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Good morning gentlemen, I want to give you a Little change of program for for what we're doing today now. As I've said we go 12 weeks through systematic theology. We start at part one go all the way to part 12 and last week We finished part 12, which would ordinarily mean we're going to start over at part one however.
Because of several factors and that not the least of which is my own proclivity towards Wanting to shake things up from time to time I'm going to take and do a couple of weeks on a different subject. Before we go back to the 12 weeks, so I don't know how long it'll last.
I know it'll at least last today. It may last two weeks may last three weeks, but let me give you let me give you what I'm what I'm going to do. This is the this is the the reasoning and the concept for what I'm going to do.
Over the last 12 weeks. We have done basically a systematic approach to theology looking at the major headings of theological thought Theology proper Christology pneumatology ecclesiology soteriology all of these different heads of doctrine but what I want to do now is I want to go back and I want to do a more of a what we would call a biblical theology versus a systematic theology, and if you the distinction is a systematic theology takes the headings of thought Theology proper Christology pneumatology and focuses on basically a subject-based approach to the Bible.
Biblical theology comes at it from a different perspective. We start Looking at the Bible as a whole and seeking to answer the question What is the whole Bible's story from beginning to end but using the Bible's?
Narrative as our God rather than looking at the subheadings of different subjects. We look at the whole Bible and this is actually going to maybe feel a little bit like Sunday school. I don't know how many of you guys grew up in church and you went to Sunday school when you were a kid.
But that's sort of the approach I'm going to take and and don't for a second think that by that I mean that I'm going to dumb it down. I'm not dumbing it down but what I am going to try to do is I'm going to try to make sure that all of you who are here have a good understanding of what we would call the Metanarrative or the overall story of the Bible from beginning to end and we're going to do that by first looking at just what?
Makes up our Bible. What are the what are the parts of the Bible and how do we? Subdivide the text and understand it. So does that make sense what we're going to do? We're basically looking at the Bible as a as a whole.
We're normally Normally, we spend a lot of time with the parts of the Bible. By the way, we make a lot of use of the board today. Normally, we make we make we make a lot about the parts. In fact when you come on Sunday morning and Pastor Mark preaches He usually is preaching verse by verse through a book of the Bible, right?
Like I think right now He was in Hebrews or is yet now he's still in Hebrews and how long has he been in Hebrews? Okay, so it's been a long several months right and that's my point he's taking small bits of Scripture and he's giving you a Microscopic view of that and so we would say that's the that's the process of exegesis going in and taking the text apart.
Understanding what it says making sense of it, but there's also what we would call a Macroscopic view and that is where we step back and we look at the whole thing. Sort of like the difference between being on a tower and being down on the ground if I'm up on a tower I can see the whole Vista.
I can see the whole landscape I can see the horizon from the top of the tower or I can come down off the tower and I can get down with my Microscope and I can look at us an ant or a centipede or something like that.
And so that's the the approach is two different approaches and and what what brother Mark is doing is what I do on Sunday morning. I've been in Genesis for Over two years and I'm still in chapter 11. So just to give you an idea that takes time right, that's that's a microscopic view looking at each part understanding how it fits into the whole but If you're going to do that and we are we also need to understand the whole.
You understand the parts and then you understand the whole and so what were the first thing we do. I want to ask you a question and do not be embarrassed if The answer is no. But I want to ask you to raise your hand and again if the answer is no don't raise your hand.
Don't just tell me what you think. I want to hear raise your hand. If you know all of the books of the Bible by name and by heart. Okay, that's fine. Thank you for your honesty because I I asked that question that people been in church 10 15 20 years and the answer is often no.
And I say why is it that you know, we don't know that and I think sometimes it's because we have had a I think There's been a generation that didn't go to Sunday school. Because when I was a kid and we went to Sunday school.
That was one of the things that we learned right like one of the things that we learned was how many books are in the? Bible or there's 66 books in the Bible and in the Old Testament, there's 39 and if you times 3 times 9 that equals 27.
That's how many are in the nude. That's a neat little way to remember. I don't know if you guys have ever seen that but that's just a way to to put it in your mind, right? So there's 39 books in the Old Testament 3 times 9 is 27.
That's how many books are in the New Testament. Yeah, 39 to 27 you get 66 and that's how many books are in your Bible now that's just the first that. Again, that may seem kind of childish, but I think that's helpful.
You know, you know who taught me that Patsy Hoffman my 12 year old Sunday school when I was 12 years old my Sunday school teacher. She was Bobby's Sunday school teacher, too. In fact, if you see Bobby ask him to tell you this story about miss Hoffman.
Oh miss miss Hoffman. She was the she I I did her funeral a few years ago most beautiful Saint she loved the Lord and she loved the Lord her whole life and she was she was my Sunday school teacher and then she Was a member of the church that I was a pastor of so I had this long Sort of relationship with this lady over all these years and we used to talk theology when I would go on car trips I would I would because she loved talking phone and I knew I had to drive for an hour or so and I just didn't.
Just wanted to keep my mind going. I'd call Patsy and put her on speakerphone and we talked the Bible for an hour or two hours while I was driving to Orlando or driving out in Tallahassee or something?
