The Bible from Genesis to Revelations - Essay Example

Bible Summary from Genesis to Revelation   The bible is a library of books containing sacred scriptures of Jewish and Christian faith, containing the Old Testament and the New Testament. Both Christians and Jewish believe that the bible is a record of the relation between God and man. Most bible stories are about how God manifests Himself to humanity and how he relates with the people. The article will give a summary of how events unfolded in the bible from Genesis to Revelation and give a big picture on the stories of the bible and God’s intention to his people. The book of genesis in the beginning the bible talks about God’s creation of the universe. God created Eve and Adam who later gave birth to three sons, that is, Cain, Seth, and Abel. After some time Enoch emerges and later Noah and the ark. Next, is the story of the tower built in Babel and after about 1000 years later, Abraham also appears. The story of the people chosen by God begins from Abraham. This is because God had promised Abraham that he will make him a father of a big nation and his descendants will be as many as the stars. Abraham after many years gave birth to Isaac who later gave birth to Esau and Jacob. The name Jacob later changed to Israel and Israel means “wrestles with God”. Jacob gave birth to twelve sons who later formed tribes in Israel. The tribes were twelve in number just as they were twelve. Jacob’s most famous son was Joseph. Joseph was sold as a slave to Egyptians, and later he rose to a higher rank in Egypt and because of his influence in the Egyptian government, he managed to bring his family to stay in Egypt in order to save them from famine. The story in the book of exodus starts 400 years later. In this book, the family of Israel does not enjoy the prestigious status as it used to when Joseph was alive. Most of them were taken as slaves as when Joseph died (Maartens & Van, 2011). After about 400 years later, God broke His silence with his manifestations seen when he revealed Himself through signs and wonders to the masses. God, in order to make pharaoh leave his people to go back to the Promised Land, did many wonders in Egypt. The wonders included the plagues that he brought to the Egyptians. When Pharaoh released the Israelites, God gave them directions and told them how to build the tabernacle and this marked the book of exodus. The book of Leviticus begins, but it is full of laws hence nothing much on it can be discussed. Numbers is the next one and a good part of this book is about census. It begins with a census where they count the population of Israelites as about two to three million. The counting included men, women, and children. After census, they organized the population to a cohesive group that was able to move as one. They moved from the place where they received the laws and moved to a place where they only had 11 days to enter the Promised Land. This is where they sent twelve spies and when they came back, 10 of them were afraid to continue with the journey while two came with a lot of confidence to proceed with the journey. The two were Caleb and Joshua (Maartens & Van, 2011). God gave the Israelites a penalty for not going into the Promised Land, and the penalty was to wander in the wilderness for 40 years. They stayed there until all the people aged 20 years and above died apart from Joshua and Caleb. At the end of the book of numbers, the Israelites return to Jordan and trace their journey from there. Deuteronomy covers a span of 60 days. Thirty days were about Moses and his speeches to the Israelites telling them that they were through and encouraged them that they should not make a mistake as their forefathers. Moses dies and they have 30 days of mourning then they proceed with Joshua, as their leader. Deuteronomy is the last book of the Pentateuch and the rest of the Old Testament books are prophetic books. The book of Joshua gives the story on how he leads the Israelites to the Promised Land and how he drives out those who had occupied that land (Lorimer, 2000). God had a purpose of using his chosen people and this was to reveal himself to other people through his chosen one. He wanted to convert other people from their paganism to Christianity through the Israelites and the converts names were proselytes. After settling down, the Israelites were ruled by a series of judges. The most memorable one is Deborah and this is because she is the only woman among the male judges who ruled in Israel. Then there emerged a judge by the name Gideon who ruled for 40 years. However, his story is a controversy as later, we learn that he led a revolt against the people who were oppressing Israelites and when the war was over, he was offered a judgeship, which he turned down (Maartens & Van, 2011). Meaning previously he was just