 Down at street level it's easy to feel a bit lost and confused, especially in a big city like London. But when we change perspective and we get to see the big picture it all begins to connect up and make sense. Over the next eight sessions we're going to see the big picture of the whole Bible story and how it can transform our lives today. Welcome to the Bible course. The Bible is the most influential book ever. It has impacted the world all around us more than we've ever imagined. For example, the language we speak on a daily basis. So many common words and phrases originate from the English Bible. Words like sex, beautiful and busybody. And phrases like by the skin of your teeth. Eat, drink and be merry. Many of us get our names from Bible characters. You might know Joshua and Andrew, David, Mary, Ruth or Elizabeth, all Bible names. The Bible has shaped our calendars and our seasons too. We're in the 21st century. That's 21st century since Jesus Christ. And our favourite seasons and holidays like Christmas and Easter, they're all based on events in the Bible. And if you like music, the Bible's inspired West End musicals like Joseph and his Technicolor Dreamcoat and song lyrics by famous artists U2, Bob Dylan, Katie Perry, Mumford and Sons, even the Spice Girls. To Become One was in the Bible long before they sang it. And if you like sports, in stadiums all over the world, we hear songs and chants inspired by the Bible. Personally, I love rugby. And Welsh fans seeing Bread of Heaven, the England team are cheered on by Swing Low Sweet Charit. They're both songs inspired by Bible stories. If you like movies, Hollywood still spends millions on epic films based on the Bible. From Mel Gibson's Passion of the Christ to the DreamWorks animation The Prince of Egypt. And the Bible was the basis for much of Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. And C.S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia. If you like reading, William Shakespeare's plays contain an estimated 1,300 quotations or allusions from the Bible. The dictionary of cultural literacy even claims that no one in the English-speaking world can be considered literate without a basic knowledge of the Bible. And if you want to see society transformed, the Bible has inspired more positive change than anything else. From nurses like Florence Nightingale to the founding of Hospitals and the whole hospice movement. The Bible inspired the abolitionist movement. People like William Wilberforce who helped to overturn slavery in the British Empire. Oh, and Wilberforce also founded the RSPCA because of his biblical commitment to animal welfare. You know, whole nations, governments and laws have been founded on principles in the Bible. In the houses of Parliament inscribed in the very floor of the lobby is a verse from the Bible. Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labour in vain. I love reading and I love books. Sometimes I read on my Kindle but I still love to have a hard copy in my hands too. Here are a few global bestsellers that you may be familiar with. Perhaps you've read these. The bestselling book of the last five years, the Bible. The bestselling book. Well it won't be the Bible anymore, I can tell you that. So many books on the bestseller list. I can't tell. Oh, I don't know, delicious liella. Something like Lord of the Rings, Hobbit. I'd say it's definitely Gone Girl, personally. I think yeah, I think any book that's been made into a film, but I think Gone Girl's had the biggest. I mean, we've got the Oscars and everything as well with the award there. But yeah, definitely Gone Girl. Fifty Shades of Grey. I would guess it's probably like Harry Potter or something like that. Fifty Shades of Grey. But it may surprise you to realise that the Bible is still the world's bestselling book every single time. Really? No, UK, yeah, that surprises me. That surprises me. I don't know. I think people kind of stick their nose up at religion. Oh, really? Yeah, yeah, still the Bible. Is it really? No. Really? Wow. No. I wouldn't have thought it was the sort of thing that people would go out and buy and still read, really, I guess. Last year, more copies of the Bible were bought and sold than all these others put together. So the Bible is the most influential book ever, but is it more even than that? Was it originally inspired by God? Well, that is the claim on the front cover, Holy Bible. The word Bible is just an ordinary word for books, but the word holy means special, sacred or other. So the claim is this is a book like no other. And when you open it, the Bible itself makes a huge claim. One particular verse says this, all scripture, that is, all of the Bible is inspired by God or literally God briefed. Now that is a massive claim and probably leaves us with some questions. How could a book be inspired by God? In what sense could that be true? Well, God didn't write the Bible, any of it. The claim is that he inspires human authors who wrote it. So if I was asked who built St. Paul's Cathedral, I would say Sir Christopher Ren. And I'd be half right because he was the architect. He designed it. Every brick was determined by him. But I doubt he lifted a single brick to actually build it. That was done by dozens of labourers over 36 years. Now in the same way, dozens of human authors wrote the Bible over 1500 years. But God was the architect. He inspired it. Every word is by his design. Now you may not be convinced and that's fine. You are still on the right course. Whether the Bible is divinely inspired or not, the sheer impact of this bestselling book makes it well worth investigating further. If we live to be 70 years old, spend 20 years asleep, 10 years watching TV, seven