Biblical Analysis Help Needed.

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[Gemsbok]

I am requesting assistance in the form of guidance to a well organized website(s) that could serve as an Evangelical Christian study guide to All of the individual books of the Bible contained in both the Old & New Testaments.

The focus of the study is to present a brief summary ( condensed into 1-2 paragraphs) for each of the books of the Bible. Each summarization would need to include major events, themes, significant personalities, and genre for each separate book.

[Gemsbok]

If any FRiend could steer me in the right direction, the effort would be greatly appreciated.

[PasorBob]

I don't know about websites, but Asimov's guide to the Bible is exactly what you describe. It may be at your library.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asimov's_Guide_to_the_Bible

[RaceBannon]

http://www.middletownbiblechurch.org

also, find the book WHAT ON EARTH IS GOD DOING? by Renald Showers

[the long march]

What you describe is more like a Cliff Notes version as opposed to a real study. Study of the scripture takes time,thoughtfulness, and a good knowledge of history and translation ( unless you are an expert in the orginal languages -—which I am not).

[demshateGod]

Matthew Henry Commentary uses 1-2 paragraphs for each verse in the Bible but it’s a great commentary. Not what you’re looking for I guess.

[RaceBannon]

http://www.middletownbiblechurch.org/bofbooks/books.htm

http://www.middletownbiblechurch.org/oldtesta/oldtesta.htm

http://www.middletownbiblechurch.org/bofbooks/booksch7.htm

http://www.middletownbiblechurch.org/newtesta/newtesta.htm

http://www.middletownbiblechurch.org/bofbooks/booksch8.htm

http://www.middletownbiblechurch.org/doctrine/bdoc-a.htm

[bcsco]

You might want to check out e-sword. It's a stand-alone Bible application for your PC with many Bibles, references, dictionaries etc. available. The base program is free as well as many other add-ons. And it allows you to create your own topic and study notes.

[Esther Ruth]

http://www.blueletterbible.org/
http://www.blueletterbible.org/commentaries/

[Star Traveler]

Ummm..., let’s start with a *key foundational issue* first, one that will make or break any such overview or analysis of what these 66 books by 40 authors say, in the Bible...

It’s the item of Biblical Inerrancy. See the following for an Evangelical “summit” (if you will) on the issue...

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Since there are non-Christians and even Christians who seem to want to play “loose” with what the Bible says, I’ll also include something I just included in another post, concerning what Evangelicals (of this day and age) confirmed about the Inerrancy of the Bible — in the “Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy”...

Part of the statement from the Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy ...

[from http://www.bible-researcher.com/chicago1.html ]

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A Short Statement

1. God, who is Himself Truth and speaks truth only, has inspired Holy Scripture in order thereby to reveal Himself to lost mankind through Jesus Christ as Creator and Lord, Redeemer and Judge. Holy Scripture is God’s witness to Himself.

2. Holy Scripture, being God’s own Word, written by men prepared and superintended by His Spirit, is of infallible divine authority in all matters upon which it touches: it is to be believed, as God’s instruction, in all that it affirms: obeyed, as God’s command, in all that it requires; embraced, as God’s pledge, in all that it promises.

3. The Holy Spirit, Scripture’s divine Author, both authenticates it to us by His inward witness and opens our minds to understand its meaning.

4. Being wholly and verbally God-given, Scripture is without error or fault in all its teaching, no less in what it states about God’s acts in creation, about the events of world history, and about its own literary origins under God, than in its witness to God’s saving grace in individual lives.

5. The authority of Scripture is inescapably impaired if this total divine inerrancy is in any way limited or disregarded, or made relative to a view of truth contrary to the Bible’s own; and such lapses bring serious loss to both the individual and the Church.

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Articles of Affirmation and Denial

Article I.

WE AFFIRM that the Holy Scriptures are to be received as the authoritative Word of God.

WE DENY that the Scriptures receive their authority from the Church, tradition, or any other human source.

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Article II.

WE AFFIRM that the Scriptures are the supreme written norm by which God binds the conscience, and that the authority of the Church is subordinate to that of Scripture.

WE DENY that Church creeds, councils, or declarations have authority greater than or equal to the authority of the Bible.

Article III.

WE AFFIRM that the written Word in its entirety is revelation given by God.

WE DENY that the Bible is merely a witness to revelation, or only becomes revelation in encounter, or depends on the responses of men for its validity.

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Article IV.

WE AFFIRM that God who made mankind in His image has used language as a means of revelation.

WE DENY that human language is so limited by our creatureliness that it is rendered inadequate as a vehicle for divine revelation. We further deny that the corruption of human culture and language through sin has thwarted God’s work of inspiration.

—

Article V.

WE AFFIRM that God’s revelation within the Holy Scriptures was progressive.

WE DENY that later revelation, which may fulfill earlier revelation, ever corrects or contradicts it. We further deny that any normative revelation has been given since the completion of the New Testament writings.

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Article VI.

WE AFFIRM that the whole of Scripture and all its parts, down to the very words of the original, were given by divine inspiration.

WE DENY that the inspiration of Scripture can rightly be affirmed of the whole without the parts, or of some parts but not the whole.

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Article VII.

WE AFFIRM that inspiration was the work in which God by His Spirit, through human writers, gave us His Word. The origin of Scripture is divine. The mode of divine inspiration remains largely a mystery to us.

WE DENY that inspiration can be reduced to human insight, or to heightened states of consciousness of any kind.

—

Article VIII.

WE AFFIRM that God in His work of inspiration utilized the distinctive personalities and literary styles of the writers whom He had chosen and prepared.

WE DENY that God, in causing these writers to use the very words that He chose, overrode their personalities.

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Article IX.

WE AFFIRM that inspiration, though not conferring omniscience, guaranteed true and trustworthy utterance on all matters of which the Biblical authors were moved to speak and write.

WE DENY that the finitude or fallenness of these writers, by necessity or otherwise, introduced distortion or falsehood into God’s Word.

—

Article X.

WE AFFIRM that inspiration, strictly speaking, applies only to the autographic text of Scripture, which in the providence of God can be ascertained from available manuscripts with great accuracy. We further affirm that copies and translations of Scripture are the Word of God to the extent that they faithfully represent the original.

WE DENY that any essential element of the Christian faith is affected by the absence of the autographs. We further deny that this absence renders the assertion of Biblical inerrancy invalid or irrelevant.

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Article XI.

WE AFFIRM that Scripture, having been given by divine inspiration, is infallible, so that, far from misleading us, it is true and reliable in all the matters it addresses.

WE DENY that it is possible for the Bible to be at the same time infallible and errant in its assertions. Infallibility and inerrancy may be distinguished, but not separated.

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Article XII.

WE AFFIRM that Scripture in its entirety is inerrant, being free from all falsehood, fraud, or deceit.

WE DENY that Biblical infallibility and inerrancy are limited to spiritual, religious, or redemptive themes, exclusive of assertions in the fields of history and science. We further deny that scientific hypotheses about earth history may properly be used to overturn the teaching of Scripture on creation and the flood.

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Article XIII.

WE AFFIRM the propriety of using inerrancy as a theological term with reference to the complete truthfulness of Scripture.

WE DENY that it is proper to evaluate Scripture according to standards of truth and error that are alien to its usage or purpose. We further deny that inerrancy is negated by Biblical phenomena such as a lack of modern technical precision, irregularities of grammar or spelling, observational descriptions of nature, the reporting of falsehoods, the use of hyperbole and round numbers, the topical arrangement of material, variant selections of material in parallel accounts, or the use of free citations.

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Article XIV.

WE AFFIRM the unity and internal consistency of Scripture.

WE DENY that alleged errors and discrepancies that have not yet been resolved vitiate the truth claims of the Bible.

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Article XV.

WE AFFIRM that the doctrine of inerrancy is grounded in the teaching of the Bible about inspiration.

WE DENY that Jesus’ teaching about Scripture may be dismissed by appeals to accommodation or to any natural limitation of His humanity.

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Article XVI.

WE AFFIRM that the doctrine of inerrancy has been integral to the Church’s faith throughout its history.

WE DENY that inerrancy is a doctrine invented by scholastic Protestantism, or is a reactionary position postulated in response to negative higher criticism.

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Article XVII.

WE AFFIRM that the Holy Spirit bears witness to the Scriptures, assuring believers of the truthfulness of God’s written Word.

WE DENY that this witness of the Holy Spirit operates in isolation from or against Scripture.

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Article XVIII.

WE AFFIRM that the text of Scripture is to be interpreted by grammatico-historical exegesis, taking account of its literary forms and devices, and that Scripture is to interpret Scripture.

WE DENY the legitimacy of any treatment of the text or quest for sources lying behind it that leads to relativizing, dehistoricizing, or discounting its teaching, or rejecting its claims to authorship.

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Article XIX.

WE AFFIRM that a confession of the full authority, infallibility, and inerrancy of Scripture is vital to a sound understanding of the whole of the Christian faith. We further affirm that such confession should lead to increasing conformity to the image of Christ.

WE DENY that such confession is necessary for salvation. However, we further deny that inerrancy can be rejected without grave consequences, both to the individual and to the Church.

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And also, you will find a follow-up section on Hermeneutics, which is also somethig that people will often fail to understand and apply properly. If one understands these, then they will understand and know exactly what the Bible, the Word of God is saying...

That follow-up section is at — http://www.bible-researcher.com/chicago2.html

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Short of those “understandings” of what the Bible is, as the Word of God, anything you may say about the Bible simply gets twisted by those who refuse to accept it as the Word of God.

[Gemsbok]

FRiends, Thank you for the quick response and guidance.

It is great to have a variety of sources to choose from that contain summaries. The results need to be presented in a few months, so we do have some time on our side.

Hopefully one or more of these sources will assist in the study.

Thanks again.

[RaceBannon]

http://www.xmission.com/~fidelis/

here is another great site

It is the complete (almost) series of articles that started what we call Fundamentalism within Protestantism.

You’d be surprised to see what the original authors say when compared to what that erm has come to mean

[Gemsbok]

Thanks for the links and your reply.
I will get back to you shortly (or more likely ‘longly’) after I do some research on those sites.

[woollyone]

As a quick reference book, I highly recommend “TALK THROUGH THE BIBLE”
http://www.amazon.com/Talk-Thru-Bible-Quick-Guide/dp/0840752865

The best web resource I've found is the Blueletterbible site. It has excellent commentaries, language tools, concordance, Strong's reference, maps, pretty much all a lay person might need.
http://www.blueletterbible.org/

hope those help

[count-your-change]

“The focus of the study is to present a brief summary ( condensed into 1-2 paragraphs) for each of the books of the Bible. Each summarization would need to include major events, themes, significant personalities, and genre for each separate book.”

Scripture Lite or Cliff Notes? You're not likely to learn much from 1 or 2 paragraphs per Bible book. It's like explaining the Civil War in 100 words of less. Just doesn't work very well.

Try reading the Bible first. Make your own notes, ask your own questions, write your own summaries. It works, really.

[Twinkie]

“Halley’s Bible Commentary” is a pretty good guide. Now, Halley is pretty negative on Papal Rome and the Roman Catholic Church, but he is pretty knowledgeable on the historical elements in each book of the Bible. His reading of that part of history (Roman Catholic persecution and killing of Protestant Christians) is his reading of the events of that time, and he doesn’t pull any punches. So, it might not be well received by modern day Catholics, even though other historical events are apparently well researched.

[Gemsbok]

Thanks for the advice.

I do read the Bible, but admittedly, I have not spent hundreds of hours analyzing each book for the purposes of a formal presentation. The information gathered from the sites will be used in conjunction with the Bible for a group presentation within a limited time schedule.

A very brief summation of each of the 66 books is all that time will allow. If a reliable Christian source has already digested and provided this information, I would feel comfortable utilizing the source and passing this along to the others.

[mombonn]

Henrietta Mears "What The Bible is All About" might be useful.

Also, studylight.org is a good resource.

[iowamark]

a brief summary (condensed into 1-2 paragraphs) for each of the books of the Bible.

This idea is in itself opposed to Judeo-Christian teaching.

[woollyone]

YEAH!
Pleae refer to the 11,000 post thread on the definition of “heresy” fercryinoutloud!

/s

Really though...”TALK THROUGH THE BIBLE”...excellent for exacly what you’re looking for!

OR...get a newer study Bible...available anywhere...one of the really thick ones (usually nick-named “thumper” so as to serve as a dual-use item...preach from it or beat ‘em over the head with it).

These Bibles have excellent previews to each book...author, date written puroose, theme, repeated phrases, who the book/letter was written to...all that neat stuff. And the summary pages are usually only two pages or so.

Of course these two are actually hard copy books...so no easy, fast, plagaristic short-cut stuff, like “copy/paste” would be available.

*snif*

;0)

[BibChr]

Asimov is a terrible resource; that’s a joke. Don’t be misled.