THE HOLY BIBLE

 “Merciful Father, as you have sent the Holy Spirit on Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, to write all that You wished and wanted, we pray You, send the same Holy Spirit on us, so that we may understand, appreciate Your Word, and make it our plan of life. This we ask for the merits of Your Son, Jesus Christ. Amen.”

3/       The Holy Bible is a Book consisting of two sections, two groups; the Old Testament and the New Testament. Testament means ‘Agreement’ or ‘Contract’ or even ‘Covenant’. So, it is binding. In the Old Testament we find the Contract, the Agreement made between God and His people, the Israelites. In this Contract, God promised His protection and blessings on the people, and they, in turn, promised total obedience towards Him.

The Old Testament Books were written before the Birth of Jesus Christ to prepare the people of Israel for the coming of the Messiah. The Books of the New Testament were written after the Birth of Christ and presented Him as the One promised in the Old Testament.

According to Catholic Tradition, there are 46 Books in the Old Testament and 27 in the New Testament, 73 in all. Now certain Christian Editions of the Bible, get the total number of Books more, sometimes less than 73. The reason is quite understandable.

The Books of Samuel, Chronicles, Kings and Macchabees, all have two Books each. In certain editions some of them, or the four of them are compiled as one Book, so that varies the total number. So instead of 73 you could easily find 69. This is not a mistake, nor confusion in the Holy Book; it is simply a matter of presentation.

The original text of the Old Testament was written in Hebrew, the version of the seventy Commentators is known according to the LXX. Some small parts were written im Aramaic. The Authors are unknown.

The Books of the New Testament were written in Greek. We know the authors through Tradition and Research.

One might ask, when were the Books of the Bible written? The Bible scholars all agree that it is rather difficult to calculate exactly, the time taken to be written, but they give a rough estimate of 1,000 years. Whilst, those of the New Testament took round about 50 years. Therefore the whole Bible was written in a span of round about 1,500 years.          /4