years eating and drinking, why not spend eight sessions exploring the most amazing book ever written. So the Bible is the most influential bestselling book ever. But it's also big. This is the Ollerton Family Bible that I inherited. It conveys the sheer size of it. Though pocket versions are available and digital downloads instantly searchable, there's no disguising the fact that the Bible's big. It would take an average reader over 70 hours in one sitting. And a friend at university who tried reading the Bible for the very first time summed it up pretty well. Reading the Bible feels like trying to eat an elephant. Now imagine the world's largest land mammal was standing in front of you. I think we'd say, I don't even know where to start. And you may feel a bit like that when it comes to the Bible. So because the Bible is big, it really helps to see the big picture and how the whole thing fits together. And that's the purpose of the Bible course. Now one of the simplest ways to imagine the Bible is a small library Bible from a Greek word, Biblia means books. Notice it's plural. The Bible is not one book. Our versions include 66 books. And on these shelves, there's one to represent each book of the Bible. Now you can see the whole library is divided into two main sections, 39 Old Testament books on our top two shelves and then 27 New Testament books on the bottom shelf. Now if we went to our local library or searched an online bookstore, we wouldn't just open the first book on the first shelf and start reading. We'd want to understand how to navigate the library and then decide where to start. So the Bible course will be like a librarian giving us a tour of the Bible so we can explore it for ourselves. Now the other way to think of the Bible is like a story. The Old Testament focuses on the nation of Israel, but in the New Testament, the hero arrives Jesus Christ. Now some have got the impression that the Old Testament was about a strict or even cruel God and then Jesus showed up as a kind of nicer alternative. One teenager summed it up this way, the Old Testament is what God was like before he became a Christian. In fact, Jesus is the unifying theme of the whole Bible. He unites the two Testaments into one story about one God. So the Bible's not a rule book. It's about real people like us finding their place in God's amazing story. Now I think the best way to see the big picture of the Bible is to take each book from the library and see how it fits in to the story. This purpose-built installation is going to give us a framework for the whole Bible storyline from Genesis, the first book, right through the Old Testament and New Testament to Revelation, the last book. And through the course, we'll get to see where each book fits in on the storyline. So let me show you what I mean by giving a quick tour of this Bible storyline and placing just a few of the key books onto it. In the beginning, God created a perfect world symbolized by this tree of life. As things go wrong, God calls Abraham's family to bring hope back to the world. And through Joseph and his Technicolor Dreamcoat, Israel end up enslaved down in Egypt for 400 years. So God steps in and rescues them through the Exodus, bringing them into the Promised Land. Then various judges and kings rule over Israel, but the nation soon divides into and despite warnings from the prophets, Israel is conquered and deported. In exile, they lament their loss, but soon they get to return and rebuild and then they wait. Finally, the Promised Messiah comes. Jesus is born. He lives a stunning life, dies on a Roman cross and is raised back to life. He sends the Holy Spirit to empower God's people to bring hope back to the world. The last book of the Bible shows how the story will end. Back at the Tree of Life, Paradise Lost is regained. Now if that whistle-stop tour leaves you feeling a bit dizzy, don't worry. Next session we'll start at the beginning and make our way all the way through until it becomes clear. And as we see the big picture, we'll get a new confidence and enthusiasm for the Bible. Now the other thing about the Bible is not just big, it's also old. The first half is called the Old Testament for good reason. Some characters go back to the Bronze Age around 1800 BC. So it can feel a bit removed from our modern lives. Now because the Bible is old, we may need some coaching to make sense of it. And that's the other great thing this course will give. Skills and resources, so we're equipped to apply the Bible to our everyday lives. Now to get us started, here's two questions to ask of any passage. What and now what? Firstly, what? What did this passage mean back in its context? In other words, what would the original hearers have understood this to mean? Through simple resources and skills, we can understand the Bible in its original setting and this really helps to get the message and the meaning. As the saying goes, if you take a text out of context, you'll be left with a con. Now I'm embarrassed to tell you this but soon after I got married, I took off my wedding ring in front of my wife and I threw it away. Now I understand you're probably shocked but let me put that text in its context. We were at a friend's winter wedding with lots of snow, so we decided instead of throwing confetti to throw snowballs at the bride and groom, my hands got so cold that my fingers shrunk and my ring must have slipped off into one of those snowballs and so in front of my wife I quite literally threw my wedding ring away. Take a text out of context and we're left with a con. This course will help put the Bible in its context so it makes sense. So having asked what, what did it mean in its original context, the second question