Monday I started sewing the bright olive green and green plaid outfit, size 1, for a little boy, the first of several outfits I plan to make and try to sell.
At noon on Tuesday, Teddy came home for dinner. As he was walking under the kitchen window, Hester tossed water out onto his head. This is just another of their noontime routines…
A few minutes later, Hester decided to walk through my room on her way to the little restroom off the kitchen, which isn’t at all logical. Sort of like if I, hailing as I do from middle Nebraska, would travel through San Diego to get to Miami.
In Hester’s hand, she held a glass of milk, which has been strictly forbidden in my room, as there seems to be something about my room that makes liquids, in any sort of vessel, fly suddenly and without warning right out of its retainer, almost invariably to land on something whose tag reads, “Dry Clean Only”. Its one other destination is--you guessed it: the bed. My side of the bed.
Just as Hester was walking past my sewing cabinet, where lay the little boy’s outfit I was about half done with, along with a pile of uncut fabric, the day’s newspaper, and several patterns, Teddy came in the other bedroom door and lobbed a pillow at her.
Sure enough, just as expected, the milk shot right out of the glass in fright and splashed all over the new outfit, the material, the newspaper, and my sewing chair.
Aaarrrggghhh... Anybody wanting to adopt a couple of kids?
That evening, I got out a couple of bags from the freezer, a beef stew I’d bought from Hy-Vee. My chops were all polished for it...and then I noticed that on the front of the bag, it says, “Serves Two.”
Two. Two?! I needed five bags, if that was the case!
I put the bags back into the reezer, and Larry, Victoria, and I went to Amigos to buy supper.
We got chicken burritos and tacos for the children, and chicken fajita salads in edible bowls for Larry and I. That, because the children don’t like salad, and, further, my small salad cost $3.69, while Larry’s large one was over $4.00.
Guess what? As soon as the urchins saw our salads, they said, “Where’s ours?” and “We want one, too!” and “Don’t we get one of those?” and “Is this all we get?” and “Why didn’t we get a salad?”
Anybody wanting to adopt a few kids?
After supper, we went to Dairy Queen for twists and blizzards, hoping to mollify the moppets thereby. Hester, Lydia, and Victoria ordered twists, and they wanted large sizes. So, just for the fun of it, I let them get the size large, even Victoria, although I knew all along it would be too much for her to eat. Then we drove around Wagner Lakes while we ate.
Not long after she’d begun, Victoria’s cone was threatening to drip all over her, so I suggested that she let Larry lick it. She willingly started handing it to her father to lick the edges, then had second thoughts and stopped as if paralyzed, cone in hand, arm outstretched.
Larry took the cone from her, and she opened her mouth to admonish him not to help himself to too much of the ice cream, but he was already licking it good and proper, making a deep groove all around the edge of the cone, the better to catch the drips.
Victoria abruptly came out of her immobility and reached for her prize cone in alarm. “Okay,” she said quickly, taking it back and looking it over carefully. “It’s not a size large anymore!” she protested sadly.
By the time she’d eaten the ice cream down to the cone and nibbled a small portion of the tall cone, she was getting full. Reluctantly, she again handed it to her father.
“Could you just lick the ice cream out of here, and not eat any of the cone?” she made request.
Everyone laughed, imagining Larry trying to reach his tongue into that deep cone.
“Hey!” he suddenly howled, “The bottom’s starting to give way!”
The children laughed the more.
He quickly lifted the cone and slurped ice cream from the bottom of it.
Victoria stared at him momentarily, then turned to me, fast, for assistance. “He’s chewing on it!” she cried.
Larry laughed till he could hardly swallow the ice cream.
Home again, I gathered together my industry, which had gotten itself misplaced about noon that day, right about the time my sewing efforts got themselves bathed in milk, and I washed the milk-stained clothes and pieces of fabric in the sink. Thinking they were all nice and clean then, I laid everything on my bed on thick towels to dry.
A short while later, I discovered that not all the milk had washed out, for when I ironed one piece, my iron burned the milk and made an ugly brown stain on it, which I presume will be there for all eternity. So I gathered everything up, carried them downstairs, and threw them into the wash machine, which was already running.
When they were done washing, the pieces of material had raveled like anything, just as I had expected, and wrinkled, too, wrinkles the iron just wouldn’t take out. Aauugghh!
The only pieces to escape unscathed were the triangular sections and the brim for the sailor hat. I sewed it together, and used a little piece of the green plaid that is only black and white plaid for the little covered button on top. At least the hat is really, really cute. I put little collars on the front of the green side of the vest, and top-stitched them. The stitching is all crooked and messy; I think it looks terrible, like I’d only learnt to sew last week at the earliest.
Larry says it looks fine; but he’s a nice man. It looks terrible.
I finished the outfit that night and pressed it, and it is cute--if you don’t look at it too closely.
Wednesday, I fixed a hand-me-down dress for Victoria that one of the older girls (Dorcas? Hester? Lydia?) had gotten caught in the wheels of a little three-wheeler and torn holes in. I cut off several inches, then sewed a band of white onto it, matching the collar and cuffs. Victoria was ever so pleased; she’d been wanting to wear that dress for a long time, and had asked me several times if it could be repaired.
She wore it the very next day--and promptly fell down, skinned her knees, and stained the new white material.
Friday, Joseph unearthed my bike and Victoria’s carriage from the garage, and we went on a bike ride. We’ve been wanting to do that!
That evening I fixed beef stew and cheese-stuffed pasta shells covered with chunky mushroom Ragu. We packed it into our cooler, along with plates and utensils, and went to eat at Pawnee Park for the first time this year. It was a little chilly by then, with the sun heading for the horizon, so I put on a warm jacket, white fur earmuffs, and long socks.
