An introdution to Sacred Scripture

The word “Bible” comes from the Greek “biblia” meaning “books”, and indeed the bible is not one book, but a whole library of books, 66 to be exact. This library contains many different types of material including, in the first part, legend, folklore, history, court records, legal; books, prophetic books, sacred songs and an erotic love poem. The second half contains gospels, an account of the spread of Christianity and the founding of the first Churches, letters to these Churches and a visionary account of the last battle between good and evil.

The first part of the Bible, which Jews call the Tanach and Christians call the Old Testament, is sacred to both faiths. It was produced by Jews over several centuries and by them is divided into three sections:- the law attributed to Moses; the Prophets; and the third section known as the Writings. Broadly speaking the Old Testament covers the history of Israel from its earliest beginnings to the 2^nd century BC. However there is far more to the Old Testament than mere history, it is history shaped and controlled by God. The real story of the Old Testament is that of Israel’s journey towards understanding the nature of her Gods. Judaism is a revealed religion and gradually over many centuries, and guided by the inspired men known to the as the Hebrew prophets, Israel came to know the might and power of God, and also His compassion, forbearance and loving concern. Central to Israel’s life was the covenant between God and people, and the prophets strove to keep a headstrong and willful people true to this covenant.

The abiding worth and value of the Old Testament lies in the profound spiritual truths it contains. These holy writings formed the background of the life of Jesus. He based his own teaching on them and could take for granted that those who came to hear him speak also had a sound knowledge of them. Their importance for understanding the mission and teaching of Jesus is seen in the fact that from the beginning they were taken into the canon of the Christian Church, where they form the first part of the Christian scriptures.

The second part of the bible, the New Testament, deals with the life and teaching of Jesus, and the founding of the Christian Church. The first three gospels give a picture of the life and ministry of the historical Jesus. The fourth gospel, the last to be written, is a far more reflective and theological work, from the outset emphasizing the divinity of Jesus.

The Book of Acts tells of the beginning of the Church, particularly the mission of St Paul to the Gentiles and the founding of Gentile Churches in the pagan cities of the Roman Empire. It tells too of the decision that Gentiles could become Christians without prior conversion to Judaism, and of the movement of church away from the synagogue. Then come letters from St Paul and other apostles to the young churches, answering questions, dealing with problems and offering advice and counsel. In Paul’s letters are laid down the great doctrines of the Christian faith.

The final book of the New Testament is the Revelation of St John, a vision of the final battle between good and evil.

This great spiritual book, the Bible, has been the mainstay and spiritual support of Christians for nearly two thousand years.

The following introduction to Sacred Scripture will guide you through all the books of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. Click on any of the links below to immediately proceed to a particular book.

The New Testament

Jesus The Gospel according to St Mark The Gospel According to St. John

The Gospels According to St. Matthew and St. Luke. and the Acts of the Apostles St Paul

1 & 2 Thessalonians 1 & 2 Corinthians Galatians and Romans Philippians Philemon

Colossians Ephesians 1 & 2 Timothy. and Titus Hebrews James 1 & 2 Peter. and Jude

1- 2 - 3 John Revelation Concluding Comments on New Testament

An outline of some of Scripture's themes

These chapters set the scene for the whole Old Testament. In this section we read about Creation, the Fall of Man, and the Great Flood, and we're told that though God is good and so is all that he has made, yet because of our pride and selfishness we have managed to cause a rift between ourselves and God ("Adam" means "mankind"). Relationships between people are affected as well. Only in Jesus the "Second Adam" is the rift with God decisively dealt with (see Romans 5 vs. 15-20) and in the Church of Christ, rifts between people are bridged (Ephesians).

God selects Abram's tribe and begins to bring his people Israel into being. Stories about Joseph are found in these passages, and as they close we find Israel in Egypt.

One of the events which would burn itself into Israel's memory would be their rescue from such degrading slavery - God, by his love, helped Moses to lead them out of Egypt and across the Sea of Reeds, or Red Sea. On Mount Sinai, the Law, another example of his love, would be given. The Ten Commandments are found in chapter 20 vss 1 to 17.

The priests who gave the Pentateuch its final shape looked back to Moses their hero-figure and thought about the God who wanted his people to reflect his nature both in worship and life. The Lord would surely have something to say about even the most trivial details of life. The Book of Leviticus is the result of the priests' meditations and teachings.

This takes up the ancient story where Exodus left it: the people of God journey in fruitless frustration in the wilderness and the Promised Land is not entered. God is not trusted and faithlessness characterizes their basic attitude,

Leviticus was the product of priests and their attempts to understand Moses who had lived so much earlier. Deuteronomy is fairly similar in that here we have another group with one eye on the great man and the other on the needs of their own time. Its central message is: "obey God and then he'll bless you," and it was originally intended as a Preface to the historical books of Joshua to Kings.

