Perhaps in the civilized world there are very few people who do not know about the existence of the Bible and the Gospel. But the whole paradox is that at the same time, very few people have a solid idea of what, in fact, is the difference between the Bible and the Gospel.
Some believe that these names of holy books are identical, others, on the contrary, think that they are not related to each other and exist on their own. It should be noted that both of these opinions do not correspond to the actual state of things. We will talk today about the difference between the Bible and the Gospel.
The meaning of the word bible
In order to understand what the difference between the Bible and the Gospel is, we will take a look at one at a time what each of these concepts separately represents. What is the meaning of the word bible? Translated from Greek, it means the word "book" in the plural. The latter came from the name of the writing material, which was distributed first in Egypt, and then throughout the ancient world. He had the Latin name - “papyrus”, which we know more. The Greeks called it "biblios", since it was produced in the ancient Phoenician city of Byblos, on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea.
The Bible is God's revelation
Studying the question of how the Bible differs from the gospel, we briefly examine what the essence of scripture consists of. At its core, the Bible is a collection of texts that are revered as sacred by both Jews and Christians, therefore it is also called the Holy Scripture. It should be noted that the latter concept is different in Judaism and in Christianity. In Judaism, this is the Tanach, also called the Jewish Bible, and for Christians it is the Old Testament, as well as the New, one of the parts of which is the gospel.
At the same time, the Old Testament contains Tanakh and other sacred texts. Here it will be appropriate to say about such a concept as “canon” (rule, norm). Based on it, Jews and Christians, as well as various Christian denominations, include certain books in the Bible. Based on this, we will consider the differences between the Bible and the Gospel in Orthodoxy. The last whole text of the Bible, which is canonical, is considered a revelation of God, calling it inspired. This means that it was written under the direct influence of the Holy Spirit, and therefore serves as the primary source and rule of faith.
The Bible is the Most Published Book
Ancient Greek manuscripts containing the full text of the Bible are dated to the 4th century AD. The extant Tanach manuscripts dating to the 10th century are written in Hebrew and Aramaic. But there is also the Vatican Codex (IV c.), Including the Septuagint - a translation into the ancient Greek Old Testament.
Today, the Bible is the most published book in the history of mankind. The average annual sales volume is approximately 100 million copies. The Bible has a huge impact on literature, history, art, the whole culture as a whole.
Next, we continue to examine the differences between the Bible and the Gospel, New Testament, and Old Testament.
First revelation
As mentioned above, the Old Testament is the first, most ancient part of the Bible. All Christians borrowed it from Tanakh, and the Orthodox - also from other religious Jewish scriptures.
Books included in the Tanach were written from the 13th century to the 5th century BC. Their main language is Hebrew, with the exception of some parts of the books of Ezra and Daniel (they are written in Aramaic). As for the rest of the books that make up the Old Testament, the time of their creation is the last 4 centuries BC. e., and the language is partly Hebrew, partly Ancient Greek. In the future, everything that was written in Hebrew was translated into Ancient Greek.
From the point of view of Christians, the Old Testament is the first of three revelations, which is a preliminary announcement of the divine will to people, as well as the discovery by God of humanity itself.
Old Testament Structure
To better understand the difference between the Bible and the Gospel, let us consider the contents of the main part of the Old Testament - the Tanakh, which consists of 39 books. It includes:
- The Pentateuch, or the Torah. It covers events ranging from the act of creating the world and man to the moment the Jews came to Moab. It also describes how the fall occurred, how Adam and Eve were expelled from paradise, it is said about the Flood, Noah's Ark, the life of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph in Egypt. This part ends with the division of Israel into 12 tribes.
- The prophets. It tells of a period that began with the conquest of Canaan and ended with the division of the kingdom of Israel. It describes how the tribes of Israel are settled, a kingdom is created, David and Solomon rule, Jerusalem is laid, the first temple is built, two kingdoms are formed (Judea and Israel).
- The scriptures. They cover the period from the division of the kingdoms to the construction of the second temple. They include a description of the Babylonian captivity, the destruction of the first temple, the construction of the second, events from the life of Queen Esther, the writings of the prophet Daniel, Ezra, and Nehemiah.
The authors of the Old Testament are a few people who lived and wrote in different centuries. Most books, as narrated by the story, had specific authors whose names are these books. However, some modern scholars are of the opinion that in their overwhelming majority the books of the Old Testament were created by anonymous authors.
New Testament Revelation
Trying to understand the difference between the Bible and the Gospel, we turn to the structure of the New Testament. As Christians believe, the New Testament is the main discovery of himself and the will of his humanity by the Almighty. The composition of the NZ includes 27 books written in the ancient Greek language.
There is an option to separate the books of this part of the scripture:
- Legislative books are the four Gospels whose authorship is attributed to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
- Historical - Acts of the Holy Apostles.
- Teaching, which includes 7 conciliar epistles (apostle Peter, John, Jude, James) and 14 epistles written by the apostle Paul.
- Prophetic - Revelation of John the Theologian.
After considering the contents of the New Testament, the difference between the Bible and the Gospel becomes easily accessible to understanding. To reinforce this understanding, let us turn directly to the gospel itself.
Good news
Translated from Greek, the "gospel" means "good news." Broadly speaking, the essence of this message is that Jesus Christ and the apostles proclaimed the coming of the kingdom of God and the salvation of the human race. In a narrow sense, the gospel is the story of the birth of the Son of God, his earthly ministry, resurrection, and ascension to heaven.
By the 2nd century AD e. these narratives took the form of four canonical books of the above authors, called evangelists. In addition to describing the life of Jesus, they contain his sermons, parables and teachings. Moreover, each of the authors in his Gospel paid particular attention to those moments in the life of Christ that seemed to him the most important.
Thus, we came to the final conclusion about the difference between the Bible and the Gospel, which is based on the understanding that the second is an integral part of scripture - the Bible.