is now what? Now what does this passage mean for our lives today? It's when we answer this question that we discover just how relevant the Bible still is. For example, Jesus washed his disciples feet and then told them to follow his example by washing one another's feet. Now what might that passage mean for us today? Well if we ask our first question what did it mean back there and then in a hot climate with open sandals, dusty roads and camel dung, the only person who washed feet was the lowest ranking slave. So Jesus the master took on this role to model a new paradigm of servant leadership. Now what, now what does that mean for us today? Well we don't wear open sandals so we don't need our feet washed every time we come indoors but we are still called to humility and service, showing love in practical ways no matter what our title or pay grade. The practice may have changed but the principle remains. So with a bit of coaching the Bible can be just as relevant today as when it was originally written. So the Bible is a huge book but the Bible course will show us the big picture and give us the tools we need to get to grips with its message for ourselves. So let's discuss some of our impressions and experiences of the world's bestseller. Next session we will dive into Genesis and begin our adventure through the Bible story but let's finish this session by stepping back and considering some frequently asked questions such as how was the Bible formed? Why were some books left out? Haven't the text been altered over the centuries and why are there so many different translations? If the Bible really is inspired by God it should be able to handle these questions. Over the centuries no text has faced closer scrutiny. The Bible has stood up to it all. As a London preacher Charles Spurgeon put it the Bible is like a lion. Whoever heard of defending a lion just let it loose and it will defend itself. Now these books made it into the Bible but others didn't. So our first question is why? Why were these set apart from the rest as a unique standard of truth? Theologians refer to these chosen books as the biblical canon. Now what does that mean? Well for DIY purposes I sometimes use a spirit level. It's the definition of level so I can hold it up to anything else and assess it by this standard. The Bible is like a holy spirit level. It's the definitive guide to truth. However conspiracy theories have suggested that the church rigged the Bible in order to hide some inconvenient truths. Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code claimed that certain books like The Gospel of Thomas were left out of the Bible because they contained the real truth. Jesus got Mary Magdalene pregnant. They had a daughter called Sarah and the kings of France are descended from her. Now sensational stories sell books but are they based on facts? Well let's focus on the New Testament for a moment. Why were these 27 books included? Well the New Testament was formed in several key phases. Firstly simply because of the events surrounding Jesus. His birth, life, death and resurrection. Now the message about Jesus quickly went viral as eyewitnesses shared what they'd seen and heard. These authentic testimonies were soon captured on paper in what are known as the Gospels Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. They were published within the lifetime of Jesus' contemporaries and if you read them you will see that these primary sources are not hearsay but history. Jesus then chose 12 of his followers to be foundational leaders in the church. They were known as apostles and were eyewitnesses of the risen Jesus and from as early as 50 AD onwards these apostles either wrote or endorsed the remaining 23 books of the New Testament. Now most of these are in the form of letters also known as epistles and along with the gospels these had a unique authority in the Christian church. So by the end of the first century most of the books of the New Testament were already well established so when later writings emerged with a quite different take on Jesus they simply lacked credibility. Take for example the Gospel of Thomas which was probably written 150 years after Jesus and in it the apostle Peter is supposed to have said let Mary go away from us for women are not worthy of life and then Jesus allegedly replied low I shall make her male for every woman who makes herself male will enter the kingdom of heaven. Now is that the real Jesus speaking? Should this writing be included in the New Testament? It's actually the opposite of the historic Jesus who consistently honored women as equal to men. So by settling on these 27 books the church did not airbrush Jesus or suppress secrets but simply recognized that certain writings had integrity and therefore a unique authority. When the famous apple landed on Isaac Newton's head he did not invent gravity but simply realized the force that was already present. In the same way the church did not invent the Bible but realized the authority already present in these writings. Okay so the original texts included in the Bible were reliable but haven't they been altered over the centuries? Well let's consider the Old Testament. Given that it's so old surely they must have been changed either accidentally or deliberately. Well in 1947 some shepherd boys were out in the wilderness region of the Dead Sea in Israel. They were throwing stones at targets just as boys do when one stone seemed to travel into the hillside and smash. Their stone hit a pottery jar hidden in a cave that contained an ancient manuscript over 2,000 years old. Now after further investigation archaeologists found 11 caves containing over 500 ancient manuscripts hidden just before 70 AD