Now that, I hope, we have established, or proved beyond a reasonable doubt with very strong evidence, that the Bible is the inspired word of God as it claims to be, what’s next? It is clear that we have answered the questions of whether we should read and follow the Bible with a resounding yes! If a divine creator God wrote the Bible as a revelation and benefit for mankind, then it would be a good idea for us to take it extremely seriously, and start by reading it. In order to follow it, we need to know what it says.
The real fairy tale? The myth that is not? The tallest tale that is true? The fable that is not fiction? The story of the Bible: God’s Story
As mentioned previously, the Bible contains many different literary types, or genres. Even though the entire Bible is made up of many books by many authors, there is a central theme or story that is found throughout it. This is God’s story. It is His story of the creation, fall, and eventual redemption of mankind by Him. It is a story that is really about Him, but we get to play a role in it as well. In this section we will discuss the main points of God’s Story, and how it relates to our lives today.
So if the Bible is God’s Story, what kind of story is it? Let’s take a brief looks at some types of biblical literature to find out.
Biblical Literary Genres. The following was found on Wikipedia:
A Biblical genre is a classification of Bible literature according to literary genre. The genre of a particular Bible passage is ordinarily identified by analysis of its general writing style, tone, form, structure, literary technique, content, design, and related linguistic factors; texts that exhibit a common set of literary features (very often in keeping with the writing styles of the times in which they were written) are together considered to be belonging to a genre. In Biblical studies, genres are usually associated with whole books of the Bible, because each of its books comprises a complete textual unit; however, a book may be internally composed of a variety of styles, forms, and so forth, and thus bear the characteristics of more than one genre (for example, chapter 1 of the Book of Revelation is prophetic/visionary; chapters 2 and 3 are similar to the epistle genre; etc.).
Within the discipline of literary analysis, the existence and subjectivity of genres is a matter of some debate. This is reflected to a lesser degree in academic discussion of Biblical genres. However, isolating the broad genres of the Bible and discerning which books/passages belong to which genre is not a matter of complete agreement; for instance, scholars diverge over the existence and features of such Bible genres as gospel and apocalyptic. Furthermore, some detect subgenres—more narrowly defined compositional categories within a genre—in surrounding historical literature, and speculate that certain books and passages of the Bible may be better denominated by subgenre (e.g., it may be claimed that the book of Philemon is not simply a generic letter, but a personal letter). Despite such differences of opinion within the community of Bible scholars, the majority acknowledge that the concept of genre and subgenre can be useful in the study of the Bible as a guide to the tone and interpretation of the text.
By way of literary comparison with the Bible, the Qur'an is claimed to be a recitation by Allah to the prophet Muhammed in didactic form, and so does not have the degree of genre diversity that is evidenced in the Bible; although there is a difference in style and themes between the Meccan surrahs and the Medinan surrahs when Muhammed moved from Mecca to Medina. In contrast, the Bible is claimed to be inspired by God and organically written and compiled by many authors over a very long period of time, and so takes a wide variety of forms.
Genres in the Bible
Among the generally recognized genres and categorizations of the Bible are the following (note that other systems and classifications have also been advanced):
- Historical narrative/epic: Genesis and the first half of Exodus, Numbers, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, 1 and 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Jonah, and possibly Acts
- The Law: the last half of Exodus; also Leviticus, Deuteronomy
- Wisdom: Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes
- Psalms: Psalms, Song of Solomon, Lamentations
- Prophecy: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi
- Apocalyptic: Daniel, Revelation
- Gospel: Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and possibly Acts
- Epistle (letter): Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, 1 and 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon, Hebrews, James, 1 and 2 Peter, 1, 2, and 3 John, Jude
Now that we have identified some of the literary genres in the bible, let’s look at a couple of versions of the overall story itself, which actually fits into the tragedy/comedy genre overall, but that is another story.
The homepage of the site included a very
short video of the bible story.
The following two summaries of the bible story, one short and one longer, were found on the website
www.biblesociety.org. These will allow the reader to get a few more details on the overall story that the video couldn’t provide due to its short length.
A brief summary of the Bible Story
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. In six days he created everything including his masterpiece, humans. On the seventh day he rested.
One day, the serpent convinced Eve and Adam to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. In doing so, they disobeyed God's command and sin entered the world. God kicked them out of the garden as he didn't want them to eat from the tree of life and live forever.
Adam and Eve had children and as the population grew, God saw that human hearts and thoughts were constantly filled with evil. God was sorry he had made humans. To deal with the problem of sin, he chose Noah and told him to build an ark. Noah filled the ark with every kind of animal and God flooded the world, destroying all living things except those in the ark.
