The Books of the Bible

The word Bible comes from the Greek biblion, which is a diminutive of byblos, which refers to papyrus (paper), book. Later it took the Medieval and Latin form of biblia. The word in itself means “books” and with time it was connected to the union of sacred books to a religion. More specifically, the word Holy Bible refers to the sacred scriptures of Christianity.

Living Library

The Hebrew Bible is named TaNaKh and for us, Christians, it is known as the Old Testament. This junction of sacred books brings the entire spiritual foundation for Judaism and Christianity in its work to prepare the ways for the arrival of Jesus Christ.

Although both have books in common, here is an interesting question: Do the Tanakh and the Septuagint have the same ones? Let's see it.

The books in Tanakh

TaNaKh is divided into three units: Torah, Nevi’im, and Ketuvim. Each one refers to a group of different books that share common topics used as a base for their organization.

1. Torah (Law):

1. Genesis

2. Exodus

3. Leviticus

4. Numbers

5. Deuteronomy

2. Nevi’im (Prophets):

1. Former Prophets:

1. Joshua

2. Judges

3. Samuel

4. Kings

2. Latter Prophets:

1. Isaiah

2. Jeremiah

3. Ezekiel

4. Twelve “minor” Prophets:

1. Hosea

2. Joel

3. Amos

4. Obadiah

5. Jonah

6. Micah

7. Nahum

8. Habakkuk

9. Zephaniah

10. Haggai

11. Zechariah

12. Malachi

3. Ketuvim (The writings):

1. Psalms

2. Proverbs

3. Job

4. The song of songs

5. Ruth

6. Lamentations

7. Ecclesiastes

8. Esther

9. Daniel

10. Ezra-Nehemiah

11. Chronicles

The Septuagint and Apocrypha

Is the translation from Hebrew to Greek of the books that today form the TaNaKh, so it could be publicly shared, as well as to maintain the Judaic tradition in the Third Century B.C. when most of the Jews only spoke Greek. This translation is the base for the Old Testament in the Holy Bible and for each Christian tradition we notice the presence of more books than the ones considered as Canon, that is the commonly defined list of standard books,  and the ones considered Apocrypha. The word comes from the Greek apokryphos, which means “obscure; difficult to understand; doubtful authenticity or authorship”, which shows us that by the uncertainty of its content, they are put aside.

There are some Apocrypha in the Old and New Testaments. It is interesting to see that these “censored and forbidden” books entice people to read them. It's like saying “No, you can't” and the person willing to defy it will end up doing it.

It also makes us think about the beginning of Christianity and the popularity of the Gospel of Jesus. At that time it was considered “censored and forbidden” by the human authorities. This enticed people to go after and see for themselves, be their own judges of what is deemed allowed or prohibited. That's an interesting phenomenon.

Now, the Septuagint is organized into four parts and we are going to which one are the Apocrypha books:

1. Pentateuch (Torah):

1. Genesis

2. Exodus

3. Leviticus

4. Numbers

5. Deuteronomy

2. Historical Books:

1. Joshua

2. Judges

3. Ruth

4. Kings

5. Paralipomenon (Chronicles)

6. Ezra-Nehemiah

7. Esther* (there are some chapters considered Apocrypha)

8. Tobit*

9. Judith*

10. Maccabees*

3. Poetical (Wisdom) Books:

1. Prayer of Manasseh

2. Job

3. Psalms

4. Proverbs

5. Ecclesiastes

6. Song of Songs

7. Wisdom of Solomon

8. Wisdom of Sirach (or Ecclesiasticus)*

9. Psalms of Solomon

4. Prophetic Books:

1. Major Prophets:

1. Isaiah

2. Jeremiah

3. Lamentations

4. Ezekiel

5. Daniel

6. Baruch*

2. Minor Prophets:

1. Hosea

2. Joel

3. Amos

4. Obadiah

5. Jonah

6. Micah

7. Nahum

8. Habakkuk

9. Zephaniah

10. Haggai

11. Zechariah

12. Malachi

13. Letter of Jeremiah**

14. Susanna**

15. Bel and the Dragon**

*Apocrypha Books.

The New Testament

The New Testament is the following section of the Holy Bible where we find the reunion of the Good News about the life and teachings of Jesus Christ, as well as the Acts and Letters of His disciples, and the last book of the Final Prophecies, the Apocalypse or the Revelation of the Divine Prophet, Jesus.

It comprises 27 books written in Greek to make public the knowledge it contains. There is a subcategory of the Gospel of Jesus, which is the synoptics, that is the one where most of the passages are similar.  The 27 books are separated into the following classifications:

1. Gospel of Jesus (Synoptics and the fourth), according to:

1. Matthew

2. Mark

3. Luke

4. John (is not part of the synoptics, because it has unique passages, although some are similar to the other three)

2. Acts of Apostles (written by Luke)

3. Letters of

1. Paul, the Apostle, to the Churches:

1. Romans

2. 1-2 Corinthians

3. Galatians

4. Ephesians

5. Philippians

6. Colossians

7. 1-2 Thessalonians

8. 1-2 Timothy

9. Titus

10. Philemon

11. Hebrews

2. Peter, the Apostle:

1. 1st Letter or Epistle

2. 2nd Letter or Epistle

3. James, the Apostle (also known as minor James)

4. John, the Apostle:

1. 1st Letter or Epistle

2. 2nd Letter or Epistle

3. 3rd Letter or Epistle

5. Jude Thaddeus, the Apostle

4. Apocalypse or Revelation of Jesus Christ

Apocalypse or Revelation of Jesus Christ

This last book of the Holy Bible is one that still gets a lot of attention, because of its prophecies and symbolism that take a lot of our understanding, reasoning, and insights to grasp the meanings of its passages. One interesting aspect of the book of the Final Prophecies is that its content is present in all books of the Holy Bible. As Brother Alziro Zarur once said, the Apocalypse is the “Modern Good News!”.