The Bible — considered the sacred word of God by many in the Western world — consists of 66 different books composed by a diverse group of prophets, kings, statesmen, shepherds, poets, tax collectors, musicians, fishermen and priests.

Spanning a time period of about 1600 years, written in Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek, the Bible begins at the dawn of creation and ends with an apocalypse and Final Judgement. Containing poetry, stories, proverbs, historical narration, laws and prophecy, many believers of many faiths find the Bible to be an invaluable source book for solving practical everyday problems and dilemmas as well as comfort in difficult times.

Our modern-day laws, governments, literature — not to mention our concepts of human rights, morality and religious worship — are all heavily indebted to the Bible’s contents.

From The Pentateuch — the Five Books of Moses that were the Hebrew books of the Bible, (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy) through the books of Joshua, Judges, Kings and Prophets, each book is described, analyzed for its special significance, accompanied by period artworks, and further enriched by sidebars that explain money and measurements of the day, prayers and prayer books, landmarks like Solomon’s temple, and a distillation of the narrative, including many books that are puzzling and obscure to the uninitiated.

The New Testament section begins with a survey of life in the time of Jesus, and then the Gospels according to the saints Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, the Chronology of the gospels, and the Epistles.

Some of the most interesting religious artworks ever painted and engraved accompany every book, and extra spreads and sidebars discuss the Dead Sea Scrolls, Bethlehem and Nazareth or contain maps of the Eastern Mediterranean, giving context to the stories and analysis.

This book will give many hours of pleasurable reading and browsing, but also unlock relationships, chronologies, and philosophies as they change through the stories and the writers of the Bible.