The Short Bible

Peter J. Bylsma

Description

This spirituality book offers a summary of the Bible in chronological order in order to help people really understand its main messages and themes.

The Bible is widely considered to be the most profound collection of books in all of history, and it includes messages and stories that are still referenced today in the secular world. But it’s long, complicated, hard to read, and not organized in chronological order.

In The Short Bible, author Dr. Peter Bylsma offers basic facts about the Bible, discusses the development of the modern Bible, and reviews its themes. He summarizes all the books of the Old and New Testaments in 25 short, easy-to-read chapters, capturing the epic stories, characters, and main ideas. Structured like a modern book, it also includes historical and geographical facts to help clarify the context of the events.

The Short Bible is appropriate for those who are already familiar with the Bible, those who want to better understand its overall themes, and those who simply want to know the fascinating stories and messages of the most read book of all time.

Sujets

• Biblical Studies
• Philosophie et théologie
• Jesús de Nazaret
• Israel
• Jesus
• Old Testament
• New Testament
• Religion
• Christian
• Jésus de Nazareth
• Bible

Informations

• Publié par: WestBow Press
• Date de parution: 06 août 2021
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781664239166
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

THE SHORT BIBLE
A CHRONOLOGICAL SUMMARY OF THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS
Condensed, Organized, and Explained by
PETER J. BYLSMA


Copyright © 2021 Peter J. Bylsma.
 
The Short Bible™
shortbible.com
 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
 
 
WestBow Press
A Division of Thomas Nelson & Zondervan
1663 Liberty Drive
Bloomington, IN 47403
www.westbowpress.com
844-714-3454
 
Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.
 
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.
 
Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.®
 
Maps created by David C. Hoerlein
 
ISBN: 978-1-6642-3914-2 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-6642-3915-9 (hc)
ISBN: 978-1-6642-3916-6 (e)
 
Library of Congress Control Number: 2021913332
 
 
WestBow Press rev. date: 03/02/2023
CONTENTS
Preface
Essential Overview
Part 1: The Old Testament
Chapter 1: The Beginning
Chapter 2: Jacob Returns to Canaan
Chapter 3: Life in Egypt
Chapter 4: The Israelites Leave Egypt
Chapter 5: Life in the Wilderness
Chapter 6: The Occupation of Canaan
Chapter 7: Israel Struggles in Canaan
Chapter 8: Crowning a Unifying King
Chapter 9: King David and King Solomon
Chapter 10: The Divided Kingdom
Chapter 11: Both Kingdoms Fall
Chapter 12: Life in Exile, Then Restoration
Chapter 13: Biblical Poetry
Chapter 14: Unique Books in the Old Testament
Part 2: The New Testament
Chapter 15: The Messiah Arrives
Chapter 16: Acts of Jesus
Chapter 17: Teachings of Jesus
Chapter 18: Arrest, Trial, and Execution
Chapter 19: Life After Death
Chapter 20: The Apostles Respond and Scatter
Chapter 21: Paul’s Travels
Chapter 22: From Jerusalem to Rome
Chapter 23: Paul’s Letters to Believers
Chapter 24: Other Letters to Believers
Chapter 25: Predictions About the Future
 
Epilogue
Author’s Perspective
Appendixes
Appendix A:Books in the Bible
Appendix B:Chronology of Main Biblical Characters and Events
Appendix C:Suggestions for Further Reading
Appendix D:Index/Glossary
Appendix E:Scripture References
Appendix F:Alignment with Bible Books
Appendix G:Maps

