The Bible and prayer
Who wrote the Bible?
The Bible was written by around forty people over many centuries, among them kings, prophets, fishermen and a doctor. Christians believe that God spoke through them, so that what they wrote is his word.
A library, not a single book
The Bible is a collection of sixty-six books: thirty-nine in the Old Testament and twenty-seven in the New. Catholic and Orthodox Bibles also include some further Jewish writings from before the time of Jesus, known as the deuterocanonical books or the Apocrypha. The collection contains history, law, poetry, proverbs, prophecy, biography and letters.
The Old Testament
The Old Testament was written mostly in Hebrew over roughly a thousand years. Its first five books are traditionally linked with Moses. Many of the Psalms are attributed to King David. Books of prophecy carry the names of prophets such as Isaiah, Jeremiah and Amos. For several books the author is not named.
The New Testament
The New Testament was written in Greek during the first century AD.
- The four Gospels are named after Matthew and John, who were among Jesus’ twelve disciples; Mark, an associate of Peter; and Luke, a doctor who travelled with Paul and also wrote Acts.
- Thirteen letters carry the name of Paul, who took the Christian message across the Roman world.
- Other letters come from Peter, John, James and Jude. The letter to the Hebrews does not name its author.
- Revelation was written by John while he was exiled on the island of Patmos.
The author behind the authors
The writers kept their own styles and personalities, and they wrote for particular people and occasions. Christians believe that God so guided them that what they wrote was what he wanted said.
For no prophecy ever came by the will of man: but holy men of God spoke, being moved by the Holy Spirit.
God, having in the past spoken to the fathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, has at the end of these days spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom also he made the worlds.
Who decided which books to include?
No council sat down and invented the list. The Old Testament books were those the Jewish people already treated as Scripture, the Bible that Jesus himself read and quoted. The New Testament books were recognised gradually by churches across the ancient world, on the grounds that they came from the apostles or their close companions, were in use everywhere and agreed with the teaching handed down from the start. The earliest surviving list that matches our twenty-seven books exactly is in a letter written by the bishop Athanasius in AD 367.
How it came into English
For centuries the Bible in western Europe was read in Latin. William Tyndale was the first to translate the New Testament into English from the original Greek, and his version was printed in 1526. He was executed for his work ten years later. Much of his wording passed into the King James Version of 1611, and phrases of his are still in everyday English.
How to start reading the Bible