The Bible is neatly (but not evenly) divided into to “Testaments”, the Old Testament and the New Testament. As you might know, a “testament” , means a covenant or set of promises from God to man. To simplify, the Bible is a 2-part set of promises from God to mankind. The first covenant or testament is the Old Testament. The second covenant or testament is the New Testament.
The two testaments are further divided into books, and the total number of books in the Bible is 66. The total number of authors is believed to be 40. The authorship of some books is not entirely clear from the historical and other evidence. The books in the Old Testament are further divided into 5 groupings:
- The Books of the Law
- The Books of the History
- The Poetry and Wisdom books
- The Major Prophets
- The Minor Prophets
The purpose and subject matter of each group of books is different from that of the other groups. Within a group, each book may be different either in its focus, audience and/or purpose. Together; however, the books comprise one coherent message. That is the beauty of it. Learning about any particular book of the Bible is great, but learning how that book then fits into the bigger message and points to the way of salvation can be even more exciting and can bring deeper understanding of God and a greater closeness to Him.