That reminded Joseph of a time when his class was going out to the home of some friends of ours who live on the outskirts of town, to look at the night sky through his science teacher’s telescope. (The science teacher is Bobby’s mother, Bethany.) Everyone showed up in light jackets or sweaters--all but one boy, Adam. He showed up in a big coat, thick hat, and gloves. Ever since, Bethany’s husband John has called him ‘Arctic Adam’.
Upon hearing this story, Hester and Lydia promptly called me ‘Arctic Mama’. Doesn’t quite have the same ring to it as ‘Arctic Adam’, though, does it?
We played baseball after we ate, but we couldn’t see well enough for it to be safe, because the sun had gone down, and we were all leery of catching the ball in our teeth, so we brought the game to a close. True to form, Lydia quickly made friends with some kids who came to play on the big park play station (what are those things called?), and they had a game of tag. It’s funny watching her play tag; anytime somebody chases her, she runs off and leaves them; if anyone ever gets close, she kicks in the afterburner, and really leaves them in the dust. She’s faster than Hester, and Hester has to be mighty sneaky to catch her.
Larry, Joseph, Hester, and I played Scrabble after we got home. That’s always been one of my favorite non-sport games.
Saturday afternoon, Larry worked on my bike, trying to get it to shift better.
He made it shift worser.
And then, worsest of all, he kinked a cable, and cables do not appreciate theirselves getting kinked. After that, he advised me to take the bike to the Schwinn shop to have it repaired. Humbug! I wanted to ride it!
I started sewing the little dress I’d cut out. It, too, is a size one. After sewing a while, I took a pile of bits and pieces of fabric to the ironing board, where I proceeded to iron bits and pieces of Crayola into the fuchsia sleeve. Someone had broken a color, and left its remains on my ironing board. And melted Crayola does not come out of material, or if it does, I have not yet discovered how to bring it about. Furthermore, I had no more fuchsia broadcloth.
Reckon it would make me feel better to smash a whole lot of things to smithereens with Larry’s big sledgehammer?
Leaving everything in a muddle on the ironing board, I went off to Wal-Mart with Larry, Lydia, and Victoria to see if they had any material like the piece I’d ruined. We also got Lydia’s glasses straightened. One of the neighbor kids had kicked a soccer ball and hit her smack on the side of her head, bending her glasses all up. Amazingly enough, Wal-Mart had the right color of broadcloth for the sleeve, and 8” only cost $.41. I cheered up; maybe I won’t smash my sewing machine and my ironing board and my iron with a sledgehammer after all.
We then went to Pizza Hut for the pizzas I’d ordered for supper. Lydia had been asking for pizza for the last couple of weeks, because she had a Book-It certificate from school for a free personal pizza. Anytime one of the children has a free pizza certificate, I order enough for all of us.
Last evening, I stayed with Mama during the church service. I told her the story of Victoria’s ice cream cone, and I reminded her of a time my brother Loren got me an ice cream cone... He asked me what size I wanted, and I said, “Small,” because, as I told Mama, “My mother taught me to never be greedy when somebody was buying something for me.” She laughed. But Loren, just to tease me, got me a cone called ‘The Footer’, because it was a whole twelve inches tall. I’d never seen such an ice cream cone in my life, and there was no way under the sun I could eat it all. He finished it for me after I got full.
This afternoon it is 83°, and Victoria is outside playing. She has a fat stick, about two feet long, and has tied bright variegated yarn the length of it, also affixing a small twig to it. Sticks are wonderful inventions; you can pretend all sorts of things with them: they can be a queen’s sceptre, a walking stick, a gun, a flag pole, a bow, a cattle prod, a policeman’s billy club, a magical wand, or anything else you might happen to dream up.
And now, I think I shall go pull up the myriad clumps of mint that are resolutely intent on taking over my flower garden.
Bön gârdéñmènt!
P.S.: The elderly man from Leadville, Don, asked about the little blue Bible whose story I read the children last week...and I had an excellent idea: I would just get him a little blue Bible! They are published by Word.
So I called my friend Penny, who, before she started teaching at our school ran a store called Golden Music Room, where she sold many religious books, gifts, and musical instruments, and also taught guitar lessons. It was from her that I had bought the blue Bibles for each of my older children when they were little. I wanted to get Victoria one, too. She loves that Bible, because of all the pictures and the pretty cover, and the one she’s been using used to be Lydia’s, and has seen its better days.
I was delighted when Penny told me she still had a stock of those Bibles, and trotted right down the street and bought two of them.
I was a bit disappointed to discover that Word Publishing Company has gotten niggardly in their old age, and they don’t even sell their little blue Bible in a nice box anymore, as they used to do.
But I rushed gaily back home, opened Victoria’s to write her name in it-- and discovered... there was no introduction, no story of how we got our Bible, no anything. AAAUUUGGGHHH!!! WAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The horrible cheapskates!
So...I will give Aaron the other blue Bible next year, when he is old enough to appreciate it. And for Don, I typed the story, and here it is! ......... Enjoy.
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WHAT IS THE BIBLE?
The Bible is a book of books--66 of them, in fact. Actually, the word Bible comes from a plural word meaning books. And yet the 66 books form one single book. So it is a book of books. This is a very remarkable thing when you remember that about 40 different men wrote those 66 books over a period of 1600 years. Obviously, they could not all have been alive at the same time, and therefore they could not have consulted with one another about the things they were writing. Yet they all agree perfectly in all the different things they wrote over this long period of time. Think of how often you say one thing one day and the very opposite the next day. But his is not so with the writers of the Bible. Though each writer wrote from his own point of view and used his own particular expressions, they all agree in everything they wrote.