Having looked at the Book of Deuteronomy, we now look at the "History of Israel" which was written and edited by the people who wrote the Preface itself. The stories about Moses which are now included in Deuteronomy had been lost for some time, but in the year 621 B.C. the scroll was found. This led to a national revival from the King down, and the convictions which stood at the heart of it are easily seen in the Books of Joshua to Kings. For example, kings who would have been considered important by ordinary standards are given extremely rough treatment in these pages if they had not followed God's Law. On the other hand, people who would normally be regarded us unimportant or unexceptional are given much positive attention if they were godly. This is no ordinary 'History.'

It would have been completed around the year 550 B.C. when the nation was in exile in Babylon - didn't Deuteronomy say that if they disobeyed God the nation would run into trouble? The last few verses of the work, however, show how gracious God is (2 Kings 25 vs. 27 to 30). The future can be met with hope, for God always has the last word

In Deuteronomy we left the people of God preparing to enter the Promised Land. This book, named after the new leader, takes up the story of how the land was divided between the tribes of Israel and how one tribe, at least, made itself at home in the land of the Canaanites which God had earmarked for them.

This takes a wider view than Joshua did, in that it deals with the fortunes of most of the tribes who were still, at this stage, a fairly loose grouping with no overall king. Leaders called "judges" would emerge from time to time among the clans to give leadership in times of war - we have to wait for the Books of Samuel in order to read of Israel as a nation under its monarch.

"Ruth" is a charming and peaceful story set in the violent times of the judges. The central character is a foreign woman from the tribe of Moab who shows genuine loyalty to her mother-in-law when her own Israelite husband dies - the young widow would stay with her and would share her devotion to the God of Israel. God, then, would accept people of any nation when they look to him.

Here we read of the transition from the leadership of the various judges to that of the monarchy, Samuel being the last judge, Saul the first king. David is in the background and will soon take over the mantle from the disobedient Saul, but its clear throughout that Samuel's authors have mixed feelings about the whole idea of “monarchy" - after all, isn't God the real King of Israel?

David is now on the throne, and he is the towering figure amongst all the kings of Israel. Not only is he truly great by ordinary standards, but his reign is marked by a profound desire to obey God's Law. When he did sin, and was confronted with the fact, his penitence was real. Later rulers would be measured by his standards,

The History of Israel unfolds, and does so in three stages:- 1) the death of David and the succession of Solomon his son, 2) Solomon's reign and achievements, especially the building of the Temple in Jerusalem, and 3) the division of the nation into Northern and Southern Kingdoms and the achievements of their various rulers down to the 9th Century B.C. Prominent in this book are the prophets, Elijah among them, and their warnings that the people of God are moving away from him -disaster can't be far away.

Neither Elijah nor his successor Elisha are heeded, and disastrous unfaithfulness to God ensues. Here we read of the Northern Kingdom and its fall in 721 B. C., and the Southern Kingdom and the capture of Jerusalem by the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzer in the year 586 BC.

This, the third major Old Testament work we've encountered, is comprised of 1 and 11 Chronicles, and the Book of Ezra/Nehemiah, and its author not only had access to the Two Books of Kings (above) but also could draw upon Ezra's report of his own work, and Nehemiah's memoirs.

At the end of "Kings" we left the people of God in Babylon looking to the future with a certain amount of hope. 1 and 11 Chronicles covers much the same ground, and Ezra/Nehemiah tells of their return to their own land. Jerusalem, its walls and Temple, would need to be rebuilt. Our author was a priest at the Temple in Jerusalem about the year 250 hence his concern for the worship of God's people, and this "History” is his sermon to his own generation to encourage them to be more faithful to God than some of the earlier generations had been. His material is presented as follows:-

1 Chronicles 1 to chapter 9 vs. 44 - early genealogy from Creation to David.

ii Chronicles 10 to chapter 36 vs. 23 - the other kings of the Southern Kingdom.

As we have already seen, the Hebrews were no strangers to persecution - the times which had been spent in Egypt (1200 B.C.) and Babylon (550 B.C.) were deeply etched upon their minds. "Esther" was probably written in 300 B.C. when they were dominated by their new Greek overlords. In the story, God's faithful people Mordecai and Queen Esther helped to save the Jews from destruction as their enemy Haman's evil came back upon his own head. Jews to day celebrate this story of rescue with The Feast of Purim.

This book was written in order to struggle with the question of undeserved suffering. While his "comforters" try to come up with easy and painless answers to the problem of evil, the patient Job is eventually brought to silence by the wisdom and majesty of Israel's eternal God who made all things.

The Psalms stand at the heart of the worship of the Christian Church, especially so in the Offices of Matins and Evensong. Not that this should surprise us, for they also occupied that place in the life of the Old Testament people of God. The Psalms of this "Jewish Hymnal" are grouped into five "books," and they cover every experience and mood known to humankind. They contain national and individual laments and hymns of praise, psalms rejoicing in the provision of kings following in the footsteps of David, and material which reminds the people of God's mighty acts on their behalf. Some psalms were used (e.g. psalm 122) as pilgrims made their way to Jerusalem to worship.

As David's name became associated with Israel's tradition of singing praise to God, that of his son, Solomon, became linked with the nation's attempts to live in a very practical way in obedience to the Lord, “Proverbs" is part of the Bible's "Wisdom Literature" and its material, collected into four Books, draws together the lessons learned from life (e.g. in chapter 31 vs, 10: "A good wife who can find? She is more precious than jewels”) and what is believed about God (e.g. in chapter 11 vs. 1: "A false balance is an abomination to the LORD, but a just weight is his delight.") Some of its sayings are very ancient, but the book as we now have it would not have been written until after the Exile in Babylon.

Israel's wise men did not always strive to convey a simplistic or superficial faith. This book, in which the spokesman of the people holds the floor, speaks of what seems to be the meaninglessness of life - "all is vanity," as he puts it. During the dark times of life, the Scriptures encourage us to be honest with God. At the end of the day, chapter 12 vs. 13 holds the key

Here we find five love poems involving the Lover and the Beloved which are a celebration of married love in all its fullness. The inclusion of this book in Scripture places the union of a man and a woman in the context of God, and attempts to try to find a more "spiritual" understanding of the material are rarely convincing. Perhaps the "Song" celebrates God's love for Israel, or even Christ's love for the Church? Then again, perhaps Hebrew thought is correct in resisting the temptation to divorce God the Creator from ordinary life as he created it?

Isaiah was a great prophet living in Jerusalem in the 8th Century B.C. He was not only conscious of the threat posed to Judah (the Southern Kingdom) by their superpower neighbour, Assyria, but also conscious of the very real threat which the nation's sin and disobedience to God posed. The nation was no stranger to materialism and prosperity, and yet many in the land were extremely poor: the prophet called for righteousness and justice and looked forward to a time of worldwide peace when the ideal King, a descendant of David, would come.

Judah had sinned, and the warning which had come through Isaiah and the other prophets had come true. The leaders of God's people were taken by force to Babylon, and their own land and temple lay in ruins.

God spoke to the people, however, through a prophet in exile - whose name we no longer know - and these chapters, which were written around the year 550, not only contain words of hope but also some of the most glorious passages in the Old Testament.

The exiles are now back in their own land and the hope which characterizes the previous section is now realized. As they settle down to their life of picking up the pieces, that note of hope doesn't disappear. This material looks beyond Jerusalem as she now is to her glorious future when God will transform all things. In chapter 60 (vss. 1-3, R..S.V.) we are told: "Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you. For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the LORD will arise upon you, and his glory will be seen upon you. And the nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising."

The prophet lived in the late 7th/early 6th Century B.C., and he warned of the catastrophe which would come upon the nation as a result of their idolatry and sin. This he lived to see, as Jerusalem fell and her leaders were deported. Not that his message was simply one of doom and gloom - far from it, for this collection of material also looks forward with hope to the restoration of the nation following the exile. Indeed, there would one day be a "new covenant" between God and humankind when his Law would be "written on their hearts" (31, vss. 31—34).

This is a collection of five poems lamenting the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 B.C. Again the notes of trust in God and hope for the future are present. Though this book is linked in Jewish tradition to the prophet Jeremiah, it is extremely unlikely that he wrote it.

Ezekiel is another of the great prophets who lived during the Exile. His "visions" are more spectacular than those of Isaiah and Jeremiah, including the "valley of dry bones" (chapter 37), and he blamed Israel's sins for her dreadful condition. His message, which he would frequently and dramatically act out, was "repent and live" (18, vs. 32). He helped to prepare the way for Ezra and his reforms

The famous stories which occur in the first half of this book are set in the Babylonian exile but are actually written, together with the "visions” in chapters 7-12, during a later time of persecution (see the notes on the Books of Maccabees in the Apocrypha). Its basic message is that though, as the hymn writer puts it, "earth's proud empires pass away,” the Kingdom of God is invincible and would soon come

This book is the first of twelve "minor" prophets which occur at the end of the Old Testament, so called due to their brevity rather than their lack of importance

The prophet's married life is far from happy due to his wife's unfaithfulness, and as he struggles with this he comes to see the parallel between his own situation and that of God. Though God loves his people, they are repeatedly unfaithful to him as they give themselves to other gods.

Hosea proclaimed his message to the Northern Kingdom before it fell in '721 B.C.

Little is known about the prophet Joel, though it seems possible that he lived in the 4th or 5th Century BC. He conveys the Lord's call for repentance together with his promise of ultimate blessing and restoration for his people.

Coming, himself, from the Southern Kingdom, Amos could see the corruption which was rife in the Northern Kingdom, with great wealth and crippling poverty existing side by side. Religious ceremonies were still being practiced, yet they failed to speak to the people in any way about life and how God required that it should be lived. With courage and passion he preached a message which was social, moral and religious in content.

This is a prophecy of some 21 verses which conveys God's judgement against Edom, and it comes from the 5th Century.

This parable was written in the 4th Century and it tells of how the self-righteous prophet was angry at God and his merciful treatment of sinful people. The prophet called for a display of divine wrath, instead, God displayed his love.

Micah was a contemporary of Isaiah of Jerusalem, and their messages bear many similarities: national sin will lead to catastrophe, yet God is merciful and the future is not without hope. Chapter 6 vs. 8 is a particularly powerful statement of the kind of life which God requires of his people.

This contains a funeral dirge for the sinful city of Nineveh before it fell in 612 B~C.

We know very little about Habakkuk except that he lived through the period when Judah's neighbour, Babylon, was at her most menacing and destructive. The book, written on the eve of deportation (606 - 597 B.C.), has as its main theme: "at the right time, God will destroy the wicked." St. Paul quotes from the prophet in his Letter to the Romans (chapter 1. vss. 16-17).

The prophet Zephaniah was of royal descent and his message was delivered during the reign of King Josiah of the Southern Kingdom before the religious reforms of 621 B.C. which we looked at above (see the notes on "Deuteronomy's History of Israel"). As with many of the prophets he spoke of the nation's sin and God's ultimate good intentions towards his people

He prophesied around the year 520 when the Jews had returned from Exile. He spoke to a nation which had allowed the hope and joy with which they had returned to their own land to be replaced by a selfish tendency to ignore God. Should they not dedicate themselves to his service? (see chapter 1, vss. 2-4).

The first eight chapters date from the same period as the prophet Haggai, hence Zechariah's call for repentance and cleansing (1, vs. 4). The second part of the book was written at a later date (perhaps as late as the year 300) and looks forward to the coming of the Messiah.

This material dates from the 5th Century and is in "question and answer" form. The need to be true to God is central throughout, and the book, especially the first four verses of chapter four, points forward to the New Testament.

During the 1st, Century AD., the books we have been considering under the title "The Old Testament" were gathered together by the Jews to form their Bible. They were written in Hebrew (or its later development Aramaic, as in the case of parts of the Book of Daniel), and gathered together into three groups, the Law (Genesis to Deuteronomy), the Prophets (Joshua, Judges, 1-il Samuel, 1-11 Kings, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the Twelve), and the Writings (the remainder of the Old Testament). This was the situation in the promised land where the Aramaic speaking Jews lived and worshipped.

However, not all Jews lived in the Holy Land during the period immediately before the coming of Jesus. For this group, their first language, and in time their only language, was Greek, hence the need to translate the Holy Books into Greek so that they could be used in worship. The books we have been looking at were translated: but other books, some of these originally written in Hebrew, others in Greek, were also being used in synagogue services. These came to be regarded as "Scripture" by the Greek-speaking Jews, and as the Christian Church moved into the wider (Greek-speaking) world, it was this larger collection of Books which they came to regard as "Scripture."

Fifteen hundred years later, during that turbulent time known as the "Reformation," the debate re-opened within the Church concerning the size of the Old Testament: should the (smaller) Jewish Bible or the (larger) Greek Bible be regarded as Old Testament Scripture? Put another way: bearing in mind that all sections of the Church agreed that the Jewish Bible was to be regarded as "Scripture," what could be said about the group of Greek Books which weren't also in that collection? These came to be regarded as "The Apocrypha," and opinion was divided over the issue, as, indeed, is the case today. Catholic Christianity has tended to regard the (larger) Greek collection as "Scripture," and Protestant Christianity has, for a number of reasons, argued in favour of the (smaller) Jewish collection.

Though Anglicans have disagreed among themselves over the status of the Apocrypha, in practice these books were included in English translations of the Bible, being collected together in a section between the Old and New Testaments as was the case in the Authorized Version of 1611, and most Anglicans were at least prepared to say, with the 39 Articles (printed in the Prayer Book), that they should be read "for example of life." Today, many within the Anglican Communion would agree with Anthony and Richard Hanson (in their book "Reasonable Belief") that it is increasingly difficult to "draw a hard and fast line" between the two collections of books, and no doubt, bearing in mind what we said at the outset about the divine and human sides of Scripture, those who have approached the Apocrypha with an eye to both aspects have not been disappointed,

Possibly written during the 2nd Century B.C., First Esdras parallels much of the material that is found towards the end of the Old Testament book 11 Chronicles, together with the Book of Ezra, and part of Nehemiah. Chapter 3 vs. 1 to chapter 5 vs. 6, however, does not occur in any of the books cited; in true Greek style, the strength of truth is proclaimed - "Blessed be the God of truth" (4, vs. 40).

Alone in the Apocrypha, Second Esdras does not come to us via the Greek Old Testament. It received its present form within the Church, and seems originally to have been a Jewish collection of visions which are similar to material found in the second half of the Old Testament Book of Daniel, and the New Testament book Revelation. The attempts of the original Jewish author to understand the evils of his time are not far below the surface. Chapter 2, vss. 42-48 is recommended for use in the Alternative Service Book's Eucharist for All Saints' Day.

Probably written in Aramaic or Hebrew during the same period as First Esdras, Tobit paints a picture of Jewish family life with its high view of piety and obedience to God. Undeserved suffering is very much to the fore, hence its similarity to "Job" as well as other Old Testament stories. God's love for his people is another of the book's major themes.

This tells of how a devout and beautiful Jewish widow single-handedly rescued the people of God when they were threatened by the army of Holofernes. Though the account is fictional, it did spring from a time of real danger for the Jews (see the Books of Maccabees). In many ways "Judith" is similar to "Esther,"

The Greek version of "Esther" is appreciably larger than its Old Testament counterpart, therefore the Apocrypha contains 107 verses which are not in the Hebrew original. These, in the Greek, are dispersed throughout the book, and it is this material alone which explicitly mentions "God."

Part of Sacred Scripture's "Wisdom Literature," it was written in the name of Solomon about 15O years before the birth of Jesus and was much influenced by Greek thought and literary style. Immortality is promised to God's righteous people, a people which has been led by Wisdom down through her history

The title means: "The Church's Book" - to underline that it was highly regarded as Scripture - and it was translated into Greek from the original Hebrew towards the end of the 2nd Century B.C., In its 51 chapters, Wisdom is shown to have been created by God and given to his people. It was much used by the writer of the New Testament Epistle of St. James, not to mention the writer of the hymn "Now Thank We All Our God,” Martin Rinkart, who called upon Martin Luther's German translation of chapter 50. vss.22-24

This diverse collection claims to have been written by Jeremiah's secretary during the Babylonian exile. Not only does it actually come from much later than Jeremiah's time, it also seems not to have been the work of a single author, Penitential material, "wisdom" poetry, and a Letter claiming to have been addressed by the great prophet to the exiles form part of the work. It is used in the Offices of Matins and Evensong in the schemes of readings set out in the Alternative Service Book and the Prayer Book.

As is the case with "Esther," the Greek edition of "Daniel" is much longer than the Hebrew/Aramaic version in the Old Testament, this being the first of three "additions" to "Daniel" to appear in the Apocrypha. This Prayer and Song appear between chapter 3, vs .23 and 24 of the Hebrew equivalent, in the story of the Fiery Furnace. The Church has used this material as the Canticles "Bless the Lord" and "A Song of Creation" in her Offices of Matins and Evensong.

"Susanna" stands as the Introduction of the Greek version of "Daniel." It tells how the godly and moral character of the heroine triumphs over evil.

These tales provide the final chapter to the Greek "Daniel," their central purpose being to pour scorn on idol worship. Verse 41 tells us:

When Jewish people thought of sin, especially the sin of idolatry, the name of Manasseh, King of Judah, sprang quickly to mind. This very beautiful prayer of penitence is put on his lips, and it is an eloquent testimony to God's grace: verse 14 says, "unworthy as I am, thou wilt save me in thy great mercy, and I will praise thee continually all the days of my life

During the 2nd Century B.C., there was a far-reaching attack on the religious life of the Jews by the latest world power which had been established by Alexander the Great some 150 years earlier. This attack reached its height during the cruel reign of King Antiochus 1V, and the Jewish fight back led by Judas Maccabeus and his family is narrated and considered in most of these books. As we found in "Daniel," this was a most fiery and difficult time for God's people. Unlike 1 and 11 Maccabees, 111 Maccabees is set in Egypt not Palestine, yet it still recounts the struggles of the Jews under a cruel ruler before the Maccabean revolt actually started. lV Maccabees is included in some copies of the Greek Old Testament, but not all.

This is the only Psalm not included in the Jewish Bible. Put on the lips of King David, it celebrates the fact that God chose the one who was "small among his brothers" and made him great.

During the turbulent times when the Jews were looking to God for freedom from the hated Romans, Jesus, from Nazareth, came into Galilee preaching God's love for His people. He healed the sick and showed compassion for the outcast, and this annoyed some religious people who felt, deep down, that they were better than such "sinners." It seemed wrong to them that disreputable people should receive a generous welcome from God, but that was a key element in Our Lord's teaching. His words had a note of authority about them, and He spoke with refreshing confidence about His Father in heaven.

Following His death and Resurrection, the early Church became convinced that God had sent Jesus into the world to show what He was really like. (St. John's Gospel, chapter 1, vs. 18). As time went on, and as Jesus stood at the centre of the Church's worship, they came to realize that the Teacher who had lived among them in Galilee was none other than their God and Saviour in human form who had come to reconcile sinful human beings with the Father -- "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners," as 1 Timothy 1, vs. 15 tells us. The New Revised Catechism* (p. 9) puts it as follows:--

In our Liturgy, we are no doubt so used to hearing familiar passages read from the Gospels, followed by the words: “This is the Gospel of The Lord: Praise to Christ our Lord," that its very difficult for us to imagine how the early Church must have felt when the first one was written and circulated. When it appeared, its almost as if a new section had to be created in ancient libraries - "Gospel" -- for "History," "Biography," or "Moral Teaching" wouldn't quite have been the appropriate category for St. Mark's book of "Good News," (his was, indeed, the first one to appear). The author, possibly John Mark who set out on the first missionary journey with St .Paul and St. Barnabas in the Book of Acts, didn't intend simply to tell us things about Jesus. His intention was rather to try to explain what was so special about him, and why it was important to believe in him.

That had been the purpose of all of the Church's early preaching. This sermon material tended to begin with "Jesus and John the Baptist" and end with accounts of the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Our Lord, and that broad outline is the one which St. Mark chose to use. The link between Christian preaching and the written Gospels is very strong, for the one led quite naturally to the other. The early Christian Tradition claimed that some of St. Peter's preaching found its way into this Gospel

The writers of these two Gospels almost certainly used St. Mark's -that would be quite natural, and St. Luke chapter i, vss, l-4 almost say as much. It is also probable, in addition to this, that our two writers called upon an early document, now unfortunately lost, which recorded many of the things that Our Lord said, for example the Parable of the Sower. This written copy of the words of Our Lord may, indeed, have been compiled by St. Matthew the Apostle.

The first of these two Gospels has a very Jewish flavour about it, with Jesus being seen as the One who fulfilled what the Old Testament had promised. He taught with an authority which surpassed that of Moses, and his magnetic and mysterious nature implies his divinity. By the time "St. Matthew" is written, the Temple in Jerusalem lies in ruins, and our writer regards the Church of Christ as the New Israel. The sermon on the Mount is found between chapter 5 vs 1 and chapter 7 vs 27.

St. Luke's Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles are, in fact, a two volume work possibly written by Luke who was St. Paul's companion on his missionary journeys. The first part (ie. the Gospel) shows Jesus journeying to Jerusalem and his death and resurrection. In Acts, the Risen Christ's followers move out from Jerusalem to take the Good News to the heart of the world of their time, Rome. In all of this, St. Luke has a great deal to say about the Holy Spirit.

The conviction that Jesus is the Incarnate One and can quite properly be worshipped as "God" stands central to the Fourth Gospel. It begins before the creation of the world with Our Lord being spoken of variously as "God" and "God the only Son" (chapter 1, vss. 1 and 18), this conviction underpinning the whole account until it reaches its climax with the words of St. Thomas, Christ being his “Lord and God" (chapter 20, vs. 28).

The first half of "St. John" tells us about the wonderful "signs” which Jesus performed, and tries to explain to us what was important about each one. The book's second section is dominated by the thought that he will soon be lifted up in glory on the Cross. Not that that would be the end of him, for the Gospel's writers knew him to be risen and very much with the Church through the Holy Spirit (called the "Advocate")

The Gospel was probably written in Ephesus towards the very end of the 1st Century or the beginning of the 2nd. The Apostle, St.John, not only stands in the background as the one in whose name the book was written, but also is the one to whom the Church of that region looked as their "father-figure" in God. The second Century Church leader, Clement of Alexandria, was correct to have recognized this as a "spiritual Gospel." It has rightly been much loved by the Church through her long history. Chapter 3 vs 16 is called The Gospel in a Nutshell.

Saul of Tarsus, the zealous Jew, was converted to Christ around the year 33 AD., three years after the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Our Lord. That meeting with the Risen Christ changed St. Paul's life and his outlook, for after this encounter he could no longer rejoice in the way he strove to keep God's Law. From now on, God's free gift of salvation in Christ - in a word "grace" - would motivate and guide him, and would leave its mark on the Letters he wrote.

The Letters which bear the Apostle's name were written with a pastoral aim. He would write to a Church, when the need arose, in order to counter its various problems of life or belief which had come to his attention. The writer of the New Testament Letter "11 Peter" was correct when he noted that St, Paul's writings are difficult to understand (chapter 3, vss. 15-16), yet they repay our attention and have shaped the Church's understanding of the Faith.

We consider his Letters in the order in which they were most probably written rather than in the order in which they are now found in the New Testament.

The young Christian Church in Thessalonica was enthusiastic about their new-found faith in Christ, but when Paul and Silas' work among them was cut short by civil disturbance, a number of problem areas remained outstanding. The first was the relationship between St. Paul and the believers - did the Apostle really have their best interests at heart? - and secondly, what were they supposed to believe about the second Advent of Our Lord? These two Letters try to answer their questions and their misunderstandings.

The Corinthians had always caused difficulties for the Apostle. Their opinion of their spirituality was considerably more upbeat than it deserved to be, for in this faction-ridden Church, maturity and real saintliness were less in evidence than sexual immorality and chaotic services. Trying to rectify matters from a distance was far from easy, yet in his correspondence with them St. Paul had much to say about holiness, love, ecclesiastical structures and discipline, and Christian Liturgy.. 1 Corinthians 13 is one of the best known passages in Sacred Scripture.

