Book Intro

What each book is, who wrote it and when, and how it is put together, before you read chapter 1.

The Bible at a glance

What it is

The Bible is less a single book than a library: 66 books in the Protestant Bible this site follows, written by dozens of authors over a thousand years or more. They include law, history, poetry, proverbs, prophecy, accounts of the life of Jesus, letters and visions. The Old Testament was written mostly in Hebrew, with a few chapters in Aramaic, and the New Testament in Greek.

How it is arranged

The Old Testament’s 39 books are the scriptures of ancient Israel. The New Testament’s 27 were written in the first century AD by the first followers of Jesus: four Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, 21 letters and Revelation. Within each testament the books are grouped by type of writing, not by date, so the prophets come after the histories even though many of them lived through the events those histories describe.

The story in one paragraph

God makes a good world, and the people in it turn from him. He promises Abraham that his family will bring blessing to every nation. That family becomes Israel, rescued from slavery in Egypt and bound to God at Mount Sinai by a covenant, a solemn agreement. Israel gains a land and a line of kings, loses both to exile, and returns, while the prophets look ahead to a coming king and a new covenant. The New Testament presents Jesus as that king: his life, death and resurrection, then the spread of his followers from Jerusalem to Rome, and a closing vision of all things made new.

How to use these intros

Each book’s intro sets out who wrote it and when, who it was for, what kind of writing it is and how it is laid out. Every section links to its passage in the reader. Where scholars disagree about who wrote a book or when, the main views are set side by side, and the site does not choose between them.

66 books, 1,189 chapters and 31,103 verses in the World English Bible.

• Hebrew Bible: The same books as the Old Testament, counted as 24 because some are combined, in three parts: Torah (the Law), Prophets and Writings. It ends with Chronicles, not Malachi.
• Catholic · Orthodox: Their Old Testaments also include books such as Tobit and 1–2 Maccabees, known as the deuterocanonical books or the Apocrypha.

Old Testament

Law

• Genesis — How the world began, how it went wrong, and how God chose one family, Abraham’s, to begin putting it right.
• Exodus — God rescues Israel from slavery in Egypt, binds them to himself by covenant at Sinai, and comes to live among them.
• Leviticus — How a holy God can live among his people: sacrifice, priesthood, purity and a call to be holy in every part of life.
• Numbers — Forty years in the wilderness: the generation that left Egypt refuses the promised land and dies on the way, and their children reach its edge.
• Deuteronomy — Moses’ last words to Israel on the edge of the promised land: remember what God has done, love him with everything, and choose life.

History

• Joshua — Israel crosses the Jordan under Joshua, takes the land promised to Abraham, divides it among the tribes and is called to serve God alone.
• Judges — Between Joshua and the kings, Israel forgets God again and again, and he raises up flawed deliverers to rescue them.
• Ruth — A Moabite widow’s loyalty to her Israelite mother-in-law leads to a new family and, in time, to King David.
• 1 Samuel — Israel moves from judges to kings: Samuel the last judge, Saul the first king, and the rise of the shepherd David.
• 2 Samuel — David’s reign: a kingdom united, Jerusalem made its capital, a promise of an everlasting throne and a family torn apart by his own sin.
• 1 Kings — Solomon’s wisdom and temple, the kingdom’s split in two, and the prophet Elijah’s stand against Baal.
• 2 Kings — Elisha’s miracles, the fall of Israel to Assyria, the reforms of Hezekiah and Josiah, and the fall of Jerusalem to Babylon.
• 1 Chronicles — Israel’s story retold from Adam to David for the Jews back from exile, centred on David, worship and the temple to come.
• 2 Chronicles — The kings of Judah from Solomon to the exile, measured by their faithfulness to God and his temple, ending with Cyrus’s decree to go home.
• Ezra — The exiles return from Babylon, rebuild the temple despite opposition, and are called back to the law by Ezra the scribe.
• Nehemiah — A Jewish official at the Persian court rebuilds Jerusalem’s walls in fifty-two days and leads the people in renewing their covenant.
• Esther — A Jewish queen in Persia risks her life to save her people from a plot to destroy them, and the festival of Purim is born.

Wisdom & Poetry

• Job — A blameless man loses everything, argues with his friends and with God over why, and is answered out of the whirlwind.
• Psalms — Israel’s book of songs and prayers: 150 poems of praise, lament, thanks and trust, gathered into five books.
• Proverbs — Practical wisdom for everyday life, rooted in one conviction: “The fear of Yahweh is the beginning of knowledge.”
• Ecclesiastes — A king-philosopher searches for what lasts under the sun, finds that everything slips away like breath, and learns to receive life as a gift from God.
• Song of Solomon — A sequence of love poems in which a woman and a man speak of their desire for each other, and of love “strong as death.”

Major Prophets

• Isaiah — The Holy One of Israel judges his people and the nations, then comforts Jerusalem and promises a servant, a restored Zion and a new creation.
• Jeremiah — A reluctant prophet warns Judah for forty years that Babylon will destroy Jerusalem, lives to see it happen, and promises a new covenant beyond the ruins.
• Lamentations — Five poems of grief over the destruction of Jerusalem, with a stubborn hope in God’s mercy at their centre.
• Ezekiel — A priest in exile sees God’s glory leave Jerusalem before its fall, and then return to a new temple in a restored land.
• Daniel — Faithful Jews at the court of foreign kings, and visions of empires rising and falling until God gives the kingdom to his holy people.

