Will Gibbs – Google

"In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." Genesis 1:1 "Righteousness lifts up a nation, but sin is a disgrace in any society." Proverbs 14:34 "It is written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.'" Gospel of Matthew 4:4 "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life." Gospel of John 3:16 THE BIBLE The Bible is the inspired Word of God and relates how God our Creator expresses his undying love for his Creation mankind. The Bible presents salvation history: how God reveals himself and his plan for the redemption of fallen mankind. His Divine plan begins with the creation of the world, passes to the definitive moment in time of the Incarnation, and will be concluded with the Parousia, the Second Coming of the Lord. Promise and prophecy found in Hebrew Scripture, our Old Testament, finds fulfillment in the New Testament: God giving his only son Jesus Christ to save humanity, and sending the Holy Spirit to guide us. The Bible provides direction for a happy life on earth, gives prophecy on the end times, and helps us reach heaven in the after-life. The primary index for our internet site is found at Home. This page provides a discussion and links to representative books of the Bible. The Holy Land in the Time of Christ. The Old Testament of the Bible was written in Hebrew and our New Testament in the West was written in Greek. The Old Testament relates God's Creation of the world and his Word to Israel. His promise of a Redeemer is recorded in a number of Messianic prophecies in Hebrew Scripture, among them Genesis 3:15, Deuteronomy 18:15-18, 2 Samuel 7:14-16, I Chronicles 17:12-14, Psalms 2, 22, and 110, Isaiah 7:14 and 52:13-53:12, Daniel 7:13-14 and 9:24-27, Micah 5:2, and Zechariah 9:9 and 12:10. The Old Testament is Hebrew Scripture or Tanakh, and is composed of the Law, the Torah or Pentateuch, the Prophets or Neviim, and the Writings, the Kethuvim or Hagiographa. The threefold division - and original order - of Hebrew Scripture was evident at the time of Jesus, who referred to "The Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms (Luke 24:44)." The Old Testament was composed in Hebrew, except for the following written in Aramaic - Genesis 31:47, Jeremiah 10:11, Ezra 4:8-6:18 and 7:12-26, and nearly half of the Book of Daniel (2:4-7:28). The word Bible, which means "the book," is derived from the city of Byblos, a key source of the Phoenician alphabet. The writings of the Old Testament are preserved in three languages - Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek, and are available in the following manuscripts: the Greek Septuagint from Alexandria; the Masoretic Hebrew text from Tiberias, Galilee; the newly discovered Dead Sea Scrolls of the Essenes; and the Aramaic Targums and the Syriac Aramaic Peshitta Bible. The differing traditions have led to the disparity found in the Old Testament canons among Christian religions. The oldest surviving translation of Hebrew Scripture was the Greek Septuagint, which was undertaken in the third century BC in Egypt by Jewish scholars who had migrated there during the Diaspora. The Greek codices arranged the books in a fourfold division, a different way than Hebrew Scripture, by placing the Law of Moses first, then the Historical Books (Former Prophets), then the Psalms and Wisdom Literature, and then the (Latter) Prophets. The three major Christian religions follow the Greek pattern and will serve as the outline for this discussion.