It can be stated with a certain degree of certainty that in the world there are a small number of people who have never heard of what the Bible is. But at the same time, it should be noted that when it comes to the gospel, confusion often arises. Often people do not know how these two concepts relate. To answer this question, you need to understand the content and structure of the Bible.
Differentiation of concepts
To understand the structure of the Bible and to avoid misunderstandings, it is necessary to determine its two main components. One often hears the opinion that the names of two holy books, such as the Bible and the Gospel, are identical concepts.
Others believe that these are books that have no relation to each other, and each of them exists on its own. It should be emphasized that both of these extremes are contrary to reality. What is the difference and connection with each other of these two sections of scripture?
In fact, the concept of the Bible includes two large sections. The first of these is the Old Testament, and the second is the New Testament. Each of them does not consist of one, but of many books. Separately, each of these parts of the Bible, the structure of the Old and New Testaments will be discussed below.
Old Testament
It is from him that the consideration of the structure of the Bible will begin. He is the first, oldest of the two components of scripture. In fact, this is a collection of many texts that both Christians and Jews consider sacred.
The Old Testament, like the entire text of the Bible, is canonical for Orthodox Christians, it is considered as a revelation of God himself and is called "inspired". This means that they wrote it under the most direct influence exerted by the Holy Spirit. For this reason, he is revered as the source and rule of faith.
The text of the Old Testament is taken from Tanach, the Jewish scripture, and coincides with it, with the exception of the books of deuterocanonical and noncanonical, which are absent among the Jews. Tanah was written in Hebrew and Aramaic, and then was translated into ancient Greek.
According to the views of Christians, the Old Testament is a monument to the first revelation of God, followed by two others. It is considered as a preparatory manifestation by God of himself, as well as of his will before the human race.
Continuing the study of the structure of the Bible, it is necessary to consider directly the first part from this point of view.
39 books
That is how many of them are included in the Tanach - the main part of the Old Testament. They are the following (conditionally logically divided into three parts):
- Firstly, it is the Torah, it is the Pentateuch. Here we are talking about events that begin with the act of creation - that is, with the creation of the world, and then of man. It also tells of the fall, the expulsion of the first people from Paradise, the flood of God sent by God. You can also learn from the Torah about Noah's Ark, about the life of such characters as Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and also Joseph. This segment of the narrative ends with the arrival of the Jews in Moab and a description of the division of Israel into twelve tribes.
- Secondly, these are the Prophets. Here the period is affected, the beginning of which is the conquest of Canaan, and the end is the division of Israel into kingdoms. It describes how the tribes of Israel settled, the kingdoms were founded, how David and Solomon ruled, how Jerusalem was founded, the first Temple was built, two kingdoms were formed.
- Thirdly, these are the Scriptures. They span time, beginning with the division of the kingdoms and ending with the restoration of the second Temple. They describe the Babylonian captivity, then the destruction of the first Temple, the construction of the second. And also the events that took place in the book "Esther", and the scriptures that belonged to the pen of such prophets as Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah.
To continue the study of the structure of the Bible, its next part will be considered.
Four Parts of the New Testament
From a Christian point of view, it is central in the discovery by God of humanity itself and its will. It includes 27 books that are written in ancient Greek. Conventionally, they can be divided into four parts.
- The first of them consists of books that are called legal. They are the four gospels. Their authorship is usually correlated with such names as Matthew, Luke, John and Mark.
- The second is historical and tells of the acts of the holy apostles - disciples of Jesus Christ.
- The third part includes books called educational. Among them: 7 epistles written by such authors as: the apostles Peter and John, Judas and James, as well as 14 epistles belonging to the apostle Paul.
- The fourth part is regarded as prophetic; it contains the Revelation of John the Theologian, otherwise called the Apocalypse.
In conclusion, consideration of the Bible, its composition and structure, it would be appropriate to separately speak of such a component as the Gospel.
Good news
That is how the ancient Greek word "Gospel" is translated. There are two meanings in this name - wide and narrow. In a broad sense, this is the proclamation by Jesus and the apostles of the offensive of the Kingdom of God and the salvation of the human race. Whereas, in a narrow sense, they mean a story about how the Son of God was born, what his earthly life was like, how he was resurrected and ascended to heaven.
By the time of the 2nd century AD e. this narrative was formed into four canonical books belonging to the above authors. Three of them include many parallel locations. The Gospel of John, written several decades later, differs significantly from them.
Thus, an adequate opinion is formed in the article about the difference and connections of the concepts considered. Christians include the Old Testament, which includes the Tanach and other holy books, plus the New Testament, as part of the Holy Scriptures. Together they make up the Bible. Moreover, for Christians, the New Testament is especially important, and especially the first part - the Gospel.