A Synopsis of The Bible Narrative from The Book of Genesis to Revelation

The main aim of this summary of the bible, through from the first book Genesis to Revelation the last book, is to offer a big picture perspective of the story that the bible offers. The main strategy to be observed is putting up all the stories that are highlighted in the bible to come up with a chronological and coherence story. The intention is not to bring out individual stories are done by the bible, rather to bring to light the major line of story that is brought out by the bible. In addition, the research paper will also include a number of aspects that are not written in the bible but are related.

Christians view the bible a book written by people who were inspired by God to pass a message to those who believe in him. It entails a buildup of narrations, such that it makes a revelation and explanation of events in different stages and culminates with incarnation. The bible has 66 books, starting with Genesis and ending with Revelation, gives people the real as well as an historical message from God. It also gives a narration of how God used different servants to pass previous messages to the people, and explains how both the earth and heavens will merge together in what is commonly referred to as salvation (Lee-Thorp, 2012).

The bible begins with the story of Adam and Eve, who were created by God alongside other things that filled the world, within six days. The two, Adam and eve had two children, namely Cain and Abel before they later got Seth. Into their linage, comes Enoch before the coming of Noah. The narration of the tower of Babel follows, followed by that of Abraham roughly 1000 years later (Lee-Thorp, 2012). There is a promise that the long linage of Abraham would go on to become a great nation, and it is from him where the story of the people who are chosen by God begins. Abraham fathers Isaac, who later bore both Jacob and Esau. Jacob later had his name changed to Israel after wrestling with God, and bore 12 sons to for the 12 different tribes of Israel. Of those sons, Jacob was the most famous one, who was sold into slavery by his brothers to Egyptians, where he rose to become number two in power, and took his relatives to Egypt after a famine affected them, before he died towards the end of the first book.

The book of exodus starts the story line almost four centuries later, were the family is not longer prestigious but the descendants have become slaves. Before this family had come into Egypt running away from famine, they used to live in the land that Abraham had been handed by God. After being taken as slaves, they viewed this as a punishment for their failure to return to the land that god had given their forefather once the famine ended (LaHaye, & Hindson, 2011).

After a 400 yr break, God manifests himself through different wonders that led to the release of the Israelites from Egypt under the guidance of Moses. Once they are released into the wilderness, god continues to revel himself through miracles that took place, and goes on to give them laws as well as different guidelines on how to manage their lives and relationship with him.

The book of Leviticus has a poor reputation, deservingly so, having been filled with laws. A similar reputation is noticed with numbers, which has so many census numbers. However, the reputation of the latter is not deserved since it has a lot of development in plot. A census is done, where it is noted that there are between two and three million people that are divided into two groups but with the expectation that they would proceed in unison. A dozen spies are sent out, with only two, Joshua and Caleb, returning with confidence to proceed. The penalty for failing to enter the Promised Land was wondering in the desert for 4 decades, a period where all the people who were aged more than 20 had died except the two spies (Goldsworthy, 2002).

Deuteronomy comes next, covering sixty days with half of which Moses is giving speeches reminding them not to repeat the mistakes done by those that lived before them, before he dies. After mourning for 30 days, Joshua leads the people into the new land. This is the last of the books of Moses, also referred to as the Law, or Pentateuch, or Torah, with the other books of the Old Testament being written by prophets.

The book of Joshua is next, where he leads the Israelites into the land they had been promised and forcing out those who had been living there. The main aim of god choosing a group of people is to reveal himself through them. This is further highlighted in the story of Rehab who argues that god favored the Israelites and others feared them. In addition, many people were converted to believe in god. These were referred to as Proselytes. Once they were settled in the land, they established their own ruler through a series of judges, with the most famous one being Deborah who was a woman in a society dominated with men (Goldsworthy, 2002).

Gideon is next, which brings him out as a judge who served for four decades, although he at some point led a revolt against people who were opposing Israel. However, he turned down the governorship position at the end of war. Samson was next and last of the famous judges, giving way to Ruth, who had lived to experience the five Judges (LaHaye, & Hindson, 2011).