After the flood, the population grew again, but sinful desires led people to build a tower to the heavens at Babel. After destroying the tower, God decided to deal with the problem of sin once and for all. He chose one couple, Abraham and Sarah, to start an entire nation of special people from whom a Saviour of the world would come. God promised them a special land to live in. One of their sons, Jacob, had twelve sons who became the fathers of the 12 tribes of Israel. One of the 12 sons, Joseph, was sold into slavery in Egypt by his brothers.
Joseph served Pharaoh well and was put in charge over all of Egypt. At Joseph's advice, Pharaoh stored up food for a coming famine. When the famine came, Jacob's sons had to go to Egypt to buy food. Joseph forgave his brothers and they moved to Egypt to live with Joseph.
The Israelites grew in number in Egypt and were forced into slavery. After 430 years of exile in Egypt, God chose one man, Moses, to lead them to freedom. After Pharaoh let them go, the Israelites travelled to Mount Sinai where God gave Moses the Ten Commandments. After a year at Mount Sinai and a bad report from some Israelite spies sent out into the Promised Land, God sentenced his people to wandering in the desert until an entire generation of unbelieving adults had died.
After 40 years in the desert, Moses died and Joshua led the Israelites into the Promised Land. The land was divided among the 12 tribes. They had no formal leadership except for Judges that God called on as the need arose. The Judges were generally ineffective and the Israel¬ites eventually asked God for a king. God granted them their wish and Saul became the first king of Israel. After Saul, David became king followed by his son Solomon.
After Solomon died, the kingdom of Israel erupted into civil war and divided into two parts: Judah in the south and Israel in the north. Israel lasted 200 years before being destroyed forever by the Assyrians. Judah lasted 350 years before the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem and God's temple that Solomon had built. Many citizens of Judah were exiled to Babylon.
After Persia defeated Babylon, the exiled Israelites (now called Jews), were allowed to go back to their homeland and rebuild the temple. This is the end of the Old Testament.
During the time between the Old Testament and the New Testament, the region where the Jews lived was controlled first by the Greeks and then the Romans. The Romans appointed King Herod to rule over the province of Judea where the Jews were living.
Jesus Christ was born under Herod's rule to a poor couple named Mary and Joseph. At about the age of 30 he was baptized by John and began his ministry by announcing that he was the Saviour sent by God to be a sacrifice for the sins of the world. He chose 12 men to be his apostles and taught people about how to have a right relationship with God. However, religious leaders arrested him, tried him before Pilate and Herod and crucified him.
Three days later he rose from the dead. Jesus Christ was God's sacrifice, once and for all, for the sins of all humans.
After he rose from the dead, Jesus appeared to more than 500 people before ascending to heaven. Ten days later, the Holy Spirit was given by God to the apostles and the church began to grow rapidly. One of the church's main persecutors, Saul, encountered Jesus and was converted. After this, Saul became known as Paul and began preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ all over the region. One of Jesus' apostles, Peter, was sent by God to preach the message of Jesus to the Jewish people, while Paul was tasked with preaching to non-Jewish people.
The church grew rapidly throughout the Middle East. The Bible ends with a prophecy about events that will lead to the return of Jesus and the establish¬ment of a new heaven and a new earth.
Bible verses quoted (except where stated) are from The Holy Bible, New Century Version (NCV), copyright 2005 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission.
The Bible story (Longer Summary)
Simply put, the Bible is the story of God's creation, the fall of humankind into sin and finally God's sacrifice in Jesus, paying the price for the sin of all people. Knowing the whole overarching Bible story helps us put each of the books and stories contained within it into context. It helps us understand how it all fits together and we get an amazing picture of God's love for people.
Check it out...
In the beginning... In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth (Gen 1:1). In six days he created day and night, oceans and sky, land and plants, the sun, moon and stars, fish, birds and land animals. Finally, in his own image he created a man called Adam (Gen 1:26) and a woman called Eve (Gen 1:27) and placed them in a garden in Eden. God rested on the seventh day (Gen 2:2).
The Fall
One day, the serpent tricked Eve into eating fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil (Gen 3). Desiring the same knowledge God had, she ate and shared the fruit with Adam. They instantly realised they had disobeyed God and tried to hide from him in the garden. Not wanting the man and woman to eat from the tree of life and therefore live forever (Gen 3:22), God drove them out of the garden, sentencing Eve to pain during childbirth and Adam to work the ground for food. In removing them from the garden, God also pronounced a sentence of death on Adam and Eve by not allowing them to eat from the tree of life and live forever.
