Why This Matters
We can know familiar Bible verses and still struggle to understand the Bible. We may recognize Noah’s ark, David’s victory over Goliath, or Jesus feeding the multitude, yet have difficulty explaining how those accounts belong together. When our reading moves from a story into laws, genealogies, poetry, or prophecy, we may wonder whether we have wandered into something meant for someone else.
That confusion can follow us into the way we apply Scripture. We may claim a promise without considering whom God addressed, turn a description of someone’s behavior into an instruction to imitate it, or grow discouraged because a difficult passage does not yield an immediate answer. Our desire to hear God may be sincere while our understanding of what we are reading remains incomplete.
Before we begin walking through the Bible one book at a time, it helps to ask what kind of book we are holding and how we should approach it. The Bible is not just a book we quote. It is a book that forms the way we see everything else. Scripture teaches us who God is, who we are, why our world is fractured, and what God is doing through Jesus to redeem His people and bring His purposes to completion.
This series begins with that larger view. We want to understand each book clearly enough to hear its message, recognize its place in the story of faith, and respond faithfully to the God who speaks through it.
What the Bible Is
The Bible is God’s inspired word, given through human authors. Through these writings, He reveals His character, makes His purposes known, and instructs His people. Its authority rests in the God who speaks, and we approach it with reverence because we are accountable to Him.
In this series, we will walk through the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments: thirty-nine in the Old Testament and twenty-seven in the New. Christian traditions differ concerning the inclusion of some additional Old Testament writings, but these sixty-six books define the scope of our journey.
These writings came through many human authors across centuries. Some authors are named in the books themselves; others are identified through longstanding tradition, and some remain unknown. They addressed people who lived through slavery, wilderness wandering, settled life, national strength, exile, foreign occupation, and the spread of the gospel.
The Old Testament was written mainly in Hebrew, with portions in Aramaic. The New Testament was written in Greek. Reading these writings in English brings us across a distance of language and culture, which is one reason careful translation and attention to historical setting matter.
The Bible also contains different kinds of literature. Its narratives recount events and reveal the significance of human choices. Its laws instruct a covenant people. Its poems give words to praise, grief, thanksgiving, and longing. Wisdom books teach discernment, while prophets confront unfaithfulness and announce God’s purposes.
The Gospels recount Jesus’ life, ministry, death, and resurrection, with each writer drawing our attention to particular aspects of His identity and work. We read them attentively as accounts that both tell us what happened and call us to recognize who Jesus is. The letters address the beliefs and conduct of actual congregations and individuals. Apocalyptic literature, found especially in Daniel and Revelation, uses visions and symbolic imagery to reveal God’s rule and call His people to endurance. Its images need to be understood through their scriptural and historical setting.
God’s use of human authors does not make their circumstances or distinctive ways of writing irrelevant. Those are part of how He has spoken. We honor His word by paying attention to the form in which He gave it.
How the Bible Came to Us
When we open a Bible today, we find its books gathered between two covers, arranged for us, and translated into a language we can read. Behind that familiar experience is a long history of people writing, preserving, copying, sharing, and translating Scripture. Understanding something of that history can deepen our appreciation for the book in our hands.
First, God gave His word through people addressing real situations. A prophet might speak to a nation facing judgment. A Gospel writer might recount Jesus’ life and teaching. An apostle might write to a congregation struggling with division. These writings first served people who needed to hear God amid the circumstances of their own lives.
God’s people also came to recognize these writings as Scripture. The word canon refers to the collection received as authoritative. The early church inherited Israel’s Scriptures and received the writings of the apostles and their associates. Recognition developed over time, and some books were discussed longer than others. Recognizing Scripture acknowledged the authority of what God had given.
Before printing, these writings were copied by hand. The surviving manuscripts sometimes differ in spelling, wording, or the inclusion of a passage. Scholars carefully compare them to determine what the biblical authors wrote. This work helps explain the notes we sometimes encounter in our Bibles about differences among ancient manuscripts.
Those notes need not frighten us, but neither should we pretend the differences do not exist. They allow us to see where the evidence requires attention. Confidence in Scripture can make room for honest questions and careful examination.
Translation brings these ancient writings into languages people can understand. Translators study the Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek, weighing words and expressions so that readers can follow the meaning. This series uses the English Standard Version, and we will give attention to its wording as we read.
