The Bible

The first five books move from creation and family narratives to Israel's liberation and the giving of the law. They combine story with legal and ritual instruction. Most scholars see several sources and long editorial history behind them; Jewish and Christian tradition long attributed them to Moses.

Joshua through Kings tell of settlement, the monarchy of Saul, David, and Solomon, the split into two kingdoms, and the fall of Jerusalem to Babylon in 587/586 BCE. Chronicles retells the same history from a later vantage, and Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther concern the Persian period. Christian Bibles group these books differently from the Jewish Tanakh, where several belong to the Prophets or the Writings.

Job disputes the idea that suffering always follows wrongdoing. The 150 Psalms move between praise, lament, and thanksgiving and have been used in Jewish and Christian worship for centuries. Proverbs collects practical instruction, Ecclesiastes questions what any human effort secures, and the Song of Songs is a sequence of love poems read allegorically by both traditions.

The four 'major' prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, with Lamentations) and the twelve shorter books challenge injustice, idolatry, and false security, and speak of exile and restoration. Christian editions place the prophets last in the Old Testament, which frames them as pointing toward the New Testament. Catholic and Orthodox Bibles also include books such as Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch, and 1–2 Maccabees, which Protestant Bibles omit or print separately as the Apocrypha.

Matthew, Mark, and Luke share much material and are called the Synoptic Gospels; most scholars date Mark first, around 70 CE. John tells the story with different episodes and long discourses. Each Gospel should be read as a whole narrative with its own emphasis before comparing them.

Acts continues Luke's account, following the apostles from Jerusalem to Rome. The letters, thirteen attributed to Paul and eight others, answer particular disputes in particular congregations. Scholars agree on Paul's authorship of seven letters, including Romans and 1 Corinthians, and debate the rest.

The final book uses symbolic numbers, beasts, and cosmic imagery to speak of judgment and a new creation. Many scholars read it against Roman imperial power at the end of the first century. Its interpretation has varied more than almost any other part of the Bible, from historical and symbolic readings to predictive ones.