Handling Accurately the Word of Truth
Sometimes people unfamiliar with the Bible and how it came to be are confused
when they pick it up and begin to read. In many ways it is like any other book.
It uses words and sentences to convey thought. But in other ways, it is quite
different.
Its information is not in alphabetical order so you cannot use it like a
dictionary, looking under, say, "R" if you want to study "repentance." It's
information is not strictly chronological so you cannot use it like a history
book. Some portions of it are written chronologically; the book of Genesis and
the book of Acts, for examples, but the Bible as a whole is not written
chronologically. The epistles are not in the order in which they were written.
Neither is the Bible written like a text book where the simplest facts come
first and proceed to become increasingly difficult as you read deeper into the
book. There is a mixture of simple and complex ideas throughout Bible.
The Bible tells us to be "diligent to present yourself approved to God as a
workman who does not need to be ashamed, handling accurately the word of truth."
(2 Timothy 2:15). The Bible is a tool to understanding God's will for us. We
need to be sure we are using the tool correctly. Just as a carpenter should know
which end of the hammer to hold and which end to hit the nail with, we need to
be familiar with the Bible in order to use it correctly.
But if the Bible is not in any particular order, then how does one find what he
needs to find? Well, first, it is in an order; just not in alphabetical,
chronological or simple to complex order. The Bible books are ordered according
to type.
The main division is Old Testament and New Testament. In the Old Testament, the
first five books, sometimes called the Pentateuch, are the books of the Law, or
the books of Moses. The following twelve books, from Joshua through Esther, are
the books of history. Following these, we have five books of poetry: Job,
Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Solomon. Finally, there the prophets.
These can be further divided into the major prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah,
Lamentations, Ezekiel and Daniel) and the twelve minor prophets (Hosea through
Malachi).
The New Testament books are divided into history, the epistles and prophecy. The
history part consists of five books. The first four are biographical histories
of the life of Christ and sometimes referred to as the gospels. The final
historical book, called the Acts of the Apostles, traces the early history of
the church. The epistles consist first of Paul's writings. Many fail to note
that there is an order to these epistles even though they are not
chronologically or alphabetically arranged. First, there are Paul's letters to
churches (Romans through Thessalonians). After these, Paul's letters to
individuals (Timothy, Titus, Philemon). After Paul's epistles come the epistle
to the Hebrews, which some also think Paul wrote, but unlike the others it does
not bear his name in the text. Then come the minor epistles (James. Peter, John
and Jude). And finally, the book of prophecy; the book of Revelation.
It should be noted that while God inspired the writing of the Scriptures (2
Timothy 3:16,17) that the order by which they are arranged was determined by
man. Originally, these were 66 different writings which came to be bound under
one cover only after book bindings with pages was introduced and replaced the
scroll. Although these writings have always been Scripture, the convenience of
having them all so easy to access in one volume to expedite our study is a
blessing unknown to those who lived during Biblical times.
One can gain valuable general knowledge of the Bible by reading it "cover to
cover" but that is not a good way to study a particular topic. That would be
like looking up the word "Mechanic" in a dictionary by starting with the "A's"
and reading definitions until you came to the word "mechanic." Better to make
the use of study aids such as concordances, Bible dictionaries, and/or topical
indexes to quickly locate all the information on a given subject throughout the
Bible. These are alphabetically arranged and really speed up information
gathering from the Bible.
It is important not only to handle the word of truth, but to handle it
accurately.
By Jon W. Quinn
The Final Page
From Expository Files 7.7; July 2000
