Primer on the Bible

What is the Basic Structure and Divisions of the Bible?

The Bible is divided into the 46 books of the Old Testament and the 27 books of the New Testament

Main division

The Bible is mainly divided into the Old Testament and the New Testament. The Old Testament contains the books relating to the old covenant between Yahweh and Israel. The New Testament contains books and letters relating to the new covenant between God and the New Israel, the Church.

The Old Testament

The Old Testament is basically divided into three: the Torah, the Prophets, and the Writings. The Torah is the Law given by Yahweh to the people of Israel. The books of the prophets are books which contain stories on how the prophets of Israel always remind the people to turn back from sin and return to Yahweh, their God. The Writings are books which contain all the writings of Israel's men of wisdom.

• Torah
• Genesis [Gn]
• Exodus [Ex]
• Leviticus [Lv]
• Numbers [Nm]
• Deuteronomy [Dt]

• Prophets
• Joshua [Jos]
• Judges [Jgs]
• Ruth [Ru]
• First Book of Samuel [1Sm]
• Second Book of Samuel [2Sm]
• First Book of Kings [1Kgs]
• Second Book of Kings [2Kgs]
• Some bible scholars make a further division of the Bible to signify the historical books. These historical books contain: 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel, 1 Kings, 2 Kings, 1 Chronicles [1Chr], 2 Chronicles [2Chr], Ezra [Ez], Nehemiah [Neh], Tobit [Tb], Judith [Jdt], Esther [Est], 1 Maccabees [1Mc], and 2 Maccabees [2Mc]
• Isaiah [Is]
• Jeremiah [Jer]
• Lamentations [Lam]
• Baruch [Bar]
• Ezekiel [Ez]
• Daniel [Dn]
• The 12 Minor Prophets
• Hosea [Hos], c. 750-732 B.C.
• Joel [Jl], c. 500 B.C.
• Amos [Am], c. 750 B.C.
• Obadiah [Ob], c. 475-450 B.C.
• Jonah [Jon], c. 400-200 B.C.
• Micah [Mi], c. 740-700 B.C.
• Nahum [Na], c. 612 B.C.
• Habakkuk [Hb], c. 605-597 B.C.
• Zephaniah [Zep], 640-609 B.C.
• Haggai [Hg], c. 520 B.C.
• Zechariah [Zec], c. 520-518 B.C.
• Malachi [Mal], c. 440 B.C.

• The Writings
• Proverbs [Prv]
• The Psalms [Ps]
• Ecclesiastes [Eccl]
• Job [Jb]
• Song of Songs [Sng]
• Sirach (Ecclesiasticus) [Sir]
• The Book of Wisdom [Wis]

As a whole, from Genesis to the book of the prophet Malachi, the Old Testament comprises 46 books.

The New Testament

The New Testament is basically divided into the gospels, the epistles, and the Book of Revelation. The gospels give an account of the life and teachings of Jesus - with each gospel giving a particular focus depending on the community in which the gospel tradition has been used. The epistles or letters, are attributed to the apostle Paul and the other apostles. These letters were written for the benefit of the communities they were addressing. The book of Revelation, traditionally known to be written by John, is an apocalyptic writing that uses a lot of symbolism.

• The Gospels
• The gospel of Matthew [Mt], c. 85 A.D.
• The gospel of Mark [Mk], c. 70 A.D.
• The gospel of Luke [Lk], c. 75 A.D.
• The gospel of John [Jn], c. 90-100 A.D.

The book of the Acts of the Apostles [Acts] follows the book of John. It gives an account of the early Christian church and how it began to grow and spread throughout the many regions surrounding Jerusalem. Modern bible scholars refer to the book of the Acts of Apostles as belonging to the book Luke-Acts, which refers to the integration of the gospel of Luke and the book of Acts. It has been studied that the one who wrote the gospel of Luke also wrote the book of Acts.

• The Epistles or the New Testament Letters
• Letter to the Romans [Rom], c. 57 A.D.
• 1st Letter to the Corinthians [1Cor], c. 57 A.D.
• 2nd Letter to the Corinthians [2Cor], c. 57 A.D.
• Letter to the Galatians [Gal], c. 50 A.D.
• Letter to the Ephesians [Eph], c. 61-63 A.D.
• Letter to the Philippians [Phil], c. 62-63 A.D.
• Letter to the Colossians [Col], c. 61-63 A.D.
• 1st Letter to the Thessalonians [1Thes], c. 51-52 A.D.
• 2nd Letter to the Thessalonians [2Thes], c. 52 A.D.
• 1st Letter to Timothy [1Tm], c. 63 A.D.
• 2nd Letter to Timothy [2Tm], c. 63 A.D.
• Letter to Titus [Ti], c. 62 A.D.
• Letter to Philemon [Phlm], c. 62 A.D.
• Letter to the Hebrews [Heb]
• Letter of James [Jas]
• 1st Letter of Peter [1Pt]
• 2nd Letter of Peter [2Pt]
• 1st Letter of John [1Jn]
• 2nd Letter of John [2Jn]
• 3rd Letter of John [3Jn]
• Letter of Jude

• The book of Revelation [Rv] - the book of Revelation uses apocaplytic language. It uses a lot of symbols in its contents. Bible scholars have come to the conclusion that the book was written for a persecuted Christian church under the Roman Empire. Thus the symbols referring to, for example, dragons with seven heads, is a kind of 'code' among the persecuted Christians when referring to the Roman Empire.

As a whole, from the gospel of Matthew to the book of Revelation, the book of the New Testament comprises 27 mini-books.

Further divisions into the Bible

So quotes from the Bible can be referred to with ease, the books are further divided into chapters, passages, and verses. A good translation to have is the New American Bible. This is a good translation because the English is better than the Revised Standard Version. And this translation is the one used in Eucharistic liturgies. In the New American Bible, the chapters are further divided into passages or sections with a short caption describing the contents of the passage or the section. Then the passage or section is further divided into verses which are also numbered like the chapters. Thus, when you see the reference Mt 28:16-20, this means that it refers to the gospel of Matthew, chapter 28, verses 16-20. Sometimes the verses have an a, b, or c letter accompanying the number, this just means a further division of the verse itself. To be familiar with the abbreviations of the books of the Old Testament and the New Testament, you can refer to the list above.

Different ways of presenting the divisions of the Bible

The above divisions of the bible is only one of many standard ways of dividing the bible to have an idea what it is. In some versions of dividing the bible, some books that are placed in the historical are considered among the prophetic books. A better approach of understanding the bible is to research, and know the many ways the bible is categorized into different books and traditions. This will obtain for the reader a fuller understanding and comprehension of its eaning and contexts.