We do not need to become historians or language specialists before opening our Bibles. We can begin with gratitude for the work that has made Scripture accessible to us and seek help when an unfamiliar expression or footnote raises a question.
Where It Fits
This introduction gives us our bearings for The Story of Faith, One Book at a Time. Across sixty-nine installments, we will explore the sixty-six biblical books, with introductions to the Bible as a whole, the Old Testament, and the New Testament. After this opening overview, we will consider the Old Testament more closely before beginning Genesis.
Each book will receive attention to its setting, literary form, movement, and message. We will explore its contribution to the larger biblical story and its significance for discipleship under King Jesus. When authorship or dating is uncertain, we will acknowledge that uncertainty without allowing it to obscure what the book communicates.
Our route follows the familiar order of the biblical books, but that order is not a continuous timeline. Prophets often speak within periods described in the historical books. Some accounts revisit events from another perspective. The New Testament letters address communities living within the world of Acts and beyond it. Learning those relationships will help us understand why the Bible sometimes seems to move backward or change direction.
These surveys are meant to lead us into Scripture. Their greatest usefulness will come as we open the books themselves and discover more than an overview can contain.
How the Whole Story Moves
The Bible begins with God creating a good world. Human beings bear His image and receive life, responsibility, and a place within His creation. Before we encounter sin, we encounter God’s generosity. Our first identity is that we are His creatures, dependent upon Him and accountable for how we live.
Human rebellion fractures that relationship. In Genesis, distrust and disobedience spread into shame, violence, and the misuse of power. Adam and Eve hide from the God who made them, and their departure from Eden reveals the seriousness of sin’s separation. The damage reaches beyond individual choices into families and societies. Yet God continues to act with judgment and mercy, preserving life and carrying His purposes forward.
With Abraham, the promise becomes more focused. God calls one man and promises blessing that will reach the families of the earth. Abraham’s descendants become the people of Israel, whom God rescues from slavery in Egypt and brings into covenant with Himself. Their rescue leads into a life of belonging, worship, and responsibility.
God’s law teaches them how to live as His people, and the tabernacle expresses His purpose to dwell among them. Yet His presence is holy. The instructions concerning worship, priesthood, and sacrifice teach Israel that fellowship with God must be approached on His terms. His nearness is a gracious gift, and sin cannot be treated casually in His presence.
Israel’s later history reveals the difficulty of that calling. The people settle in the land, struggle with unfaithfulness, and eventually live under kings. God promises an enduring royal house to David, but neither David nor his descendants can overcome the deeper problem of sin. The kingdom divides, injustice and idolatry persist, and prophetic warnings are repeatedly resisted. Exile follows as covenant judgment.
Even there, God’s promises endure. The prophets speak of restoration, renewed hearts, a new covenant, and a coming King. A return to the land brings real mercy, but it does not resolve everything the prophets have taught God’s people to hope for. The story continues with expectation.
Alongside these events, Scripture brings us into the lives of people learning to trust God. Psalms teaches us to pray through praise and anguish. Wisdom literature examines work, desire, suffering, justice, and the limits of human understanding. These books belong within the story because they explore what life before God means, including seasons when His purposes are difficult to see.
Jesus enters this world of promise and expectation. In Him, the Son of God comes among us in the flesh. He reveals the Father, announces God’s kingdom, welcomes sinners, confronts evil, and calls people to repentance and faithful allegiance. God’s purpose to bring His people near now unfolds through the presence and work of His Son.
Jesus gives Himself for our sins, opening the way for reconciliation with God. His resurrection declares victory over death, and the crucified and risen Jesus reigns as Lord. The fellowship that sin has broken is restored through Him. We come to God through the Savior He has provided.
After His resurrection, Jesus explained how Israel’s Scriptures pointed toward His suffering and rising again, and toward the proclamation of repentance and forgiveness to the nations. That gives us a responsible foundation for reading the Bible toward Him. We follow the connections Scripture establishes through promise, covenant, sacrifice, kingship, and fulfillment rather than treating every detail as a hidden symbol. (Luke 24:44–49)
The story also moves outward. Through the Holy Spirit, the good news reaches beyond Israel, and people from the nations are gathered into a community under Jesus’ lordship. God dwells in His people through the Spirit, shaping them for a life that reflects His holiness and love. Acts recounts the spread of their witness, while the letters teach believers how the gospel shapes worship, relationships, endurance, generosity, and conduct.