So I just had a really great experience with this lady. And so that was one thing she always taught you know, 66 books of the Bible. There's 39 in the Old Testament 3 times 9 is 27. There's 27 in the New Testament.
So let's very quickly. Let's talk about the groups of books that are in both. First of all, the Bible is subdivided into two major groups. What are the two major groups? Okay, so we got the Old Testament and the New Testament, okay, so we're going to subdivide the Bible right there Old Testament is 39.
New Testament is 27 right now in this Group, we have five sub categories. So we're going to say five categories in the New Testament. We also have five categories. So but but you. There's a little bit of debate on how to how to you can break the New Testament down a little differently than that.
But just to keep it to keep some unification. We'll say five in both. Okay, so five categories in both. All right. What are the five categories and if you don't know it's fine. But if you do know let me know what are the five categories of the Old Testament?
The law okay, so we have the books of the law and we're going to go over what the books are. But we're going to look at the categories first. So we had the books of the law and then what would be the second category?
That's that's that's the last two. We'll say major. And minor prophets, that's that's the last two. Yeah, I guess so yeah, yeah, all right, so we have law and then what now where'd you learn that 512 5 5 12 thing.
That The church up there taught that Bill Bill that's me. I guess I knew it but I never thought of it how to do that. All right, so law history. We have prophecy which is major and minor what comes in between.
We would say either poetry or wisdom depending on I think wisdom literature is the best way to think of it. So we say wisdom literature falls right in the middle. Yeah, yeah, we're going to go over what each what's in each category.
But first we're just we're looking at we're looking at the groups. All right, so the groups are the law this is also known as the Pentateuch the Pentateuch and that is. That simply means the five scrolls five scrolls and that and that would be the books of Moses.
All right, the law or the Pentateuch also called something else anybody else know another word for it. No, not the Septuagint. The Torah. Torah, that's the Hebrew word for law. So you'll hear it called the Torah you hear it called the Pentateuch.
You'll hear it called the law. All of that is Synonymous for the first five books of the Bible then you have the history books and there are 12. Then you have the wisdom books. There are five the major prophets there are five and then the minor prophets and there are 12.
So in a minute, we're going to we're going to look at the all these on a timeline. But for now, we're just going to talk about categories. What are the five categories in the New Testament? What would be the five categories in the New Testament?
All right. So the first is the Gospels. Well, but but but this is where we the categories kind of get get confused the second the second Category is actually only one book. It's history. It's the book of Acts.
So so it's history. We could group all of these in as history. You could say the Gospels and Acts make up the history of what we would call first century. First century church history because it starts with the birth of Jesus, which was about 5 BC somewhere around in there and then.
The birth of Jesus to the death of Jesus when he died on the cross at probably 33 years old. So he probably died somewhere around the year 28 to 30 would probably be around the death of Christ and then we have after that the next 40 years.
Going to 70 80 70 was the time of the writing of the New Testament. We're going to look at this on a timeline a little while, but yes Penitent means five scrolls five scroll Penta think of like five Pentagon yeah, and then.
So you have the Gospels and Acts which is history? The Gospels are more biographical than they are historical because it's they're all for about the life of Christ. But they still would would be historical.
All right, so what would be the next category? The epistles right and you know what the epistles are. The wife of the Apostles. No, I'm kidding. No, no epistles are not the wife of the Apostles. Epistles are letters.
They simply mean it's just another word for letter. And so under epistles that they're subdivided into two categories. That well, that's a subdivision of a subdivision the first division of the of the letters are what we call the Pauline epistles.
So the letters of Paul. And then we have what are known as the general epistles the general epistles. Yep, and. So you have the Gospels and Acts and then the epistles and the epistles can be broken down into general and Pauline epistles and then the last Category again, it's one book.
So to say it's a category. It's sort of a little difficult is what we would call the apocalyptic literature or a revelation. So the apocalyptic. What's that? Well, that's why I said if you categorize the book of Acts as one category.
It's one two three, and this is actually three and four because it's Pauline in general. That's why I said this one to put this into five categories. It's gospel history Pauline epistles general epistles and apocalypse or revelation.
But you but with that two of those categories are only one book. Acts is the history book and revelation is the apocalyptic book, but still Categorically, they they are different. All right. All right.
So now let's for a moment talk about What we would call type of literature so now we've categorized the books we've said, okay. These are this is these are the categories there. And by the way, our Bible is Slightly different than the Hebrew order.
So when we say the books are law history wisdom major minor prophets in the Old Testament. If you read a Hebrew Old Testament, it's it's ordered differently. They it's the same books. We have the same books as the Jews do but we they order them differently.
And the reason for that is because they put they put it more in chronological order. Where we put it in categorical order so where you ours begin. Chronologically because of course you got in the beginning, right?
That's chronological and then you get to Abraham Isaac Jacob and then you get to The the history books and you get to Joshua judges Ruth first example first at Kings first at Chronicles that's all history, but then you go to Job right after.
Or after me my Esther then you get to Job. Job is if you put him in categoric chronological order, he's way back with Abraham, right? The time of Job is the time of Abraham. So that's so chronologically it doesn't fit and then Psalms is actually written during the life of David and and and and so you have these these different books that seem to be out of place the reason why they're grouped the way that they are in our Bible is because the The Bible that we use is translated or rather not is rather grouped together by category, right?
