BIBLE BOOK GUIDE PREFACE
Pre-suppositions, Goals and Brief Comments on Modern Bible Criticism

We recommend reading the first section, which details the goals in writing the Bible Book Section, and the pre-suppositions used.  For those interested, the second section on Bible Criticism briefly details why we generally reject many modern scholarship conclusions and hold to the traditional views regarding the issues of authorship, date and other related subject matter.
 

Our goal for this section is to provide background information, summaries, interpretation principles and practical applications for each book of the Bible in a concise format.  Our aim is to provide the critical information which will allow the reader to quickly begin reading and understanding the Bible text.  More detailed articles regarding topics within the books are being placed in our Bible Commentary section.

Certain information such as authors, dates, audience etc, have been the subject of much debate over the past couple of centuries.  These debates, which are detailed in the book introductions of many Bible commentaries, dictionaries and handbooks, consume a fair amount of time and space, so we'll usually just note the traditional view, which we believe to be the correct view in almost every case. 

Regarding our pre-suppositions, we unapologetically proclaim that the Bible is the inspired, authoritative, inerrant Word of God.  It is fully God and fully human in that, while "God-breathed" by the Holy Spirit, it also reflects the literary styles of its individual human authors.  Our position is not based on opinion, but on the testimony of the Holy Spirit and Sacred Scripture itself, unity of its message, fulfillment of its prophecies without error, number of surviving manuscripts, historical and scientific accuracies, archaeological evidence, accounts of non-biblical authors and much more.  There are many great books available for additional information, as well as articles from our Apologetics Section.

This segment of the article has been expanded onto its own page at A Brief Introduction to Modern Bible Criticism, located in the Apologetics section.  We highly recommend reading this for a better understanding of higher criticism vs the tradition views of Bible scholarship methods. 

Contents are:

What is Bible Criticism?
Old Testament Criticism
New Testament Criticism
Why are these Methods so Popular?
Fern-seeds and Elephants
Conclusion