When we look at a Bible on a bookshelf we see a rather thick book, with almost as many pages as a dictionary. But once we take it down we can see that it is not at all like a dictionary. Indeed it is not even just one book. The Bible is made up of a whole collection of books – sixty-six of them in all. Some of these are quite long, some short; some very ancient, some not quite so old. They contain history, poetry, philosophy, hymns – and even personal letters and sermons.
How did these various books come to be written? Who wrote them? When? And how did they come together to make the book we now know as the Bible?
The Bible is divided into two major sections – the Old Testament and the New Testament.
| The Hebrew Old Testament Other ancient versions of the OT How the OT came together How the NT came down to us How the manuscripts were copied A reliable NT text How the NT books were collected |
| Translations and translators |