Podcast
Questions and Answers
Which group of texts did Jewish communities produce during the Second Temple period that were highly valued and debated whether they should be part of their Scriptures?
Which group of texts did Jewish communities produce during the Second Temple period that were highly valued and debated whether they should be part of their Scriptures?
What did Protestant Christians accept as Scripture during the Reformation?
What did Protestant Christians accept as Scripture during the Reformation?
What did Jesus of Nazareth's followers compose about his story?
What did Jesus of Nazareth's followers compose about his story?
Study Notes
What is the Bible? A Brief Overview
- The Bible is one of the most influential books in human history, exploring the big questions of why we exist.
- It is a small library of books that emerged from the history of the people of ancient Israel, produced over a thousand-year period.
- The Bible consists of different authors, including prophets who expertly crafted the Hebrew language to write epic narratives, poetry, and storytelling.
- The Jewish Bible is called TaNaK, consisting of the Torah (foundation story), Nevi'im (historical books and poetic books of the prophets), and Ketuvim (poetic books, wisdom books, and more narrative).
- Jewish communities produced a diverse group of texts during the Second Temple period, highly valued and debated whether they should be part of their Scriptures.
- The texts in the Bible tell an epic story of how God is working through the people of Israel to bring order and beauty out of the chaos of the world, building up to a hope for a new leader.
- Jesus of Nazareth claimed he was carrying the TaNaK story forward, and his followers composed new literary works about his story, called good news or the Gospel.
- The apostles believed that God was speaking to his people through these texts alongside the Scriptures of Israel, and they saw these writings as part of the Scripture.
- All Christians recognized the TaNaK and the New Testament as Scripture, but different groups had different views about some of the Second Temple literature.
- The Catholic Church called some of the books from this collection the deuterocanonical books, and some Orthodox churches used even more books from this Second Temple literature.
- During the Reformation, Protestant Christians accepted only the Old and New Testaments, wanting to go back to the oldest writings of the prophets and apostles.
- The Bible is a unified story that leads to Jesus and has profound wisdom for the modern world, and the next video in the series will address how a collection of books produced over a thousand years by different authors tells one unified story.
Studying That Suits You
Use AI to generate personalized quizzes and flashcards to suit your learning preferences.
Description
How much do you know about the Bible? Test your knowledge with this brief overview quiz! Explore the different books that make up the Bible, from the Torah to the New Testament. Discover the historical and literary context of this influential book and its impact on human history. See how much you remember from the video and learn new facts about the Bible's composition and history. Take the quiz now and see if you can answer all the questions correctly!