Exmore Baptist Church

  The Bible is a very, very old book. Ancient is the correct term. It's actually a collection of 66 books written by 40 different authors in 3 languages over a time span of 1,000 years. In the English Bible, there are 31,173 verses and 800,000 words. For those of you who are on track to read through the Bible in a year you have noticed just how massive a book it is. How do you even know where to start?
  There are at least 6 different genres (see Luke 24:27,44) or literary styles in the Bible. 
  The first five books of the Old Testament (Genesis-Deuteronomy) constitute the Law. They are also known as the Pentateuch. Joshua-Esther form the Historical books of the Old Testament. Some of the reading may seem tedious but much of it is fascination. 
  Job through Song of Solomon is the Poetry section. We generally don't build doctrines from this section but we do learn much about God's character and the ups and downs of our human existence. Isaiah through Malachi include 17 books knows as the Prophets. These contain warnings to Israel, Judah and the surrounding nations concerning their apostasy and rebellion towards God. 
  The New Testament basically has four sections:
  Matthew - John - the Gospel (Life of Christ)
  Acts - History of the Church
  Romans - Jude - The Epistles
  Revelation - Prophecy
  Each book of the Bible is there for a purpose. While the culture, customs and way of life is so drastically different than our world today, there are eternal principles that never change. Remember the W Questions:
  Who?   is the Author and Audience?
  When? did the events occur?
  Where?  did the events occur?
  What?  is the genre and what is the Scripture saying? 
  Why?  did God include this book in the whole narrative of Scripture? 
  Answering these questions will greatly help us in our study of the Word. A book that will help greatly is Kay Arthurs's "How to Study your Bible". Remember that ultimate goal is to get to know the author.
         -Pastor Carpenter