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Bible - Book of Titus
A compact letter of instructions to Paul's delegate on Crete: appoint sound leaders, silence false teachers, and teach every group to live out the grace they have received.

Bible - The Pentateuch
The five books of Moses, from creation to the edge of the Promised Land: the story, covenant and teaching on which the rest of the Bible is built.

Bible - Book of 1 Kings
From Solomon's wisdom, wealth and Temple to a kingdom split in two, a line of failing kings, and the prophet Elijah's lonely stand against Ahab and Jezebel.

Bible - Book of Zechariah
Eight night visions encourage a discouraged people to rebuild the Temple, and later oracles look ahead to a humble king, a pierced figure mourned by a nation, and God reigning over all the earth.

Bible - Book of Romans
Paul's longest and weightiest letter: everyone has sinned, God sets people right as a gift received by faith, nothing can separate them from his love, and here is how to live.

Bible - Book of Ruth
A widowed foreigner's stubborn loyalty to her mother-in-law turns famine, grief and emptiness into a harvest, a marriage and the family line of King David.

Bible - Book of Psalms
Israel's songbook: 150 hymns, laments and thanksgivings in five books, from the shepherd psalm to the rivers of Babylon, still prayed and sung every day.

Bible - Book of Proverbs
The Bible's handbook of wisdom: a parent's speeches, Wisdom's own voice and hundreds of sharp sayings on work, words, money, anger and the fear of the LORD.

Bible - Book of Philippians
Paul's letter of joy from prison: to live is Christ, the poem of Christ's humility and exaltation, pressing toward the mark, and contentment in every state.

Bible - Book of Revelation
John's vision from Patmos: letters to seven churches, seals, trumpets and beasts, the fall of Babylon, and a new heaven and a new earth.

Bible - Book of Philemon
Paul's shortest letter: from prison he asks a friend to take back the runaway Onesimus, no longer as a servant but as a beloved brother.

Bible - Book of Nahum
A three-chapter prophetic poem announcing the fall of Nineveh, Assyria's great capital, and naming God as both patient judge and refuge for the oppressed.

Bible - Old Testament
The first and larger division of the Christian Bible: law, history, poetry and prophecy gathered over centuries around one God and one covenant people.

Bible - New Testament Gospels
Four ancient biographies of Jesus, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, that tell one story in four voices and still divide scholars over how much history they hold.

Bible - Pauline Epistles
The thirteen New Testament letters in Paul's name: which are surely his, which are debated, how they were written with secretaries, ordered and collected.

Bible - New Testament
The twenty-seven books of Christian scripture: four gospels, Acts, the letters of Paul and others, and Revelation, and how they became one collection.

Bible - Book of Obadiah
The shortest book of the Hebrew Bible: one fierce vision against Edom for gloating over Jerusalem's fall, with a promise that what you do will be done to you.

Bible - Book of Mark
The shortest and earliest Gospel: Jesus as healer, exorcist and misunderstood Messiah, racing from the Jordan to the cross and an empty tomb.

Bible - Book of Matthew
The first Gospel presents Jesus as Israel's promised Messiah and great teacher, from his birth and the Sermon on the Mount to the cross, the empty tomb and the Great Commission.

Bible - Major Prophets
Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel and Daniel warn of Jerusalem's fall, mourn it, and promise that God will restore his people.

Bible - Book of Micah
A village prophet takes on Jerusalem's powerful, then sets beside his warnings one of the Bible's great visions of peace and its most famous answer to what God requires.

Bible - Book of Luke
The third Gospel tells the life of Jesus as a carefully ordered story for outsiders, the poor and the lost, from the manger to the road to Emmaus.

Bible - Book of Malachi
The last of the prophets confronts a weary, cynical community after the exile in six sharp disputes about love, worship, marriage, justice and giving, and promises a messenger to come.

Bible - Book of John
The fourth Gospel: the Word made flesh, seven signs, the great "I am" sayings, the raising of Lazarus, the farewell at the supper and the risen Jesus.