So the major minor prophets when we look at the timeline in a minute I'm going to talk about where these prophets fall because out of the 17 prophets. When did Hosea prophesy? It's okay. If you don't know that most people don't know.
Okay, but that's the thing right if you talk about when these that helps you to know what they're talking about. Right, if you know when Jonah is prophesying it helps you understand who Nineveh is who Assyria is why he's upset with him.
Why he doesn't want to go why he's running away, right? And then you understand that Nahum it which is two books after Jonah actually is related to the same issue. But a hundred years later, so there's a hundred year gap between Jonah and Nahum and so there's all these different things that if you understand it sort of timeline wise you understand why the categories or why the Writings are what they are.
You guys understand why this is important, right? You good. Well good so far. Okay. So this is when we look at our categories of Scripture now. There are different types of writings within these Categories the first is what we would call narrative narrative.
What is a narrative? Tells a story. That's right. So so if I asked you When you're reading Genesis, is that a narrative? Yeah tells a story right in the beginning. That's how stories often begin right in the beginning.
This is what happened. God created the heavens and the earth the earth was formless and void, you know, and it goes through the story so we have a narrative form of literature in the Bible the books of Moses are Narrative in nature they tell the story of the beginning of the world the beginning of the Hebrew people and the things that happened to Abraham Isaac Jacob and Then to the twelve sons of Jacob and they went to Egypt and came back and through the Exodus and all those things, right?
So those are narrative books, right? In fact, Joshua judges and Ruth are also narrative books. Right and Ezra Nehemiah Esther or narrative now within those books. There's other types of literature in them.
But the primary form of literature is narrative same way with the Gospels in Acts, right? It's narrative. Jesus was born. He lived he died was buried resurrected. That's a narrative, right? That's a story.
It's a true story. But it's still a story of his life and then how the church was founded through the book of Acts and all that. That's all narrative. So narratives is one form of literature that we find in the Bible another form that we find is What is called Didactic didactic literature.
Didactic, I don't know if you guys need me to move the thing DID AC TIC didactic now. Narrative tells a story. What is didactic do? Didactic teaches a lesson was what I'm doing right now is I'm exercising a didactic.
I'm practicing didactic by coming and teaching it, right? So this is a it's a lesson. So when we get to the epistles of the New Testament, the epistles teach a lesson right, then Paul says, you know when you when you Gather on the first day of the week, you know take a Collection and use that money for the church, right?
So that's a lesson. Right there. There's there's there are things that are in the Bible that are that are lessons and I would say the epistles are primarily Didactic they're primarily meant to teach lessons.
Whether it's theology or whether it's practical and oftentimes they go together. That's still the form of the letter. So here's it here's why that matters because we're going to talk about some more in a minute.
But before we can get there a lot of people read the narratives of the Bible the stories and They try to Tea they try to draw out of them lessons, which is which is you should do that. You should draw lessons from them, but the the lessons of the Bible that are meant to be applied directly to us specifically are are in the didactic portions of the writings because that's the lessons and so when Jesus is in In the Gospels there were time where he taught lessons and those were didactic portions of the narrative.
So you see how a narrative cannon can include a didactic portion and so when Jesus tells us in the Sermon on the Mount. You know do not look at a woman to lust after her if you do you've committed adultery in your heart.
That's a lesson right? That's it. That's a that's a didactic teaching in the narrative, right? He's telling the lesson. He's giving the sermon and so a narrative can include didactic portions. But here's the danger what what oftentimes people do is they take the narrative portion of the Bible and they use it like They'll use it as a as an excuse to do something, you know, well Noah got drunk.
I guess it's okay. Now that sounds stupid, but that's really the argument, right? Well, well because it happened to Noah must not be that bad or I can do that and it'll be fine or whatever. They use they use the narrative to try to twist for their own their own use.
And that's not always the best thing in fact, it's often very dangerous. So we have narrative and we have didactic another form of literature is called poetic. Poetic now, I want to ask the question. When we think about poetic literature Literature.
What what's the what's what's distinct about poetry? Imagery that right away poetry is. Poetry is is is filled with images, right? And so when you read the book of Psalms and It talks about the trees.
Clapping their hands, right? Obviously trees don't have hands. Obviously trees don't clap but there's an image there, right? It's intended to invoke the idea that the the earth itself is celebrating God's Power and his majesty, right?
So that even the trees will clap their hands even the streams will sing his praises. Jesus said these rocks will cry out, you know so there's these are images that are being used in a poetic way and Interpreting poetry is different than interpreting narrative and interpreting Narrative is different than interpreting didactic literature.
And so Understanding where where these different things fall into like for instance the book of Job. This is going to be this is I'm going to ask a question and I don't want to start an argument. But I want to ask and you guys feel free to share.
I don't I if you disagree with me. This is not going to be a big problem. The book of Job, is it narrative or poetic? I Would say it is both but I would say it is in the form of poetry. But it is poetry that tells a story.
