If you’ve never read the Bible you are in for an experience. If you have read the Bible, you probably felt very different at various points in your reading. Maybe you’ve continued to read the Bible, maybe you sometimes read some parts, maybe you just have a copy of one somewhere on a shelf because it looks pretty and makes you feel good.

Some parts of the Bible are easy to read and some parts are more difficult to read. Some parts of the Bible are clear and some parts are vague. The Bible gives us many answers, and can leave us with many more questions. The Bible speaks about humanity’s past, our present, and our future. The Bible isn’t just some instruction manual for how to live your life. The Bible contains many stories of people in all sorts of situations, good and bad, and not everything you read in the Bible is meant for you to go and do the same. We can learn a lot from the Bible.

The Bible is a special book, it’s actually a collection of books. How many books are in the Bible? That depends on who you ask! The number of books, and the order of those books, depends on which Christian denomination’s Bible you’re reading! In the original King James Bible (one of many Bible translations) there were 39 books in the Old Testament, an intertestamental section containing 14 books of the Apocrypha, and 27 books in the New Testament. So, this one book is actually many books, all with the same core collection of texts, but not every Bible says exactly the same thing in exactly the same order!

The books of the Bible were written many centuries ago by many authors in a different time and culture than our own, and these books have a history of interpretation across thousands of years by other people with their own cultures, layers of tradition, and languages. The Bible has been translated into many languages from the original text’s languages of Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek. (Looking at you Septuagint, Textus Receptus, Masoretic Text and Dead Sea Scrolls.) It’s important to remember the Bible wasn’t originally written in English. How many Bible translations to English are there? More than 100? More than 200? More like more than 400!

Ok, that got complicated quick. So, which Bible and which translation is the correct one? Great question! You just have to read the Bible and decide for yourself. We believe the Holy Spirit will help you. Simple, right? Just read this old book, with a couple different versions, translated from a couple different languages into another language, and a ghost/spirit will reveal to you God’s word.

“For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”

Hebrews 4:12 (English Standard Version)

“All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,”

2 Timothy 3:16 (English Standard Version)

The Bible itself claims to be living and breathed out by God. God, the creator of all things, that guy. Do you know what the Bible says? The Bible is anything but boring!