A brief overview of the Bible. It contains the Old and New Testaments.

The Old Testament contains such things as the Ten Commandments. The

New Testament contains the Life of Jesus. There are many other people,

places, and things in the Bible. Bible originally ment "The Books" but

now is known as "The Book".

Is the Bible a historical account, and is it for us today?

Its been translated through out the ages many different times. Has

it maintained its originality? In-fact it has. Some of the Old Testament ,we

have today, can be checked against the Dead Sea scrolls. For example

the whole Book of Isaiah is found in the Dead Sea scrolls.

Moving onto the New Testament, its accuracy is even more astounding.

There are about 4500 Greek documents to check the New Testament

against. These Greek documents are from about 125 AD to the

invention of printing.

Not just any Book was let into the New Testament. They had to go

through these 5 tests before being allowed in.

1. Documents of a Apostle, or through ones help. Such

as possibly Paul helped Timothy.

2. Were these documents guided from beyond the human mind.

Such as God guiding them to write this document.

3. Truthful about Salvation and man's condition. A document that

said ok here's how you attain Salvation when it has already been told

the real way in the rest of the Bible wouldn't work.

4. Did it internally consist with the rest of The Word?

There can only be one way Adam and Eve came here not 10.

5. Was it read throughout the rest of the Church? If only accepted by

a Church body in one place for one reason or another and not by the whole

Church body it wouldn't be let in.

These might seem like strict rules but they helped to preserve the Bible.

Languages of the Bible. The Old Testament was written mostly

in Hebrew, whereas the New Testament was written mostly in Greek.

The Greek in the New Testament was somewhat confusing until in

the 1890s papyri was found in Egypt, that helped to clarify the Greek

a great deal. But this doesn't mar upon the originality. This information

was used in the English Revised edition of the Bible. It takes more

time to study say the King James version versus the English revised

edition due to the word style, but this can help lead to deeper understanding.

The translations span in full or in part 1100 languages.

Other evidence, an archeology find has found evidence of a flood layer in the

excavation of the Ziggurat of Kish in Babylonia. This points to the existent

of the great flood during Noah's life. There are many other finds

probably too numerous to list and they are still finding more!

Prophecies of the Bible. We have heard a lot of Jesus, especially

with Christmas around the corner. Who was this person?

Why is our calendar based upon his birth? It is because of his monumental

impact on humans.

Jesus was foretold in the Old Testament Book I mentioned earlier known

as Isaiah. Isaiah foretells of the Messiah who's name would be Jesus. How he

who had done no violence would be wounded for our transgressions.

This was foretold long before Jesus was born.

Then in the New Testament it came to pass, he was born

unto a virgin Mary, in Bethlehem. He lead a wondrous life

spreading the message, helping many people throughout his life.

Then even though he had done no wrong. Because his own people

were jealous of him. They lead him to death upon Calvary(Galgotha).

Where he was wounded for our transgressions, with nails through

his feet and hands, and his side was pierced with a sword.

Other documents point to Jesus' existent, his divinity is questioned

,but he is divine. Just as Isaiah foretold. The New Testament was written

by his close followers known as the Apostles. Such as Peter, Paul,

Matthew, and many others. Notice the internal consistency even though

the Old and New Testament were written over approximately 1400 years.

Let us go back in time to when Joseph lived. His life is found in the

Book of Genesis in the Old Testament.

From the verses in Genesis 41:1-7

"Behold, he stood by the river. And, behold, there came up out of the river

seven well favored kine and fatfleshed; and they fed in a meadow. And,

behold, seven other kine came up after them out of the river, ill favored

and leanfleshed; and stood by the other kine upon the brink of the river. And

the ill favored and leanfleshed kine did eat up the seven well favored and fat

kine."

I left out a few important details to show you how if we grab only part of the

Bible and not it all. We can tend to misjudge. This is how the Bible is tended

to be picked apart. The Bible needs to be studied, and evaluated. Like

something you really want to know and understand. We need to gather all the

information then try to judge even then this is not always enough.

Kine are like cows. How could a cow eat another cow?

Well that's not really possible what this is, is a dream. An Egyptian Pharoh

had this dream. He later asked Joseph to tell him what this dream ment. It was

interpreted through Joseph by God. The dream ment seven years of plenty

and seven years of famine. (And, that interpretation of the dream did come to

pass.)

Is the Bible for us? It is. Many scientists have theorized how we became and

many theories are out there. The Bible tells in detail how we became and

of our ultimate destiny.

The one theory is that we came from ooze and then evolved into

apes then into humans. There is a breach between us and any other

creatures. Yes some other creatures can know right and wrong,

your pet for instance. A ape can learn this also.

But our understanding is far beyond that we have something

in us that can not be explained. Our conscience takes us farther

and our reasoning also. We know even though it is somewhat dependent on

the culture there are things beyond that are not.

This is why the Ten Commandments are in the Bible also.

Thou shalt not kill. We know this for a fact, it causes something

to happen inside of us. We get this nagging of guilt, of wrong.

Apes on the other hand will even kill a young ape, just because

it is from another male ape.

Whereas we will go a mile and beyond to help someone we do not know.

This is because we our descendants of Adam and Eve. Who were

made by God.

The Bible is there for everyone. I have learned a lot through this

essay. I hope it will help guide you into studying the Bible for the first time

or going deeper into the Bible. Hopefully finding out what the

Bible means to you through God.

Some factual information from Delton Gene Koehn, Dennis Kirkland,

Roger Williams, and Zondervan Pictorial Bible Dictionary.