Its original languages:
- Hebrew: the language of the Old Testament, and is called the Jewish tongue.
- Aramaic: was commonly used in the Middle East until Alexander the Great.
- Greek: the language of the New Testament, and was the international language in the time of Christ. It is also the language of the Old Testament in the Septuagint adopted by the Orthodox Church. Septuagint is a translation of the Hebrew Bible and some related texts into Greek. The Septuagint derives its name from the Latin versio septuaginta interpretum, "translation of the seventy interpreters”, and refers to the seventy (actually rather seventy-two) Jewish elders who did the translation in the city of Alexandria in the days of King Ptolemy II Philadelphus (285 - 247 BC.).
Translation:
Bible is the first book translated. It continued to be translated since the Septuagint, and today it is available worldwide in more than 1660 languages and dialects.
Sections:
- Old Testament:
1. Law Books: From Genesis to Deuteronomy, the first five books (Pentateuch).
2. Historical Books: This section begins at Joshua and ends at Esther.
3. Wisdom books: The Wisdom books include Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Solomon, as well as the Wisdom of Jesus, Son of Sirach, also called Ecclesiasticus, and the Wisdom of Solomon from the so-called apocrypha.
4. Prophets: They are divided into two: major prophets from Isaiah to Daniel, and minor prophets from Hosea to Malachi.
- New Testament:
5. The four Gospels.
6. Acts of the Apostles.
7. Pauline epistles: 14 epistles.
8. General epistles: 7 epistles.
9. Prophecy: the book of Revelation.
Reading the Bible:
The Bible is not a book of science or history, while the historical events and scientific uses are a frame to the religious truth. The Bible does not have literal meanings only, but also a spiritual ones, where understanding the Bible rely on the Holy Spirit, which inspired its writing.
So to understand the Bible, which contains facts outweigh the realization of the human mind, human needs the aid of the Holy Spirit, which drives the heart and opens mind. With faith man hands over himself freely to God’ arrangement, puts his mind and will in God’ power, and accepts with satisfaction the facts revealed him. In its interpretation of the Bible, the Church depends on the canonical tradition and the teachings of the Holy Fathers who interpreted it in many of their theological writings.