Unit 5 · What the Bible Is

The word Bible comes from a Greek word, biblia. It means "the books." That is a good name. The Bible is not one long story by one writer. It is a library of smaller books bound together. Some books are stories. Some are laws. Some are songs, letters or lists of names.

Open a Bible to the table of contents. You will see names like Genesis, Ruth, Psalms, Matthew and Romans. Each name is a separate book. Genesis is fifty chapters long. Some books, like Obadiah, are only one chapter. The books were written over many hundreds of years, in different places, by many different people.

Jews and Christians both call this library scripture. That word means holy writing. Jews believe the Hebrew Bible is scripture. Christians believe the Old Testament and the New Testament are scripture. In this class we do not decide who is right. We learn what the books say and how people read them.

A Christian Bible has two big parts. The first part is the Old Testament. It tells of creation, Abraham, Moses, kings and prophets. The second part is the New Testament. It tells of Jesus and his first followers. Christians believe the New Testament completes the Old. That is why they call the first part old.

Jews read the first part too, but they do not call it old. To them it is the whole Bible. They call it the Tanakh. That name is made from three Hebrew letters. T is for Torah, the teaching. N is for Nevi’im, the prophets. K is for Ketuvim, the writings. Put them together and you get Tanakh.

So the same books have two names. A Christian says Old Testament. A Jew says Tanakh or Hebrew Bible. Many scholars say Hebrew Bible in school, because that name does not pick a side. In this course we will use both names and say which one we mean.

Ask three people how many books are in the Bible, and you may get three answers. Most Protestant Bibles have 66 books. Catholic Bibles have 73. The Hebrew Bible has 24. That sounds like a big fight. But part of it is just counting.

The Hebrew Bible counts Samuel as one book. Christian Bibles split it into 1 Samuel and 2 Samuel. The Hebrew Bible counts twelve short prophets as one book, called The Twelve. Christian Bibles count them as twelve books. Same words, different counting. That is how 24 books can hold the same text as 39.

Catholic Bibles also keep seven extra books, like Tobit, Judith and 1 and 2 Maccabees. Protestants call these books the Apocrypha and usually leave them out. Orthodox Christians keep even more. Each group has its own reasons. The lists differ, but every one of them agrees on Genesis, Psalms and Isaiah.

Open any Bible and you see big numbers and tiny numbers. The big numbers are chapters. The tiny numbers are verses. A verse is usually one sentence or part of one. The numbers make it easy to find a spot. You can say Genesis 1:1 and a friend in another city can open to the same line.

The writers did not put those numbers in. Scrolls had no chapters. The chapter numbers most Bibles use came from a church leader in England named Stephen Langton, in the early 1200s. Jewish scribes had marked verse breaks long before that. The verse numbers we print today spread in the 1500s, after printing began.

So the numbers are a tool, not part of the text. Sometimes a chapter break lands in an odd place, right in the middle of a story. Careful readers know this. They read across the numbers and follow the words. Still, the numbers are a gift. Without them, finding one line in a library would take all day.

A Bible address has three parts. First comes the book name. Then the chapter. Then a colon and the verse. John 3:16 means the book of John, chapter 3, verse 16. Say it out loud: "John three sixteen." Now you can find it.

Step one: use the table of contents to find the page where John begins. It is in the New Testament, near the back. Step two: turn pages until you see the big number 3. Step three: run your finger down the small numbers until you reach 16. That is the verse.

Some addresses are longer. Genesis 1:1-5 means chapter 1, verses 1 through 5. Psalm 23 with no colon means the whole psalm. Once you know the pattern, you can find any line in the library. This one skill will help you all year.

Not every book in the Bible is the same kind of writing. Genesis is full of stories. Leviticus is mostly law, rules for how to live and worship. Psalms is a book of poems and songs. Isaiah is prophecy, speeches from someone who says he speaks for God. Romans is a letter to a church in Rome.

