Not Wilbur and Puppers

Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine, or they will trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.  Matthew 6:7NASB

Finding the Books in Your Bible

 When i received my first Bible, i'd kinda wanted thumb tabs so that i could find the books more easily.
  Within a few years,

The Basics About the Bible: The Letters Paul Didn't Write

Or maybe he did write one of them.......

The Basics About the Bible: Paul's Letters to Churches

A Letter of NT times followed this Basic Formula:

• Greeting, including self-identification - this is like "Signature First," or the Return Address
• Body of the Letter Paul's letters are generally broken down further:
• xxxxxxxspiritual teaching
• xxxxxxxpractical application
• Closing; here is where the secretary and any others sending greetings would identify themselves

The Basics About the Bible: The History Books of the New Testament

The New Testament opens with five books which, taken together, outline most of the events of its timeframe.

They are divided into the Gospels (Biographies of Jesus) and The Book of Acts, showing the birth and growth of the early church.

The Basics About the Bible: Between the Testaments

Between the Testaments

  While is our Protestant Bibles contain no Scripture between the testaments , a lot happened in history.  Alexander the Great made his conquests, his empire crumbled and was divided (prophesied by Daniel), and the world took the shape we find at the beginning of the NT.

  When the OT ended, the people had returned from exile.  Since the nation is, by God's design, on an international superhighway, armies came through and conquered them again.

  Alexander absorbed them peacefully after being shown the prophecy about himself.  He liked being prophesied about.

  After Alexander's death, his four generals divided his kingdom. Antiochus Epiphanes, a successor to one of those 4 generals, sacrificed a pig in the temple, and mounted such a great persecution of Jews that the Maccabee family revolted.
   The miracle of Hanukkah occurred.  The priests were reconsecrating, or dedicating, the temple,
but, according to the laws in the books of Moses, they needed to burn the sacred oil for 8 days and only had enough for 1.   But that one day's worth lasted for the entire 8.  It's also called the Feast of
Dedication, which older translations of the NT will mark as of one of Jesus' public speaking occasions.

  For a time, there was actually an independent Jewish state again.  

  This was the time the Pharisees and the Sadducees came into being.  The Pharisees wanted to make sure everyone kept the Law, since the penalties were so awful for not.  The Sadduccees were the conservative ones.  They accepted only the first five books of our Bible as authoritative.
  The Herod family curried favor with Rome, and came to power.  

  To keep their nation, priests allowed the Romans to change the High Priest annually, instead of keeping office for life.

The Basics About the Bible: Old Testament Books of Prophecy

There are two divisions of the writing prophets of the Old Testament:

The Basics About the Bible: The Poetry Books

There are six books of poetry in the Old Testament, but one is classified in another section.

The Basics About the Bible: Old Testament History Books

There is a wide variety of scholarly opinion on dating the earlier books, but, as we come closer to the present, the events can be finely dated.  Some modern translations will even translate postexilic dates into our current calendar month and year.

The Basics About the Bible: The First Five

Valerie's Non-Scholarly Briefing The Bible in Minutes Course:

Old Testament: Books of Law

  These are known as the Pentateuch, Torah, and Books of Moses as well.*

The Basics of the Basics About the Bible

Valerie's Non-Scholarly Briefing The Bible in Minutes Course: 

A Word about the Basics

from II Peter 1

The Bible Contains: