What the Bible is about and how to read it
For years, Bibles were only printed as heavy black books. Maybe that’s one of the reasons why the image of the Bible is often that it's old and boring. At the same time, it's the most sold book ever. But the Bible is so much more than just a book. It inspired people, pushed them into action and changed the world. You want to know how? Well, people started to read the Bible, they understood a deeper meaning of the text and they changed. And with them, the world around them changed.
Nowadays, you can buy Bibles in fancy colors and creative forms. It doesn’t matter what it looks like, it’s the stories and the text that it’s all about. For some, the Bible contains just fairy tales from ancient times. For others, they find something very valuable for their life in the text.
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languagesWhere does this book come from?
The world of the Bible is a strange one to us. It's Eastern, Jewish, old, different. But it is also human, universal, profound, beautifully symbolic, and filled with familiar emotions. The Bible talks about them, over there, but also about here and us. So, the Bible is an old book from another time and another culture. To understand this book, it’s good to know something more.
First of all, the Bible is not just one book, but it’s a collection of many books. The word ‘Bible’ comes from the Greek ‘Biblija’, which means ‘books’ or ‘library’. The books are written by a variety of people, by kings, prophets, scientists and just common folks. In the books, you will find many different kinds of texts, namely history, biography, laws, and poetry.
Also, the books in the Bible were not written at once, but over a period of more than 1,000 years.
Because the books of the Bible were written over a long period of time, they originate from different cultures. You read about ancient Egypt, Assyria, Persia, the Greek empire of Alexander the Great, and the Roman Empire of Caesar August.
It isn't easy to 'unpack' the Bible, but if you make the effort, a whole new world will open up for you.
Did you know our calendar is aligned with Jesus? We talk about ‘Anno Domini’ when talking about a certain year. Who is this Jesus who had so much influence throughout our history? Read it »
Two parts of the Bible
The Bible is divided into two parts: the Old Testament and the New Testament. The Old Testament describes a period of more than 3,000 (!) years. The New Testament is about a period of fewer than 100 years.
The Old Testament
In the Old Testament, you will find a variety of people trying to understand who God is and how to follow him. Sometimes, it’s a complicated book because you see different ideas about who God is. Sometimes he is lovely, sometimes he is tough, sometimes he is forgiving, sometimes he punishes. Sometimes he is the only one, sometimes he’s the greatest of many Gods. And all these different people understood God differently, also limited by their own worldview and the culture they lived in.
The New Testament
In the New Testament, everything circles around Jesus Christ. With him, everything changed. With him, also the idea of who God is changed drastically. One day Jesus explained to his friends: ‘When you have seen me, you have seen the Father’. So, we can only understand God by what we understand from Jesus. That is why the Bible is a very interesting book. Every day you have to wrestle with the book yourself, with your own ideas and convictions and the question of what Jesus showed us. In the end, God showed that he is Love by sending his own son into the World. The God he showed is the God who is love.
The Bible on Mobile
There was a revolution in Bible usage when the Bible became available for more people. The invention of the Book Press in the 15th century helped to spread the Bible rapidly. Soon, the Bible became available in more and more translations, also inspired by the conviction of people like Maarten Luther who translated the Bible into German. From then on, not only people who studied the ancient languages (Greek, Hebrew, Latin) were able to read the Bible but every man who learned to read.
More and more the Bible is read on mobile devices. Nowadays, the YouVersion Bible app is the most downloaded and used Bible app and is installed on approximately 400 million devices. You don't have to carry a heavy book, but the Bible is available in hundreds of languages and many versions of translations, just in a tab or a click. Download the app for free »
How to Read The Bible
Do you want to dive deeper into the Bible and How to Read The Bible? Explore more on the website of The Bible Project, where you find thorough, inspiring and relevant information about the Bible and how to understand the Bible.
Watch the teaser of their series 'How to Read the Bible'
Explore more
The 12 disciples of Jesus
Who were his closest friends?
Friends
Who were the closest friends of Jesus he shared the most of his time with? Here a short explanation about their names and their lives.
Are the gospels reliable?
A summary of the existing opinions.
There simply isn’t any hard evidence
There will be no end to the debate on whether or not the gospels in the Bible are reliable. These books were penned centuries ago and there simply isn’t any hard evidence for historians to use. Here a summary of the existing opinions.