How many books are in the Bible?
The collection Christians call the Bible contains, in the Protestant tradition, a total of 66 books: 39 in the Old Testament and 27 in the New Testament. In everyday Turkish the word "İncil" is often used for the whole collection; in the narrower technical sense the term Gospel…
The collection Christians call the Bible contains, in the Protestant tradition, a total of 66 books: 39 in the Old Testament and 27 in the New Testament. In everyday Turkish the word "İncil" is often used for the whole collection; in the narrower technical sense the term Gospel refers to the first four books of the New Testament that recount the life of Jesus (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John), and more broadly to the New Testament as a whole. Catholic and Orthodox traditions include several additional Old Testament books known as the "Deuterocanonical" books, so the total varies between 66 and 81 depending on the tradition. The Old Testament contains historical narratives (Genesis, Exodus, Kings), poetry and wisdom books (Psalms, Proverbs, Job) and prophetic books (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel). The New Testament opens with the four Gospels, followed by Acts, which tells the story of the first Christian community, then the letters attributed to Paul and the other apostles, and finally the book of Revelation. These 66 books were written over roughly fifteen hundred years, by different authors and in different literary genres; even so, they have been gathered into a single volume and read as a whole for centuries. Luke describes his aim in his own words: "having traced the course of all things accurately from the first, to write to you in order," and 2 Timothy adds that these writings are useful for teaching and training. The site's reading index lists all 66 books chapter by chapter.