61. Let's take a tour of the Bible and navigate it with confidence

With 66 books, two Testaments, different authors, and so many stories, it's easy to wonder where to start or how everything fits together in the Bible.

But once you understand how the Bible is organized, reading it becomes much less intimidating and much more meaningful.

In this episode, Whitney takes you on a tour of the Bible, explaining how it's laid out, why it's organized the way it is, and how understanding its structure will help you study God's Word with greater confidence.

If You've Been Asking Questions Like:

• What's the difference between the Old Testament and the New Testament?
• How do all the books of the Bible connect?
• Why does the Old Testament seem so different from the New Testament?
• How do I know what type of book of the Bible I'm reading?
• Why does the Bible feel confusing or overwhelming?
• How can I feel more confident every time I open my Bible?
• How is the Bible laid out?

Then this episode is for you!

What next step are you taking on your Bible study journey?!

1. Bible Study Made Just for You is a 6-week 1:1 coaching program with Whitney where you stop just reading the Bible and start living it out, so you become transformed.

2. The Bible Study Made Simple community is where you learn about the Bible and stay consistent in it, so your faith grows as a Christian woman.

3. The Bible Study Made Simple guide is where you learn what to do every time you read the Bible, so you actually understand it.

4. These are the best Bible study tools on Amazon that will help you start reading the Bible with confidence for free.

5. Follow Whitney on TikTok or Instagram @stepintoboldfaith for simple Bible study tips, encouragement, and practical help to grow in your faith.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Let's take a tour of the Bible together and start navigating God's word with confidence. So have you ever opened your Bible and thought, where do I even start? Or maybe you've wondered, why are there so many books? Or like why are they in this order? Or, you know, why do people always recommend this or that? Or what's the difference even with the old and the new testament? And so I know if you've thought of any of these questions, today's episode is definitely going to be for you. And it's going to really just help you make sense of everything that is going on in the Bible and really hopefully help it feel less overwhelming so you really can open it and feel more confident. And my hope by the end of this episode is that you no longer see the Bible as just one confusing giant piece of text, but as a beautiful story that can really reveal so much to you if you know how it is laid out and why it's so important to understand that concept. So when I first started getting serious about reading my Bible, I did not understand at all about like why the books were written in certain orders or what was included within each book. And honestly, researching for this episode today, I honestly learned a lot and I'm just so excited to share it. I think it's going to be really, really interesting. But the biggest thing that I learned at the beginning when I really started taking Bible study seriously is that the Bible isn't just like one book. It's a collection of different books that all tell one story that's called a meta-narrative. So there is like one overarching story from beginning to end, but then even like the old and the new testament have stories within them. And then within each book, they have stories within that, and then within each book, there's even multiple stories. So it's like there's so many different layers of it and how it's written. And so I really feel like this is going to be so helpful. So by the end of this episode today, you are going to learn what the Bible actually is, why it's divided into the Old and New Testament, why the books are grouped the way they are within each testament, the purpose of every major section, why it matters, how everything points back to Jesus, and especially for beginners where you should start reading. And again, how to understand the layout and really take a tour of the Bible so it can make it feel a lot less overwhelming. So, welcome to Step Into Bold Faith. This is the podcast for Christian women who want to learn how to make Bible study feel simple so it transforms their lives and grows their faith. I'm your host, Whitney. I am a fellow Jesus lover, wife, mama, in your Bible study bestie. And I'm so glad that God brought you here today. And I just want to say that I am so thankful for each and every person listening today and that showed up and is here. I've been getting some really great feedback on the podcast, and it's just so incredible and always makes my day. But if you haven't gotten a chance to do so, I would love if you left a rating and review in Apple or Spotify where you like star it or write a little comment about what you're loving about the episodes. It really does make my day to see those. And I really want this podcast to grow and reach more women. So if you want to support the mission of helping more women with Bible study, please go do a rating and review before you start the teaching portion of this episode. But I'm just so excited about this. So before we get into the actual teaching portion of the episode, I go over what tools you should be using. So making sure that you have a good physical Bible and having Bible tabs will be very helpful for this episode if you don't have them already, where you can see on the side of your Bible where all of the