Minor Prophets

• Hosea — A prophet’s marriage to an unfaithful wife becomes a picture of Israel’s unfaithfulness to God, and of a love that will not let them go.
• Joel — A plague of locusts becomes a warning of the day of Yahweh, a call to return to God, and a promise that he will pour out his Spirit on all flesh.
• Amos — A herdsman from Judah goes north to tell prosperous Israel that its worship means nothing to God while it crushes the poor.
• Obadiah — The shortest book of the Old Testament announces judgement on Edom for turning on its brother Judah, and looks to the day when “the kingdom will be Yahweh’s.”
• Jonah — A prophet runs from God rather than preach to Israel’s enemies in Nineveh, and is angry when God spares them.
• Micah — A prophet from the country denounces the powerful of Samaria and Jerusalem, foresees Zion ruined, and promises a ruler from Bethlehem and a God who pardons.
• Nahum — A poem announcing the fall of Nineveh, capital of the Assyrian empire that had terrorised the Near East for more than a century.
• Habakkuk — A prophet questions God about injustice, waits for an answer, and ends in trust, because “the righteous will live by his faith.”
• Zephaniah — The day of Yahweh is near for Judah and the nations, but a humble remnant will be hidden, and God will rejoice over his people with singing.
• Haggai — Four short messages in 520 BC stir the returned exiles to stop building up their own houses and rebuild God’s temple.
• Zechariah — Night visions encourage the builders of the second temple, and later prophecies look ahead to a humble king, a pierced one and the day when Yahweh will be King over all the earth.
• Malachi — In a series of arguments with a weary people, God defends his love, calls priests and people back to faithfulness, and promises a messenger before his day.

New Testament

Gospels & Acts

• Matthew — Jesus as the promised Messiah, son of David and son of Abraham, who fulfils Israel’s Scriptures, teaches the way of the kingdom and sends his followers to all nations.
• Mark — The shortest and fastest-moving Gospel, about Jesus the Son of God, who acts with authority, is misunderstood and goes to the cross “to give his life as a ransom for many.”
• Luke — An orderly account of Jesus, Saviour of the poor, the outsider and the lost, written as the first half of a two-volume work that continues in Acts.
• John — Jesus, the Word who was with God, becomes flesh and, through signs, long conversations, his death and his resurrection, makes the Father known, so that readers may believe and have life.
• Acts — The story of the first Christians, from Jesus’ ascension in Jerusalem to Paul preaching in Rome, as the message spreads “to the uttermost parts of the earth.”

Paul’s Letters

• Romans — Paul’s fullest account of the gospel, written to a church he had never visited: all have sinned, God puts people right through faith, and Jew and Gentile belong together in one people.
• 1 Corinthians — Paul answers a gifted and quarrelsome church’s questions about leaders, sex, food, worship and the resurrection, and measures every answer by the cross and by love.
• 2 Corinthians — Paul’s most personal letter: after a painful break with the Corinthian church, he defends his ministry and finds God’s power in his own weakness.
• Galatians — Paul’s urgent protest to churches tempted to take up circumcision and the law of Moses: Gentiles are right with God through faith in Christ, and free.
• Ephesians — A letter in praise of God’s plan to unite all things in Christ, and a call for Jew and Gentile to live as one new people.
• Philippians — Written from prison to a church Paul loved, a letter of thanks and joy that holds up Christ’s humility as the pattern for life together.
• Colossians — Christ is supreme over all creation and every power, so believers need no further teaching, ritual or spiritual power to be complete.
• 1 Thessalonians — One of the earliest Christian writings: thanks for a young church standing firm under pressure, and comfort about believers who have died before Christ’s return.
• 2 Thessalonians — A short letter to a persecuted church unsettled by claims that the day of the Lord had already come: it has not, so stand firm and keep working.
• 1 Timothy — Instructions to Timothy at Ephesus on false teaching, prayer, church leaders, widows and money, so that he “may know how men ought to behave themselves in God’s house.”
• 2 Timothy — Paul’s farewell from prison as he faces death: guard the gospel, endure hardship, hold to the Scriptures and come quickly.
• Titus — Paul’s instructions to Titus on Crete: appoint trustworthy elders, silence empty talkers, and teach a way of life that shows the grace of God.
• Philemon — Paul sends Onesimus back to Philemon and asks him to receive him “no longer as a slave, but more than a slave, a beloved brother.”

General Letters

• Hebrews — An anonymous sermon urging wavering believers to hold on, because Jesus, the Son and great high priest, is greater than everything that came before him.
• James — A practical letter on living out faith: endure trials, guard your tongue, care for the poor and show your faith by what you do.
• 1 Peter — A letter of hope to scattered believers suffering for their faith, reminding them that they are God’s people, foreigners in the world, following a Christ who also suffered.
• 2 Peter — A farewell letter warning against false teachers who scoff at Christ’s return, and urging readers to grow in grace and knowledge while they wait.
• 1 John — A pastoral message to a divided community: God is light and God is love, and those who know him walk in the light, love one another and confess that Jesus came in the flesh.
• 2 John — A short note from the elder urging a church to keep loving one another and to refuse hospitality to teachers who deny that Jesus Christ came in the flesh.
• 3 John — A personal note from the elder to his friend Gaius, praising his hospitality to travelling believers and rebuking a church leader, Diotrephes, who turns them away.
• Jude — A short, urgent letter calling believers to “contend earnestly for the faith” against intruders who turn God’s grace into an excuse for indecency.

Revelation

• Revelation — John’s visions of the risen Christ, of heaven’s throne room and of the defeat of evil, ending with a new heaven and a new earth where God lives with his people.