The Big Picture

A BIBLE MAP
Session 2 Notes


As tourists need maps to avoid getting lost in foreign cities, Bible readers need a map to keep from getting lost between the books of Genesis and Revelation. They need to see how the whole Bible is laid out—how Scripture’s main freeways interconnect with its smaller streets and avenues. Although a child may recognize the houses where he and his grandparents live, he may not know how to get from one to the other. Likewise, Bible readers may know one Bible book here and another there, but have no real sense of how the one is connected to the other. How does Genesis lead to 1 and 2 Samuel? Or how are 1 and 2 Chronicles crucial for understanding Matthew? The books of Scripture are extremely diverse, yet in their diversity, they form a unified whole that reveals God’s amazing work to save and redeem mankind. The Concise Bible Commentary will provide a bird’s eye view of the Bible, recognizing the diversity of its individual books and revealing how its diverse parts form a wonderful unity.

DIVERSITY WITHIN THE BIBLE

Different authors. The Bible was finished nearly two thousand years ago. Many different human authors wrote it over a period covering at least fifteen hundred years and including three different languages (Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek). During that long period, history and culture changed radically—from the time of Moses, writing some fourteen hundred years before Christ, to the time of the apostle John, writing in the Roman Empire around A.D. 80. In addition to different cultures and languages, the Biblical writers had their own different personalities and abilities. Moses was a prince of ancient Egypt—Matthew was a Roman tax collector. Solomon lived securely in a palace—Ezekiel was a prisoner of war. Paul was highly educated—Peter was an unschooled fisherman.

Different purposes. Each Bible book was written with its own specific purpose in mind. Each author wrote to meet specific needs. He selected, under God’s guidance, appropriate truths that matched the particular needs of God’s people at that time. Therefore, many different needs and situations are represented from book to book: announcements of God’s discipline, loving God for his redemption, the problem of family hatred and jealousy, wandering in the desert, wars with the Philistines, captivity in Babylon, church squabbles, and dealing with personal sin. Some books were written to individuals, others to large groups. Some were for singing, while others were poetry or narrative to be read aloud. Some were written to bring correction, while others were for information or historical record.

Different topics. Because the purposes differ from book to book, so does the subject matter. God did not present his Word in long and organized lists of simple principles for living, detached from real people and their ancient historical situations. He wrapped his truths in greatly varied everyday history, language, and life. God gave us his truth in ancient books like Exodus, Joshua, Malachi, Romans, and 1 and 2 Peter. He did not give us books like 1 and 2 Thought Life or The Epistle To Parents. God’s principles and truth are embedded in the events of God’s salvation history and the diverse experiences of God’s people.

Neither life nor God’s truth comes in a neat, self-contained package. Just as our daily experiences contain diverse situations and needs, the books from Genesis to Revelation contain a diverse presentation of truth; the Bible is not a systematized card file of questions and answers. Its diversity is important to consider when interpreting and applying the Bible. God presented his eternal truth in the context of communities and people with concerns and needs defined by distant places and cultures. Thus, Bible readers cannot ignore the various cultures and situations of the Biblical text. Part of the task of interpreting the Bible is to see how its ancient context actually sharpens and clarifies its message. Seeing how God’s truth helped ancient people in the struggles of their varied lives shows how we can apply the same truths today. Understanding the diversity of the Bible’s message and context is vital to properly interpreting and applying Scripture.

Different relevance. Becoming aware of the Bible’s diversity may cause us to make a mistake. We may tend to ignore those parts of the Bible that seem strange or difficult to apply. When we read the New Testament, especially Paul’s letters, God seems to be speaking directly to us. But in the Old Testament we may find it difficult to apply things like bloody battles, ancient rituals, and long genealogies. In the face of the Bible’s strangeness, it is possible that we may read only the New Testament—and just parts of it, at that. But such a neglect of the difficult and culturally distant parts of Scripture is wrong. To correct this neglect that grows out of the Bible’s cultural distance and diversity, we need to look to another truth—the Bible’s essential unity.

THE UNITY OF THE BIBLE

But how do the various books of the Bible fit together? Although the Bible was written book by book over a period of around fifteen hundred years, the end result is a single work, each part of which contributes perfectly to the whole. Therefore, it is not enough to study only a book here or there. The Bible should be understood as a logically ordered whole, moving from Genesis through Revelation. Although there are many different historical contexts and human authors in the Bible, God is the unifying author behind it all. Behind each diverse passage of Scripture stands our unchanging God. Behind the Bible’s many human authors stands the single divine Author. And he is the real solution to the needs of the people in the Bible and those living today. Since God intended for the diverse books of Scripture to fit together as a unified whole, the interrelationships of the various books are significant for understanding God’s revelation as a whole.

It would be somewhat odd to begin reading a current best-seller in the middle of the fifth chapter, skip to the last chapter, and then go back and read the end of the third chapter. Although a reader could make some sense of what he had read, he would not have an accurate picture of what the book was all about. The reader would have to see why the chapters were arranged in their present order and how each chapter fit into the entire book. Likewise, Bible readers need to determine how each Bible book fits into Scripture as a whole. Then they will be able to understand how the Bible’s development has resulted in a beautiful and cohesive whole, from Genesis through Revelation, that meets the practical needs of believers.

Hughes, R. B., & Laney, J. C. (2001). Tyndale concise Bible commentary. The Tyndale reference library (xii–xv). Wheaton, Ill.: Tyndale House Publishers.