Intro: How To Read The Bible

What Is The Bible?

The Bible is the most influential book in human history, but what is it? This video series will help you understand the Bible and see its unified message.

While the Bible is one unified story, it cannot all be read in the same way.

The How To Read the Bible series walks through each literary style found in the Bible to show how each uniquely contributes to the overall storyline. Each literary style lives by its own rules and structure.

One story, many styles.

The Bible can be broken into several categories of writing. Approximately 43% of the Bible is made up of narrative, from historical narrative to parables. Roughly 33% of the Bible is poetry, including songs, reflective poetry, and the passionate, politically resistant poetry of the prophets. The remaining 24% of the Bible is prose discourse, including laws, sermons, letters, and even one essay.

The Bible is an ancient Jewish collection of sacred literature made up of many different literary styles. Each biblical book uses a combination of all the literary styles to make its unique contribution to the story of the Bible. First, let's take a look at the narrative style of storytelling.

This series should help you understand what the Bible is and the story it tells.

By the end of this series, you will be familiar with every part of the Bible and see how it uses language to communicate who God is, who we are, and the big, redemptive story that we are all living.

Credit: https://bibleproject.com/

The Story Of The Bible 

The story of the Bible is about humanity's cycle of self-destruction and the Messiah who will restore the covenant partnership between God and humans.

Credit: https://bibleproject.com/

Biblical Literary Styles

To better understand the Bible, we have to first learn to recognize the different literary styles used by the biblical authors.

Credit: https://bibleproject.com/