Theme of the Bible

The New Testament Christian scriptures were written about 2000 years ago.

They teach about the old testament Hebrew scriptures, written during a thousand years up to about 2,500 years ago.

The Christian scriptures frequently quote the earlier Hebrew scriptures.

That's because all scripture, the whole Bible, has the same theme.

The Bible's theme is Jesus

In the book of Acts, there is a very instructive story (Acts 8:26-40).

A man is reading his Bible, but finding it difficult to understand. He happened to be reading Isaiah chapter 53.

Philip approached the man with the question, "Do you understand what you are reading"?

He didn't, so Philip started at that scripture and went through the Hebrew scriptures and preached Jesus from them.

The man believed what Philip told him, and asked to be baptized so as to become a Christian.

This story shows that the theme of the scriptures is Jesus.

The point of the Bible is to get people to believe (have faith) in Jesus Christ (Romans 10:9-10,17).

Look also at Peter's wonderful sermon at the beginning of Christianity (Acts chapter 2).

Notice how Peter quotes from the Hebrew scriptures, and how he shows that these scriptures were pointing to Jesus Christ.

The letter to the Hebrews (in the Christian scriptures) is another example.

In chapter 1 of Hebrews and throughout the letter, the old testament scriptures are quoted.

The writer of the letter shows that the Hebrew scriptures point clearly to Jesus Christ.

The Bible from beginning to end reveals how God's plan has unfolded in Jesus Christ his Son (Hebrews 1:1-4, 12:2).

Since the theme of the Bible is Jesus Christ, the best place to begin reading the Bible is where the acts and teachings of Jesus are recorded.

Any of the first four books of the new testament (Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John) do this.

I suggest you begin with Mark or John. These are excellent introductions to the Bible and to Jesus.