Some Info On the Bible

The Bible is not really a book. It is actually a collection of "book"s. Among these "books" are letters, songs, poems, and stories of God's people. The Bible is divided into two sections. Christians call them the Old Testament and the New Testament. They are called "Testaments" because they witness to God's action in this world. Some call the Old Testament another name, the Hebrew Bible. It is called the Hebrew Bible because it is the scriptures of the Jewish people, and it is written in Hebrew. The Old Testament has 39 books and the New Testament has 27 books. Just as when you are reading anything, it is always important to figure out just what kind of "book" you are reading when you are reading the Bible. Are you reading a song? Are you reading a letter? Are you reading a theological interpretation of the happenings in the world? Are you reading an abstract picture of things that are beyond human comprehension? Are you reading a scientific or historical document? Because we were not there when these books were written, discerning exactly what we are reading is sometimes difficult or confusing. As we read the Old Testament together, keep this in mind, "What are we reading?"

How to post....continued

Thanks to Kristi for responding to my previous post, and so, here's her great instructions on how to join in on the blog....

If you click on "comments" under your post, it takes you to this page, to write your own comment. If you have a google account you can sign into that and post, otherwise it encourages you to sign up for a google account. When I signed up for a google name, then I could come here and post this. It asks for an email, a user name (what will show as your name when you post) and a password 8 characters long.

There you go.....so, just follow Kristi's directions and we'll all look forward to our posting community growing!

What Version of the Bible Should I Read?

Since the time of Martin Luther (1500's) the Bible has been translated into the language of the readers. Basically, there are two different types of translations: word for word, and phrase for phrase. The word for word translations try to take each Hebrew (Old Testament) or Greek (New Testament) word and provide the English equivelant. This type of Bible is great for in depth study, but sometimes the ideas can get a bit fogged up in the peculiarity of the words and the sentence structure. Two good word for word translations are the NRSV and the NIV. The NRSV is the version from which we read at worship.

Phrase by phrase translations are meant to be a smoother read, but the thing one needs to be aware of is that the translation will take on the theological perspective of the translators. The TEV (Today's English Version) is a good paraphrase. Since this adventure of daily reading is meant to be more of a journey through the Bible and not a in depth study, I have decided to read a paraphrase called The Message.

Whatever version of the Bible you choose, the most important step is to choose one and read it!