The question we have to ask is do we believe that story is true or not? I believe it is. I believe the story of Job is a true story however, it does come to us in the form of poetry so there have been some who have interpreted it more as a parable than as a Than as a true story and even though I would disagree with them I don't think that that's necessarily damnable to believe that.
I just think it's wrong. I you know if somebody said well I think Job is meant to tell us how to deal with suffering and that suffering is ultimately Under the sovereignty of God and Job is more of a parable than it is a true story.
If somebody said that I you know I'm not going to elbow them and drop them down and you know hold them down until they you know. Not that I would do that. But I'm not going to be mad if somebody disagrees about Job because Job does come to us in the form of poetry.
Yeah. In fact when you look at your English Bible. You ever notice that certain texts are moved over a little bit from the line. You know you'll be reading the text of them line, then some has moved over and it's like indented.
That indent is usually meant to show you poetry. It's meant to show you that this is verse. This is like a song right so when you see that the whole book of Job is that way. It's it's written in that sort of verse.
Even his interaction with his three friends. You know it's still written in somewhat of a verse and so. That's why we would say the wisdom literature is written in a very particular way. Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Psalm of Solomon is all written in a poetic form the book of Proverbs for instance the book of Proverbs comes to us in What is called the oh goodness?
It's Parallelism thank you. My mind I had to think of it a parallelism where it says something. And then it says something else that goes along with what was before it. And there's what's called synonymous parallelism.
That's when it says the same thing twice. There's contrasting parallelism when it says something and then it says the opposite like a good man's going to heaven a bad man's going to Hell that would be contrasting that it doesn't say that but I'm saying that's it.
That's a contrasting parallel right then there's there's Parallelism that works sort of like a in music a Crescendo where it builds on itself and it builds up to a point right that's that's like a Ascending parallel, so there's all kinds of different parallel parallels.
Understanding that helps you to understand how to interpret Proverbs and how to how to read it. You know understanding these these different forms, and how they're used am I boring you guys putting you to sleep.
Okay, all right, so this is just again. This is this is all basic Sunday school stuff, but this is stuff. It's helpful all right. Huh? Yeah, I think it's very important. Yes. Praise the Lord you do. I'm here now, so.
So we have narrative. We have didactic. We have poetic and then we have What we would call prophetic prophetic language prophetic language. Some would say this is a form of poetry, but it's it's it's actually its own thing you can also call it apocalyptic.
We talked about that, but it's it's really it's prophetic prophetic literature is is really is. It's it also uses images like we talked about with poetry. But the the images are usually very drastic the moon shall turn to blood.
Right that's a that's something that's talked about in the Old Testament and the New Testament right and you say well. Does that mean the moon is going to have hemoglobin? You know does that mean the moon's really going to be blood or does that simply mean it's going to be red?
You know and so that's that becomes like you have to interpret it. But you interpret it by the rules of prophetic literature. Yes I think animated works. Yeah, just very expressive. I think yeah very expressive like drama very dramatic.
Yeah, think about Revelation. Revelation is the New Testament equivalent to the Old Testament prophets. Yes, yeah, there's a there's a hyper exaggeration. I like that Hyperbole is used a lot that so if you look at the major and minor prophets if you read Isaiah Jeremiah.
You know Ezekiel Daniel, and then you go over and read Revelation you can see. Where John gets his use of language? You can see that the same God who inspired this is the same God who inspired this because it's almost the same and.
And that's why. There's a there's a there's a way to enter if you're going to interpret Isaiah. You don't interpret Isaiah differently than you interpret John because they're both the same type of literature right in fact.
There there's a there's a passage in Revelation about the the sky being rolled back like a scroll. If you go back to Isaiah. It's the same thing the exact same Statement that the sky will be rolled back like a scroll.
Right talking about the end of days and when everything happens and the sky being rolled back. But it's a it's a it's a picture of judgment right the earth is falling apart the earth's the skies rolling back everything's everything's shutting down right, and so this is the if you will equivalent of.
The Old Testament prophet is the New Testament Book of Revelation, and so that is the basically the four different types of literature. Are there more yes? We can get a little bit more pedantic, but overall when you're reading the Bible you're either reading a story a narrative.
You're reading a lesson. Didactic you're reading a poet poetic work, which is still meant to teach you something so poetry is not Not teaching, but it teaches in a certain way. Poetry also is used to praise God and to exalt his name sometimes.
It's just praise the Lord praise him in his heavens praise him in the highest praise him with all your words praise him with All your you know it's like why does he keep saying this because praising God is important.
And we're going to do it and we're going to do it and do it and do it and some some psalms are just that over and over and over and then the prophetic literature of course is the Apocalyptic literature all right, so this is this is the whole Bible.
In its parts and its subsequent parts now. Let's just for just think just to ensure that we do know what makes up each category. I'm going to get you to go with me. What are the five books of the Pentateuch?
Genesis Exodus Leviticus Numbers and Deuteronomy, that's the first five books all right. What are the twelve books of history history history? Joshua Judges Ruth first and second Samuel first and second Kings first and second Chronicles Ezra Nehemiah and Esther.
Right so that's the twelve history books. What are the five prophetic books? I'm sorry wisdom books. Job Psalms Proverbs Ecclesiastes and some of us on yeah Lamentations will come in the prophets and.
