Article November 25, 1996 Issue

This is the first of a series of articles about the Bible that will appear monthly in the Sentinel and in The Herald of Christian Science.

INTRODUCTION TO THE BIBLE

What is the Bible?

Mary Metzner Trammell and William G. Dawley

The Bible is a little like a family scrapbook. It tells the history of a family, beginning with God's creation of everything, including His people. An important person in the early pages of this scrapbook is a man named Abram. Abram and his tribe of Hebrew people lived about four thousand years ago in the Middle East.

Abram was probably the first person who understood the voice of God. Before this, most people thought there were a lot of gods—gods with human or animal shapes.

How did Abram learn about God? Well, God spoke to him. He told Abram to leave his country where he lived and to go to a new land—a beautiful place with lots of grass for the sheep to graze in. God promised Abram that He would give him this land, called Canaan. His children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren would live there forever. And they would someday become "a great nation," making the whole world a better place to live in.

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