You read each kind differently. You do not read a songbook the way you read a rulebook. A story has characters and a plot. A letter has a greeting and a sender. A psalm repeats an idea in two ways, like an echo. Knowing the kind helps you know what to expect.

Christian Bibles group the Old Testament books as law, history, poetry and prophets. Jewish Bibles group them as Torah, Prophets and Writings. The New Testament has four Gospels, a history book called Acts, many letters, and one book of visions called Revelation. Learning the groups is like learning the sections of a library.

The Bible was not first written in English. Most of the Hebrew Bible was written in Hebrew. Hebrew reads from right to left. That is why a Tanakh opens from what looks like the back. Its letters look nothing like ours, but every one has a sound.

A few parts were written in Aramaic, a language close to Hebrew. Parts of the books of Daniel and Ezra are in Aramaic. Many scholars think Jesus spoke Aramaic every day. The New Testament, though, was written in Greek. Greek was the common language across much of the Roman world, so a letter in Greek could travel far.

Because of this, almost everyone who reads the Bible reads a translation. A translation moves words from one language to another. Every translator has to make choices. That is one big reason why the four Bibles on the class table did not use the same words.

For a long time, most Bibles in Europe were in Latin. Only scholars could read them. In the 1500s, people began printing Bibles in the languages people spoke. Some were punished for it. William Tyndale printed an English New Testament in 1526 and was later put to death.

In 1604, King James of England ordered a new English Bible. About fifty scholars worked in teams for seven years. They used Tyndale’s work and others. The result came out in 1611. People call it the King James Version, or KJV. It uses old words like thee, thou and believeth.

The King James Bible was read aloud in churches for hundreds of years. Its phrases slipped into everyday English. It is now in the public domain, so anyone may copy it for free. That is why this course quotes it often. Many Christians still love it, and many use newer Bibles too.

English keeps changing. Words like thee and thou dropped out of daily speech. So new translations keep coming. In 1917 the Jewish Publication Society made an English Tanakh for Jewish readers. In 1901 Christian scholars made the American Standard Version. Newer ones came in the 1970s and 1980s.

Some translators try to match each Hebrew or Greek word. Others try to say the meaning in easy modern sentences. Both goals are fair. This is why one Bible says believeth and another says believes. The meaning is the same. The style is different.

Look at the pocket Bible from the story. It is a newer version. A version is one translation among many. The Bible has now been translated, in whole or in part, into thousands of languages. Some people read it in Spanish, some in Swahili, some in sign language. Same library, many doors.

In a synagogue, Jews read the Torah from a handwritten scroll. It is read in Hebrew, a portion each week, all year long. When the year ends, the readers roll the scroll back to Genesis and start again. Many Jewish families also read at home, at holidays like Passover.

In a church, Christians read from both testaments, often out loud during a service. Some churches follow a set list of readings each week. Others let the preacher choose. Many Christians also read at home, alone or with family, and in Sunday classes for children.

In a public school like ours, we read the Bible a different way. We study it as literature and history. We ask what a book says, who wrote it, and how Jews and Christians read it. We do not say it is true or false. That is a question for families and houses of worship, not for this class.

Walk through any Chicago neighborhood and you pass synagogues, churches and mosques. Inside, people read scriptures in Hebrew, English, Spanish, Polish, Greek, Arabic and more. Some churches are over a hundred years old. Some meet in storefronts. Each one has its own way of reading.

In 1893, Chicago held a giant fair called the World’s Columbian Exposition. As part of it, the city hosted the World's Parliament of Religions. Speakers from Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and other traditions came to talk. Many people in America heard about religions from Asia for the first time.

That meeting showed something this class tries to do. People with different holy books can sit in one room. They can explain what they read and listen to each other. They do not have to agree. You can be a Jewish reader, a Christian reader, a Muslim reader, or not a religious reader at all, and still learn the library together.

The first five books of the Bible go together. Jews call them the Torah. Christians often call them the Books of Moses or the Pentateuch, a Greek word that means five scrolls. Their names in English are Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. Learn the order. It is the order of the story.