So real quick though. If you just look at what we've already looked at we've looked at the five first five books of the Bible who wrote those Moses right so these are Moses's books. Who wrote the books of history.
We don't know they just don't know and you might say oh, I can't believe we don't know that we don't know for sure now. We assume Joshua wrote Joshua. But who wrote judges a lot of people believe Samuel wrote judges?
I think that's I think that's a likely scenario, but it's not certain. It doesn't it doesn't none of them came with a first page that said this is by Samuel. Yeah, so there's historical references as to why we think Samuel wrote Judges right and then you've got Ruth which a lot of people think Samuel may have wrote Ruth as well.
Why is Ruth important? Yeah, but in the Old Testament prior to Christ still important because of David. It's David's grandmother, right? She's in the line of David, right? Huh? Great-grandmother well Ruth.
And Then you have Jesse and then David. David the son of Jesse so we have Ruth and Boaz are in the story in the narrative because of David. Right, and this is an important Character study who is who is Ruth?
Huh? Jesus is son of David yeah. And so it becomes even more important when we get to the New Covenant and we understand that Jesus is the point of everything right so. So Joshua judges Ruth. Joshua probably written by Joshua judges and Ruth.
Most likely written by Samuel. We don't know for certain but you know, we can take a stab and say Samuel first and second Samuel. Samuel had influence in writing that we're pretty certain. Not the whole thing though because a portion of it deals with his death.
So and then we have first second Kings first second Chronicles this these would have been written by Chronicle chroniclers, which are people that are Purposed to keep history and records and things. This is why you go to Chronicles and it's like this when we get this one and this one we get this one this.
We get this because it's a Chronicle. It's it's a history book, right? And so there's there are people that are used but we don't know who they are. And you can't get offended by that again, because we don't know who wrote Hebrews either.
So it's like these are these are things that you know, you ask the question. Well, why do we trust something if we don't know who wrote it? The the Old Testament in its fullness was confirmed and affirmed by Jesus Christ.
So whoever wrote it, he believed it was right. So I think I can trust that and in the New Testament the whole New Testament is confirmed and affirmed through the Apostles. You know, so at least we can say that.
They probably know who wrote it and they trusted it. So there's a certain amount of we're having to trust them and we do right we trust the Apostles. We trust Jesus. So as far as who wrote it, it's not that huge of a deal.
But it is nice when we do know right like Ezra Nehemiah Are actually one book in the Hebrew Bible week we break it into two. But that's it's one story written by Ezra the scribe, right? So you have that that that story of Ezra Nehemiah and now Esther I don't remember I have to look it up who wrote Esther, but Esther is Esther's whole narrative is odd.
Did you know Esther is one of the only books of the Bible that doesn't mention God. Doesn't mention God, you know, but but the story is obviously the providence of God, you know last night I taught on Providence at our church and what is what is God's providence?
It's his working in our lives, right and you you don't see him all the time. But he is working in your life everything you're doing is he's working in and whether it's to bring you somewhere or do something with You or whatever God's working.
That's what we call Providence. And what is the story of Esther? It's God's providence right saving his people using Esther the Queen and Raising her up to a position where where she can be the mouthpiece to save her people.
Yes I think that yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm trying to think I Mean my eight maybe what you're talking about, but yeah where he where he stands up and preaches. That's where we get the idea of the pulpit.
It's built near my eight. They build a platform and he opens the book. Oh, that's a different area I had I don't you know, yeah, but that all of that is Just a reminder that they had they had the word there too, you know.
Obviously not the whole thing is it's still being written but that's Yeah different people we don't know for sure we don't know who the chronicler was. Yeah, it's different yeah I would say there because it takes such a vast portion of history when we do the timeline in a minute you're gonna see how long the history was it wasn't couldn't been one Individual most likely because it goes through several generations of Kings and and and so, you know, yes.
Well, the whole Bible is God's story you've heard the phrase his story so history yeah, it's his yeah. It's his story his message for sure. And and I when we're all done with this I'm going to show you that the whole Bible can be broken down into four four words.
And but we're going to see that his work his story can be broken down into four words. But we're going to look at that when we're what hopefully we'll get done with this next week. If we finish what I want to do today next week, we're going to look at the covenants of Scripture.
That's a way to break the Scripture down into. Another way to break it down and understand it from the view of covenantal perspective. You know how did God interact with different people and how does that fit into the whole story?
So. Okay, so we've got the Old Testament New Testament. We know the books of the Old Testament. We got to the wisdom books, right? But what about the The sorry prophets did we go through the prophets?
All right, there's five five major prophets. Lamentations. But lamentations is actually Lamentations is written by The depression, I'm sorry. Oh, okay, we go through that. Thank you. All right going back to the wisdom books.
Job. We don't know who wrote Joe. Again, it's the oldest book is written probably about during the time of Abraham may have been written by Abraham. We don't know but we know that that's about the time.
It was written Psalms is actually written by various and it usually says in the psalm who wrote it psalm of David a psalm of Asaph a psalm. There's one psalm is written by Moses, right? So the psalms will tell you who wrote them in the introduction to each psalm you generally.