These Letters probably have more to say about the way in which God accepts us, and freely gives us new life in Christ, than any others in the New Testament. Part of the reason for this is that the Galatian Church had forgotten about God's grace, much to the annoyance of St, Paul, and had returned to the futile exercise of trying to put God in their debt; and the Romans, for their part, had never really come to one mind among themselves on these matters, with that Church's Jewish and Gentile members misunderstanding one another's convictions in this whole area

To understand what St. Paul is saying can be quite a liberating experience. It certainly was for St. Augustine - that great Bishop -whose reply to God, in later life, would be: "Our hearts are restless until they rest in You" (Confessions 1,1).

By this time, the Apostle is in prison, and he's again found to be writing to a Church which is faction ridden, with each group believing that it is better spiritually than all the others. Therefore, he quotes a famous hymn of praise to Christ (2, vss. 1-l1) and urges them to be Christ-like in their humility. He speaks to them about the journey of faith which the Christian life is - for they haven't "arrived" yet, even if they think otherwise - and tells them that they ought to be shining like lights in a dark and sinful world.

This is a short cover note which St. Paul sent with a runaway slave when he returned to his owner Philemon. The name of the slave, “Onesimus”, means “useful” in Greek. Following his conversion to Christ, Onesimus will now be a Christian brother to Philemon, not simply a slave.

As is our day, there were many cults and sects in the 1st Century world, and their false teachings were troubling the weaker Christian Churches. This Letter is written to counter the false view - much peddled at the time - that Jesus was just one saviour among many. The picture of Christ we have here is extremely large; once the Letter says about him all that it wants, there's no room left for other "saviours," and the writer has won his argument against such false teaching.

In Christian teaching, a high regard for Christ naturally leads to a high regard for the Church, for the Church is the Body of Christ, In outlining this "high" view of the Church, the grace of God still remains at the heart of all that the writer wants to say (2, vss, 8-9).

These Letters - known as the "Pastoral Epistles" - give advice about the selection of clergy, together with encouragement that the Church should guard the Gospel of Christ and oppose heresy at all times.

"Hebrews" is really more of a sermon than a letter, and it was intended for a group of believers who were in serious danger of giving up their faith. These were Jewish Christians, hence the extensive use the writer makes of Old Testament Scripture in his argument. Our Lord is the unique and eternal sacrifice for sin, and because he lived a fully human life (as our divine Saviour) his priestly and prayerful ministry for us is doubly effective.

This is a book of practical advice and Christian teaching which makes much use of the Old Testament "wisdom" literature, especially "Eccliesiasticus." It has a very Jewish flavour, and underlines the fact that once we have joined the Church and embraced the Faith, a life of spontaneous good deeds lies before us. Abraham is cited to prove the point.

1 Peter is addressed to Christians who were being persecuted for their faith, and it makes the point that Our Lord himself suffered (4, vs. l). The Church is never closer to Christ than when it shares in his sufferings. The Letter seems to have new Christians in mind (2, vss 1-3), and many have suggested that it is in fact more of a Baptismal Homily than a Letter. It is particularly rich in its teachings, with many parallels to the theology of St. Paul.

Jude is a tract warning against false teachers, as indeed is the central part of 11 Peter. In addition to this, St. Peter's Second Letter considers the second Advent of Christ.

These documents come to us from the same Church circles in Ephesus as the Gospel According to St. John, and, reading between the lines, they show us a Church which was deeply troubled by a very serious schism (see 1 John 2 vs. 19, 2 John vs, 7, and 3 John vs .9). 1 John is a sermon which, in addition to dealing with related matters, says a great deal about the Person of Christ, his humanity and divinity. 11 John is a Letter which warns about the danger of false teachers, and 111 John is addressed to a trusted Church member about a rival to the writer's leadership.

Persecution for the Faith, leading to martyrdom, was once more at hand, and Revelation's basic message is: "no matter how powerful the evil Roman Empire is, the Kingdom of God and of his Christ will prevail." It is a coded message which the early Church would easily have understood, but which the persecuting State would not. It was written in the same style as "Daniel" and "11 Esdras," and it embodies a high view of Christ and of his Church. Indeed, this provides a fitting conclusion to the Sacred Scriptures.

The 27 books of the New Testament were recognized as Sacred Scripture by the Church's bishops, St. Athanasius' Festal Letter of 367 A.D. having named them. Although many other Christian writings, a number of which were fine in every respect, had been produced during this period, these were never deemed to have had the same authority as the books which were used by the Church in her worship alongside the Old Testament. The four Gospels (and Acts) and the Letters of St. Paul were widely circulated and greatly revered throughout the Church at a very early date, as were I Peter and I John. The other books were cherished and used by parts of the Church from earliest times, and in time were recognized by the whole of it.

God is the One who made all things from nothing - everything was well made. When humankind misused its God-given freedom and spoilt Creation, however, God set about restoring his world in Christ in order to crown it with perfection in Heaven. Scripture refers to this and points towards its fulfilment (Isaiah 65, vss. 17-end, 11 Peter 3, vs, 13). As Julian of Norwich - the medieval mystic - put it: "All shall be well” ("Showings").