The English names come from Greek and tell what each book is about. Genesis means beginning. Exodus means going out. Leviticus is about the priests, who came from the tribe of Levi. Numbers is named for two counts of the people. Deuteronomy means second law, because Moses repeats the laws.

In Hebrew, each book is named for its first important word. Genesis is Bereshit, "in the beginning." Exodus is Shemot, "names." So the same book can have two names, one Greek and one Hebrew. Both point to the same scroll. Jewish tradition and Christian tradition both say Moses is at the center of these books.

The Hebrew word Torah is often translated as law. But its plain meaning is closer to teaching or instruction. The Torah has laws in it. It also has stories, family lists, songs and speeches. All of it, Jewish tradition says, is teaching.

In a synagogue, the Torah is kept as a handwritten scroll, rolled on two wooden rods. A trained writer copies every letter by hand. Each week a portion is read aloud in Hebrew. Over one year, the readers go from Genesis to the end of Deuteronomy. Then they roll it back and begin again on a holiday called Simchat Torah.

Christians read these same five books as the first part of the Old Testament. They read them from a printed Bible, in their own language. Jews and Christians both believe these books matter. They often read them differently, and we will notice those differences as we go.

Genesis begins with the words "In the beginning." The story says God made light on the first day. Then sky, then land and sea and plants, then sun, moon and stars. Then fish and birds. Then animals and people. On the seventh day, the text says, God rested. Jews keep the Sabbath, a day of rest, and connect it to this story.

Chapter 2 tells of a garden called Eden. The story says God put the first man there and made a woman from his side. They could eat from every tree but one. A snake told the woman the fruit was good to eat. She ate, and so did the man. The story says they had to leave the garden.

Jews and Christians read this story in different ways. Many Christians call the broken rule the fall and connect it to why people sin. Jewish tradition usually does not read it that way. It sees the story more as the start of human choice. Both agree the story is about people, a rule, and a choice.

Genesis 6 says the world had filled with violence. The story says God chose one man, Noah, to build a huge boat called an ark. Noah brought his family and animals of every kind inside. Rain fell for forty days. Everything outside the ark was covered. At last the water went down and the ark rested on a mountain.

After the flood, the text says God set a rainbow in the clouds. It was a sign of a covenant, a binding promise, that a flood would never again destroy the earth. This is the first of several covenants in the Torah. Each one is a promise between God and people, and this one is with every living thing.

Genesis 11 tells of a tower in a city called Babel. The story says people wanted to build it up to the sky. God mixed up their language so they could not understand each other, and they spread across the earth. The story explains, in its own way, why people speak so many languages.

In Genesis 12, the story turns to one man, Abraham. The text says God told him to leave his home and go to a land he would be shown. God promised to make him a great nation. Abraham and his wife Sarah went to Canaan. They were old and had no children, but the story says they trusted the promise.

A son, Isaac, was born when they were very old. Isaac married Rebekah. They had twin sons, Esau and Jacob, who fought over their father’s blessing. Jacob had to run away. One night he dreamed of a ladder to heaven with angels going up and down. Later the text says he wrestled a stranger and got a new name, Israel.

Jacob had twelve sons. Their families became the twelve tribes of Israel. Jews call Abraham, Isaac and Jacob the patriarchs, the fathers. They call Sarah, Rebekah, Leah and Rachel the matriarchs, the mothers. Christians and Muslims also honor Abraham. All three traditions tell his story in their own way.

Jacob loved his son Joseph best and gave him a fine coat. Joseph told his brothers about dreams where they bowed to him. The brothers grew angry. The story says they sold him to traders, who took him to Egypt. They told their father he was dead.

In Egypt, Joseph was a slave, then a prisoner. But the text says he could explain dreams. Pharaoh, the king, dreamed of seven fat cows and seven thin cows. Joseph said it meant seven good years and then seven years of famine. Pharaoh put Joseph in charge of storing food.