The church lives in hope of Jesus’ return, the resurrection of the dead, and final judgment. Evil will not remain unanswered, and death will not have the final word. Revelation brings God’s purpose to dwell with His people to its fullness in the new heaven and new earth, where His people live with Him and death and mourning are ended. This promised future calls us to faithfulness now.
The Old Testament is therefore the soil in which the good news of Jesus takes root. It gives us the promises, experiences, and language through which we understand His coming. Reading both Testaments together helps us recognize the faithfulness of the God who carries His purposes from creation to new creation.
How to Read the Bible Well
First, we need to listen to a passage within its surroundings. Who is speaking, and to whom? What question, crisis, or need is being addressed? A sentence in a letter belongs to an argument. A prophetic warning belongs to a historical situation. A person’s words within a narrative may reveal that person’s confusion rather than express God’s judgment.
Second, we should pay attention to the kind of writing before us. Exodus 14 recounts Israel’s deliverance through the sea. Exodus 15 responds to that deliverance in song, praising the Lord through vivid poetic language. Reading the chapters together helps us appreciate both what God did and how His people celebrated it. The change in form invites a corresponding attentiveness from us.
That same care matters elsewhere. A proverb communicates wisdom for living, but we should be cautious about turning it into a guarantee that every faithful person will experience the same immediate outcome. A psalm of lament gives us language for suffering without requiring us to treat the worshiper’s anguish as the final explanation of God’s purposes. Recognizing the form helps us hear what the writer is communicating.
Third, we need to locate a passage within the unfolding story. Israel’s covenant at Sinai and the new covenant in Christ belong to the same divine purpose, but we do not live under every instruction in the same way. Christians do not approach God through the sacrifices required of Israel’s priests. Those passages remain Scripture, and they deepen our understanding of holiness, atonement, and what Jesus has accomplished.
Finally, we ask what faithful response the passage calls for. What does it reveal about God? What does it expose in us? Is there a command to obey, a promise to trust, a sin to confess, or wisdom to practice? Careful reading should sharpen our obedience and keep us from making the passage say whatever we find most convenient.
We will sometimes need help. Reading with other believers and consulting careful scholarship can bring clarity, while humility keeps us from claiming certainty beyond what the text supports. We can take Scripture seriously without pretending that we already understand every part of it.
A Key Verse for the Journey
Paul’s words to Timothy provide a fitting anchor:
“All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.” (2 Timothy 3:16 ESV).
The surrounding verses help us hear the fullness of that statement. Paul reminds Timothy of the sacred writings he had known from childhood, writings able to make him wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. He then explains that Scripture equips the servant of God for every good work. Divine authority, salvation in Christ, and faithful living belong together in this passage.
Timothy’s childhood Scriptures were Israel’s sacred writings. That matters for our journey because the Old Testament already had a vital role in forming the faith of those who followed Jesus. Paul’s words remind us that unfamiliar parts of Scripture deserve our attention alongside the passages we already love.
We come to be taught, corrected, and trained. Some passages will strengthen convictions we already hold. Others may expose assumptions we have carried for years. Receiving Scripture’s authority means allowing room for both experiences. A familiar passage may become the place where God calls us to make a long-needed change.
What We Carry With Us
As we begin, we can choose one simple practice: read a complete passage before selecting a sentence to carry into the day. Notice how the writer develops the thought. Then ask what we have learned about God and what a faithful response would look like in our present circumstances.
That response may become a prayer, an apology, an act of generosity, a change in conduct, or renewed endurance in a difficult season. Sometimes it will begin with a question we need to keep studying. We do not have to manufacture an immediate lesson from every paragraph, but we should give what we learn a place in the way we live.
As the series unfolds, unfamiliar books can become places where we recognize God’s character and hear His call more clearly. We can learn to appreciate a genealogy’s concern for belonging, a prophet’s urgency about injustice, a psalmist’s honest grief, or an apostle’s patient correction of a divided church. Each book deserves to be heard in its own voice while we continue learning how it belongs within the whole.
As we sit with this today, we may be opening the Bible for the first time or returning to words we have read for decades. Wherever we begin, we can bring our questions, our need for mercy, and our willingness to listen. The God who speaks through Scripture calls us to know Him, trust what He has revealed, and walk faithfully under the reign of King Jesus. We can take that next step together, one book at a time.