books are in the order of them. So when you're actually going to do your Bible study and when you're looking between like the Old and New Testament, you can see like what books are in which section. I think that that would be really helpful today. And if you need help knowing what kind of physical Bible to use or other tools to use, make sure to go down into the link in the show notes and check out the Bible study made simple guide. Within that guide, I talk about all the tools you need to use, the right physical Bible to buy, how to use them, how to really start making a difference in your Bible study journey. And that is only five. It is such a steal. It is such a good way to start your Bible study journey with confidence. So you're definitely gonna want to go check that out. So now let's get into the teaching portion of this episode. Today might be a little bit longer because there's a lot to go through, and we really do want to take a tour of the Bible. And you know, the Bible, the Bible is quite big. So we're gonna do our best to get through it and have it be fun along the way. So section number one today is gonna be about what is the Bible. So the Bible, we think it's one giant book, but it's actually more of like a library. So imagine walking into your library and there's like all different kinds of books there, like, you know, there's history books or different uh sections like romance and different, you know, there's like different sections of the library, right? So it's kind of the same thing with the Bible. It's made up of 66 books, and these books were written approximately over 1,500 years, and they were written by around 40 different human authors, all with different backgrounds, including kings, shepherds, fishermen, prophets, doctors, and more. So there was a lot of different human offers, but authors, but everything is God breathed and God breathed, or however you say that, but he really is the one who directed all these people and what they should write and how they should write it. So it's really awesome. And so, again, even though there's all these different books and all these different stories, the Bible overall tells one story, and it's all again written by God, the one author, even though physically people wrote these books. And so, Christians, we believe that God really did inspire each one and tell these people like what they should write within it, and it is just so awesome. So, everywhere from Genesis, which is the first book of the Bible, all the way to Revelation, which is the last book of the Bible, God is revealing who He is, who we are, why we needed a Savior, His plan for redemption. And ultimately, as Christians, we really believe that the Bible is mainly written about Jesus. And so this is one of the biggest reasons that understanding the layout and how it's laid out really matters because once you realize how it's all connected, Bible study will make a lot more sense and you will just feel a lot more connected to it and a lot more confident understanding like the background. And that's really why I wanted to go into this historical context series within the podcast, because I feel like a lot of these foundational concepts are really important for us to know and understand before we can like learn more about the Bible. So now we're gonna be going into the next section of this episode where we're gonna talk about the old versus the new testament. So it's really like the Bible is divided into two major sections, the Old Testament and the New Testament. And a lot of it is like a lot of it in the Old Testament is really preparing us for the New Testament. It's preparing us for the birth and coming of Jesus, our Savior, the Messiah. And so in the Old Testament, it really introduces like how God created the earth, the heavens and the earth. It introduces the concept of sin in the very first book in in Genesis. It talks about, you know, Adam and Eve in the garden. Like that's the first even mention of sin. It talks about a lot of God's promises that he was helping people have to not just be fulfilled within that generation or that group of people, but maybe in future generations and within future people and even within like the coming of Jesus. He talks about how we were chosen and how much he loves us and how we needed a savior to be saved from our sins so we can be with him in heaven. And everything is just really built in the Old Testament. It's like very much the foundation for the New Testament. But I don't necessarily recommend you reading the Old Testament first, and we're gonna get into that later in this episode. So you're gonna want to stick around until the end to understand that. But it's a lot about just again the foundational concepts and a lot of the the first people who really were, you know, on the scene at that time. And so with the New Testament, it really answers a lot of the questions after Jesus arrives, the promises that are fulfilled. It shows how the gospel is proclaimed, how the church begins, how believers learn how to live as followers of Christ. And without the Old Testament, we wouldn't fully understand why Jesus came, but without the New Testament, we wouldn't fully understand how God's promises were fulfilled. So we really need to read both books of the Bible and the or yes, both um, I'm sorry, both testaments of the Bible, like the Old and the New Testament. So this is something I tell people a lot, but a lot of times people will just go ahead and cherry pick throughout the Bible and like read one section or one verse or something. But really to understand the