Not only were there about 40 different authors of the Bible, but among them were many different kinds of men. Few were scholars in the modern sense of the word, so you don't have to be afraid that what they wrote is going to be too difficult for you to try to understand. Too, none of them was a full-time writer. They were men from all classes of society, and they were men of action. Among the writers of the Old Testament, there was Moses who was well educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians (and that was considerable!) and who was a great administrator and leader of people. There were David and Solomon, great and powerful kinds of Israel. You remember Daniel, carried away from his home into exile, who rose to be prime minister in the government of Babylon. Amos was a shepherd who had no desire to be a prophet, but what a fearless one he was! There was Ezra, an official in the court of the king of Persia, who was a leader in the return of the Israelites from captivity.
Among the writers of the New Testament was a great variety of men. Matthew was a Jew who collected taxes for the Roman conquerors of Palestine. You can imagine how well-liked he was by his fellow Jews! Luke was a doctor. Peter, James, and John were fishermen. Paul was a converted rabbi. Many men, many different backgrounds, many years apart--yet all their writings agree. The Bible is truly a book of books.
There must be something behind such remarkable unity. Indeed there is, but it is not something, it is Someone. It is God. You see, though there were many men who wrote the Bible, in a sense there is only one author. God, who knows everything, planned the Bible and guided each of the human authors so that each wrote without contradicting the other. It is God who made one book out of the 66 books.
There's another reason why there is this remarkable unity of these 66 books. It's because there is one outstanding theme which ties them all together, and that theme is Jesus Christ. You're acquainted with the fact that part of the Bible is called the Old Testament and part the New Testament. The Old Testament (39 books) contains the Jewish writings, and the New Testament (27 books) the Christian writings. The word testament means covenant; therefore, the Old Testament means those writings of the Jewish people with whom God made a covenant (or agreement) when He gave Moses the Law (the Ten Commandments are part of that covenant). The New Testament includes those writings about the new agreement or covenant which was made by Jesus Christ in His death (Matt. 27:51). The Old Testament prepared the way for the coming of Christ by its many predictions and pictures of Him. The New Testament tells us the story of His coming and how that good news was spread throughout the world by Jesus' followers. Of course, this does not mean that every verse or chapter in the Old Testament talks about the coming of Christ, nor that everything in the New Testament directly mentions Him. But the story of the Old points ahead to His coming, and the story of the New looks back on His coming. That is why Jesus Christ is the theme that ties the Bible together.
HOW DID WE GET THE BIBLE?
Somewhere around the house you may have a photograph of a grandparent or a great-grandparent who died long before you were born. Ask your Mother or Father how they got that picture. They may tell you that their parents had the original picture, and since it was fading and falling to pieces they had a copy made. In other words, the picture you see at home is not the original photograph but a copy (or even possibly a copy of a copy). Then, if you are really curious, you might ask how they took pictures way back in the days of your great-grandparents. They didn't have flashbulbs or instant developing. You might even inquire how copies are made. You'll find that it is a process which produces copies that are just like the original.
Have you ever wondered how we got our Bible since it was first written so long ago? Just how was it originally written? Where did the writers get their information? Do we have any of the original writings or just copies? How were copies made? Since the Bible wasn't first written in English, who translated it into English?
The Bile you have today is like that photograph. It's a copy of the original, and, of course, the original was not written in English. So it is a copy and it is a translation. But I'm getting ahead of my story.
Let's go back to those 40 men who under God's direction wrote the Bible. Where did they get their facts and in what languages did they write? The question about languages is easy to answer. The Old Testament was first written in Hebrew (except for Ezra 4:8-6:18; 7:12-26; Daniel 2:4-7:28 and Jeremiah 10:11, which were written in Aramaic, a language similar to Hebrew). The New Testament was written entirely in Greek. Both Hebrew and Greek are written with letters that are completely different from English letters, and Hebrew is written from right to left instead of left to right.
Where did the writers get their information? Basically, the answer is simple: from God. However, sometimes they received facts directly from God and sometimes indirectly through other sources. You remember one example of how God gave facts directly when He gave the Law to Moses. Indeed, God Himself wrote the Ten Commandments with His own finger (Ex. 31:18).
But where did Moses, who wrote the first five books of the Bible, get his information about things which happened before he was born (like the creation of the world or the life of Abraham)? Undoubtedly some of the stories were passed on to him by word of mouth. Can't you see families sitting in front of their tents with the grandfather telling the children stories he had heard from his grandfather? The events of Abraham's life and Isaac's and Jacob's would have been well known to Moses by this means. Other facts he received directly from God. Of course, many things he wrote about he had personally experienced, like the long journey through the wilderness after the children of Israel left Egypt (recorded in the book of Numbers).
Many other parts of the Old Testament are historical records of events the writers themselves experienced in their own lifetimes (like the book of Joshua). Other histories were written, passed down, and collected later (like the books of Kings). The messages of the prophets were recorded as they preached them. Sometimes the reigning king did not like what God's prophets spoke, and so he ordered them silenced. One of Jeremiah's writings was even burned up, but he wrote it all over again and added more to it besides! So you see that much of the information we have in the Old Testament was easily available to those who wrote it down, and what was not was provided by God directly.
The four Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John were written in order to preserve the eyewitness accounts of the life of Jesus Christ for future generations. Most of Acts came from a diary which Luke kept during the years he traveled with Paul. Much of the New Testament consists of letters written by early Christian leaders to the churches of that time.
