1. Sacred Stories and Sacred Scriptures
By: Agustin Juarez, Luis Hidalgo, Julian Garcia, Jacob Nathan, Dylan Whitfield, Marcos Fragoso

2. The Bible The Bible comes from the Greek word biblia meaning “books”.
The Christian Bible includes the Hebrew Scriptures used by Jews, more commonly known to Christians as the Old Testament.
The New Testament includes the gospels, as well as epistles.

3. The Bible (cont.)
All Christians agree on the twenty-seven books of the New Testament.
The NT is a collection of 27 books written in Greek in the first century. All but one of the NT authors were Jewish.
The author of Luke and Acts of the Apostles was a gentile.

4. Criteria for NT Books Ancient Widely read among the faithful
Early Christian leaders set up four criteria for a book to be included in the New Testament which describes it must be:
Apostolic, attributed to an Apostle or one of his companions
Ancient
Widely read among the faithful
A source of the truth of God’s revelation an not heresy

5. Definitions
Canon: For Catholics, the twenty-seven New Testament books and forty-six Old Testament books that are accepted as inspired books by the Church.
Heresy: For Christians, an obstinate denial after Baptism to believe a truth that must be believed with divine and Catholic faith.

6. Four Literary Genres of the NT
The Four Gospels
One Narrative of History
21 letters
One apocalyptic book

7. The four gospels The Four Gospels tell of Jesus Being the son of God.
They show Jesus’ life, ministry, death, and resurrection.

8. The 21 Letters
The epistles or “letters” are considered formal letters written by an individual to Christian communities or to other individuals.

9. The Narrative of History
Known as The Acts of the Apostles, this book tells the history of the first Christians and their missionary efforts from Jerusalem to Rome.

10. The Apocalyptic Book
The Revelation to John is the highly symbolic and allegorical account of a vision a man named John had of future earthly disasters and the intervention of God to set up the kingdom of heaven here on earth.

11. Apologetics
Apologetics is a style of writing that defends and explains the Christian faith.
The second century saw a rise in Christian writings called apologetics.
One of the first authors of apologetic literature was Irenaeus of Lyon. He wrote against heresies, a treatise against the teachings of the Gnostics.

12. Apologetics (Cont.)
Gnostics comes from the Greek word meaning knowledge.
Gnosticism tend toward elitism, for its adherents set themselves up as purer than the Apostles because they possessed the secret spiritual knowledge for salvation.

13. Apologetics (Cont.)
Justin Martyr once called himself a “disciple of Plato”, he converted to Christianity and wrote numerous treatises on Christianity. He was martyred for he Christian faith around AD 165.

14. Quiz Bible comes from what Greek word.
True or False - All branches of Christianity agree on what books are authoritative in the Hebrew bible.
True or False - Apologetics refers to a style of writing intended for Christians to help them explain and defend their faith.
Apologist Justin Martyr referred to himself as__________.
True or False - For Catholics, all the books of the OT and NT are inspired by the Church.