Those Bible writers were impressed upon to write for God in a way that is not entirely clear to us today. Bible students refer to this idea as “Inspiration.” In numerous, if not most cases the original authors were probably not even aware that what they were writing was Scripture. These acts of God in giving the original Bible writers the words of Scripture made it important for the writings to be understandable in the regular languages of millions of people. So, the need to have the Bible in the language of one’s birth is easy to understand.

The country of Syria, north of Israel, was among the first to obtain the Bible in its own language of Syriac. This was in the second century, about 150 A.D. Latin versions of the Scriptures appeared around 383 A.D. The famous “Latin Vulgate” was available by 405 A.D. This was the Bible of Europe for hundreds of years.

The invention of the printing press in 1450 A.D. (instead of hand copying) quickly gave rise to the need of printed copies of the Scriptures. True to the need, the Bible soon became available in German and French. Other European language translations followed over the centuries.

English translations of the Bible had to await the development of the English language. English is just one of the Indo-European languages that developed through the middle ages. The first complete English translation of the Bible was known as the “Wycliffe Version” and was completed in 1382 A.D. It was done in “Middle English” and would not be understandable by English readers of today.

Through the centuries, other Bible translations in English were done leading up to the King James version of 1611. The King James was revised several times but still, as the language developed and changed, many saw the need for a Bible that spoke to the common people in more modern times.

Charles Thomson of Philadelphia, Secretary of the Continental Congress, published the first American translation in English in 1808. Since that time many translations of the Scriptures have been made leading up to our own day. Some have been the work of one man while others were what we call “committee translations.”

So long as there is the cry of the human heart to understand the Bible there will be those with a burden to fill that need. Obviously, some translations are better than others but the most important part for you and I to play is to pick a translation, get into it and learn God’s Word. An inquiring mind is reason enough to make the Bible clear to that needy heart.

The Bible not only condemns such practices but solemnly warns that these man-made gods can never satisfy the yearnings and needs of the human heart. And, nearly every person realizes that he or she has the inner feeling that life is more than what we have within ourselves. One wise Christian leader, years ago, once said it this way: “There is a God-shaped vacuum in every human heart.”

Oddly enough, the Bible never explains any idea of “God.” The starting point is simply this: The Bible begins by assuming everyone who reads it understands that there is a God. That is, it begins building upon the assumption that everyone who reads the Bible believes in God. Again and again the Bible refers to this assumption as “faith.” One verse in the New Testament even warns that “without faith it is impossible to please God.”

The really exciting thing about exercising faith in God is that the more one trusts God and His word, the more the assurance of God and His truth will become clear and all the more we will realize how important faith is. Vast numbers of believers over the centuries have given abundant witness to the fact that trusting God in faith is very rewarding in itself.

Now open your Bible to the first verse in the first Old Testament book, “Genesis.” What are the first four words? That’s right: “In the beginning God…”. The assumption the Bible makes is clearly this: “Take God’s existence at face value and move ahead to learn about Him.”

Strangely enough, those who proceed in life without this belief or faith in God often live their whole lives without recognizing or acknowledging God’s existence and His will for them. The Bible jolts us into the folly of such a life with this fact: “The fool has said in his heart, ‘there is no God.’” No wonder then that such people often live in indecision, lack of fulfillment and worse.

The starting place, therefore, is that we must believe that He exists and that He rewards of those who diligently seek Him. If you are uncertain that God exists, let me make a suggestion.

Bow your head right now and ask God aloud to give you the assurance that He exists. I do have one caution, however. If you ask God to give you a believing faith you must be prepared to act upon that faith. God is not interested in curiosity seekers. You must be prepared to step out to obey God in your life of faith or you will probably never know He exists and is ready to work completely in your life.

These two sections of the Bible tell how God began dealing with man on earth (Old Testament) and how He continues to do so today (New Testament).

If you started reading in Genesis (Old Testament, first book) or in Mark (New Testament, second book), as suggested in Lesson #1, you were soon reading things that sounded like they came from God (and they did). But how did this information get from God to men on earth? That is the subject of this lesson.

The second book of the Old Testament, called “Exodus,” introduces the important Bible character, named “Moses.” By the time Moses, an Israeli, was born, the tiny nation of Israel had been in captivity, the people living in Egypt as slaves, for most of 400 years. Moses, through strange circumstance, had been raised in the house of the Pharaoh (king) of Egypt. When he grew to adulthood he rejected all the privileges of the adopted prince he was.

Siding with his own people (the Israelis), Moses experienced the direct hand of God upon his life. We do not know all the circumstances surrounding the way in which God chose to confront and speak directly to Moses but early on God chose to get Moses’ attention while he was a common shepherd in the deserts northeast of Egypt.

A bush began burning in the desert one day, as Moses guided his sheep there. An angel from God spoke from within the bush, giving Moses instructions from God. Bible students know this event as “The Call of Moses” to lead God’s people away from Egypt to establish their own homeland.

Moses eventually led the whole nation of Israel away from Egypt toward the northeast into what we now know as Israel which would occupy much of the land at the east end of the Mediterranean Sea. But early on, the journey of about a million or more people took them south to what we now know as the Sinai Peninsula away from the Egyptians.

At Mount Sinai God directed Moses onto the mountain where God spoke directly to him and there issued, among other things, “The Ten Commandments.” This event caused the writing of these commandments to be read to the people. In a similar way, God used Moses to convey His truth, again and again to the nation of Israel.

Over a period of the next forty years, the balance of Moses’ lifetime, God used him to write the first five books of the Old Testament. Writing in that day was on scrolls, usually leather from the hides of animals. Centuries later when writing was modernized , these same scrolls were copied into “codices” or books such as we now have.

God revealed His truths to about forty different men and women who would write the various Bible books over the course of about 1600 years. There is good reason to defend the means that God chose to convey the Bible to man. The science of archeology, the digging up of old things, renders it completely possible that the various Bible writers did, indeed, pen those Bible books ascribed to them. By the end of the first century after Christ’s life on earth all the books in both the Old and New Testaments had been completed and were being circulated.

“Bible Facts, Mysteries and Secrets Made Plain as Day” is a series of brief Bible lessons made available to everyone who has ever had an interest in the Bible but has found the going a little tough. Each lesson has a number and a name for easy reference.

Feel free to contact Pastor Ken Pierpont if you have a question or a comment. My wife, Jane, is our church secretary and my confidant. You may e-mail us here.

The Bible has two large main parts into which it is divided. The larger part, about two-thirds of the Bible is called the “Old Testament” because it was written first. It contains thirty-nine sections or “books,” as we call them.

It is called a “testament” because it means an “agreement” with man that God made at the beginning of human history.

The Table of Contents, in the front of any Bible will list the names of the sections or books in the order in which they appear in the Bible together with the page number on which each starts. Look at your copy of the Bible to determine this fact.

The books of the Old Testament will be listed by separately, usually, in the opening part of the Table of Contents. For the most part the books listed contain events in the order in which they happened, beginning with the book called “Genesis.”

The Old Testament traces the history, of the world from its beginning, through the creation of man, well into the first four thousand years of man’s existence in the world.

The “New Testament” or “New Agreement” God made with man is given in the final twenty-seven sections or “books” of the Bible. Generally speaking, the order given in your Table of Contents is the order of events as they happened.
The New Testament begins with the birth, life, death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. The books, which come later, show the beginning and development of the Christian church. The prophecy book at the end of the Bible is called “Revelation” and contains a description of future events as God has determined them.

To begin reading the Bible “Genesis” is the best place to start in the Old Testament and “Mark” is probably the best place to start in the New Testament.