The Bible

We know all about God's love for us, because the History of God's relationship to Humanity is recorded in the series of books we call the Bible. Also called the Scriptures (meaning writings) the Bible is often referred to as God's Word, which does not mean that God literally wrote it, but that it's many authors were inspired by the Holy Spirit.

The Bible is not one book, but a collection of them (the word Bible comes from the Latin word for a Library) and was composed over hundreds of Years. It is in two parts. Depending on who you are, the Old Testament consists of 39 or 46 books, and was, and still is, the Jewish Scripture. (At the reformation in the 16th century, some denominations removed 7 books from the Old Testament, whose provenance they doubted, and placed them in an appendix called the Apocrypha.) The New Testament, which was later added to the Old Testament by the Christian Church, consists of 27 books. It is centered upon the four Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, which are accounts of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.

Being a collection of works, it should come a no surprise that the Bible contains a wide range of writing; including history, poetry, law, prophecy, parable (stories with a spiritual meaning) and especially in the New Testament, letters to believers. It even has its own hymn book: the book of Psalms. Passages from the bible are read at every act of worship that takes place in the church.

The Bible is supremely important to Christians, since it gives us the grounding upon which our faith is based. But the Bible is not the sole foundation for it. Tradition is also important, since it was from tradition that much of the Bible came to be written in the first place. Most of the books in the Bible began life as spoken stories, that were handed down through the generations, as a tradition. In some cases, it was only much later that the words actually came to be writen down. The New Testament was only finally agreed by the Church many years after the resurrection of Christ. Guided by the Holy Spirit, and grounded in Holy Sciptures, the Tradition of the Church seeks to maintain and interpret the Christian Faith. 

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Blessed Lord, who hast caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning; Grant that we may in such wise hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that by patience and comfort of thy holy Word, we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which thou hast given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen. 

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