)

The Bible is a collection of sacred writings which, when put together, tell the story of God redeeming his creation from the deadly effects of sin.

There are forty-some authors, sixty six books, two original languages, and many different literary genres included — and they all work together to tell one overarching story.

If you turn to the index page in your Bible you’ll find all of these books lumped into two very broad categories: Old Testament and New Testament. Most of us know, the Old Testament is made up of Hebrew texts from before the time of Christ and the New Testament is made up of explicitly Christian texts written after his death and resurrection. But to make even more sense of things, each book can also be placed into one of eight slightly-more-specific categories. As soon as I became familiar with these eight categories the Bible became much less intimidating to grasp as a whole. So, what are the categories?

The Eight Biblical Categories

The Pentateuch

These first five books of the Bible make up the backbone of the Old Testament, the foundation of the Biblical narrative. In them, we learn that God created all things, man rebelled against him, and then God made a covenant with one man (Abraham) to turn his descendents into a great nation through whom he would bless the entire world. The rest of the Bible is simply the unfolding of that promise. By the end of the Pentateuch, Abraham’s descendents have grown into a large people group, escaped from Egypt under the leadership of Moses, and are at the very edge of the promised land — ready to solidify themselves as a sovereign nation in the land that God promised them via Abraham many years before.

1. Genesis

2. Exodus

3. Leviticus

4. Numbers

5. Deuteronomy

Historical Writings

In these twelve books, we read the story of Israel becoming a nation, flourishing, and eventually imploding. Together, these books cover hundreds of years of Israelite history. As God promised, he did turn Abraham’s descendants into a great nation. In Joshua and Judges we read that the Israelites conquer the promised land and begin to establish themselves as a nation. In 1 & 2 Samuel, the kingdom matures and eventually appoints its first few kings. 1 & 2 Chronicles and 1 & 2 Kings cover roughly the same period of history — the reign of many different kings. Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther are all historical accounts of the Israelite people after the nation fell and was sent off into exile. Ruth is a bit unique in that it doesn’t touch on the overarching narrative of the Bible. Instead, it’s a rather zoomed-in account of one foreign woman, Ruth, who is grafted into the Israelite people by marriage. As it turns out, Ruth ends up being part of the lineage of Christ.

1. Joshua

2. Judges

3. Ruth

4. 1 & 2 Samuel

5. 1 & 2 Kings

6. 1 & 2 Chronicles

7. Ezra

8. Nehemiah

9. Esther

Wisdom Literature

These five books are not intended to advance the story of Scripture, they play by a slightly different set of rules. The biblical Wisdom Literature is essentially the sacred “creative writings” of the Israelite people. Psalms and Proverbs and the most well known among them. Even within the Wisdom Literature there are a handful of literary genres — songs, poems, musings, and so on. They cover the full gamut of topics, everything from jubilant exaltation to dreadful lament. They are the divinely inspired artistic expressions of God’s chosen nation, Israel. Each of them reveals unique truths about the nature and character of God, and the many intricacies of relationship with him.

1. Job

2. Psalms

3. Proverbs

4. Ecclesiastes

5. Song of Solomon

Prophetic Books

As the nation that God promised to build began to crumble, God raised up prophets to speak to Israel on his behalf. The prophetic books are simply collections of these written prophecies from just-before, during, and after the fall of Israel. Within the Prophetic Books there are major and minor prophets. This distinction only concerns their size, not their significance. The first four prophetic books are major (large), and the rest are considered minor (small). In some cases throughout history the minor prophets were collected into one book, so there were only five prophetic books. In most cases, today, they’re listed separately.