full Bible, we need to be reading entire books of the Bible. We need to be reading entire testaments of the Bible, right? And not just doing what we feel like doing, like reading through entire books and through entire testaments because we want to fully understand the big picture and everything that's involved. And we can't do that based off of like one verse or one part of the Bible. Like imagine like you reading up the fiction book that you're reading right now. You pick it up and you just go to like one paragraph of the fiction book. You would be like, oh, that paragraph sounds cool, but it's like, what about the rest of the book? Like, you don't understand the context, you don't understand the characters, you don't understand what's going on, right? So it's really important we're reading entire books of the Bible and entire testaments. So section number four is the Bible, it's organized by type. It's not necessarily chronological order. So some of it is in order, but not really. So the Bible isn't arranged from the oldest thing to the newest thing, it's instead it's organized by category. So it's like like you're walking into the library, right? And it's like all of the romance novels are together, all the you know, these different sections. The Bible does something very similar. So that's very important to note is most of the types are like together. And so when we take a tour through the Bible, we're gonna do that right now. So we're gonna start with it and go in order. So within, within the, let me see. So within the the law, which is from Genesis, the first book, into Deuteronomy, these are the first five books of the Bible, and these answer questions like who created the world? Why is there sin? Who is God? Who are God's people? Why do we need a savior? These books really lay the foundation for everything else in the Bible, and again, that's called like the law. And then we go into different books that are within history, and these history books tell the story of Israel, and you'll see victories, failures, kings, battles, faithfulness, rebellion. And you'll notice that the biggest theme without the history books is that God really remains faithful even when his people aren't faithful. And one of the biggest themes you'll see is that he really has so much patience, love, kindness for us. And if you want to learn all about God's characteristics, I have a really awesome episode about that. I can't remember right now what the number is, but go look at that. And it was so good. That was like one of my favorite episodes was talking all about God's characteristics and like what he did. And then there's also books of the Bible that are called poetry and wisdom. And so instead of talking about historical narratives, these books help help us process and actually apply these things to our daily lives. They talk about how to pray, how to worship, how to handle suffering, how to seek wisdom, how to trust God, how to express emotions, right? So, like the Psalms and the Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, I have such a hard time pronouncing that one. Song of Solomon, Job. So these are all about, again, helping us express emotions, helping us talk about how to talk about God, how to live wisely, how to have life hit our life's deepest questions answered, how to celebrate love, how to explore suffering and God, God's sovereignty through it all, right? And so these are all like very, very moving books. And it's so funny. We'll talk about these books at church and different things, and it'll be like one is like so uplifting and great, and you're like worshiping and you're like so excited, and then the next one is literally like so sad, and you're like, you just like kind of feel these people, and like it's so crazy because the Bible, it was obviously written a long time ago, but as Christians, a lot of these concepts really are the same today, and then they they'll be the same yesterday, today, and forever because God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, right? And so, yeah, okay. Now we're on to the prophets. So the prophets are really awesome, and a lot of these books of the Bible, they're very important because they really talk about how the prophets called God's people back to him, they warned about the consequences of sin, but they all also offered hope. And again, they pointed towards the coming of the Messiah. And then now, when you start the New Testament, when you're in the Gospels, this is Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, these books tell us about Jesus. They talk about his birth, his teachings, the miracles he he performed, his death, him dying on the cross, the resurrection of his body ascending into heaven, right? And so a lot of times the gospel emphasizes different details for different audiences, and they really give us a full picture of Jesus. And even though Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, the four gospels, when you're reading them, they all sound very similar. They really have like different themes throughout because they are written all by, again, human authors who all have different experiences. So just because it sounds the same, you really can get a lot from each one. And if you know more about each of these authors specifically and their background, it's like very interesting. Like they each have different jobs and viewpoints. And so there is a lot of like details you can really pick up. And then you go into the book of Acts, and this really answers the question like, what happened after Jesus returned to heaven? And we see the