Book chapters help readers understand and follow a book’s story line as it advances step-by-step. The Bible is a bit different. Instead of being divided into chapters, it’s divided into books. But the 66 books of the Bible can be divided into 10 major sections based on their literary form and content. We can understand the Bible better if we understand how each section advances the great story of God’s redemption of fallen humanity.

[See the Bible Gateway Blog post series, How to Understand the Bible]

Bible Gateway interviewed J. Carl Laney (@jclaney48) about his series of blog posts, The Story of the Bible in 10 Chapters, on Western Seminary’s blog Transformed.

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Explain why you decided to divide the Bible into 10 sections and compress the Bible’s message into 10 “chapters.”

J. Carl Laney: I decided to divide the Bible into ten section based on two main factors—the kind of literature and the authors. The first section was pretty easy to decide. The Torah is distinguished as historical narrative and legal literature written by Moses. The next major unit was Israel’s history (Joshua through Esther). The third section could be considered “poetic,” but I think it is distinguished more as Hebrew wisdom Literature. That brings us to the prophets which I separated into two traditional divisions—Major and Minor prophets.

With the New Testament, the Gospels form a natural unit. Acts stands alone as the history of the apostolic period. Then we have Paul’s Epistles, the non-Pauline or General Epistles and finally the Revelation.

The reason for dividing the Bible’s message into chapters was to make it more manageable for general readers. It is like the proverbial question of “How do you eat an elephant?” One bite at a time! Similarly, breaking the Bible into smaller sections distinguished by author and type of literature makes it a more manageable read.

[Read the Bible Gateway Blog post, The Bible Table of Contents]

How difficult was it to do?

J. Carl Laney: It really wasn’t too difficult because I believe the literature of the Bible falls naturally into these ten divisions. I simply identified and introduced these sections of the Bible in a way that would be user-friendly and engaging.

Briefly summarize the message of each chapter.

J. Carl Laney:

• Chapter 1: The Books of Moses. God reaches out to humanity and introduces himself. He reveals that He’s sovereign (Genesis), Savior (Exodus), holy (Leviticus), wrathful (Numbers) and loving (Deuteronomy).
• Chapter 2: The Historical Books. These books tell us of Israel’s failure to live as a covenant people. Since they broke the stipulations of the covenant, God sent them into exile. But since his covenant with Abraham is eternal, God restored them to their promised land.
• Chapter 3: The Wisdom Books. These books reveal how God’s people are to live in the fear of the Lord. When they practice the fear of the Lord they’re both wise and successful, avoiding many of the unnecessary complications of life.
• Chapter 4: The Major Prophets. The prophets are men who spoke for God as prosecuting attorneys, indicting the people of Israel for breaking the covenant. They announced coming judgment, but didn’t leave the people without words of hope for better days in the future.
• Chapter 5: The Minor Prophets. The Twelve (minor) prophets speak for God warning of impending judgment in the present generation and yet assuring the faithful remnant of a glorious future.
• Chapter 6: The Gospels. The four Gospels announce the good news of the coming of Jesus—Israel’s promised Messiah—in fulfillment of the words of the prophets. They tell us that the King has come, lived a perfect life, died as Israel’s Passover lamb for the sins of the nation and rose again, vindicating His deity and Messiahship.
• Chapter 7. The Book of Acts. The book of Acts is Luke’s account of the advance of the kingdom of God throughout the Mediterranean world by the witness of the apostles.
• Chapter 8. The Pauline Epistles. Paul’s letters to the churches address issues of doctrine and practice for the early believers providing pastoral direction and encouragement.
• Chapter 9. The General Epistles. These are the non-Pauline letters which provide similar pastoral direction and encouragement for the early church.
• Chapter 10. The Book of Revelation. The final section of the Bible reveals how God’s plan for the ages concludes with his judgment on Satan and removal of the curse that came on the earth because of sin.

There’s a lot more that could be said about each section of the Bible, but brevity can be a blessing by not overwhelming people with too much information.

How will this approach help people to better understand the Bible and why is that important?

J. Carl Laney: I believe people will find it helpful to get a “bird’s eye view” of the Bible. Once they get the “Big Picture,” they’ll be better prepared to dig deep into more of the details.

What are your thoughts about Bible Gateway and the Bible Gateway App?

J. Carl Laney: Bible Gateway is a great resource! I use it frequently. I usually just go to the website when I’m searching for a text. I didn’t know about the Bible Gateway App. I’ll add that to my iPad!

Is there anything else you’d like to say

J. Carl Laney: It’s amazing how electronic biblical resources have become so available in the last decade! So many of my students use digital resources instead of hardcopy books. The world of publishing has made a radical shift. I wonder what changes are ahead for the next decade and how we should prepare ourselves for the biblical study and research of the future.

Bio: J. Carl Laney is professor of Biblical Literature at Western Seminary in Portland, Oregon. Laney graduated from Western as a student with his MDiv in 1973 and ThM in 1974. He completed doctoral studies at Dallas Theological Seminary in 1978, returned to Western Seminary as a Bible instructor and has taught at the same institution since 1977. His area of special interest is Bible backgrounds including the archaeology, historical geography, and cultural settings of Scripture. He’s the author of several books, including A Guide to Church Discipline, Moody Gospel Commentary: John, and Everyman’s Bible Commentary: Ezra & Nehemiah.

Since 1992 Laney has been taking students to Israel for a three-week study program at the Jerusalem University College. He’s also served as an interim pastor in a dozen churches. Carl and his wife Nancy have four children and six grandchildren. When he is not teaching or preaching, you may find him in his garage working on his WWII military jeeps. His website is carllaney.com.

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