Then you have Proverbs which again is a collection of wisdom literature we believe was probably collected and put together by Solomon wisest man ever and Ecclesiastes certainly written by Solomon and then song Solomon written by Solomon.
So we have three of the three of the wisdom books who is written by the most wise man. I point at me like it's me. No, it's not Solomon. You know the the wisest man ever so we have Psalms its compilation and then Proverbs song Solomon and Ecclesiastes by.
For those three. Yeah. Yeah for this. So then we get to the prophets and we have Isaiah the prophet. We have who wrote his book. We believe now some people argue that The what's interesting about Isaiah is it 66 chapters the way the Bible 66 Books and the first 39 chapters read differently than the last 27 chapters.
Just like the Bible has 39 and then 27. It's so so cool when you look at it like that and Isaiah. Some people argue there was two Isaiah's there was the first 39 chapters and then somebody else came along and finished the other.
I don't Believe that I think there's one. I think the New Testament affirms that there was only one because that there's a certain point in the New Testament where Isaiah is quoted and it quotes from the first 39 and the last 27 and it Applies both of them to the prophet Isaiah.
So my opinion is based on internal evidence. Isaiah wrote the whole thing. So with that being said we have Isaiah wrote Isaiah. Jeremiah wrote Jeremiah and lamentations. Lamentations is what is a lament?
Sorrowful sorrowful. He's sorrowful over the over the destruction of Jerusalem. All right, and then you have Ezekiel written by Ezekiel and Daniel. Obviously written by Daniel now some people argue Daniel was written much later than the life of Daniel.
Because it has specific prophecies that people don't believe Daniel could have known about but again. That's a presupposition, right? You're saying God doesn't know right. Daniel is a prophet speaking for God and he speaks prophecy.
Obviously, it could be beforehand. That's the very idea of being God they drop something. So Daniel is by Daniel now the the twelve minor prophets is. They're kind of hard to remember always this is usually where people get a little messed up and their memory banks.
I I put it in three three groups of four. It's how my brain works. I work in threes and fours so three groups of fours. All right. So the first four is Hosea Joel Amos and Obadiah. Hosea Joel Amos Obadiah.
That's first four then you got a second four Jonah, which we all know who Jonah is. Jonah took the first submarine ride. Hosea Joel Amos and Obadiah, that's the first four of the twelve and why are they called minor prophets just because they're less writing.
It's not because they're less important. It's just their books are quite smaller. In fact in the Hebrew Bible Remember I said, it's collected different. They're all one book because they're all so small.
They just put them all together as one. Yeah, they call it the the prophet. They okay. So Hosea Joel Amos Obadiah, and then you got Jonah our first submariner, you know took the first submarine, right?
That's the next group Jonah Micah Nahum or Nahum and Habakkuk. Some people say Habakkuk, but I like Habakkuk. Habakkuk is H-a-b-b U-k-u-k. No, wait I'm sorry. I said No, I was wrong. I was wrong.
Let me look it up. I was I don't know why. H-a-b-k, I'm sorry h-a-b-a-k-k-u-k Habakkuk Habakkuk. This isn't over. I'm just. Yeah, and the last group the last four. Yeah, it's the last group of four is Zephaniah Haggai.
Zechariah Malachi that great Italian prophet Malachi. Zephaniah Haggai or Haggai H-a-g-g-a-i. I think I did that one right? Yes, sir Zechariah and Malachi. Malachi that's I said the great Italian prophet Malachi is spelled M-a-l-a-c-h-i Malachi.
Now we we would. We would argue that the names of the books that's the authors of these because it's prophetic writing by these prophets so there are some who would argue that it's not but I think the traditional approach is that Malachi wrote Malachi as Zephaniah wrote Zephaniah, you know, these are their prophetic utterances.
This is what God gave to them to give to the people of Israel. Okay? Now to the New Testament the four Gospels are. I'll Almost every time I ask somebody Can you tell me who the 12 Apostles are? They always start Matthew Mark Luke and John.
I say nope Luke wasn't an Apostle and neither was Mark. Matthew was he was the tax collector and John was the beloved disciple. So you got two two Apostles and two who were Disciples of Jesus but not Apostles.
There's a there's a Apostles was a specific category. And Mathias took the place of Judas. You're doing good. You got three more James the less James of what? Yeah that he was the called Boanerges the sons of thunder and then Micros, which is James the less.
Yeah, yeah, he said Peter Andrew James John that's the first the first four I try to remind me. Yeah Paul was later. He was he came he wasn't one of the original 12. Stephen wasn't either. Well, no, that's the argument Mathias I don't believe Paul took his place.
Some people do that's a that's a that's a theological argument. Yeah, that's that's what that that that's what I say. I don't go too far into that my my opinion. My opinion is the lot felt him a lot Mathias and God and the Bible says the law the lot falls in the lap.
But it's every decision is from the Lord. So God chose Mathias in that regard. Thaddeus, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, Thaddeus though has two names there's a way I have to go back and look and there's I get a little confused about.
Because some of the names it's the one guy can have two names and it gets a little confusing. There was Simon the zealot was the other Simon there was Simon Peter and there was Simon the zealot. All right, so getting back to this that was just that was good though.
You got you nailed it. You guys did good. Alright, so we've got the New Testament Matthew Mark Luke and John. Acts Romans. Yeah, general electric power company. Galatians Ephesians Philippians questions general electric power company.
Okay. And then you got 1st and 2nd Thessalonians 1st 2nd Timothy Titus Philemon, that's the end of Paul's writings. You have the 12 writings of Paul. Some people believe Paul wrote Hebrews. I don't but that's a.
Huh. Oh, no, no, I I think I Personally hold to a potentially Luke in authorship for Hebrews meaning Luke wrote Hebrews, but that's not it's it's it's not something I'm I don't die on that hill. Well, I think I think here here's here's the I heard this and it makes sense to me that Hebrews is a sermon that was preached by Paul but written by Luke.
Meaning Paul it's Paul's theology, but it's in Luke's words. Because it certainly doesn't read like Paul but the theology is Pauline. So, you know that I think that fits. It could have been could have been.
Apollos could have been Barnabas could have been an unknown name. You know, but Apollos was a man who was great with words. We know that and and you know Barnabas was certainly an associate of Paul for a long time.
It was it was accepted by the early church, but the authorship has always been a dispute. All right, so but that but that that takes us to the general pistols why they call general pistols Close but typically because they're written to a general audience.
Paul's letters are always Applied to either a church or to an individual. It's either Rome the church at Rome Corinth the church at Corinth, you know Galatia the churches of Galatia Paul's letters are always specific to a group but you get to Hebrews and and the rest and it's to The church it's to the whole church.
And so they're they're they're general in nature. Rather than being specific Paul's letters are not only Pauline, but they're also pointed they're pointed at specific Huh, you foolish Galatians. That's right.
And so Paul Paul's letters are personal and Individual or two individual groups. So going through Paul's letters again Romans first and second Corinthians Galatians Ephesians Philippians Colossians, and then you got.
That's right. All the T's first like this long as for a second Timothy Titus that's five T's and then Philemon Philemon that's that's what I'm saying. I'm just saying it different. I'm sorry. No, yeah I've been saying on Sunday morning I'm in Genesis 11 and I'm throwing people off because I say Tower of Babel.
Rather than that rather than Tower of Babel, but but Babel is more in line with actually how it's pronounced I think and so I say Babel and they're like what it's Babel I think so. I think so. I think I think it was is a universal epistle or general epistle.
Hmm. All right. Uh what we in there also they're also called Catholic epistles. Because Catholic simply means universal or general. It doesn't mean what we think of this Catholic Church so so they're Pauline epistles and then the Catholic or universal or general epistles and then you have the last one, which is the Book of Revelation.
Oh, I'm sorry. Did we go through the journal? Let's do the journal Hebrews James First second Peter first second third John Jude Revelation now now let's talk for quite a quick second about authorship.
We know who wrote the Pauline epistles. We don't know who wrote Hebrews first second Peter's written by Peter even though there are some people who dispute that I have The traditional understanding that Peter wrote it.
I have no reason not to believe it. Huh? Yeah, but it's James the brother of Jesus who was the who was the pastor Of the Church of Jerusalem. It's not James the disciple. Because James the disciple was died.
His his death is recorded in the book of Acts or too early to have been the writer of the epistle. No, no, it would have been James the one who didn't believe in Jesus while he was alive. That's Stephen.
Yeah, yeah, but no James was killed later I think under I have to go back and look but it James James is the the brother of John is martyred and too early to have been the writer and and we know specifically the James of Galatians that when Paul says this is the brother of Jesus he tells us it's the brother of Jesus in Galatians and Indicates to us that he's the pastor of the Church of Jerusalem in Acts 15 that same James is.
Is the one who gets up and speaks at the Jerusalem Council and makes the final proclamation? This is what we're going to do. So we know he had authority and leadership in the in the Church of Jerusalem.
It makes a lot of sense that he would have written that letter. In fact, I believe James is actually the first letter written in the New Testament. Some people argue that Galatians came before the book of James.
I think the book of James is possibly written as early as the the late 40s. Probably 47 48 Galatians is written around 49 and then we start Matthew Mark the Gospels aren't written until the 50s. So the epistles come first.
In fact the first group of books that are actually collected and sent out to the churches as a whole or the writings of Paul. It's called the Pauline Corpus. Okay, Matthew Mark is after that in that yeah, like I said, but that's still in the 50s though.
That's still in the 50s though, right? Because yeah, because James would have been around 47 48 Galatians around 49 and then Matthew Mark early 50s. Yeah, yeah and that but that is right because Paul talks about is it kiss coming death and all of those.
Yeah, yeah. So we have the epistles of the general epistles that go all the way to Jude who is Jude also also the brother of Jesus. All right. Finally, we have revelation which we believe is written by who.
John John John. Which would have been the same John who wrote? The gospel the same John who wrote the three letters so outside of Paul he would have written the most letters. Because he wrote five. Oh, yeah, Luke wrote the most content Luke you put axe and Luke together and if and if you were Hebrews, then there's no no contest.
But yeah, Luke and axe together make up the lion's share of the information that we have. All right, so The helpful. Yes. Let's now do for our last couple minutes, I'm gonna do a timeline for you. This is going to go super super broad.
