Contrary
to the common belief, the Bible is not a single book. It is a library made up
of 73 books. It is divided into two the Old Testament with 46 books and the New
Testament with 27. I would like to enumerate the Old Testament books according
to their classification, they are as follows:
The
Pentateuch
The book of Genesis
The book of Exodus
The book of Leviticus
The book of Numbers
The book of Deuteronomy
This first classification books in the Bible
is commonly called as The Pentateuch,
which means in Greek 'five-fold book'.
The
Historical Books
The book of Joshua
The book of Judges
The book of Ruth
The First Book of Samuel
The Second Book of Samuel
The First Book of Kings
The Second Book of Kings
The First Book of Chronicles
The Second Book of Chronicles
The Book of Ezra
The Book of Nehemiah
The Book of Tobit
The Book of Judith
The Book of Esther
The First Book of Maccabees
The Second Book of Maccabees
Next classification of books in the
Bible is the historical books. Enlisting here as classified historical books is
about sixteen (16) books, containing a connected history of Israel from the
death of Moses to the restoration after the Babylonian captivity.
The
Book of Wisdom
The Book of Job
The Book of Psalms
The Book of Proverbs
The Book of Ecclesiastes
The Song of Songs
The Book of Wisdom
The Book of Sirach
(Ecclesiasticus)
Wisdom Literature as
scholars commonly called the next classification of books. They are grouped as
such and named accordingly because of the prominence given in them about wisdom
and folly.
The
Prophetic Books
Major
Prophets
The Book of Isaiah
The Book of Jeremiah
The Book of
Lamentations
The Book of
Baruch
The Book of Ezekiel
The Book of Daniel
The Minor Prophets
The Book of
Hosea
The Book of Joel
The Book of Amos
The Book of
Obadiah
The Book of
Jonah
The Book of
Micah
The Book of
Nahum
The Book of
Habakkuk
The Book of
Zephaniah
The Book of
Haggai
The Book of
Zechariah
The Book of
Malachi
The last division of books in the Old
Testament is composed of eighteen books identified as the prophetic books. Take
note that they are further arranged into another group namely the Major and the
Minor Prophets. However this arrangement doesn't mean that are higher or lesser prophets or higher or lesser value of these writings. They are just organized as such
according to their length.
Where
as in the New Testament, the books are arranged as follows: the four Gospels which
are considered as biographical in nature; the Acts of the Apostles is
historical since they related the first missionary activity of the Church to
the inevitable journeys of Paul; the Epistles, as their name indications, are letters
of Paul to the churches he founded and some other epistolary writings intended
for a certain community of believers, and the Revelation, or the Apocalypse as
scholars generally called it as descriptive and prophetic as it sets forth the
imaginary destiny of the church.
The New
Testament books are as follows:
The
Gospel
The Gospel according to Matthew
The Gospel according to Mark
The Gospel according to Luke
The Gospel according to John
Acts of the Apostles
The
New Testament Letters
The Letter to the Romans
The First Letter to the
Corinthians
The Second Letter
to the Corinthians
The Letter to the Galatians
The Letter to the Ephesians
The Letter to the Philippians
The Letter to the Colossians
The First Letter to the
Thessalonians
The Second Letter to the
Thessalonians
The First Letter to Timothy
The Second Letter to Timothy
The Letter to Titus
The Letter to Philemon
The Letter to the Hebrews
The
Catholic Letters
The Letter of James
The First Letter of Peter
The Second Letter of Peter
The First Letter of John
The Second Letter of John
The Third Letter of John
The Letter of Jude
The Book of Revelation
Amongst
these 73 books, the longest one is the book of prophet Isaiah consisting 66
chapters. The book of prophet Obadiah however, is very short which made up only
of 21 verses. Yet, the shortest of these books is the third Letter of John with
only 13 verses.
You might be
surprised further to know that the Protestant Bible is made up only of 66 books.
From the 73 books of the Bible which the Catholic Churches is using, seven of which
were omitted. All of these excluded books are from the Old Testament, namely: Tobit, Judith, 1&2 Maccabees – under the historical
books; Wisdom and Sirach – under the wisdom books and Book of Baruch – a prophetic book. (Take note of italized name of the books
listed above in the Old Testament).
The Catholic Church maintaining
Alexandrian canon finds it difficult to name the most disputed seven books. Until
finally, these seven books were given name by the Catholic Church as deuterocanonicals, which in Greek means,
deutero, "second", to
signify that these books passed through the second moment of canonical
formation. However, the other 39 undisputed books in the Old Testament were
given name as protocanonicals, which
in Greek means, proto, "first",
since they were included in the canon from the start.
Sources:
The New American Bible
The Bible: Questions People Ask, vol. 1 by Ariel Alvarez Valdez
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelve_Minor_Prophets
http://www.biblestudytools.com/resources/guide-to-bible-study/divisions-of-old-testament.html
http://www.biblestudytools.com/resources/guide-to-bible-study/divisions-of-new-testament.html
http://carm.org/new-testament-books
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