Books of the Bible

The Bible contains 66 books written by 40 authors and yet it is one integrated message from God written over a period of approx 1500 years.

Check out The Bible Project for help in understanding each book before you read a specific book.

The New Testament 

The Four Gospels – Matthew, Mark, Luke and John record the life of Jesus would have been written within 30 yrs of his life on earth.  John is a good first book to start reading.

Acts is the story of the first-century church after Jesus.

The New Testament contains teaching letters (books) written to churches and individuals. The Apostle Paul is the primary author of these books.  However, the book by James is a good book to read after reading a Gospel story.

Revelation the last book in the New Testament and is very hard to understand. It was written by the Apostle John approx 90AD.  An understanding of the Old Testament will help your understanding of this difficult book.

Read This Story: 

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The Old Testament

Look out for specific prophecies about Jesus in the Old Testament. (The first one is in Genesis 3:15)

The story of Jesus is prophetically portrayed in the Old Testament and revealed in the New Testament.  

Genesis the first book starts with Creation about 4000 BC and finishes 2000 years later with the life of Joseph, the great-grandson of Abraham.  (You will learn about these characters as you read)

Genesis to Deuteronomy  (first 5 books) were written approx 1400BC by Moses.  

Exodus is the grand story when Israel escaped from slavery in Egypt.

Psalms is a great go-to book to find encouragement in difficult times.  (Eg Psalm 42, 43, 44)

The role of the prophets was to speak the Word of God to the people. 

They would usually call the people of Isreal to repent and turn back to God when they wandered away from His ways. They also foretell events about the future of the Israelite nation and about Jesus first coming (2000 years ago) and His second coming which we still look forward to.