The Bible is a collection of books, poems, songs and other writings. It is
the Sacred Scriptures of the Jews and the Christians. The Bible is divided
into two parts. The first part is the Sacred Scriptures of the Jewish people
which Christians call the “Old Testament.” The second part is the writings
of the first followers of the Jewish prophet Jesus of Nazareth. The term
Christian simply means “follower of Christ.” Christ is the Greek word for
the Jewish term “Messiah.” Christians call these writings about Jesus and
his followers the “New Testament.” Taken as a whole, the Bible tells the
story of the Jewish people, their rise and fall as a kingdom, the coming of
Jesus, his death and resurrection, and the beginnings of the spread of
Christianity. It covers events that would have happened mainly in the two
thousand years before Jesus up to and almost to the end of the first
century.