Bible Study Table of Contents (Click to jump to any section)
Bible History and Overview
- What is the Bible?
- How the Bible was constructed + Bible books
- Languages and St. Jerome
- Pope Leo XII and Pope Pius XII
- Books, Chapters and Verses
- Is the Bible literal?
- What the Bible is *not*
Bible Study Tools
- Getting started
- Taking notes
- Exegesis and Bible study tools
- Bible in a Year / Daily Bible study
- Lectio Divina
- Bible study prayers
The Bible is inspiring, motivational, life-changing and world-changing.
For many of us, it can also be just a bit intimidating.
That’s partially because, while we can know Jesus, it can be intimidating to consider many of the books and passages of the Bible or how it might reference people or places we’re unfamiliar with.
Yet studying the Bible and letting God’s word soften our hearts can be one of the most enriching aspects of our faith lives. It can bring us closer to God and help us to understand Him better.
Learning about the Bible, where it came from, what it means, and how to learn it better can make it more inviting.
Hallow’s goal is to help the world pray more. While entire books are written on topics like how the Bible came about, the importance of Bible study and how to spend time with Scripture, Hallow offers this brief overview of the Bible as a resource to help beginners knock down any barriers to the Bible and start studying and praying with it.
But the Bible is not a beautiful collection of sacred books to study – it is the Word of Life to be sown, the gift that the Risen Christ asks to be gathered and distributed so that there may be life in His name. – Pope Francis
Bible: History and Overview
What Is the Bible?
The Bible sits at the center of the Christian faith.
It is a divinely inspired text that tells the story of God’s relationship with humanity and how salvation unfolds over the course of history, culminating with Jesus’s death and Resurrection.
The Bible was physically written by a number of authors, but it was written by God in the sense that it was inspired by the Holy Spirit.
It’s not that God took physical command of the authors’ hands and penned the words Himself. Rather, the Holy Spirit animated different people in different communities over the course of centuries to produce the Canon of Scripture we hold sacred today.
The books of the Old Testament were written across hundreds of years before the birth of Christ. The Gospels were written roughly 50 years after Jesus died.
How the Bible Was Constructed + Books of the Bible
The Bible is hardly a singular work but rather a book containing numerous smaller books.
John W. Miller, author of How the Bible Came to Be: Exploring the Narrative and Message, tells us that “the Bible contains words and writings of numerous prophets, apostles, poets, sages and historians who lived over many centuries.”
The USCCB describes the Bible as a “library” rather than a book.
The Bible is divided into the Old Testament (including the Torah/Pentateuch–the first five books of the Bible) and New Testament. Each of these contains different books. But they are united in one main story of God communicating to us, and much of what is foretold in the Old Testament is fulfilled in the New.
The Catholic Bible has 73 books, 46 in the Old Testament and 27 in the New Testament. Some may have learned that the Catholic Bible has 72 books. The difference lies in whether the books of Jeremiah and Lamentations are considered one book or two distinct works. As Father Kenneth Doyle of Catholic News Services points out, the most commonly used translations by Catholics count them as two separate works, thus the 73 number.
Different councils and synods determined the books and the “canon” of books is slightly different for Catholic and Protestant Bibles. For example, the Catholic Bible contains the books Baruch, Judith, 1 and 2 Maccabees, Sirach and Tobit, which do not appear in Protestant Bibles.
When you attend church, each reading is from a different book of the Bible (e.g., “A Reading from the Book of Exodus..”)
Languages of the Bible and St. Jerome
The various books of the Bible were written in one of three languages: Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek.
Many graduate programs in Biblical studies offer (or require!) students to learn one of these languages to enrich their academic studies of Scripture.
The average person does not need to know any language other than their own in order to study the Bible, deepen their understanding of scripture, and strengthen their relationship with God.
Bible translations are always being revised and improved. The Vatican recommends relying on your local conference of bishops for the best translations for different languages and countries (there are multiple approved translations.)
St. Jerome, with his Latin translation (known as the “Vulgate”), is often credited with being the first to translate the Bible from its original texts. It inspired the King James Version, which has been used a thousand years later.
Pope Leo XII and Pope Pius XII: Encyclicals on Scripture Studies
In 1893, Pope Leo XII’s Providentissimus Deus quotes Psalm 119, regarding the virtue of studying Scripture, “Blessed are they who examine His testimonies; they shall seek Him with their whole heart.”
Fifty years later, Pope Pius XII released the encyclical Divino Afflante Spiritu, another critical document in support of studying Scripture.
“For what is more sublime than to scrutinize, explain, propose to the faithful and defend from unbelievers the very word of God, communicated to men under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit?” wrote Pope Pius XII.
