Bible Study Guide and Topics

Bible study is the study of the bible by regular persons, either individually or as a part of a bible study group. This practice was originated by the Pietists, as one of the more influential teachings of their founder, pastor Philipp Jakob Spener. Many retail stores have bible study guides available to aid people in establishing certain concepts and define important terms.

The bible is a collection of 66 holy books written over 1600 years ago by about 36 authors. The bible is not a text book or a history book, but a compilation of stories, parables, allegories and teachings supposedly inspired by god himself. Bible study is resorted to by people looking for guidance and hope with their daily toils, in hopes that Jesus&;s sayings will still apply 20 centuries later. The bible is divided into the old testament and the new testament, each of which is further divided into 39 and 27 books respectively. The old testament, as categorized by Jesus is comprised of &;the law of Moses&;, &;the prophets&; and the psalms. The law of Moses refers to the first five books (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Deuteronomy, and Numbers); the prophets are Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, and the twelve smaller prophetic books. The psalms would be, by way of elimination, the remaining books.

The new testament follows the life of Jesus. The first four and better-known books are the gospels, written about the same events but from different perspectives by Mathew, Mark, Luke and John. Other books include the Acts of Apostles, which was also written by Luke and records the everyday lives of the disciples after Jesus&;s death. The rest of the new testament is mostly letters written by early church leaders addressed to several congregations. As mentioned before, people today hope to gain some insight from letters written to other people who have been long dead. The new testament ends with the book of revelation, a prophecy signaling the end times authored by John the evangelist.

Bible study topics range from abortion to zeal, including addiction, adultery, ambition, anger, arrogance, assistance, assurance, astrology, atheism, baptism, benevolence, bereavement, bestiality, betting, belief, the bible itself, blasphemy, blessing, boasting, borrowing, bribery, charity, cheerfulness, child rearing, children, circumcision, comfort, commitment, communication, communion, complaining, conceit, courage, courtesy, coveting, death, deceit, demons, dependability, depravity, depression, despair, disease, divorce, doubt,

dreams, edification, elders, engagement, enemies, enthusiasm, envy, eternal life, evolution, exhortation, faith, family, fasting, fear, forgiveness, fornication, friendship, gambling, goals, guilt, gluttony, gossip, grace, greed,

grief, happiness, heaven, hell, the holy spirit, homosexuality, honesty, hope, humility, hypocrisy, idleness, idolatry,

immortality, impatience, incest, infertility, insanity, integrity, intercession, justice, kidnapping, kindness, love, Lucifer, lust, marriage, masturbation, medicine, meditation, mercy, polygamy, pregnancy, and the list goes on and on. Seemingly just about any subject can be added to the agenda of bible study topics.