Now I don't want to make it sound as if the Bible was composed in a haphazard fashion out of stories which everybody knew and which may have been partly true and partly mixed with folklore and error. All of the Bible is inspired of God and is an accurate record of what He wanted to tell us. When He revealed something directly to a writer, He revealed it accurately. When a writer compiled historical facts, God guarded him from including any mistakes. When Paul and others wrote letters to churches, they wrote God's truth. Though they may have used various sources, the books which the writers of the Bible wrote were written without error exactly as God wanted them done. The original photograph of God's message was completely accurate.
But do we have any of those original writings? The answer is no, but we do have accurate copies. How do we know they are accurate? As far as the New Testament is concerned, we have thousands of copies of various parts of it. There are more than 5,000 copies in Greek of parts of the New Testament and more than 8,000 copies in Latin and a thousand other copies in other languages. Many of these copies are quite early, and by comparing and evaluating them, scholars are able to give us today the most accurate copy of the New Testament ever.
Copies of the Old Testament are not so plentiful, and the reason is not hard to discover. You see, worn-out copies of the Old Testament were so highly regarded by the Jews that they were actually buried in the ground as a mark of respect for them. But before they did this, they made a new copy of the worn-out one, to have and use until it wore out. Then they copied and eventually buried it, and so on through the centuries.
Now, the copying was done with more care than you can imagine. To guard against any errors slipping in, the one who was doing the copying carefully counted the number of letters and words on a page to be sure that every letter got into the new copy. He also counted to the middle letter of each page and each book, and then did the same on the new copy to double-check the accuracy of the copy. Try doing that with the page you are reading now, and then imagine doing it for an entire book of the Bible. That kind of painstaking care assured accurate copies of the Old Testament books.
But since the worn-out copies were buried, we don't have so many copies of parts of the Old Testament as of the New, and it also means that the copies we do have were made much later than the originals. The Old Testament was completed about 400 years before Christ came, but until recently, the earliest copies which we had were done 1,300 yeas later. However, in 1947 a shepherd boy hunting a lost animal accidentally discovered some scrolls in a cave near the Dead Sea in Palestine. This and subsequent discoveries brought to light copies of Old Testament books which were written during the second and first centuries before Christ. These amazing discoveries gave us copies of the Old Testament which were 1,000 years older than any we had had up to 1947. And the remarkable thing about these old copies is that they agree with the later ones we had, so that we can say we do have an accurate copy of the Old Testament. To be sure, it is inevitable that with all that copying there would be some differences between the many copies, but there are not many differences, and they are minor, and not one affects any teaching of the Bible.
When you show off that photograph of your great-grandfather, you can truthfully say, "Here's a picture that was taken of my great-grandfather" (even though it is actually a copy of the original picture). In the same way, when you read the Bible today you can say truthfully, "This is the book that those 40 men wrote hundreds of years ago."
After the individual books of the Bible were written, they had to be collected. This took some time, though the 39 books of the Old Testament were brought together before the time of Christ, and they were acknowledged as sacred books from God about 100 years after Christ. The 27 books of the New Testament were formally acknowledged as sacred Scripture by the church in A.D. 397 though, of course, individual books were recognized as inspired as soon as they were written. Notice that Peter declared Paul's writings to be Scripture (2 Pet. 3:16). The gathering and selecting of which books would be a part of the Bible was no haphazard process, for the church used well-defined tests for accepting and rejecting writings that claimed to be from God.
In some Bibles you will find 14 or 15 extra books placed between the Old and New Testaments. These are called the Apocrypha. Some of them tell us the history of the 400 years between the writing of Malachi and the coming of Christ. Roman Catholics consider these books inspired and part of the Bible, while Protestants do not (although they recognize the historical value of some of them).
Soon after the Bible was written, it began to be translated into other languages. The Old Testament was translated into Greek in Egypt during the third century before Christ. In the early centuries of the Christian era, the Bible was translated into Latin (the most important Latin translation was done by Jerome from 383-400), Syriac, Armenian, Georgian, Coptic, Ethiopic, Arabic, Gothic, Slavonic, and many more.
The first English translation of the Bible was not made until 1382, and it was done by a man named John Wycliffe. This was before the invention of printing, so these first English Bibles had to be copied by hand. But to have the Bible in English was a great accomplishment, for up to that time, most Bibles were in Latin and few people could read Latin. In fact, powerful churchmen and even some kings did not want the people to know anything about the Bible except what the priests taught them. So you can imagine how excited a person would be when he saw for the first time a page of the Bible in his own language which he could read. Indeed, we are told that a man would gladly exchange a load of hay for just one page of one of Paul's letters in English.
Some church leaders, instead of being glad that people could read the Bible in English, banned Wycliffe's translation and punished sometimes by death those who dared to read it. These leaders did not want to lose their power over the people, and they were afraid that that would happen if the people could read in English what God said in the Bible.
After Wycliffe came Tyndale, whose translation into english of the New Testament was done after the invention of printing. The story of how he did this reads like a spy thriller. Tyndale had to flee England to Germany to do the actual translating and printing. The printed sheets had to be smuggled into England. Later, Tyndale himself was arrested in Belgium and finally put to death there. But his translation spread throughout England and changed the course of history. Other English translations followed in quick order, though later, under Queen Mary, translating was forbidden in England and the Geneva Bible had to be done in Switzerland.
Original Writings of Old and New Testament Authors
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Ancient Copies
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Ancient Translations
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Jerome's Latin (A.D. 383-400)
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Wycliffe's English (1382)
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Tyndale (1525)
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Coverdale (1535)
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Great Bible (1539)
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Geneva Bible (1560)
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Bishops' Bible (1568)
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King James Bible (1611)
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American Standard Version (1901)
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Revised Standard Version (1952)
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New American Standard Bible (1971)
Many Modern Translations and Paraphrases
Probably the best known of all English Bibles is the one we call the King James Bible. It was King James I of England who initiated the translation in 1604, and it was published in 1611. King James did not translate this version (47 other men did, and they did a magnificent job). The beauty of its language has never been surpassed, and today, 350 years after it was first published, the King James Version is still more widely used than any other in the English-speaking Protestant world.