The document “provided the stimulus for a development of genuine biblical scholarship within Catholicism, especially in the United States.”
Decades later, at the Second Vatican Council, document Verbum Dei “moved the Bible to the center of the Catholic life,” as one Biblical scholar put it.
Reading the Bible: Books, Chapters and Verses
When you see references to Scripture, they usually contain words and numbers. If you’re new to the Bible, it may not be clear what these refer to.
The word refers to the book within the Bible that contains the text. “Books” is a term that also includes portions of the Bible that we also refer to as “Letters” or “Gospel” (e.g., “a reading from the Gospel of Mark”; “a reading from the Letter of St. Paul to the Galatians.)
The first number after the name of the book refers to that book’s chapter. The following numbers refer to the specific verse or verses in that chapter. They are usually separated by a colon (“ : “). When referring to a passage longer than one verse, a dash (“ – ”) is used to indicate the range of verses.
The graphic below shows a portion of the Gospel of Matthew inside the Hallow app.
As an example of how books, chapters and verses identify very specific lines of the Bible, Mark 2: 1–2 would refer to the following text:
When he returned to Capernaum after some days, it was reported that he was at home. 2 So many gathered around that there was no longer room for them, not even in front of the door; and he was speaking the word to them.
The Bible is Literal..and Allegorical (and more)
Is the Bible meant to be taken literally?
The Bible is indeed literal in many ways. Jesus literally died and was literally resurrected. These are not metaphors or symbols
However, the catechism outlines two senses of scripture- or means of interpretation. : In addition to the obvious literal sense, there is also the spiritual sense, which is divided into allegorical, moral and analogical senses.
The catechism illustrates these four senses through the story of Moses parting the Red Sea.
In addition to the literal understanding of the text, there’s also the allegorical understanding of Moses parting the Red Sea as a "sign or type of Christ's victory and also of Christian Baptism.
Catholic Answers points out that the passage also has a moral sense, giving us lessons for how to live (or not to live today.)
Finally, the anagogical (or mystical) sense offers up an interpretation that points the reader towards the eternal: God leading us from sin toward our heavenly home.
Each of these is different, and each is correct, though not every understanding is a literal one.
What the Bible Is Not
The Bible is the most important book ever, but there are many things that it is not.
The Bible is not a history book, or a journalistic work by reporters covering an event, the way we think of reporters’ work today.
Nor is it a science book, offering scientifically focused explanations for our world in the way we think of science books in our modern world.
The Catechism, which references two “senses” of Scripture (literal and spiritual), teaches that the Bible is accurate in matters of faith, and Verbum Dei, a document from Vatican II, teaches that:
“Since everything asserted by the inspired authors or sacred writers must be held to be asserted by the Holy Spirit, it follows that the books of Scripture must be acknowledged as teaching solidly, faithfully and without error that truth which God wanted put into sacred writings for the sake of salvation.”
This refers to truths that the Bible, inspired by the Holy Spirit, seeks to teach us, not to every single reference or reality mentioned in the Bible.
For example, slavery is mentioned in the Bible and was present in the time and place in which much of the Bible was written. This does not mean that the Church endorses slavery today.
Finally, the Bible is not merely individual books thrown together. As the USCCB puts it, the sum is greater than the parts. The books in the Bible make the most sense when considered together. The Bible as a whole tells the story of God’s great love for His people, and the story of humanity’s salvation unfolds and reaches a climax in Jesus.
The word “Testament," as in Old and New Testaments, means “covenant.” The promises God made in the books of the Old Testament are fulfilled through Jesus.
To quote Biblical scholar Jeff Cavins in the introduction to Bible in a Year, “There are a lot of stories in the Bible, but what about The Story?”
Bible Study - Getting Started
Getting started with basic Bible study is simple, easy, and doesn’t have to cost a thing.
You don’t even need a physical version of the Bible–you can download Hallow and enjoy the Bible within the Hallow app.
Not all books of the Bible serve the same purpose. Similarly, not all books are as easily accessible for new readers.
We’d recommend starting with one of the Gospels–Matthew, Mark, Luke and John–and read a chapter at a time.
The stories and passages may be familiar to you, but read slowly and see how a new word may stick out to you or how a line may grab your attention.
Don’t Be Afraid of Taking Notes
If you are studying a physical copy of the Bible, don’t be afraid to underline passages that stick out to you or make notes that might help you remember certain things.
If your intent is to deepen your faith and understanding, it’s not a problem to write in the Bible. It might be a good idea to have one Bible reserved for this purpose specifically.
This is different than writing in or on the Bible with the purpose of defacing it or otherwise being disrespectful toward it.
