Here's the "Books of the Bible" Book We Were Yapping About

I really, really like this. 

We talked about it yesterday in our "Brant's Book Nook":  It's the Bible, but with the books in a different order, and without the "additives" -- like chapter and verse divisions.  (Click here to find it.)

Now, there's nothing WRONG with chapter and verse divisions, but there's nothing specially right about them, either.  They can break up thoughts, make ideas disjunct, and confuse context.  They help us locate things, but they certainly weren't a part of the original versions, either -- not even close.

The Books of the Bible publisher (the International Bible Society) re-orders the books to give us a sense of the chronology of the books of the Bible, which I find helpful.  The common ordering of the N.T. is actually based, largely, on biggest-to-smallest.  That's why Corinthians comes before Thessalonians, even though Thessalonians was likely written first. 

Also, this re-ordering gives us a good idea of the literary styles of the books.  The book of James isn't a letter to a church, but many people think it is, simply because it's included with others, traditionally.  It shouldn't be read that way.  It's a wisdom book, written along the lines of Proverbs. 

I think all this is great to keep in mind, because we tend to view the Bible as a puzzle:  We take a verse here, a verse there, another one here, and cobble together an entire theology that may be quite apart from the over-arching message that God is sharing with us in scripture.  The Bible is a gift, a blessing from God, and, as such, we should do our best to understand literary styles, context, and purpose from Genesis to Revelation.  (Hint:  It's all about Jesus.)

Comments

[Krystal]

Wow, you sure do have a lot of time on your hands. But Id have to say I would too. Afterall, I did go through all of these time consuming, yet beautifully useless formulas that is my phone number.. TOTALLY AWESOME. lol

[RevJeff]

I read my Bible backwards every day....

[natalie]

hmmm.. intersetinnngg id like to readd that book..