Other good English translations have been made since the King James Version, so that today there are many different ones you can read to help you understand what God is saying to you. But remember that although it costs you relatively little money to buy an English Bible, it cost many people much to make it possible for you to buy one. Think of Jeremiah rewriting the book the king burned. Think of Paul writing some of his letters from prison. See the copyist patiently copying and counting letters and words on the page. Remember Tyndale who died so that England might have a New Testament. And do not forget the hundreds of people who were punished, tortured, imprisoned, and even killed because they dared to read and teach the Bible. It's a great privilege you have today to be able to read the Bible freely and without fear. This isn't true in some parts of the world today where Christians are persecuted and Bibles are forbidden.
THE STRUCTURE OF THE BIBLE
You have already learned that the Bible is divided into two basic sections, the Old Testament and the New Testament. In the Old, the coming of Christ was looked forward to; in the New, it was looked back on as an historical event.
The books of the Old testament may be catalogued by their subject matter like this:
THE LAW
Genesis These books were written
Exodus by Moses and tell the
Leviticus beginning of the nation
Numbers Israel.
Deuteronomy
THE HISTORICAL BOOKS
Joshua In these books, the story of
Judges the history of Israel is
Ruth completed.
I and II Samuel
I and II Chronicles
Ezra
Nehemiah
Esther
THE BOOKS OF POETRY
Job
Psalms (David wrote many of these)
Proverbs (Solomon wrote many of these)
Ecclesiastes
Song of Solomon
THE MAJOR PROPHETS
Isaiah
Jeremiah
Lamentations (Jeremiah wrote this)
Ezekiel
Daniel
THE MINOR PROPHETS
Hosea In old Hebrew Bibles,
Joel these were grouped together
Amos in one book and called
Obadiah The Twelve.
Jonah
Micah
Nahum
Habbakuk
Zephaniah
Haggai
Zechariah
Malachi
Likewise, the 27 books of the New Testament may be listed in five divisions:
THE GOSPELS
Matthew
Mark
Luke
John
THE HISTORY OF THE CHURCH
Acts
THE LETTERS OF PAUL
Romans
I and II Corinthians
Galatians
Ephesians
Philippians
Colossians
I and II Thessalonians
I and II Timothy
Titus
Philemon
THE LETTERS TO THE CHURCH IN GENERAL
Hebrews (Some think Paul wrote this)
James
I and II Peter
I, II, and III John
Jude
THE BOOK OF PROPHECY
Revelation
THE ORDER OF EVENTS IN THE BIBLE
In the New Testament you won't have any problem with fitting the order of the books together with the order of the events as they happened. The four Gospels which come first record the events of the life of Christ. (Of course, the Gospels were written twenty to forty years after He died). Acts records what happened after Christ's ascension into heaven until the time that Paul arrived in Rome. The letters of the New Testament tell us about conditions in the churches during the same time as is included in the book of Acts and later. Most of the last book of the Bible, the Revelation, concerns what is yet future. So the chronological order of the events of the story of the New Testament follows the order in which the books appear in the New Testament. So if you begin with Matthew and read through Revelation, you will be following pretty much the natural order of events as they occurred or as they will occur yet in the future.
In the Old Testament this is not the case, and this can be confusing to you. For instance, the book of Nehemiah, which appears in the first part of the Old Testament, actually records events which happened at the very close of the Old Testament period (at the same time as Malachi). So if you wanted to know what historical events were going on which Malachi was preaching, you would have to read Nehemiah. Perhaps the following chart will help show you which books belong to the same period of time.
(Something’s wrong here, because columns and tabs on the word processor don’t jibe with columns and tabs on the computer. And I can’t find the little blue Bible.)
Genesis Exodus Numbers Joshua
Job Leviticus Deuteronomy _______________________________________________________________
Judges I Samuel II Samuel I Kings Ruth
Psalms I Chronicles
Song of Solomon
Proverbs
Ecclesiastes
II Kings Daniel Ezra Nehemiah II Chronicles Ezekiel Esther Malachi Isaiah
Haggai Jeremiah Zechariah Lamentations Hosea Joel Amos Obadiah Jonah
Micah Nahum Habakkuk Zephaniah
Notice a few things about this chart. Job probably lived at the same time as the patriarchs in Genesis.
The Psalms appear under II Samuel because the life of David is recorded in II Samuel and David wrote many of the Psalms.
Solomon's life is in I Kings, and he wrote the books listed under I Kings.
The long list of the books of the prophets under II Kings ought to remind you that God did send many warnings to His people before He punished them by letting them be taken captive in foreign lands.
The kingdom of Israel had a civil war after Solomon's reign, and it divided the people into north (10 tribes) and south (2 tribes). The north went into captivity in Assyria in 722 B.C., and the south into captivity in Babylon in 606 B.C. Ezekiel and Daniel prophesied during the Babylonian captivity.
Ezra and Nehemiah led the people back from Babylon to Palestine. The Old Testament closes about 400 B.C. with the book of Malachi.
During the 400 years between the close of the Old Testament and the coming of Christ, some important events occurred. (1) The Greeks under Alexander the Great ruled the world for a time. (2) The Jews under the Maccabees revolted and attempted to break away from the rule of the Greeks. (3) The Roman empire gained power and ruled the world when Christ was born. (4) The Jewish synagogue, the Sanhedrin, and the sects like the Pharisees and Sadducees developed during this time. All of these things set the stage for that great event of the birth of Christ.