Adam and Eve then had two sons, Cain and Abel (Gen 4). Cain worked the ground and Abel was a keeper of sheep. Overcome with jealousy for his brother, Cain one day killed Abel in the field (Gen 4:8). Adam and Eve had another son, Seth, who also had children. As people populated the earth, God saw that human hearts and thoughts were constantly filled with evil (Gen 6:5). God was sorry he had ever made humans (Gen 6:6). Only one man named Noah pleased God.
God told Noah to build an Ark (Gen 6:9), because he was going to put an end to the sinful human race. Noah built the Ark as God commanded and filled it with a male and female of every kind of animal. God flooded the entire earth, and destroyed all sinful people.
When the flood subsided, God promised Noah that he would never again curse the ground because of humankind or destroy every living thing (Gen 8:21). He placed a rainbow in the clouds as a reminder to the human race of his promise (Gen 9:13).
The population grew, but the sinful desires of humans led them to build a tower to the heavens at Babel, attempting to establish their own glory, not that of God (Gen 11:1). God destroyed the tower and scattered the people and their languages over the earth.
At this point, God decided to deal with the problem of sinful people. He chose one man, Abraham, from whom would come an entire nation that would worship him (Gen 12:1). He promised this nation a special land where they would live. It was to be from this nation that a saviour would come who would be a blessing to the people of the world.
The beginning of a nation
Abraham was called at the age of 75 to go to the land of Canaan (Gen 12:4). Abraham and his wife Sarah had a son, Isaac, who in turn had two sons, Esau and Jacob. Jacob had twelve sons whose families formed the twelve tribes of Israel. Jacob's favourite son, Joseph, was sold into slavery in Egypt by his jealous brothers (Gen 37:27).
After proving himself a faithful servant to Pharaoh, Joseph was put in charge over all of Egypt, second only to Pharaoh himself (Gen 41:40). He warned Pharaoh to store food in preparation for a coming famine. When the famine began, Joseph's brothers came to Egypt to buy food. Joseph forgave his brothers and invited them to live with him in Egypt. Joseph realised his slavery, imprisonment and promotion were part of God's plan to settle his family in Egypt (Gen 50:20).
After being enslaved in Egypt for more than 400 years, God chooses an unlikely candidate to lead his beloved people to freedom and into the Promised Land.
The exodus
The Israelites grew in number and were in exile in Egypt for about 430 years. Fearing the growing power of the Israelites (Ex 1: 7) , a new King of Egypt, who knew nothing of Joseph, decided to use the Israelites as slaves. God heard the cries of his people (Ex 3:7) and chose one man, Moses, to lead them to freedom (Ex 3:10).
After receiving God's instructions, Moses asked Pharaoh to let the Israelites go, but Pharaoh denied the request (Ex 5:1, 2). God then sent ten plagues into the land of Egypt to force Pharaoh to let the Israelites go (Ex 6:1), but after each plague Pharaoh remained stubborn. The final plague killed all firstborn children, except those of the Israelites (Ex 11:5) who were instructed to put the blood of a lamb on their doors (Ex 12:7).
After plundering the entire nation of its silver and gold jewellery and clothing (the Egyptians gave everything to them) (Ex 12:36), the Israelites left Egypt, following God as a pillar of cloud during the day and a pillar of fire at night (Ex 13:21). By the time the Israelites came to the Red Sea, Pharaoh had changed his mind and was pursuing them. God parted the Red Sea (Ex 14:21) and the Israelites escaped. They came to Mount Sinai where God entered into a covenant with the people to be their God. Moses was given the Ten Commandments by God (Ex 20:1).
While at Mount Sinai, God gave further instructions to Moses concerning sacrifices, offerings and worship, ceremonial cleanliness as well as feasts and Holy days. God's desire was for his people to be holy. He required a response of submission and obedience from the people.
After a year had passed at Mount Sinai, God led the Israelites to the edge of the Promised Land where they sent out spies (Num 13:2). The spies reported that while the land was indeed flowing with milk and honey, there were also significant adversaries present (Num 13:27-28). The people complained against God, Moses and Aaron (Num 14:2). God then sentenced the Israelites to years of wandering in the desert until that generation of unbelieving adults had died (Num 14:22, 23).