First and second Samuel comes next, marking the end of the good Judges. Despite Samuel dying towards the end of the first book, the other half was split because the text of Samuel was documented in one scroll that was considered too big. Israelites approached Samuel asking for a ruler, who turned to God, but God said he wanted to be the King. Having pressed continuously, God agreed to their proposal, but warned them that they would not like the experience. God asked Samuel to anoint Saul a descendant of Benjamin to become King. This king did not work well, and David a son of Jesse was anointed after he passed on at war. David appointed Solomon as ruler before he died, but the demise of Solomon marked a split. Two kingdoms were formed, Israel and Judah towards the south. In first part of 1 Samuel, Samuel has the primary character, with the second one having Saul as the character. In 2 Samuel, the reign of King David is narrated. The story of Solomon graces the first half of 1 kings, with the second half having Elijah as main character. The first half of 2 kings is Elisha, with the latter part having a list of Kings from both the north and south, but lacking any major character. Towards the end of 2 Kings, intense plot development is noted, with the sacking of the northern kingdom as well as the dispersion of all the nations due to intermarriages between the races. These became half-breeds referred to as Samaritans during the time of Jesus, who were despised by the Jews. The kingdom located toward she south was captivated by Babylon for 70 years, before king Cyrus allowed their return to Jerusalem and Judah, something that prophet Isaiah has prophesied more than 150 years before (Lee-Thorp, 2012).

1 and 2 Chronicles gives a snapshot of the above. The initial half of 1 chronicles is a genealogy with a prayer of Jabez ending with the story of Saul. The last half details the period when David was king. The first part of 1 Chronicles is the story of king Solomon, with the last half having details of the division of the kingdom ending with the release of Judah by King Cyrus (Miller, 2015).

After Solomon, both the northern and the southern kingdoms had 19 kings who ended up being sacked or killed. The northern part had a king rising up to kill the incumbent together with his family, while the southern part the kingdom was passed on from father to son. Ezra comes next, and has details of the priest who reinstated normal procedures at the temple where they worshiped. Nehemiah, who was similar to a governor, comes next to rebuild walls surrounding Jerusalem so as to offer protection to the people as well as the temple that was new. Towards its end, there is a chronological; story of the people that god had chosen, and it is on this story that the remaining books of the Old Testament are based. The first one was Esther who lived during the Babylonian exile, Job who was a contemporary of Abraham, Psalms that was a collection of Songs that were written by David, Proverbs that brought together wise sayings done by Solomon, and Ecclesiastes as Song of Solomon that was done by Solomon (Mackenzie, 2011).

Then comes the 16 prophets, with four being major and the rest were manor due to the amount of material they had written. The Major Prophets were Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and lastly Daniel. The Major Prophets are split halfway by Lamentations, which has poems that were recited during the Babylonian exile. Of the three prophets, Jeremiah, Ezekiel together with Daniel made their prophases during the exile. The Minor Prophets that come later during the exile include Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, as well as Zephaniah. Haggai, Zechariah as well as Malachi came later after the exile (Miller, 2015).

The New Testament comes 4 centuries later, where god makes his revelation to the people through the miracles that Jesus made (Lee-Thorp, 2012). The New Testament starts off with four gospels, which are Mathew, Mark, Luke and finally John. These tell the story of jess, how he corrected the people of God, and encouraged them to follow the ways of God. His main aim was to give the true meaning of the Old Testament, and to maintain the purpose of God.

Acts is next, giving a story of the spread of the gospel starting with from Jerusalem, through Judea and Samaria to the rest of the world. Then comes the 13 letters that Paul, who was converted from Saul, wrote to different people; including Romans, 1 & 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 & 2 Thessalonians, 1 & 2 Timothy, Titus, and finally Philemon. Hebrews comes next, but little is known about its author, and it makes no reference to an apostle.

James, written by Jesus’ half brother comes next, showing how he led the church in Jerusalem. By then, James the disciple had been martyred, although not as the first martyr who was Stephen. The 1 and 2 Peter done by Peter come before 1, 2 and 3 John that was done by John who emphasized on knowing and believing. Jude is next, written by James’ brother and half brother to Jesus. Revelation comes last in the bible, done by Apostle John as a prophesy of the things that are expected to happen when Jesus returns after he has set up the eternal kingdom (Phillips, 2001).