Thoughts for
the week

In the news
this week

Spring Term
Programme

Search our
Collections

Prayers
Collection
Collective Worship Resource


The book with many covers

.


AGE: Secondary

THEME: The Book with Many Covers: Bible Sunday

AIM:
To consider the place of the Bible in Christian life.

PREPARATION:
Gather together as many different versions of the Bible as you can reasonably manage: Authorised, Revised, Revised Standard, New Revised Standard, New English, Good News, New International, J.B. Phillips, Jerusalem, Amplified - these are only a few of the versions in English. If you can, you might add some versions of the Bible in other languages. And of course there are other versions which paraphrase or re-tell the Bible as a novel, like The Living Bible and The Book of God.

You might also wish to have some copies of scriptures from other faiths.

INTRODUCTION:
Religions have their own scriptures. These play a vital part in defining what their followers believe. (If you have examples, you could use them to illustrate what you say.) For example:
  • Sikhs revere the Guru Granth Sahib, a collection of scriptures. It has a central place both in their lives and in their place of worship, the Gurdwara.
  • Followers of Islam will agree that the Qur'an is the focus of their faith. Sometimes its place is summed up in these terms: 'Islam is the Qur'an and the Qur'an is Islam'.
  • Jews place no less emphasis on their scriptures, and Jewish scriptures are also important for Christians. The first section of Jewish scripture is the Torah or written law. (This is the same as the first five books of the Old Testament in the Christian Bible.) The second section, Prophets, tells the history of the Jews settling in the Promised Land and the writings of prophets such as Isaiah and Hosea. Writings, the third section, includes the Psalms, wisdom literature such as the book of Proverbs and some short books such as Ruth.
For all believers, a knowledge of scripture is important because it tells how the nature of God becomes known through the events of history and what this means for the past... and today.

DEVELOPMENT:
Christians, just like other believers, have their scriptures. This is the Bible. (Show an example.) It took nearly 400 years for Christian Church leaders to decide what should be in the Bible and what shouldn't.

Until the 16th century the only versions were in Hebrew, Greek and Latin - the languages of scholars. Then Martin Luther translated the Bible into his own language, German.

Today the whole Bible can be read in over 330 languages and the New Testament in another 700 languages and dialects.

Here are a few examples (point out the range of examples).

The Bible, available in different versions, illustrates the search for greater understanding of God and his love for all people. The same message can be told in different languages and in different ages. (Here you can choose a favourite verse in different versions.)

Language - words and their meaning - changes over time, but Christians want to share their belief that God's love does not.

(You might use the following section as a framework for a reading.)

READING:
The words of Jesus found in Luke 10:27 are echoed in Matthew 5:43.
And these words reach back in to the history of Jesus, a Jew, to the Jewish scriptures such as Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18.

This is one of the cornerstones of the Christian faith
  • found in the Bible
  • needing believers to put it into practice
  • through all time
  • and in all languages.

REFLECTION:
'A Chinese woman's prayer' (after learning to read)
From The Lion Book of Famous Prayers compiled by Veronica Zundel.
Pub. Lion, ISBN 0-85648-131-9.

'Lord, make us to be Bibles
so that those who cannot read the Book
can read it in us.'


Feedback  |  The Contributors  |  Copyright © Culham Institute 2000-2012  |  Cydaddoli - fersiwn Cymraeg >>

.
Copyright © Culham Institute 2000-2012