00:00Most of the time when we read a book, we do so starting from the first page to the last.
00:14Unless, by altering the order in which it was written, we read only the parts that are of interest to us,
00:20This will probably leave you unable to understand what the book contains.
00:24In the case of books as long as Sid Campeador or Don Quixote,
00:30The reading method used consists of reading the text from beginning to end.
00:36We cannot do the same with the Bible, since despite falling into the category of a book,
00:42It is completely different from any other book we have ever known.
00:48If we start reading on the first page, that is, in chapter 1, verse 1 of the book of Genesis,
00:56And we continue in this way until we try to reach the last verse of Revelation,
01:02Most likely, we will end up abandoning such a company.
01:07This happens because the Bible is itself made up of a set of books.
01:13In fact, the word Bible comes from a Greek word,
01:19biblos, which means a collection of books.
01:23In the New Testament, this term is used to refer to the sacred books of the Old Testament.
01:30And this is probably the reason why Christians also changed the term to singular.
01:37remaining as we know it today, simply as the Bible.
01:40And speaking of the name we currently give to this set of books,
01:45We can mention many others that he receives and that are also designated for him,
01:51such as, for example, sacred book, holy scriptures, history of salvation,
01:58holy books, book of the covenant, divine letters, word of God, sacred texts, etc.
02:07Particularly within our church it has been more commonly referred to as the Bible,
02:15sacred scriptures and the word of God.
02:17It would seem that the word that best describes what it contains is the word of God.
02:24because everything we find in the Bible is truly what God intended to express.
02:30to the heart of man in written language through the sacred authors,
02:34and that this designation also lends weight and strength to what we read in its pages.
02:42We must convince ourselves that what the Bible contains is, in truth, the word of God.
02:49in the full extent that the term itself encompasses.
02:53It would therefore be good and useful to start using this term more often,
02:58since it can greatly help us to see the holy scriptures in this way
03:03and thus grant her the authority that she possesses in herself.
03:09We said then that it is not advisable to read the word of God from beginning to end,
03:15not only because it's not the right way to do it,
03:17but also because we must understand that this library is divided into several parts
03:24to better understand how God intervened throughout human history on their behalf.
03:31That is, the different moments in history that tell us about God's saving action towards his people.
03:40That is why we call it the history of salvation.
03:43We might start by reading Genesis, and the stories told there might seem attractive and interesting to us.
03:50And we can continue with the exodus and God's miraculous intervention to deliver his people through Moses.
03:58But then we will continue reading Leviticus
04:01and perhaps it is no longer so digestible to read a series of rules and laws that even in the light of intellectual knowledge
04:10They may seem wild and uncivilized to us.
04:14Let alone if we continue with the census from the book of numbers
04:18And let's not even mention the second law in Deuteronomy.
04:22We have probably abandoned our idea of reading the Bible at this point.
04:27Discouragement, lack of interest, and lack of understanding won out.
04:33We will no longer come to know Jesus through the beautiful pages of the Gospel
04:37Nor will we be able to rejoice in how the good news was spreading through the action of the Holy Spirit.
04:43throughout the length and breadth of the then-known world
04:46and which is narrated particularly in the Acts of the Apostles and the letters.
04:51Therefore, it is necessary to first understand how this library is divided
04:57to then know in what order it should be read.
05:01The word of God is divided into two main blocks
05:04Old Testament and New Testament.
05:08The first block consists of 46 books
05:11while the second one has 27 books.
05:14The difference with Protestant Bibles is that these are missing 7 books
05:19and some texts from the books of Daniel and Esther
05:23Therefore, the Old Testament only contains 39 books.
05:28In the case of the New Testament, the same number is presented as in Catholic Bibles.
05:33We have then, on one hand, the Old Testament
05:39which we can divide into the following blocks
05:43Law, Prophets, and Writings
05:46while the New Testament can be divided into History, Letters, and Apocalyptic.
05:54Now, to make it easier to visualize these divisions
06:00as well as its contents
06:02We have made it available as a downloadable file
06:05tables containing these two major divisions
06:08their corresponding subdivisions
06:11as well as a summary of its contents
06:13in order to show a global vision
06:15of what we find that the Bible contains.
06:24Thank you!
