Reading the Bible is an important part of daily spiritual growth. Learn more about this gift from God in this slide presentation by Brett Opalinski, senior pastor at Christ Church, Fort Lauderdale and Pompano Beach.

1. +
The Bible: An Introduction
Brett Opalinski
Christ Church UM

2. +
Religion of the Book

Judaism and Christianity are
religions of a book.

Judaism was the first of
Western Civilization.

Other religions, put more
emphasis on ritual ceremonies
and sacrifices.

3. +
Bible Basics

Hebrew Bible (Old Testament)
and the New Testament.

Library/Collection of Books (66
not counting the Apocrypha)

Different authors, settings,
places.

4. +
Hebrew Bible/Old Testament

Many books across a wide
range of time.

Written in Hebrew.

5. +
Basic Parts of the Hebrew Bible

Torah: Books of the Law

Prophets

Poems

Wisdom

History

6. +
New Testament: Basic Information

27 Books.

Written in Greek.

Between the Years 50-120 CE
(Earliest I Thessalonians)

7. +
Types of Writings in the New
Testament

Letters

Gospels

History

Sermons

Apocalyptic Literature

8. +
Basic Dates for Early Christianity

6-4 BCE – Birth of Jesus

10 CE – Birth of Paul

29 CE – Death and
Resurrection of Jesus

31-33 CE – Paul’s
Transformation

50-60 CE – Letter’s of Paul

64 CE – Death of Paul and
Peter

65-70 – Gospel of Mark written

9. +
What Scriptures did Early Christians
Use

Hebrew Scriptures (Old
Testament)

Jesus’ words and teachings.

Paul’s Letters

Gospels

Later Writings

10. +
There Were Many Early Christian
Writings

Gospels

Acts/Histories

Revelations

Which ones should be used?

11. +
Athanasius: Bishop of Alexandria

367 CE – Letter to his
Churches in Egypt.

Instructed them to use the 27
books that made up the New
Testament.

12. +
Council of Carthage – 394 CE

Finalized the List of Books that
we use today in Western
Christianity.

Eastern Christians still used: I
Clement, Barnabas, Shepherd
of Hermas. Omitted
Revelation.

13. +
Criteria for Which Books Were
Selected

Rule of Faith: Consistent with
basic teaching of the Apostles.

Apostolic Authorship.

Accepted and Used by Many
Churches.

No agreement over which was
the most important.

14. +
What About the Apocrypha

Books that are from the Hebrew
tradition, but not part of the Old
Testament. Valued and used
by Early Christians.

Baruch, Tobit, Psalm 151, 1-4
Maccabees, Wisdom of
Solomon, Letter of Jeremiah.

Some Bibles include these
today!

15. +
Manuscripts

We do not have the original
copies of the books.

There are over 5,500
manuscripts, fragments or
papyri.

Copying was done by hand, not
by printing presses.

16. +
How Do We Get Our Bibles Today

Scholars work with Manuscripts
and Fragments to determine
what the originals may have
looked like.

Put together into a common
Greek version. (Hebrew for
OT).

Different translations from that.

17. +
Final Thoughts

Translations: Common English
Bible or New Revised Standard
Version (NRSV).

Don’t just read the Bible, study
it!

If you would like to know more,
email me at:
bopalinski@echristchurch.org