WHAT EACH BOOK IS ALL ABOUT
In this section is a brief introduction to what each book of the Bible is all about. Then before you start to read a book, you can look here and see what's coming.
GENESIS. Genesis means "beginning", and this book tells you of the beginning of the world, man, sin, the Hebrew nation. You'll read about the lives of the Patriarchs--Abraham (chapters 12-25), Isaac (25-28), Jacob (28-36) and Joseph (37-50).
EXODUS. Exodus means "going out" because the book describes the going out of the Israelites from Egypt. Included are the description of their cruel slavery in Egypt (chapters 1-12), the deliverance (13-18), the giving of the Law to Moses at Mt. Sinai (19-34) and the erection of the tabernacle (35-40). The Ten Commandments are in Exodus 20:3-17.
LEVITICUS. The book lists the laws which the Jewish people were to observe in the practice of their religion. Included are laws concerning the offerings they were to bring (chapters 1-7), concerning the matter of being clean before God (11-15), concerning the great day of Atonement (16) and concerning the holidays in their year (21-23). The priests or Levites led the people in these observances, and that is where the book gets its name.
NUMBERS. This book is a kind of diary of events during Israel's march through the wilderness (chapters 11-20) and preparation for entrance into the Promised Land of Palestine (21-36). In all these events, God's help and deliverance is seen. The title of the book comes from the fact that there are two censuses or numberings of the people recorded in it. Read about the prophecies of Balaam in chapters 22-25.
DEUTERONOMY. Here you'll find Moses' final words to the Israelites just before he died and they entered the Promised Land. Joshua was appointed his successor. The Law is stated again in this book.
JOSHUA. Here are the exciting stories of the battles which the Israelites fought in conquering the land of Palestine (the battle of Jericho is in chapter 6). How the land was divided and settled is also included (13-22).
JUDGES. This is the history of Israel under 15 different judges. It records events that happened between the death of Joshua and the birth of Samuel. These years were Israel's "dark ages" because they kept falling away from God. Yet each time He graciously rescued them. You probably know two of the judges--Gideon (6-9) and Samson (13-16).
RUTH. This is a beautiful love story that occurred at the same time as Judges.
I SAMUEL. The biographies of three important persons are in this book: Samuel (the last of the Judges, 1-7), Saul (the first king of Israel, 8-15) and David (Israel's greatest king, 16-31). Read about David and Goliath in chapter 17 and David and Jonathan in chapter 20.
II SAMUEL. This is the account of the reign of King David. Read the great promise God made to him in chapter 7. Be warned by what happened when he sinned (11-13).
I KINGS. This book includes the reign of Solomon (chapters 2-11), the account of the civil war which divided Israel north and south (12-16) and the ministry of Elijah (17-22). Read about the Queen of Sheba (10) and Elijah's challenge to the prophets of Baal (18).
II KINGS. Here you'll find the ministries of Elijah (1-2) and Elisha (2-9), and the history of the divided kingdom. There were only wicked kings in the north (9-17) and these people were taken captive by Assyria in 722. In the south there were a few good kings, but these people too went into captivity in Babylon in 606 (18-25). Read what Elisha dared to tell a great general in chapter 5. See what Josiah discovered in chapter 22.
I CHRONICLES. First and Second Chronicles are a kind of supplement to the books of Samuel and Kings. In I Chronicles King David is the main character, and you can read his great prayer in 29:10-19.
II CHRONICLES. This includes the history of Solomon's reign (1-9), the division of the kingdom (10) and the history of the south (Judah) until the captivity (11-36). Judah's history was one of failures and revivals. One of the most important revivals was under Hezekiah (29-31).
EZRA. After 70 years of captivity in Babylon, 49,897 people returned to Palestine under the leadership of Zerubabbel in 536 B.C. (chapters 1-6). They rebuilt the temple in Jerusalem. Later, in 458, six or seven thousand returned under Ezra who led in a number of reforms (7-10). Ezra's great prayer is in chapter 9.
NEHEMIAH. Nehemiah led the people in rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem in 445 in spite of much opposition (chapters 1-7). He also called the people back to godly living. You can read about how stern he was (including pulling out somebody's hair) in chapter 13.
ESTHER. This is an easy-to-read and exciting story of how a Jewish girl became Queen of Persian and risked her own life to save the Jews from being completely wiped out.
JOB. Why should a godly man like Job lose his family, health, and wealth? His friends had answers, but they were all wrong. Suffering is not always a punishment for sin; it is sometimes the best way God can be glorified in someone's life.
PSALMS. Psalms were like our hymns and were used to praise God in the worship of the temple. Many were written by David. Some favorite psalms are 1, 19, 23, 24, 37, 90, 91, 100, 119. Try memorizing a psalm as a special project.
PROVERBS. A proverb is a short saying full of good advice. The book contains the wisdom of generations as a guide for your life.
ECCLESIASTES. This book contains a series of sermons which tell of the emptiness of life without God.
SONG OF SOLOMON. In this book you can listen in on conversations between a king and his bride (the Lord and His bride, the Church), which show the beauty and sacredness of love and marriage.
ISAIAH. The prophecies were given during the time described in II Kings 15-21. Chapters 1-39 forecast judgment on Israel and 40-66 give hope to the people who would soon be in exile. There are many prophecies about the coming of Christ in this book (7:14; 9:1-7; 42:1-7; 61:1-2). Also, there are descriptions of the millennial kingdom to come when Christ shall reign on this earth (chapters 2, 11, 35).
JEREMIAH. Jeremiah was "the weeping prophet" who gave God's final warning to the south. He was devoted to his people but received only insults from them. See how accurate the Bible is in Jeremiah's prediction of the exact length of the captivity in Babylon (25:11). Read what happened to Jeremiah's scroll in 36:20-32 and what happened to him in 37:15-21 and 43:6-7.