This book is dedicated to Aaron, Erica, Kevin, Peter, Skylar, and Naomi.
May this book help you understand and love the world better.
I love all of you!
PREFACE
In the spring of 2020, I was getting ready to retire from my ninth career. I was starting to shelter in place for an unknown amount of time until the chaos caused by the COVID-19 pandemic subsided. My planned trips had been canceled, and I still wanted to make a difference—I still had a lot of gas in my tank, and I didn’t want to waste a crisis.
Severe economic troubles accompanied the COVID lockdown, and political tensions in the United States increased as a controversial president sought reelection and the Black Lives Matter movement blossomed. Bad news, pessimism, cynicism, and angst abounded; good news, optimism, empathy, and hope were hard to find. In an age of abundant information, the truth had become relative and arbitrary.
I had lived an unusual life and wondered how I could use my life experiences for good purposes while waiting for life to become somewhat normal again.
o I had been a student of the Bible for more than 50 years but still felt I didn’t understand how parts of it fit into the overall story. It was as if the Bible stories I heard as a child were random pieces of a puzzle that couldn’t be put into their proper places until I could see the picture on the box. As a Christian, I had focused my studies on the New Testament and had spent 10 years working in different types of ministry, including several with disenfranchised populations (those experiencing homelessness and refugee status in the Unites States and in less-developed countries). I had benefitted from having two parents who served their entire lives in various types of ministry. I had heard thousands of sermons and had taken Bible classes at Wheaton College. I knew many people who served God in some way, and I had experienced a number of miracles myself and witnessed them in many others.
o I had spent more than 30 years working in various nonpartisan public-sector organizations at the international, national, state, and local levels. Much of that work involved researching complex organizational and societal problems and summarizing the issues and possible solutions in reports written in a linear and logical manner and using language that was easy to understand. Through training in graduate school and at work, I had learned to write concisely and objectively using a style geared for busy people who needed to grasp the issues quickly and make decisions about what to do next based on available evidence.
o I was a world citizen and aware of many different cultures, languages, and religions. I lived in many states growing up, and as an adult, I had lived in four other countries. Two of them had large populations that were Buddhist, Muslim, or Hindu. My work had taken me to 20 countries, including Israel and Turkey. I served the government overseas with diplomatic status and several top-secret clearances, taught world geography and world history at the secondary level, and took courses related to international affairs and economic development in graduate school.
o I had an unusual family. I had adopted three children who each faced significant challenges in their lives. I was in my second marriage and “adopted” a grown stepson who was an atheist with no interest in anything involving religion.
With all these experiences in mind, a thought popped into my head: Maybe I should summarize the Bible. If nothing else, I will understand it better . The Bible is a very long and complicated collection of books that was not organized in chronological order. Understanding it is a challenge, and I thought a shorter version that summarizes the key events and characters in historical order might help me and others understand it better—less is more.
I didn’t know how long it would take. I would first need to understand all of the Bible’s messages and then decide what parts were essential and what could be omitted. Although it was all important in some way, certain parts were more central to the messages than others. It was a wild idea, but I kept thinking about it. Every word would need to count, and I had the time.
I had two reservations about writing such a book. I first thought, Do we really need another book about the Bible? There are already thousands of books about its parts and implications and many different translations and paraphrases of its contents. I realized this was a symptom of the problem: the Bible is so long and complicated that many books have been written to explain all its intricate meanings.
After searching what had been written, I was surprised to find that no summary existed that laid out the entire set of books in a logical sequence while explaining all the key messages. Some books came close but left out major parts of the content, and these books were still quite long and written for a Christian audience. I wanted my book to be relatively short but still include the essential messages. I also wanted to write in a way that non-Christians would find appealing—more like a novel that could be read in a few days. After all, the Bible is widely considered to be the most profound collection of books in all of history, and it includes messages and stories that are still referenced today in the secular world. While there are more Bibles in print than any other book in history, many who own a copy have not read it because it’s very long and confusing. Many others have not read any part of the Bible because they aren’t interested in religious issues, and many have only read parts of it. I’ve been surprised at how many people have never heard the timeless stories of David and Goliath, the Prodigal Son, and the Good Samaritan or know little about some of the Bible’s key characters. And if they know about the stories, they often don’t know the context or essential meanings. I figured any educated person should at least know the basic stories and messages of the Bible, and a shorter book would help accomplish that purpose.
Once I realized there was a need for such a book, my second reservation was a concern about my ability to summarize the Bible accurately. Many others were much more qualified than I was to write a summary. Some can read the original texts in Hebrew and Greek, and many have devoted their entire careers to conveying its teaching to those who attend churches and faith-based institutions. What if I were to miss the point of an essential message or leave out an