Sixty-Six

The Gospel of John chapter 1 verse 1 tells us the Word of God was with God and was God from eternity past. It is this supernatural Word, or Logos…the actual expression of God’s thoughts, that took human form and came to live among mankind for the purpose of bringing us into the Family of God.

Before He came, there had been many hundreds of years in which God communicated His thoughts to certain selected men, who recorded the words they were given in scrolls which were preserved for the ages. By about 300 BC, all the Old Testament scriptures had been collected and recognized as canonical (accepted as authoritative). There are 39 of those books.

After Jesus came, lived His perfect life, died for our sins, was resurrected and ascended, His Church began to receive scripture through men chosen by the Holy Spirit to write the New Testament. Those writings were completed about 96 AD, when the apostle John finished writing The Revelation. In 397 AD, the Third Council of Carthage (early Church fathers) approved the 27 books that make up the New Testament.

Those of us who love the Bible and want to be familiar with all of it find early on that we need to understand the makeup of it; who wrote what, when, and how it is organized in the canon. As we study and grow toward spiritual maturity, we need a mental picture; a “feel” for the order of the books, their positions in human history and their relationship to the other books, for cross-referencing and panorama. The words of God recorded in the Bible are inspired (God-breathed, 2 Timothy 2:16). To comprehend their meaning and importance, we must be enabled by the Holy Spirit. We receive Him at salvation and continue in His tutelage through keeping in fellowship with Christ by means of 1 John 1:9. There are also mechanics to learn, which help us to keep the doctrines organized in our minds, what the Bible calls “hearts,” cardia - the thinking part of our souls). Another term for categorical doctrine is systematic theology. Both terms mean learning by categories, precept upon precept, line upon line; comparing scripture with scripture; building doctrine upon doctrine (Isaiah 28:10). 

Important to all these systematics and Bible comprehension is our ability to navigate the printed scriptures. We learn the stories of creation, the fall, the promise of redemption, the fulfillment of Jesus Christ, the birth of the Church, the doctrines of future things, sometimes without having a fix on where they are taught in the Bible. Learning our way around the scriptures is really not hard to do, but it may not be stressed enough in our congregations as we study together. Certainly, we must learn to use this skill as we study alone.

There is a pattern to the way the books of the Bible are arranged. Just seeing that pattern in the table of contents helps us to get our minds organized for study. Learning the repetition of certain numbers helps us to recall the arrangement of books. Remember 5 and 12. I would not hazard a guess as to why, but there are 5 sections of Old Testament books grouped by 5 and 12.

5 books of Law; also called the Pentateuch and the Torah; also called the books of Moses: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. They actually teach the beginning history of mankind and of Israel.

12 books of History; dealing with Israel in the promised land and their periods of obedience and rebellion: Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1&2 Samuel, 1&2 Kings, 1&2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther.

5 books of Poetry; Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon. These books portray an intimate relationship between the believer and God, and how that relationship can become dulled as in Ecclesiastes by the believer’s worldly distractions.

5 Major Prophets; warnings of discipline to a people in rebellion and promises of a coming Savior. Called “major” because of the length of the books and the apparent prominence of the prophets quoted. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel.

12 Minor Prophets; smaller books, though quite intense prophecies regarding near and future things to come for Israel. Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi.

There was a 400 year gap between the last book of the Old Testament, Malachi, and the time of Christ’s incarnation, told of in the gospels. By the time Jesus started to preach openly, at age 33, His people the Jews had received nothing for centuries but traditional religion from the Pharisees and Sadducees; formalities and distortions that had been crafted by men to try and control men. "This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men....they are blind guides. And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.” Matthew 15:8-9,14

How hungry they must have been for God’s own truth! Jesus dished out God's truth, and many of the common Jews believed and followed Him. A few of the more prominent Jews did, too, but the religionists hated Him for disturbing their domain, so they plotted against Him until His crucifixion, which served to sacrifice the Lamb of God, taking away our sins.

The pattern of the 6 sections in the New Testament is not quite as numerically neat, but very sensible, nevertheless. The first 4 books are the ones labeled “Gospel,” which literally means “good news.” The good news, of course, is that the Messiah has come. Our sins are paid for in full, and all who believe will receive eternal life. Those 4 books tell the story of the unique birth of God’s perfect Son, and His fulfillment of His mission in the earth.

The Gospels: Matthew shows us Jesus as the legitimate King of the Jews, beginning with His royal lineage through David. Mark tells us of Jesus, the Servant Son, and seems directed toward Romans, who were the rulers of the known world at that time. Luke, the Gentile physician, analyzes Jesus as the Son of Man, a concept Greeks could appreciate. John gives us Jesus, the Word Incarnate. Eternal God in human flesh.

There is no contradiction in the Gospels! Each of these writers was chosen to portray Jesus from his perspective, to give us the picture of the complete God-Man. These 4 Gospels also correspond to the 4 living creatures which were seen in heaven by Ezekiel in chapters 1-3. Those angelic beings had the faces of a lion (king), an ox (servant), a man, and an eagle (authority of God). So, even over the thousands of years, the ebb and flow of history, the progression of mankind; God’s Word is self-supporting, self-interpreting, timeless and powerful.

After Jesus ascended back to heaven and the Holy Spirit came upon His Church, the apostles of the Church began to teach doctrine and write epistles to the Churches they pastored.

History: The Acts of the Apostles, written by Luke; the only book of New Testament History, tells of the missions and ministries of the earliest Christians after the Lord had ascended. That is where we find the story of Saul’s conversion in chapter 9, after which he became known as Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles. After his initiation and 3 years of intense doctrinal training (Galatians 1:17-19), Paul began to preach and to write what the Holy Spirit wanted the Churches to understand about Christianity and the Lord they represented. Paul wrote 13 letters to the New Testament Churches. They are known as the Pauline Epistles (letters).

Pauline Epistles:  Romans, 1&2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1&2 Thessalonians, 1&2 Timothy, Titus and Philemon. He wrote as he served among the Churches, and he wrote from prison, so the people he was responsible to teach and lead would have the doctrines they needed to grow up.

Better Things: The epistle to the Hebrews is a stand-alone epistle, because there is no authorship given of this book. In it, the author stresses the better things of Christ.

General Epistles: The last 7 New Testament epistles are known as the General Epistles, written by different apostles to their congregations: James, 1&2 Peter, 1,2&3 John, Jude. Very meaty material in very small packages that came to be shared with all Christians. 

Prophecy: The Revelation of Jesus Christ, the final book of the Bible, is the only book of New Testament Prophecy. It was written by a very old Apostle John, in exile on the Isle of Patmos.

These 66 wonderful books have been preserved, translated, printed, bound, and distributed to all mankind for hundreds of years, so we never have to wonder who God is, or what He wants from us, or what He has done for us. We have His perfect plan in writing, and there is nothing more important to have in this life.

Matthew 4:4 (Jesus speaking)”….It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.”

Acts 20:27-28 (Paul speaking) "...I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God. Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood."