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Organisation of the
Bible
Old Testament
The Old Testament is primarily the account of God's Chosen People , originally called Israelites and today called Jews. So most of the books of our Old Testament are also in the Jewish Scripture.
The Old Testament in Catholic Bibles has forty-six books, divided in the following sections:
The Penteuch (Greek for "five books"):
Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.
These first five books are the core of the Old Testament. They tell about Creation, sin, and the origin of God's Chosen People from Creation to Moses.
The Historical Books:
Joshua, Judges, Ruth, the two Books of Samuel, the two Books of Kings, the two Books of Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah, Tobit, Judith, Esther, and the two Books of Maccabees. These books tell how the Israelites settled in the Promised Land. They also tell about the Israelites' great, and not so great, kings.
The Wisdom Books:
Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, Wisdom, and Ben Sira. These books are poetry and collected wisdom of the Israelites.
The Prophets:
Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Baruch, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi.
These books are the collected speeches and biographies of Israelite prophets. The prophets spoke for God against idolatry and injustice. They also spoke God's words of comfort and promise when the Israelites were suffering for their disobedience.
New Testament
The New Testament is about the life and teaching of Jesus Christ and the beginning of the Church. It has twenty-seven books divided into the following sections:
The Gospels:
Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. These four books are the most important books for Christians because they convey Jesus Christ's teachings and the meaning of his life, death, Resurrection and Ascension.
The Acts of the Apostles:
This book is a continuation of the Gospel of Luke (they were written by the same author as a two volume set) and tells about how the early Church spread.
The Epistles:
the Letters of Paul to the Romans, the First Letter to the Corinthians and the Second Letter to the Corinthians, the Letter to the Gallatians, the Letter to the Ephesians, the Letter to the Phillipians, the Letter to the Colossians, the First Letter to the Thessalonians and the Second Letter to the Thessalonians, the First Letter to Timothy and the Second Letter to Timothy, Letter to Titus, Letter to Philemon; the Letter to the Hebrews; the Letter of James, the First Letter of Peter and the Second Letter of Peter; the First Letter of John, the Second Letter of John, the Third Letter of John; the Letter of Jude. These are twenty-one letters, written by Paul and other early Church leaders. They give teachings and guidance to individuals and the first Christian communities.
The Book of Revelation:
This book records the visions of an early Christian named John. The visions are about the battle between God and Satan and God's triumph over evil.