Saturday, November 1, 2014

How Many Books Does the Bible Have?



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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