a general and when he was given a governorship as a crown of honor and turned it down. The next judge in Israel who was famous was Samson. Ruth is also another person who lived during the time of judges. Another judge is Samuel whose story is in the book of Samuel. His story ends in first Samuel although there is second Samuel. The books were named first and second Samuel merely because the scrolls were found in the same place and since it was too big, they split it into two halves. However, if they had found these scrolls in different scrolls then probably one would be named the book of David and the other one would be named the book of Samuel (Auther, 1995). Samuel is a major character in the first half of the book of Samuel and in the second, Saul is the major character. Second Samuel talks about the reign of King David and in the first half, first kings, the story is about Solomon. The main character in the second half is Elijah. Elisha for the main character in the first half of second kings while in the second half there is no major king, but a list of kings is given. Towards the end of second kings, there is an interesting feature of plot development. The Israelites northern kingdom was dispersed to other nations where they intermarried with people from other races. The Jews despised this group of Israelites, and they refer to them as the half-breeds. The Southern Kingdom was taken to captivity for about 70 years. Moreover, later when Cyrus became king, he allowed them to go back to Judah and Jerusalem. The next book after kings is first and second Chronicles (Lewis, 1750). The book of chronicles is just a snapshot of what is discussed previously the Israelites king from the reign of Saul to King David to Solomon, and finally, the division kingdoms. Next is the book of Ezra, followed by Nehemiah. Nehemiah rebuilt the temple and walls around Jerusalem to protect the Israelites and this is the end of the story of the chosen people. The story of Esther comes in the book of Esther. Followed by the book of Job, Psalms is a collection of David’s songs and proverbs consisting of wise sayings from King Solomon. King Solomon’s more writing comes in the book of Ecclessiastes and songs of Solomon. To finish the old testaments, the discussion will be about prophets. There are 16 prophets, of which twelve are minor while four are Major Prophets. Major Prophets are Jeremiah, Isaiah, Daniel, and Ezekiel. They are major because of the large material that they wrote. The book of lamentation splits the Major Prophets into two. The book consists of the poems that people recited during the Babylonian exile. The people say “we have sinned against God, please forgive us and restore us to the Promised Land” (Auther, 1995). The book of Jeremiah comes after Lamentations. During the Babylonian exile, Daniel Jeremiah and Ezekiel prophesied and among the Minor Prophets who prophesied were Malachi, Haggai, and Zechariah then finally, they returned from exile. At the end of the Old Testament is Malachi, and the New Testament begins with four gospel books, which are Mathew, Mark, Luke and John, which gives the story of the life of Jesus and how Jesus corrected the notion that people had about God’s chosen people, from those who were Abraham’s descendants to those who love God and love other people. The book of Acts is about the spread of the gospel, and it is in this book that Paul’s story is told and how he changed his name (Kroll, 1998). The changing of Saul’s name was just cultural and not like that of Abraham where he changed his name due to God’s command. Following the book of Acts are 13 books, these books were in the form of letters written by Paul, after Paul’s letters is the book of Hebrews whose writer is not known clearly. The next one is the book James written by James the half-brother of Jesus who was the first disciple martyr. Peter wrote the first and second books of peter while Apostle John wrote first second and third John. To compare the gospel of John and the letters, the word “believe,” repeats itself severally in the Gospel while “know” is dominant in the letters. Another half-brother of Jesus wrote the book of Jude and finally apostle john wrote the book of Revelation that describes the second coming of Jesus Christ References Auther, K. (1995). How to study your Bible. Eugene, Or: Harvest House Publishers. Kroll, W. M. (1998). Stories of little people in the Bible, used by a big God to impact their world. Lincoln, NE: Back to the Bible. Lewis, J. (1750). A complete summary of the New-Testament: Or, the contents of all the chapters; taken from the first edition of the last translation of the Holy Bible. London. Lorimer, M. (2000). Summary of the bible from Genesi To Revelation. Maartens, M., & Van, R. (2011). Favourite Bible Stories for Children. Cape Town: New Holland Pub. Read More