The Bible is a collection of 66 books. Each book is divided into chapters, which in turn are subdivided into verses. Passages are referenced by book, chapter, and verse. For example, John 3:16 refers to the book of John, the third chapter, and the 16th verse.

There are two main divisions to the Bible:

the Old Testament and the New Testament

The Old Testament:

the original Hebrew Bible, written between 1200 and 165 BC, and containing ancient Hebrew scriptures.

Contains 39 books organized into four parts:

• the Pentateuch

• the Historical Books

• the Poetry and Wisdom Books

• the Prophetic Books

The Pentateuach, also known as the Torah, is the first five books of the Old Testament: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. These books contain stories of humanity’s origins, the patriarchs, Israel’s escape from slavery and their journey to the promised land. It contains the social, moral, and religious guidelines for living in response to God’s love.

The Historical books: Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel, 1 Kings, 2 Kings, 1 Chronicles, 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther. These include the stories of Israel’s conquest of the Promised Land, their growth as a nation, their exile in a foreign land, and their return from exile to a land occupied by a foreign government.

The Poetry and Wisdom Books Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs. These books contain ancient hymns of personal struggles and national pride as well as lessons about suffering, finding meaning in everyday life, and love..

The Prophetic Books: Jeremiah, Lamentations, Isaiah, Ezekiel and Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi. Prophets reveal God’s message calling us back to hope, forgiveness and justice. These books teach us how to treat one another and remain faithful to God.

The New Testament:

written by Christians in the first century AD, the New Testament contains 27 books that can be divided into 5 sections

• Gospels,

• Acts,

• Epistles,

• Revelation

The Gospels section contains four books that testify to the life and teachings of Jesus Christ, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

The book of Acts of the Apostles, written by Luke, describes the faith and growth of early Christianity.

The Epistles or Letters make up the largest part of the New Testament. They are divided into two categories: the Pauline Letters and other Apostolic Letters.

Revelation. This book was written by John about 1900 years ago. He was shown visions of the future by Jesus.