birth of the church, we see the spread of the gospel, we see believers starting to boldly share their faith, right? And and getting into all of those. And then we go into the books that are written about letters to individual churches and individual believers. And we can think of them almost as like pastoral coaching, and they answer questions like, How do I forgive? How do I handle conflict? How should Christians live their lives? How do I grow spiritually? And many of the practical verses that we can really apply to our lives are written in these books of the letters, and they are so impactful and great. I like love the New Testament so much. And then the last book of the Bible is Revelation. And in this book, we are reminded that God keeps his promises. And although it contains a lot of symbolic language, a lot of the messages are simple. It's like Jesus won, he conquered death, he ascended into heaven, we can be with the Father now that Jesus came and saved us from sin. God is faithful, hope is coming one day. And it really just like it ends the way that God promised it would the whole time, even though it took a lot of time, right? So I know that that was a lot of information today, but understanding this really matters because we want to understand like the whole big picture before we can even go into individual books and like try to understand them. So hopefully this helps you on your Bible study journey, and you'll really begin opening your Bible and reading with more purpose, recognizing themes, connecting stories, recognizing some of these books that are going on. And I learned a lot of this from the Bible handbook from the Daily Grace Company, and that's one of the resources linked in the Bible study made symbol guide, that $5 guide I was talking to you about at the end of this episode. So you're definitely gonna want to get that. And where beginners should start. Okay, so this is this is the last section we're gonna go over really quick. So if you're a beginner who hasn't actually started reading the Bible, I would definitely start with the Gospel of John. So it's Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, those are the four Gospels, but it's the last of the four Gospels. Get to know Jesus, feel connected to Jesus, and then once you feel connected to Jesus and you've built that foundation, finish the rest of the New Testament. So go back into Matthew, finish the New Testament, and then go back into Genesis, finish the Old Testament. And this is how I did it when I really started taking my Bible study journey seriously, and it really impacted my Bible study journey so much because I love learning about Jesus. And John is such a great writer. It's so impactful. There's so much that we can take away from it. And so today, again, we learned about how the Bible, it's not just, it's not just one book, it's a whole library with different collections. It contains 66 books written by many authors, all under God's breath and inspiration. I talked about how it tells one unified story of redemption and how Jesus was our coming savior and how we needed him to be saved from sin, how the Old Testament prepared us for Jesus, how the New Testament reveals Jesus, and how the books are grouped by different types to help us navigate them and understanding the Bible's layout again, how it gives us confidence every time we open this week, every time we open the word. So this week, really just spend some time like going through the different sections, making sure again you have the right physical Bible where before each section it's like explaining like what's going on and overview, making sure to get that $5 guide, the Bible study made simple guide, so you can like really learn about it and see how to actually go through and study the book, all the books of the Bible. And before we end this episode today, I do want to talk about one more thing. So if you're like really ready to learn about the Bible, to understand it, to stay consistent, to be surrounded a supportive community, I would love to invite you inside the Bible study made simple community. And this is where we really take big ideas like this and turn them into practical Bible study skills. You'll learn how to scripture confidently, you'll understand biblical context, you'll know what questions to ask yourself, and you'll really just be able to understand it so it can begin to transform your life. And so, again, when you actually join the community, you'll get that guide included for free. So it's definitely worth joining the community if you're ready to take that next step. But if not, go ahead and grab that $5 guide. It's a great way to get started. So I'm just so excited that you are here with me today. Thank you for sticking with me. I hope this was super helpful. I would love any feedback or anything that you have for me. You can always send me a DM at step into bold faith on Instagram or TikTok. And let's now end in our prayer. God, thank you so much for each and every woman listening to this right now, Lord. I am so glad that she wants to understand the Bible. She wants to learn about it. She wants to really know the details behind what you wrote and how you wrote it and how it's significant in her life, Lord. Please show her this. Please reveal to her what she needs to know. Please help her to navigate it with confidence and feel so excited to read it every day, Lord. And we just ask all of these things in Jesus' name. Amen. So until next time, thank you so much for coming along the journey with me. And let's keep stepping into bold faith together. Bye.