One Book, One Story

This is the first course on the Rooting Path. Every course after it—the Old Testament, the New Testament, Bible figures—will use what this course teaches. The first lesson is in no hurry to teach methods; first we take a clear look at the shape of the whole Bible.

Many people who first resolve to read the Bible start at Genesis 1 and stop when they reach Leviticus. Not because they don’t want to read, but because they don’t know what they are reading: history, law, poetry and letters all mixed together, like walking into a big house without a map. This course is that map.

First, its shape. The Bible has 66 books: 39 in the Old Testament and 27 in the New. They were written by many different people in different eras, and contain stories, law, poetry, proverbs, the words of prophets, Gospels and letters. So the first step in reading the Bible is to know what kind of book you have in your hands—later lessons will go through them one kind at a time.

Yet these 66 books are not an unrelated pile; they are one story. It begins with “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen 1:1): God made the world, and made people; people turned away from God; step by step God came looking for them and saving them, and at last sent his Son; and the story ends with the one on the throne saying, “Behold, I am making all things new” (Rev 21:5). Creation, fall, redemption, new creation—whatever passage you read, you can first ask: where is this in the story?

Who is at the center of this story? The risen Jesus walked the road to Emmaus with two discouraged disciples, and Luke writes: “Beginning from Moses and from all the prophets, he explained to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.” (Luke 24:27) Jesus also said to the Jewish leaders: “these are they which testify about me.” (John 5:39) There was no New Testament yet; the ‘Scriptures’ he meant were the Old Testament—even the Old Testament points to him. So reading the Bible is not just learning ideas; it is coming to know a person.

What if you can’t understand it? As the eunuch sat reading Isaiah in his chariot, Philip asked him: “Do you understand what you are reading?” (Acts 8:30) He answered: “How can I, unless someone explains it to me?” (Acts 8:31) That is not a shameful thing to say; it is an honest one. Then Philip, “beginning from this Scripture, preached to him about Jesus.” (Acts 8:35) Reading the Bible has never been something we do alone: there is the church, the small group, those who have gone ahead of us. This course, too, is here to read with you.