LAMENTATIONS. There are five poems here expressing great sorrow over the ruin of Jerusalem and the temple.
EZEKIEL. Ezekiel was taken captive into Babylon in 597 B.C., and what he predicted in chapters 1-24 was fulfilled 11 years later in 586. While in captivity he forecast the future restoration of Israel at the end of this age. Chapter 37 is being fulfilled before your eyes today by what is happening in the state of Israel. Chapters 38-39 predict a terrible war which will be fought in the future days of tribulation.
DANIEL. Daniel, taken captive in 606 B.C. by Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, rose to high positions in government. He prophesied concerning the rise and fall of various nations of the world. Daniel in the lions' den is in chapter 6.
HOSEA. The unusual experiences of Hosea's personal life were used to teach him about God's love for Israel. This prophet lived at the same time as Amos, Isaiah, and Micah, and the historical background for the book is in II Kings 14.
JOEL. Having announced a coming plague of locusts and drought in the land, Joel pleads with the people to repent of their sins. The locusts are an illustration of a future judgment on Israel which will be followed by great blessing (3:18-21).
AMOS. For announcing God's coming judgment on Israel and other nations, Amos, a shepherd, got in trouble with the head priest and with the king (7:10-17).
OBADIAH. Doomsday for the land of Edom! The Edomites were descendants of Esau, the brother of Jacob, and were always giving trouble to the Israelites. For this and their pride, God judged them.
JONAH. Jonah was an unwilling missionary to the non-Jewish people of the great city of Nineveh. They listened to him, repented of their sins, and God decided not to judge them. Then Jonah complained because God was kind to the people of Nineveh! He needed to learn that God's love was for all. See what the Lord Jesus had to say about the sea monster that swallowed Jonah in Matthew 12:38-42.
MICAH. Micah predicted the birth of the Messiah in Bethlehem 700 years before it happened (5:2)! Micah 6:8 is averse worth memorizing.
NAHUM. Though Nineveh repented because of Jonah's preaching, the people turned again to sinful practices. So Nahum, 150 years after Jonah, predicted the city. This occurred in 612 B.C.
HABAKKUK. Prophesying just before the Babylonian armies swept Judah into captivity, Habakkuk questioned why God permits such terrible things to happen at all. He found his answer in 2:4.
ZEPHANIAH. Only after judgment comes on all nations (1:1-3:8) will blessing and peace come in the kingdom of Christ (3:9-20).
HAGGAI. When the Jews returned from Babylon under Zerubbabel (see the book of Ezra), they laid the foundation for the temple (in 535) but built nothing more on it for 15 years. Then Haggai and Zechariah scolded the people and told them to give God's house priority. The people responded and the temple was completed in 5 years.
ZECHARIAH. Old Testament prophets, like Zechariah, saw events that were fulfilled when Christ came nearly 2000 years ago mixed together with events which shall be fulfilled when He comes again in the future. Some of Zechariah's predictions concerning Christ are in 3:8; 6:12, 13; 11:4-11; 11:12-13; 12:10; 13:7; 14:4.
MALACHI. The theme of this book is "Give Me Old-Time Religion!" The Jews had gotten away from true religion, so Malachi severely scolds them for things like bringing sick animals for sacrifices (1:13), marrying non-Jewish women (2:11), divorcing their wives (2:16) and robbing God of the tithes which belonged to Him (3:8).
MATTHEW. Matthew traces the life of Christ from the viewpoint of His being King and the One who fulfilled so many Old Testament prophecies. Notice how often Matthew writes "that it might be fulfilled." Favorite passages include the visit of the wise men (chapter 2), the great moral teachings of the Sermon on the Mount (5-7), the Lord's prayer (6:9-13), the parables of the kingdom (13) and a message about the future (24-25). The theme is "Christ the King."
MARK. This is the shortest of the 4 Gospels and the most vivid and fast-moving. It does not contain any long sermons or many parables. Rather, it stresses the mighty works that Jesus did. The theme is "Christ the Servant."
LUKE. This is the longest of the Gospels, written by a doctor for nonJews. It emphasizes the humanity of the Lord Jesus; so you will find in Luke accounts of the virgin birth, Jesus' boyhood, Jesus' prayers, and His particular interest in the human problems of people. The theme is "Christ the Son of Man."
JOHN. John states his purpose in writing this Gospel in 20:31--to set forth the deity of Jesus. He does this by carefully selecting the proofs for Christ's deity which are included in this Gospel. The words "believe", "life", "Son", "true", "love", "witness", and "world" appear frequently. The theme is "Christ the Son of God".
ACTS. Here is the thrilling story of the spread of the Good News and the growth of the early church. The first twelve chapters of Acts focus on the Apostle Peter and his ministry in Jerusalem and Samaria. Chapters 13-28 center on the work of the Apostle Paul.
ROMANS. This letter of Paul is more like a formal statement of Christian teaching than any of his others. It was written to a group of people Paul did not know personally but hoped to visit soon. If you want to see what man is really like on the inside, read chapter 3. Good citizenship is discussed in chapter 13.
I CORINTHIANS. This letter was written to try to correct a number of problems which had arisen in the church at Corinth in southern Greece. Here are some of the subjects discussed: what to do about disciplining a sinning church member (chapter 5), should a Christian sue another Christian (6), marriage (7), the Lord's Supper (11), the resurrection of the body (15), and taking up the collection (16).
II CORINTHIANS. This is a very personal letter in which Paul writes of the good things about the ministry (3-4) and his own personal experiences he had on his missionary journeys (11). One of the most important passages in the New Testament on giving money is in chapters 8 and 9.
