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The following printout should be placed in your Confirmation folder.
1. Each of the world's great religions has written documents about their faith beliefs. For Christians, that document is the Holy Bible. It contains the faith beliefs of the Jewish faith as well since the Christian faith has Jewish roots. Some written documents of other world religions follow:
The Old Testament now commonly referred to as the Hebrew Scriptures, tell us of our Jewish roots and how God came to be worshipped by the Jewish race. They contain the history of the Jewish people as well as elements of faith.
3. The New Testament, now commonly called the Christian Scriptures, contains the life of Jesus and the works/writings of the Apostles and early followers of Jesus.
4.
There are 7 books in the Hebrew Scriptures which were never found in the original
Hebrew language. They were only found written in Greek. The Catholic Church accepted these 7 books as being sacred because during the time of Jesus, only the Torah (the first 5 books of the Bible) were written in Hebrew. All the remaining books were written in Greek because it was the more common language.
These Greek translations were called the Septuagent. Since Jesus would have used these writings during his life, the Catholic Church included all of them in the Bible.
When the Protestant faiths broke away from the Catholic Church, they decided to remove these 7 books from the Bible since there was no proof that they ever existed in the original Hebrew language.
These 7 books, called the deuterocanonical books, are:
5. As a matter of fact, we use one of these songs every Sunday at Mass. The Responsorial Psalm is either read or sung between the 1st and 2nd readings. The Bible contains 150 psalms divided into categories of:
One of the most popular psalms is Psalm 23.
6. There is only one Gospel of Jesus, with different versions written by four individuals. Matthew wrote his version around 85 AD. Matthew's Gospel was written for Jews who had not accepted Jesus as the Messiah. In his version, Matthew points out very clearly that Jesus is the Messiah and has fulfilled the law of Moses and the prophets. He also shows how Jesus is victorious over the powers of Satan and all evil. Matthew's Gospel is the one most widely read.Luke was the second to write the Gospel (70-80 AD). He was a medical doctor by profession and portrays Jesus as the human savior. Luke also concentrates on the healings done by Jesus. Luke wrote his version to try and convert the Greeks. Since most of Luke's audience was poor, he concentrates on showing God's kindness and mercy especially to the poor and disenfranchised. Luke shows that Christianity is not just for the wealthy and powerful but for anyone who believes regardless of class or status in life. These three Gospel versions, Matthew, Mark and Luke are known as the synoptic gospels. They follow a similar time line of events in Jesus' life and ministry.
Examples: Samaritan woman (John 4:4-42) Adulterous woman (John 8:1-11) The word "Gospel" means "The Living Faith". Fiction
7. The word "Gospel" means "Good News". The Gospel of Jesus Christ = The Good News of Jesus Christ.
8. Letters written by three of the Apostles are included in the Bible.
Peter (2 letters): I Peter and II Peter
There is one letter from Jude, but it is believed to be written by another Jude and not the apostle of the same name.
These letters were usually written to a specific Christian community going through some sort of difficulty or persecution. They were written to help the community keep the faith.
9. Not only was it written over 44 generations, but was written by numerous authors in several different languages and many different locations.
10. We can prove for a fact that Jesus of Nazareth was a living, breathing, human being and not a fictional character. There are written historical documents other than the Bible which speak of Him.
11. The Bible contains everything we need to know about our faith.
The Catholic church teaches that we also need to know about our Catholic tradition, as passed on by the Apostles and their successors. The Bible and our sacred Tradition complement and illumine each other so that we can know the fullness of God’s revelation.  John's version portrays Jesus as the Son of God and concentrates on His divine nature of God as opposed to his humanness as emphasized by Matthew. John’s version was written for a Greek audience. John tells us of many events left out by the others. Mark was the first to write the Gospel (65 AD). He was a teenager when he first met Jesus. It is believed Mark's father owned the house where Jesus had the Last Supper. Mark's version of the Gospel portrays Jesus as the suffering servant. Mark wrote his Gospel version to convert non-believers who lived in Rome. Mark's Gospel is the shortest of the four versions. There are four gospels. Fiction Words to songs can be found in the Bible. Fact The Bible is only one book. Fiction The Old Testament tells us about the life of Jesus. Fiction The word "Bible" means "book." Fact
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2. The Bible is split into two main sections, the Old Testament and the New Testament. Fact
The Bible is actually many books combined to give us a better understanding of all that has been written about God. The number of books contained in the Bible will vary. The Catholic Bible contains 73 books. The Protestant Bible contains 66 books. Why the difference?
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