The Bible is unlike any other book on the shelves. For starters, it is actually a collection of 66 books produced over a period of 1,500 years in two main parts. Thirty-nine of those books comprise what we call the “Old Testament”, those ancient Hebrew Scriptures begun by Moses and contributed to by Israel’s prophets over the next thousand years. Then there’s the New Testament, a much smaller body of 27 books composed within a few decades of each other by a select group of eyewitnesses of Jesus and their closest companions.
Across the Bible’s books – and often within single books – are vastly different literary genres. Much of it is narrative: stories describing specific people, places, and events as we might expect from a great work of literature – which the Bible is. It is so compelling that it has completely permeated our society. People who have never opened a Bible know all about “facing your giants” or being a “Good Samaritan”. We love a good story, and the Bible tells an amazing one – and a true one. It is history and biography. Bible “characters” are real people. Even millennia removed from their culture and contexts, we can relate to their triumphs, defeats, motivations, and missteps – even by the “good guys”.
The Bible is also more than a story. It is law codes and blueprints. It is poetry and prophecy. It is family trees and censuses. It is mail: 21 of the New Testament “books” are actually letters. When you read what is probably the most familiar part of the Bible for many of us, you are literally reading someone else’s mail.
And yet, the Bible is for us. Its ancient history was “written down for our instruction” (1 Cor. 10:11). The apostles may not have written our names on the envelopes, but they intended for us to read their letters (cf. Col. 4:16, 2 Pet. 3:15-16). To read them…and to do what they say. Because unlike any other book, the Bible doesn’t just entertain or inform us, putting it down once we have read it all the way through. When we truly read it with a wide-open heart, we discover the story isn’t over. We have a part in it. As the Bible reveals something about humanity to us, it challenges us to choose who we are going to be and what we are going to do.
The ability of a book – especially one as ancient as the Bible – to do that is unparalleled, and it has everything to do with Whose words they really are.
Discover God's Word for your life in our series Confirmed!