When the famine came, Joseph’s brothers went to Egypt to buy grain. They did not know the man in charge was Joseph. He tested them, then wept and told them who he was. He forgave them. The whole family, with old Jacob, moved to Egypt. That is how Genesis ends, with the family safe but far from Canaan.

Exodus opens many years after Joseph. The family has grown into a people, the Israelites. A new Pharaoh fears them and makes them slaves. He even orders baby boys killed. One mother hides her baby in a basket on the Nile. Pharaoh’s daughter finds him and names him Moses.

Moses grows up in the palace, but runs away after killing a man who beat a slave. In the desert, the text says, he sees a bush on fire that does not burn up. A voice tells him to go back and lead the people out. Moses says he is not a good speaker. His brother Aaron goes with him.

Moses tells Pharaoh, "Let my people go." Pharaoh says no. The story says ten plagues strike Egypt: the river turns to blood, frogs, gnats, flies, sick animals, boils, hail, locusts, darkness, and last, the death of the firstborn. Only after the tenth does Pharaoh let them leave.

Before the last plague, the text says each family was told to roast a lamb and mark their doorposts with its blood. Death would pass over those houses. They ate in a hurry, with bread that had no time to rise. This night is called Passover. Jews still remember it every spring with a special meal called a seder.

The Israelites left Egypt that night. But Pharaoh changed his mind and chased them with chariots. They came to a sea with no way across. The story says Moses lifted his hand and the water split. The people walked through on dry ground. When the Egyptians followed, the water came back.

Exodus 15 has a song the people sang on the far shore. Miriam, Moses’s sister, led the women with a drum. Jews read this story as the birth of their people. Christians read it too, and many connect it to Easter, which often falls near Passover. Muslims also tell of Moses and the sea in the Qur’an.

Three months after leaving Egypt, the people camped at Mount Sinai. The text says the mountain shook with thunder, smoke and a trumpet sound. Moses went up. The story says God spoke ten sayings, which most people call the Ten Commandments. Later the text says they were written on two stone tablets.

In plain words, the commandments say this. Worship only God. Make no idols. Do not misuse God’s name. Keep the Sabbath. Honor your parents. Do not murder. Do not cheat on your husband or wife. Do not steal. Do not lie about others. Do not want what is not yours. Jews, Catholics and Protestants number them a little differently. The words are the same.

At Sinai the people agreed to keep these and many other laws. This agreement is a covenant. Exodus says God promised to be with them. They promised to obey. Jews call this the covenant at Sinai. They keep the holiday of Shavuot to remember it. Christians read these laws too. Most say the Ten Commandments still guide them.

Leviticus is the book in the middle. It has few stories. Instead it gives laws for the priests and the people: how to offer sacrifices, which animals may be eaten, how to treat neighbors and strangers. One famous line says to love your neighbor as yourself. Jewish tradition has studied these laws for thousands of years.

Numbers begins with a count of the people, which is how it got its name. Then the people march toward Canaan. The text says they sent twelve spies ahead. Ten came back afraid of the people living there. The Israelites refused to go in. The story says that because of this, they had to wander forty years in the wilderness.

During those years, the text says, food called manna appeared on the ground each morning. Water came from a rock. The people complained often. Moses grew tired. Numbers is a book about a long, hard wait. It ends with a new generation camped across the river from Canaan, ready at last.

Deuteronomy is made of speeches. Moses stands before the new generation and tells the whole story again: Egypt, the sea, Sinai, the wilderness. He repeats the Ten Commandments. He gives the Shema, the words "Hear, O Israel," which Jews say every day. He tells the people to love God with all their heart.

Then Moses climbs Mount Nebo. The text says God showed him the whole land of Canaan from the top. But Moses would not go in. He died on the mountain, the story says, and no one knows where he is buried. Joshua would lead the people across the river. The Torah ends there, at the edge.

The Torah’s big story is held together by covenant, a promise with rules on both sides. God promises land, family and care; the people promise to keep the law. Jews read these five books every year as the heart of their Bible. Christians read them as the start of the story they believe continues in Jesus. Both keep reading them, together and apart.