1. Isaiah

2. Jeremiah

3. Lamentations

4. Ezekiel

5. Daniel

6. Hosea

7. Joel

8. Amos

9. Obadiah

10. Jonah

11. Micah

12. Nahum

13. Habakkuk

14. Zepheniah

15. Haggai

16. Zechariah

17. Malachi

Gospels

Of course, now that God’s chosen nation had fallen, the question remained: if not through Israel, then how would God conquer sin and redeem his people? Enter Christ. The very first chapter of the very first Gospel in the New Testament (by design) lists a very important genealogy. Interestingly enough, this genealogy begins with Abraham and ends with — you guessed it — Jesus Christ. This is incredibly significant! It’s a crystal clear declaration that Jesus Christ is the long-anticipated culmination of the entire Old Testament. As the old saying goes, “All of the promises of God find their ‘yes’ in Jesus” (2 Corinthians 1:20). In the ashes of the nation of Israel, God intends to overcome sin and redeem his people through his own son, Jesus Christ — a direct descendant of Abraham, humanly speaking, and the begotten son of the Father, divinely speaking.

There are four Gospel accounts written by four different authors. All four of them are biographical accounts of Jesus’s life, ministry, death, and resurrection. Each of them tell the same story from four slightly different vantage points, to four different audiences.

1. Matthew

2. Mark

3. Luke

4. John

Acts of the Apostles

This book is a category unto itself — the only book of its kind. It begins with the resurrected Jesus Christ telling his disciples to “be his witnesses,” throughout the world just before ascending into heaven. At Pentecost (Acts 2) the Holy Spirit descends upon the apostles, Peter preaches the gospel, thousands repent and believe, and the very first local church is created. Throughout the rest of the book the early church proclaims the gospel — that sin is now forgiven through faith in the atoning work of Christ — and as people repent and believe, they’re gathered into local churches. By then end, the apostle Paul is on trial in Rome — the very center of the known world at the time — and many disciples had been made and churches planted throughout all of the Mediterranean.

1. Acts of the Apostles (or just Acts)

Epistles (Letters)

As the gospel was proclaimed, disciples were made, and churches were planted, letters were also written back to those churches instructing them on matters of Christian living, ministry, and doctrine. They are grouped together in the New Testament and referred to as “epistles.” Some of these epistles were written to specific, identifiable local churches: 1 & 2 Corinthians, Galatians, and Ephesians to name a few. Some of them were written more generally, for many different churches: James, Hebrews, 1 & 2 Peter for example. And some were written to individuals, in some cases pastors: 1 & 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon. Regardless of the author’s intended audience, all of these letters were also copied and passed along from church to church, read publicly, preached on, and revered as Scripture.

1. Romans

2. 1 & 2 Corinthians

3. Galatians

4. Ephesians

5. Philippians

6. Colossians

7. 1 & 2 Thessalonians

8. 1 & 2 Timothy

9. Titus

10. Philemon

11. Hebrews

12. James

13. 1 & 2 Peter

14. 1, 2 & 3 John

15. Jude

Revelation

The Book of Revelation also stands as its own “collection.” In this book, John relays a series of visions he received from Jesus for “the churches.” The literary genre of Revelation is apocalyptic prophecy, which is not a genre most modern readers are familiar with — there is no good modern day equivalent. In short, the visions found in this book are heavenly descriptions of earthy realities — some from the future, some from the past. It is rich with symbolism, which often makes it challenging for the average reader to understand and interpret. Much could be said about Revelation, but the most significant advance in the storyline of Scripture comes in Chapter 21. In the end, the schism between God and man — which came at the very beginning of the story, the Fall of Adam and Eve — is completely done away with. The earth is restored and a city from heaven descends down to it. The great divide between heaven and earth is no more. The dead are raised, all things are made new, Christ is on the throne, and the dwelling place of God is, once again, with his people — this time, forever.

1. Revelation

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Hopefully you can see, then, that all sixty six books of the Bible work together to tell one overarching story. This is one of many reasons why the Bible is so astounding! It’s not ultimately a how-to manual for living a God-approved life — it’s much more than that. Of course, there is plenty of instruction in the Bible — and we should be quick to heed it — but the instruction comes to us from within a much larger story. In order to even understand it, then — and certainly to apply it correctly — we have to understand the story that it’s packaged within.

And more than that, when we add it all up, we have to see that the writings of Scripture work together to make one striking claim: “In [Jesus] all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross” (Colossians 1:19-20).