After 40 years in the desert, Moses retold the story (of what had happened) to the new generation of Israelites and reminded them of the commandments and requirements God had given them (Deut 1:3). Moses then went up Mount Nebo where God allowed him to see the Promised Land, saying that this was the land he had promised to give to Abraham (Deut 34:1). Moses died without entering the land.
The Promised Land
God appointed Joshua to lead the Israelites into the Promised Land (Deut 31:3). When they entered the land, God's 700 year old promise to Abraham was fulfilled. Jericho's walls collapsed before Joshua's army as they took possession of the land (Josh 6:20). The land was divided up among the twelve tribes. After the death of Joshua (Josh 24:29), there was no formal leadership except for judges that were called from time to time by God as the need arose. The judges had several functions: military leadership, spiritual leadership and as judge in case hearings and administering justice in Israel. However, during the 200 years Israel was governed by judges, there was little law and order.
The Israelites get a king to rule over them but the nation eventually divides as a result. Israel in the north only lasts 200 years before it is destroyed. Judah in the south eventually becomes part of the Babylonian empire.
God rejected for a king
The last judge, Samuel, brought peace and security to the nation of Israel. But the people rejected God as their ruler and began to want a king like the surrounding nations (1 Sam 8:5) to provide military leadership and protect them from their enemy, the Philistines. God warned the people of the consequences of having such a king (1 Sam 8: 11) but granted the people their request (1 Sam 8: 22). Saul became Israel's first king.
Saul did not follow God's commands and did not trust God (1 Sam 13:13). Because of this, God rejected his kingship. One of Saul's amour-bearers, David (1 Sam 16: 21), a man after God's heart (1 Sam 13:14), was chosen by God to be the next king (2 Sam 5:3). David was a great spiritual and political leader and wrote many of the Psalms. David unified Israel and won victories over all of Israel's traditional enemies: the Philistines, Edomites, Moabites, Ammonites and Syrians. He ruled over the entire Promised Land from the 'river of Egypt' to the River Euphrates.
The Kingdom divides
After David, his son Solomon became king of Israel. Solomon was a wise king (1 Kings 4: 29) who built the temple in Jerusalem and extended the wealth and boundaries of Israel to levels never before attained. To the Israelites, it looked as though God's promises to Abraham had finally been fulfilled. But as Solomon grew old, he gave way to pressure from his 1,000 foreign wives and concubines (1 Kings 11:3) to build temples for their gods (1 Kings 11:8). God grew angry with Solomon (1 Kings 11:9) and the peace and security Israel had experienced collapsed. When Solomon died, Israel split into two countries: Israel (in the north) and Judah (in the south).
Rehoboam (one of Solomon's sons) was appointed King over the entire nation (1 Kings 12:1), but lost Israel in a civil war. Israel was then led by Jeroboam.
Israel was by far the larger nation, but was to exist for only 200 years. During this time, God repeatedly sent prophets such as Hosea, Joel, Amos and Micah to warn the Israelites to turn back to him, away from their unfaithfulness through idol worship and immorality. But all of Israel's 20 kings fell short in God's eyes and the nation was eventually destroyed forever (2 Kings 17:18) by the Assyrians (2 Kings 17:6) in 722 B.C.
Judah survived slightly longer than Israel: 350 years. During the first 50 years, Judah was almost constantly at war with Israel. Of Judah's 19 kings and one queen, only 8 did good in God's eyes. Many kings led Judah to worship other gods. God sent prophets such as Isaiah, Jeremiah, Habakkuk and Zephaniah to warn them to turn back to God. But continued unfaithfulness lead to Judah coming under threat from Assyria (2 Kings 18:13). Unlike Israel, Judah fended off Assyria (2 Kings 19:36) but came under Egyptian control until the Babylonians defeated the Egyptians at Carchemish in 605 B.C., thus becoming part of the Babylonian empire. In 597 B.C., Judah rebelled against Babylonian rule and was subsequently punished when King Nebuchadnezzar besieged Jerusalem. Judah's leading citizens were exiled to Babylon (1 Chronicles 6:15). After a second rebellion in 586 B.C., the Babylonians burned Jerusalem and took more citizens into exile (2 Chronicles 36:20).
God's presence remained with the people of Judah who began calling themselves Jews. Ezekiel was sent by God to tell the Jews that God was still in control, even though Jerusalem was destroyed and they would be under Babylonian rule for a long time.
After Persia defeated Babylon in 539 B.C., King Cyrus of Persia sent the first wave of exiles back to Jerusalem in 538 B.C. They began rebuilding the temple which was completed (Ezra 6:15), after many interruptions, in 516 B.C.
