The Bible is used in Christian places of worship for teaching and preaching. People can read the Bible anywhere they like - in their own homes, on the bus or train; it has even been read on the moon by one of the first astronauts! Christians base their beliefs and actions on what it teaches.

It is by reading the Bible that Christians believe they can learn more about God and His son Jesus Christ - in fact they would say that God speaks to them as they read it. Many Christians choose to read a section of the Bible regularly. It is also a book that over the centuries since it was written, has inspired people to say and do many courageous things for God.

The Bible contains many stories of ordinary people. Some went through difficult times in their families; some had hard decisions to make; some were tempted to do some terrible things; some ran away from God and some although they did exactly what God asked them to, still experienced difficult times! But throughout, the Bible is the story of how God kept His promises.

The Bible contains different types of writing including books on history, law, letters, poetry and prophecy. The gospels - the first four books in the New Testament; Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are all eye witness accounts of what happened when Jesus lived in Israel.

Some of the books are named after the people who wrote them, others were written by unknown authors. It is difficult to know the exact dates of some of the events recorded in the Bible, but we know that Abraham (whose story is found in Genesis) lived about 2000 years before Jesus was born - so the Old Testament covers that period of time. The events in the New Testament happened over a much shorter period, possibly less than one hundred years.

Since the invention of printing, complete books of the Bible have been published in over two thousand different languages and dialects. There are millions of people still waiting for the Bible to be printed in their language so that they can read it too. It has also been written in Braille so that blind people can read it for themselves. Braille Bibles take up a great deal of space - it would take three wheelbarrows to take one whole Bible to Church! It is also available on CD and tape for people to listen to, and can be read on the internet at www.biblegateway.com

Worksheets:

Useful worksheets: Bible cover, What the Bible includes, Jesus' life on earth