(1) the Torah, or The Law is the first five books (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Deuteronomy, and Numbers), generally attributed to Moses. While the nearly mythological Moses may have originally compiled the Law, it is clear that he did not finish the work himself, and that it was compiled (partially at least) from older documents. The first part of Genesis still contains ancient Hebrew hieroglyphic elements which are ignored by most translators, but which are keys to the meanings of these otherwise obscure passages. Genesis tells the story of Creation up to the death of Joseph. The rest of the Law chronicles the life of Moses and exodus of the Children of Israel from Egypt to the Promised Land.

(2) the Prophets, consisting of Joshua, judges, First and Second Samuel, First and Second Kings, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and the twelve (or Minor) Prophets;

the Writings (Hagiographa), a heterogeneous group to which belong (a) Psalms, Proverbs, and Job, (b) the Scrolls (tvlegillot), consisting of the Song of Solomon (Song of Songs), Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, and Esther, (c) Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, and First and Second Chronicles.

When Esdras returned to Jerusalem from the Babylonian exile about 450 B.C., he brought back the "Book of the Ritual" or the priest's codex, i.e., the middle portions between Genesis and Deuteronomy, compiled by himself and his school in Babylon. It was only in 444 B.C. that he made it public.

     The New Testament is composed of two parts: The Gospels and the Epistles.

     The Gospels are: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. The Acts of the Apostles is the second half of the Gospel of Luke. There is a Gospel of Thomas which is not in the canon though it is accepted as genuine by the majority of authorities. Below, they are listed in the order in which they were written.

     Gospel of Mark was written by Mark, a witness to and participant in most of the events in the book, which was most likely written about 70 AD. It is notable in that it has no miraculous birth or resurrection.

     Gospel of Thomas (from Coptic sources) is not included in the canon of the New Testament, but is regarded by most scholars as a legitimate gospel.Thomas. It is a collection of  logia, or sayings, of Jesus.

     Gospel of Matthewcombines selections from The Gospel of the Hebrews, lost until 1870, a genealogy of Jesus, and the logia from The Gospel of Mark. 

     Gospel of Luke is the first part of a two-volume work which includes The Acts of the Apostles.Tradition says it was written by Paul's companion Luke. The most probable date for its composition is around 90 AD, and there is evidence that it was still being revised well into the 2nd century. It is believed that the gospel was meant to be read aloud to groups of followers of Jesus. The author says he bases his gospel on accounts already written (Mark, Thomas and Gospel to the Hebrews), what he understands to be the general beliefs of other followers and adding his own personal experiences with Paul.

     Gospel of John tradition says it was written by the Apostle John "beloved disciple" mentioned in John 21:24> IN which case it was like written 90-125 AD. But this is rejected by the majority of modern scholars who believe that the text went through two to three "editions" before reaching its current form, and because of this complex and multi-layered history it is meaningless to speak of a single author. It is regarded separately from the other gospels because does not seem to be derived from their sources.  In nature, it is Gnostic and anti-Jewish.

     The Epistles are:(a)Paul's letters to: the Romans, the Corinthians (1 & 2), the Galatians, the Ephesians, the Philippians, the Colossians, the Thessalonians (1&2), Timothy (1&2). Titus, Philomon, the Hebrews, (b) the general epistle of James, two epistles by Peter, three epistles by John, the general epistle of Jude, and the Revelation of John the Divine.

     Paul probably never existed but is a fabrication to cover-up the true author and character, Apollonius.

     Revelation was originally written by Judas Iscariot and added to by others over the decades.

     For those unaware of the tradition of not actually printing GOD's name, please note that whenever you see "LORD" or "GOD", in capital letters (here and in most of the bible translations), those words have merely been substituted for the actual name of GOD. In the actual text of the Old Testament, GOD's name is there, spelled in Hebrew letters: Y, H, W, and H. This tradition started among the Jews a few hundred years before Christianity, and therefore was passed along naturally to the Christians. It is even common for some Jews to substitute for GOD's name when spoken with the phrase, "Ha Shem" (meaning, "The Name")

      Celebrated manuscripts of the Bible include:

     Codex Vaticanus (Greek, 4th cent.) at the Vatican;

     Codex Sinaiticus (Greek, 4th cent.) in the British Museum (discovered by Lobegott Friedrich Konstantin von Tischendore on Mt. Sinai),

    Codcx Alexandrinus (Greek, 5th cent.), in the British Museum, given to King Charles I by Cyril Lucaris;

    Codex Bezae (Greek and Latin, 6th cent.), at Cambridge, England, given by Theodore Beza.

     The most ancient fragments of the Hebrew text are the 2nd cent. B.C. papyrus of Nash, discovered in 1902 in Al Vayyum, Egypt, and the Dead Sea Scrolls , containing several books and fragments of the Old Testament. The most ancient fragments of the Greek test are found in the 2nd cent. AD Nag Hammadi Library, discovered in 1945.     

      The first great translation of the whole Bible was the Vulgate of St. Jerome, the Latin version still used by the Roman Catholic Church. The Greek text generally received in the East is, for the Old Testament, that of the Septuagent; the first translation of the Old Testament was the Aramaic Targum. The New Testament has come down to us in Greek. In England there were current from early times vernacular versions of parts of the Bible, especially of the Gospels, since the Gospel was often read at Mass in the vernacular after its recitation in Latin. John Wyclif was one of the first to project the publication and distribution of the Bible in the vernacular among the English people, and two translated versions go by his name. In the 15th cent. the Lollards did much to extend the use of the Wyclifite translation. The next name in the history of the English Bible is that of William Tyndale, whose translation was not from Latin. like Wyclif’s. but from Hebrew and Greek. Its excellence is why it was made the basis of the Authorized Version. Tyndale’s New Testament (1525-26) was the first English translation to be printed. Contemporary with Tyndale was Miles Coverdale. The second version of Coverdale and the translation of Thomas Matthew closely followed Tyndale. In 1539 the crown issued its first Bible, in the name of Henry VIII. This, the Great Bible, was done principally by Coverdale. The Geneva Bible, or Breeches Bible (“. . . made themselves breeches,’ Gen. 3.7), was a revision of the Great Bible, financed and annotated by the Calvinists of Geneva. The Bishops’ Bible (1568) was a recasting of Tyndale. The greatest of all English translations was the Authorized Version (AV), or King lames Version (KIV), of 1611, made by a great committee of churchmen led by Lancelot Andrewes  and cornposed of many of the finest scholars in England. The beautiful English of this version has had great influence and is generally ranked in English literature with the work of Shakespeare. This is because the final work was edited by the Poet Laureate, Frances Bacon, who, of course was Shakespear's ghost writer. 

    The Douay, or Rheims-Douay, Version was published by Roman Catholic scholars at Rheims (New Testament, 1582) and Douai, France (Old Testament, 1610); it was extensively revised by Richard Chalioner.