The break between the last book of the Old Testament and the first book of the New Testament lasts 400 years. During this time the Romans gain control of what remains of the Israelite nation. Jesus' birth brings a new covenant between God and all the people of the world.
The Romans There were 400 years between the last events of the Old Testament and the coming of Jesus Christ in the New Testament. During this time, Alexander the Great conquered the huge territory ranging from Greece in the West to Pakistan in the East, and in the process took control of the province of Judea, the home of the Jews.
After Alexander died in 323 B.C., the Greek empire split into two with Judea the buffer zone between them. The Jews suffered for this, first being ruled by the Ptolemies (from Egypt to the south) for 125 years, then the Seleucids (from Syria to the north) from 198 B.C. onwards.
One Seleucid king, Antiochus Epiphanes, invaded Judea and desecrated the Temple in 167 B.C., (Daniel 9:27). This was the last straw for the Jews who fought back and unexpectedly defeated the Seleucids and reconsecrated the Temple.
In 63 B.C., Roman general Pompey took control of Judea, assuming it into the Roman Empire. Herod the Great was made King of Judea.
It was under Herod's rule that Jesus Christ was born.
The New Testament and coming of the New Covenant
The Messiah God has promised (Isaiah 61:1) was born to a poor couple named Mary and Joseph in the town of Bethlehem in about 6 B.C. Jesus was a direct descendant of David (Matthew 1: 1-16). Not much is known about his childhood and early adult life.
At the age of about 30 he was baptized by John (Matthew 3:16) and began his ministry by announcing that he was the fulfilment of the prophecy of the coming Messiah (Luke 4:21). He called 12 disciples to be called his apostles (Mark 1:17) and began teaching them about the Kingdom of God, and who will enter it. He travelled with his disciples throughout the region (particularly the Sea of Galilee) teaching people, healing the sick, challenging the religious establishment, demonstrating God's grace and mercy, and modelling an intimate relationship with God.
Jesus' death and resurrection
However, religious leaders arrested Jesus for proclaiming he was the Son of God and for rejecting their ritualistic implementation of God's Law. Jesus was tried before Pilate and Herod and sentenced to death by crucifixion. He was crucified at Golgotha (Matthew 27:33) and his body taken to a nearby garden tomb (Matthew 27:60).
Three days later, he rose from the dead (Matthew 28:6) as he had promised. He appeared to the apostles and followers (Luke 24:15) and even ate with them (Luke 24:43). He then ascended to heaven to be with God (Luke 24:51), his sacrifice a full atonement for the sins of all people, from Adam and Eve to the end of time. His death and resurrection established a new covenant of salvation by grace.
Once again, God chooses an unlikely person to carry his message. Paul is a persecutor of the early church but then finds himself face to face with Jesus. Paul then takes to Good News to the world.
The Holy Spirit Ten days after Jesus ascended to Heaven, the Holy Spirit was given to the apostles (Acts 2:4). The church began to grow rapidly and followers of Jesus became known as Christians (Acts 11:26). A Pharisee and Roman citizen named Saul (Acts 16:37) was one of the leading persecutors of the early church.
One day, as Saul approached Damascus, he encountered Jesus and was converted (Acts 9:3). His name changed to Paul. Paul was sent by God to preach the message of Jesus to the Gentiles (non-Jews), offering salvation and the forgiveness of sin through the death and resurrection of Jesus. The apostle Peter was tasked with preaching the message of Jesus to the Jewish people (Galatians 2:7-8).
The church grew throughout Asia Minor, Greece, Macedonia and Cyprus as Paul and his companions travelled. Paul was eventually placed under house arrest. Although his fate is not mentioned in the Bible, it is widely accepted that he was later executed by the Romans.
Before his death Paul wrote many letters to churches and individuals that make up much of the remainder of the New Testament. These letters describe how to live as a Christian by following the example of Christ.
The Bible concludes with a prophecy about the events that will lead to the return of Jesus in the book of Revelation. The entire Bible, from Abraham to Revelation covers about 2,000 years.
The same website also includes a short film of the epic story of the bible; here’s a link:
http://www.biblesociety.org.nz/get-resources/for-individuals/the-bible-story/the-big-picture-for-individualsand the youtube link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJ-bSiO1O2gThe overall message of the bible story is very well summarized by Michael Snyder on the
endoftheamericandream.com under the section titled:
“The Most Important Thing”, which is a very appropriate title. I would encourage all readers to visit Michael’s site; however, for convenience I have included much of that section’s material, with some minor edits on its own page within this site
here.