The Bible is a large book. Actually, it is an anthology of books, sixty-six books.  It would take the average reader seventy hours to read through the entire Bible, and that is without pauses to think about what they are reading.

It was written during times of war and times of peace, during times of joy and times of sorrow. 

The amazing thing about the Bible is that even though the Bible is

• a collection of sixty-six different books
• written by approximately forty different authors
• over a 1,600 year period

there is one main storyline that unfolds.

But looked at another way, if what the Bible says is true, it is not really that amazing.

If the Bible is a true account of what happened, then (as the Bible says)

• the universe was created by God for a purpose, and
• God wants people to know about that purpose, and
  
• the Bible is a record of how God's plan (purpose) is unfolding.

The original languages of the Bible are Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. 

Each author wrote with their own personality and abilities, in a specific culture and historical situation; each book was written to meet the specific needs of those times. But it was also written for those who would live after those times.  Because the great issues of life are unchanging, it can also meet our needs in this present time.  The Bible does not simply contain a philosophy of life or a list of rules about how to live. It is the history of what God has been doing in the world.