The Old Testament looked forward to a time when God would act decisively in history on his people’s behalf. Some of the material which spoke of the coming of the Messiah expressed this, God's way of giving flesh to this hope was to come into the world in the Person of Jesus. An early hymn of praise to Christ celebrated this coming (Philippians 2, vss. 6-l1).

The theme of the Reign or Kingdom of God was dear to Israel and set the nation apart from its neighbours who trusted in their own leaders and gods. Central to the preaching of Jesus was the conviction that in Him it had begun to dawn: His followers, in the "Our Father" (Lord's Prayer), are to pray for its complete realization—”Thy Kingdom come on earth as it is in Heaven.”

Throughout Scripture we find ample evidence that God's people -Israel and the Church of Christ - took worship with utmost seriousness, for this was part of their response to God. Instruction about their worship in the desert, as they journeyed towards the Promised Land, and the sacrifices at the Temple in Jerusalem, once they had made the Land their own, fill the Old Testament. In the New Testament, in the presence of the Risen Christ, the Church was nourished by her God through the Body and Blood of the Lord: this was the focal point of her worshipping life as she entered fully into those events in Jerusalem which changed the course of the world.

When in worship God's people rehearsed all the things which He had done in order to rescue them from many dangers The Psalms are full of such recitations (e.g.. Psalm 68). In the Gospel According to St.Luke, and the Acts of the Apostles, this way of looking at things is prominent: history is simply a record of all that God has done in order to effect the salvation of Israel and the Church.

Israel and the Church were steeped in such events, as stories about the rescue from Egypt, the crossing of the Sea of Reeds, exile in Babylon, the building (and later rebuilding) of the Temple in Jerusalem, and the happenings of Holy Week and Easter were told from father to son.

God's relationship with his people is often understood and described in terms of "Covenants" or "Bonds." These are of God's making and he remains the major partner in his relationship with Israel and the Church. Of the Old Covenant (Testament) with Israel, the giving of the Commandments and circumcision are signs, whereas in the New Covenant with the Church, the sacraments of the Eucharist and Baptism are given -see 1 Corinthians ll ,vs .25 concerning the Lord's Supper. The New Revised Catechism (p.8) is correct in the light of the New Testament to speak of Baptism as a sign of God's grace and love to us in the Body of Christ, the Church.

In many respects it is possible to say that what God promises in the Old Testament he fulfils in the New, This view is frequently stated in the Gospel According to St. Matthew, because for the writer, what is spoken of by the Prophets comes true in Jesus. The Epistle to the Hebrews l, vss. l-2, also points to the way in which God's Son completes the witness of the Old Testament prophets.

That the Books of the Old Testament, Apocrypha, and New Testament were written and collected at all is due to the fact that they were used by God's people in their Liturgy. The "Canon," the list of writings regarded by the Church as Sacred, underlines that Scripture is the Church's Book and is to be read in that light. What R E Clements in his book "Old Testament Theology" (p.15) says of the Old Testament is an apt comment about the whole: "It is the status of these writings as a canon of Sacred Scripture that marks them out as containing a word of God that is still believed to be authoritative.”

The Cross and Resurrection of Our Lord dominate the whole New Testament. Together they mark a decisive change in the relationship between God and humankind, and in the light of them, forgiveness of sin is proclaimed. This is true not only in the Gospels but also in the Epistles. St Paul (I Corinthians 15, vss .20-21) tells us: “Since by man came death, by man came also the Resurrection of the dead," and the reconciliation which is achieved in our relationship with God is proclaimed in the early Church's preaching and explained in the Christian Community's writings and teachings. This clearly goes beyond the Old Testament's belief in a general resurrection sometime in the future,

The beginnings of the doctrine of the Trinity are found in the experience of the early Church following the Resurrection of Christ and Pentecost - in the power of the Spirit of God, who was with them and in them, the followers of Christ worshipped God until their Lord should come again in glory as he promised. This experience and belief marked them off from everyone else at the time, and in the Name of the Triune God they were baptized (St. Matthew. 28, vs. 19)

"The Bible - Fountain and Well of Truth," by John Muddiman—published by Blackwells

Written by an Anglican who has a high view of the Bible as the Church's Book. In using Archbishop Cranmer's phrase - "fountain and well of truth" - he shows how we need to approach the Scriptures with faith and intelligence in order to hear the Word of God speaking to us, being mindful, at all times, of the teachings of the Church.

These two prayers are useful to use when reading Scripture at home: they help to remind us that when we read the Bible on our own we do so as part of the whole Christian Community which is called to serve God in His world

Blessed Lord, who hast caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning: grant that we may in such wise hear them, read, mark, learn and inwardly digest them that by patience. and comfort of thy holy word we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which thou hast given us in our Saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen.

b). A Prayer of Dedication, p. 55 (This is appropriate after reading Scripture) **