So don't uh, don't feel like I'm I'm making it too simple. But I want to make it somewhat simple because my point in this is To show you something. All right. So if you look at the Bible Old Testament and New Testament, let's see if I can do this in five minutes.
All right, so we got Old Testament. We got New Testament. We have this covers a period of many thousands of years. We don't know when creation happened specifically. We're probably around 7 ,000 years ago.
So we'd put it about this would be a period of about 5 ,000 years. You know. And then and then the New Testament is written over a period of 70 years. So so this is one century of Less less than one century.
So much different time frame, right you got one lifetime versus many many many many lifetimes and We begin with creation here which goes into What we would call the time of the you have the the time of innocence.
So we have the garden the fall Flood Patriarchs, all right, see if garden fall flood then the time of the patriarchs which are who? Abraham Isaac Jacob Abraham Isaac Jacob, right? So did that that's the first set and then you get down here and then you go to the exodus.
Which was what we're not doing with individuals. We're dealing with what happened. All right, right because we could say Adam right Noah Abraham Isaac Jacob Moses but really we're saying garden fall flood patriarchs Exodus and then we have the after the exodus what we would call the conquest conquest of Canaan.
All right after the conquest of Canaan we have the The what the period which is simply known as the period of the judges. So we'll just say it called the judges. Right after the period of the judges we have What we would be called the monarchy the monarchy.
Yeah, Exodus conquest judges monarchy. Okay. So we have the garden the fall flood the patriarchs all that Genesis Exodus is the book of Exodus. The conquest is Well, the Exodus would include Exodus Numbers Deuteronomy all that and then you have the conquest which is Joshua To go out.
It's their go. They're they're going out of Egypt. They're exiting going out of Egypt. You have the conquest under Joshua. You have the judges which again is its own category. Then you have the monarchy which includes Everything else right because the monarchy is the story going forward.
It starts with Saul and then David and then Solomon and then Solomon's two sons Rehoboam and Jeroboam which divided the kingdom. There was a divided kingdom the northern kingdom in the southern kingdom the northern kingdom of Israel the southern kingdom of Judah.
Yes.
I was going to ask, do you remember what the king of Judah had because there always seemed to be like an 11 to 1 or something like that?
I don't know. I have not. The king seemed to be there for.
Long periods of at least giant handfuls of them. You know what I mean? Because those would go down just.
I hadn't seen that I'd have to look at it with the charts you're talking about. I'm sure it's correct. I'm just I hadn't looked at it that way. What do you have to pay? Is that in the books? Isn't that 10 years?
10 K? Oh that says creation. Oh, it just says creation. Sorry. I was create slash shun. All right. So we got creation garden fall flood patriarchs Exodus conquest judges monarchy then you have a divided kingdom the divided kingdom leads to an exile.
Yep, divided kingdom and then the exile right and then you have the return the return. You can say the return to Jerusalem and that is here under the return. You would have your Ezra Nehemiah going back and rebuilding right now.
The exile becomes its own category because when we talk about the prophets We have The Pre Exile prophets the exile prophets and the post exile Prophets so that means what? Well, but this is this will help you with the with the minor prophets.
Right because like I said, it's hard to know what when the minor prophets and all this stuff when it happened Isaiah and Jeremiah are pre and then of course Lamentations. All right, because that's pretty the exile prophets are Daniel and Ezekiel Isaiah Jeremiah, well, I'm going to come back because there's more but To start out with the first five the major prophets major prophets two of them are pre two of them are during the exile.
Now after the exile there are three prophets. Zephaniah hey, yeah Malachi the last three in your so so you got Zephaniah. Hey, yeah Malachi. Make up the post exilic is what's called. It's called it's called the pre-exilic exilic and post exilic prophets so all the other prophets.
Zephaniah hey, yeah, America are the post all of the other prophets all others Are pre. So that would include Hosea Joel Amos Obadiah Jonah Micah Nahum Habakkuk. And that's those would all be pre-exilic.
That's why I said I'm not going to write all that down. Only Daniel and Ezra that we know of prophesied during the exile. So most of the prophets prophesied before the exile that the exile Coming some of them prophesied to the northern kingdom some of them prophesied to the southern kingdom but.
That's the majority. No Ezekiel's in the exile. I said exile not Ezekiel. I'm sorry Ezekiel. Ezekiel. Ezra's not a prophet. Ezra's a scribe. Okay. All right now the New Testament it's all one one lifetime so yeah.
You don't do that with that the New Testament we could do a timeline for but. The bigger one is understanding this last thing. I promise because I'm at an hour, and I don't want to keep any longer. Last thing is that I said we could break it all down into four words, right?
Yeah, this is the this is the story of the Bible in four words. I'll leave this up here for you, but I'm right the four words of cost creation fall. Redemption restoration creation. Creation fall Redemption and restoration that is the meta narrative of Scripture.
God creates man falls. God redeems, and then he restores what was lost in the fall. So that's the whole story of the Bible in four words. Okay. Absolutely all right. Was that helpful. Okay next week. We'll look at the the covenants.
Let's pray father. I thank you for your word. Thank you that we got a chance to look at it today I pray that this would be useful in the lives of these men in Jesus name Amen.