GALATIANS. Certain leaders had been teaching the Galatians that in order to be saved it was necessary to believe in Christ and be circumcised like Jews. Paul shows them in this letter that faith in Christ is all that is required in order to be saved.
EPHESIANS. Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon were written by Paul from Rome during his first imprisonment in that city (Acts 28). In Ephesians he tells believers about their wonderful blessings as members of the church, the body of Christ (chapters 1-3). Then he shows how we should live (4-6). Right relationships between parents and their children are described in 6:1-4.
PHILIPPIANS. Paul wrote this letter to thank the Philippians for the gift of money they had sent him in Rome (4:18). Though his fate was still undecided, Paul did not fear death (1:21, 23). He also warned the Philippians against those who were teaching the same error as in Galatians (3:1-2).
COLOSSIANS. Good things come in small packages! This short letter is filled with facts about the greatness of Jesus Christ. Notice, for instance, that He is presented as the Creator (1:16), the exalted Head of the Church (1:18), God (2:9), the answer to all error (2:14-23), and the answer to problems in the Christian life (chapters 3-4).
I THESSALONIANS. Acts 17 will tell you about the founding of this church on Paul's second missionary journey. The church had progressed well but needed encouragement as the believers faced temptations (3:1-13) and comfort as they thought about their loved ones who had died (4:13-18).
II THESSALONIANS. Paul wrote this letter to comfort the believers in the face of persecutions and troubles they were experiencing. Probably some had been fired from their jobs because of their faith. He assured them that God will eventually judge their enemies (chapter 1), even though that day of judgment had not yet arrived (2). In the meantime they were not to sit around waiting for the Lord to return and judge their enemies, but were to get to work (3).
I TIMOTHY. Timothy, who was converted to Christ through Paul's ministry, was in charge of the churches in Ephesus. Paul wrote this letter to help instruct him in how to direct the affairs of those churches. Notice the qualifications for church officers in chapter 3.
II TIMOTHY. This is Paul's last letter, written from a Roman dungeon just before he was beheaded. He encouraged Timothy to be "a good soldier of Jesus Christ" (2:3). He warned him about hard times that would come and told him to let the Bible always be his guide (chapter 3).
TITUS. Titus was in charge of the churches on the island of Crete. This letter is very much like I Timothy and gives directions to Titus concerning the proper functioning of those churches.
PHILEMON. There were lots of slaves in the Roman empire. Some were believers and some were not, and some of their masters were and some not. Onesimus, a slave of a Christian named Philemon, was not a Christian when he ran away to Rome. However, he somehow came in contact with Paul and was saved. His running away was punishable by death, so what should he do now that he was a Christian? Paul sent him back to Philemon with this letter in which he asks Philemon to be kind to Onesimus.
HEBREWS. After some Jews became Christians, they wanted to continue to practice the rituals of Judaism because they were not quite sure Christianity alone was good enough. This book was written to show these Hebrew Christians that in Christianity they had something far better than they had in Judaism. Christ is superior to the Old Testament prophets (1), to angels (1), to Moses (3), and to the entire Jewish priesthood system (7). The Bible's "hall of fame" is in chapter 11.
JAMES. This is one of the earliest written books of all the New Testament. It is filled with good advice on how to live the Christian life. Chapter 3 tells how to use and how not to use one's tongue! The writer was a half-brother of Jesus and head of the church at Jerusalem.
I PETER. How should a Christian react to personal problems and persecution? Peter's answer is this: these things are for a purpose (1:6-7); they are not unexpected in the Christian life (3:14; 4:12); bear them patiently (3:9) and rejoice in spite of them (4:13). After all, Christ had to suffer for us, and someday we shall all be relieved of all such persecution (2:21; 5:4).
II PETER. In this letter Peter says that there's a day coming in which there will be a lot of false teachers going around the churches who do not believe in the Lord's second coming and who are out to get as much money for themselves as they can. Beware!
I JOHN. Fellowship means fellows in the same ship, getting along together, and that is the theme of I John! If you love God, John says, you will show it by loving other Christians (4:20). He also includes a warning against antichrists (2:18-22). John, the writer, was a son of Zebedee, brother of James, and wrote the fourth Gospel, these three letters, and the Revelation.
II JOHN. This is a personal letter from John to a lady who is not named here. He commends her children who are obeying the truth of Christianity and he warns against false teachers.
III JOHN. This is also a personal letter, to a man named Gaius, encouraging him to continue to be hospitable to traveling Bible teachers. He also warns against a man named Diotrephes who was trying to "pull rank" and lord it over other believers when he had no right to do so.
JUDE. Beware of heretics who threaten the church! Earnestly contend for the truth! Jude was also a half-brother of Jesus (Matt. 13:55).
REVELATION. The word "revelation" means unveiling, so don't be afraid to read a book that will reveal or unveil something! Chapter 1 presents a picture of the risen and exalted Christ. Chapters 2 and 3 relate messages to seven churches in Asia Minor in John's day. Chapters 4-5 picture the throne of God in heaven. Chapters 6-19 describe the coming tribulation period with its terrible judgments on the people on earth. Chapter 19 depicts the second coming of Christ. The reign of Christ on the earth for 1,000 years is the subject of chapter 20, and the new heavens and new earth are described in chapters 21 and 22. Much of the book is quite plain, so go ahead and read it!
This was part of 'A CHILD'S INTRODUCTION TO THE BIBLE' by Dr. Charles C. Ryrie, found at the front of the children's 'little blue Bible', King James Version, put out by World Bible Publishers. The 'little blue Bible' is well loved by children for its pictures throughout, and especially the beautiful picture of Jesus with the children on the front cover of the Bible.
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