Page 13 - BibleKnowledgeFormOne

Tanzania Institute of Education (TIE)
Form One

Authorship of the Bible
Different people were inspired by the Holy Spirit to write the Bible. This process took about
1,500 years to be completed.

The Canon of the Bible
Canonical books comprise a set of an official list of sacred writings accepted by
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Jews and Christian communities as the revealed word of God. The number of books
in the Bible varies depending on traditions. The Catholic Bible has 73 books, in the
sense that the Old Testament has 46 books and the New Testament has 27 books. The
number of books in the Bible according to Protestant Churches, is 66; with 39 books
in the Old Testament and 27 books in the New Testament.

Division of the Bible
The Bible is broadly divided into two parts: The Old Testament (OT) and the New
Testament (NT).

Old Testament
The Old Testament describes the origin of the universe, the roots of evil and the
history of salvation through the history of the Israelites. The Old Testament was
written before the birth of Jesus Christ (BC).

The Old Testament is centered on a few great facts, such as creation of the universe
and the fall of man; God's promises to Abraham, the Sinai covenant, the kingdom
with kings acting as God’s representatives, God's intervention to his people through
the prophets, the exile and the restoration.

New Testament
The New Testament tells us about the birth, life, teachings, suffering, death, resurrection
and ascension of Jesus Christ, and the birth and spread of the Early Church.

Biblical languages
Language is one of the important medium of communication in society. Several
languages were used to write the Holy Bible. The Old Testament was first written in
Hebrew and Aramaic. Later, the Old Testament was translated into Greek. The Greek
translated version is commonly known as the Septuagint (LXX).

The New Testament was written in Greek. Thereafter, the whole Bible was translated
into Latin. This Latin version is called Vulgate. From Latin translation, the Bible was
translated into other languages.

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