As Teresa Coda of U.S. Catholic puts it, “Although we ought to treat the Bible with reverence—we shouldn’t be writing expletives between the lines—it’s meant to be held, examined closely, dog-eared even.”
Exegesis and Bible Study Tools
One way to enhance your study of the Bible is through a practice called exegesis.
The book Elements of Biblical Exegesis by Michael J. Gorman defines exegesis as “the careful historical, literary, and theological analysis of a text."
Studying the history surrounding Scripture can help us better understand the important context in which a particular book was written, who wrote it, and for whom it was written.
Biblical scholar Jeff Cavins has a bevy of resources to help place different periods of the Bible in their proper historical context. His YouTube series titled The Bible Timeline Show is a good resource for this.
Scott Hahn’s St. Paul Center offers excellent, free Bible study tools that are also worth exploring.
Exegesis also seeks to understand the words in Scripture, what they mean and why they were used.
often, these two lenses complement each other.
For example, consider a line from the centurion who observed Jesus’s death.
“And when the centurion, who stood there in front of Jesus, saw how he died, he said, “Surely this man was the Son of God!” (Mark 15:39).
The phrase “Son of God” does not appear in Luke’s version and it helps us place Mark’s Gospel in a historical context.
Biblical scholar John Bergsma explains that Mark sought to evangelize Roman culture, and therefore, this line and phrase helps show to his audience that “Jesus’ message and identity have been embraced by a respected member of Roman society.”
Exegesis can help us gain a new appreciation for Scripture. Hallow offers Daily Exegesis, which explores the meaning of the Gospel passage each day.
Bible in a Year with Fr. Mike Schmitz / Daily Bible Study
One way to study the Bible is to spend time reading, reflecting, and praying with it each day.
But you don’t need to read the Bible cover to cover in order to read the entire thing.
Fr. Mike Schmitz’s Bible in a Year reading plan breaks down the Bible into 12 distinct time periods based on the timeline by Jeff Cavins:
- Early World
- Patriarchs
- Egypt and Exodus
- Desert Wanderings
- Conquest and Judges
- Royal Kingdom
- Divided Kingdom
- Exile
- Return
- Maccabean Revolt
- Messianic Fulfillment
- The Church
He’s also identified the 14 “narrative” books of the Bible that “tell the story of Scripture from beginning to end.”
The USCCB also offers a categorization of books in the Bible:
Most days of the Bible in a Year program feature a portion of Scripture from one of these 14 books of the Bible, along with segments from the other books of the Bible, placed into their proper context.
Each day also includes a selection from Psalms and Proverbs to help reflect on God’s Word in a prayerful way.
This allows someone to read the entire Bible over 365 days, but in a way that perhaps makes it easier to understand the story of salvation that unfolds across the Old and New Testaments.
Bible in a Year is available on Hallow.
Lectio Divina
When beginning to explore the Bible, you don’t need to set out to read it cover-to-cover. A great way to get started spending time with the Bible is through Lectio Divina.
Lectio Divina literally means “divine reading,” and it’s different from a group Bible study, because it’s a way of praying, and a much more personal encounter with Scripture.
In this form of prayer, you meditate on certain Bible passages and listen to which words stand out and what God might be trying to communicate to you through Scripture.
You don’t need anything to try Lectio Divina save for some Scripture and some time with God. Choose a short portion of Scripture, only a few verses. Read it slowly once, hold it in your mind, and listen for what God might be trying to tell you. What word stands out? What might that mean? Read the passage once or twice more and just be present with God.
Lectio Divina is actually responsible for Hallow’s name. Our CEO tried Lectio Divina for the first time and the word “hallow” stood out to him.
Prayers to Begin and Conclude Bible Study
Focus the time you spend with Scripture on deepening your relationship with God by beginning and closing your Bible study in prayer.
Consider the following short prayers to begin your Bible study session:
- “Heavenly Father, help me hear Your voice today. May Your Word soften my heart so I may better follow You. In Jesus’s name I pray. Amen.”
- “God of all creation, your Holy Spirit inspired this divine Word. As I read the Bible today, may Your Spirit inspire me, setting my heart ablaze with a desire to build Your kingdom here on earth.”
To close, you can simply pray the Lord’s Prayer.
The Most Important Part of Bible Study Is Getting Started
No one is going to become a Biblical scholar overnight, and it’s unlikely (though certainly not impossible) that you'll gain some life-changing wisdom or insight the first time you crack open your Bible.
You may not think you’re doing Bible study “the right way”--whatever that means.
The reality is that simply having a desire to spend time with God’s Word, and acting on that desire, is a wonderful starting point.
Trust in God’s ability to reach you through His Word and enjoy the journey of opening up your mind and heart to Scripture.