Don Morrison, age 13, of Chester, Penn., for his question:
IS THE JEWISH AND CHRISTIAN BIBLE THE SAME?
Both those in the Jewish and Christian religions consider the Bible the most sacred of all books. Both consider the Bible to be the Word of God and they base most of their important beliefs, ceremonies and holidays on it.
The Bible has two major parts: the Old Testament and the New Testament.
Jews accept only the Old Testament, which is known as the Hebrew Bible. Christians accept both Testaments. Some Christian groups also accept as part of the Bible a collection of writings called the Apocrypha.
Jews and various Christian groups have chosen for their particular Bible only the books they believe to have been inspired by God. The Bible is not just a single book but it actually is made up of many sections called books.
The Hebrew Bible has 24 books, the Protestant Bible has 66 books and the Roman Catholic Bible has 73 books. The name "Bible," by the way, comes from a Greek word that means "books."
The books officially accepted by any group of Jews or Christians as part of their Bible are called the canon.
The Old Testament begins with an account of God's creation of the heavens and the earth. It then largely deals with the history and religious life of ancient Israel from about 12,000 to the 100s B.C.
The New Testament covers about 100 years. It starts by describing the birth of Jesus Christ and ends about A.D. 125.
The Bible is the most widely read book in history. It is probably also the most influential. More copies have been distributed of the Bible than any other book. It has also been translated more times into more languages than any other book.
The Bible regularly gives countless people a great deal of comfort, hope and guidance during times of uncertainty and trouble.
The authors of the Bible used many forms of literature. At least 50 forms appear in the Old Testament alone. They include love poetry, songs, hymns, riddles, essays, fiction, history and proverbs.,
Much of the Bible is made up of stories about both great and ordinary people. These stories tell of struggles, hopes, failures and triumphs.
The Bible is admired for its realistic view of human life, its stirring descriptions of the glories of faith and its vivid portraits of people. Most of all, literary critics have praised the beautiful style found in many books of the Bible.
Many people believe that every event mentioned in the Bible actually happened exactly as the Bible says it did. Many others believe that many events in the Bible must be read as symbols of religious belief. Many Bible scholars today consider it to be chiefly an expression of faith.