to keep them from the Romans. The Dead Sea Scrolls were brilliantly preserved in the arid climate and crucially almost all the Old Testament books were there. Now as you can imagine Bible scholars held their breath. This was an Indiana Jones moment. Suddenly there were biblical texts over a thousand years older than copies previously relied on and by comparing these ancient Dead Sea Scrolls with other manuscripts we could now see if the Old Testament had been altered. Amazingly the scrolls were almost identical with over 95% similarity. So the Old Testament texts we read today are the same as those Jesus and his followers read in the first century. They haven't been changed. Equally when it comes to the New Testament manuscript fragments have survived from as early as 100 AD. Here in Cambridge we have a complete copy of John's Gospel from the 4th century. Now there's simply not enough time between the original writings and surviving texts for significant alterations and there are so many surviving manuscripts. Just visit the British Library, Mordland College Oxford or the John Rylans Library in Manchester and you can see for yourself. The Bible texts have been carefully copied and preserved over the centuries and the evidence survives to prove it. Okay, so the original writings were historically accurate and the surviving manuscripts are in fact reliable but they weren't written in English. Hasn't the truth been lost in translation? Well the Old Testament was originally written in Hebrew and the New Testament was originally written in Greek with a little bit of Aramaic thrown in too. Now the fact that the Bible includes three different languages shows that it's not tied to only one so the original Bible texts can be translated into our languages without a loss of impact and what's more the Bible can be translated into our everyday speech. When the New Testament was written there were two different forms of Greek available. Classical Greek of high culture and Koine Greek. Koine just means common it was the everyday street language. Guess which one the New Testament was written in? Common Greek. The Bible was not meant to sound all religious or inaccessible it was written by ordinary people including fishermen, farmers and tax collectors and it's for ordinary people. If you can read newspapers, blogs and novels you should be fine with the Bible. Now the aim of Bible translators is to capture in everyday terms the ideas and truths contained in the original languages. Whole teams of scholars work on good translations to ensure the best possible outcome. Some take a more literal approach while others apply the meaning for today. Take for example Mark chapter 6 verse 37 Jesus just told his disciples to feed a massive hungry crowd. Now the English standard version is a more literal translation so it keeps the disciples shocked reaction in the original monetary terms. Shall we go and buy 200 dinari worth of bread whereas the new international version aims for equivalence. That would take more than half a year's wages and then finally the message version paraphrases the meaning. Are you serious? You want us to spend a fortune on food? These are all really helpful translations and considering the same text in these different translations can be a great way to explore the rich layers of meaning in the Bible. An integral part of the Bible course is the daily readings between sessions. Reading these short passages will really help us to prepare for the next session. So as we get started this week why not try a couple of different translations for each of the daily readings in Genesis. And to help with this there are some great online search engines that display any Bible text in several different translations. Why not check out Bible Society's Bible Search or BibleGateway.com for some great resources. We are so fortunate to have several good English translations of the Bible. Hard copies and digital versions but it's not always been this way. During the Middle Ages the Bible was only available in Latin so ordinary people couldn't read it. In the 16th century a brilliant scholar called William Tyndale made a brave decision to dedicate his life to putting the Bible back in the hands of ordinary people. He once said to a member of the clergy who opposed his translation work if God spares my life my goal is to make the farm boy who pushes the plow know more of the scriptures than you do. Here is a copy of Tyndale's New Testament translation. It has shaped the English language more than any other book but Tyndale paid the ultimate price. He was strangled and his body burnt at the stake in 1536. Let's never take for granted having the Bible freely available today. It's cost a lot. So to sum this session up why would we believe that this is a holy book a book like no other God breathed and uniquely inspired. Well firstly the Bible was fully endorsed by Jesus. As God's son Jesus often quoted from the Old Testament when he faced temptation in the wilderness three times he said it is written and quoted the Bible. When teaching Jesus just assumed that the Old Testament was God speaking to his people. Now if for the Son of God the Bible is the word of God then it would be for the people of God. Jesus loved the Bible. He read it, memorized it, studied it and if we are following Jesus we'll do the same. Then secondly the Bible has a miraculous harmony. These books of the Bible were written by over 40 different authors over a period of 1500 years. So many of the human authors were unaware of the writings before them and they certainly had no clue what would be written after them. So the task of assembling such diverse writings into one coherent story would be impossible yet the Bible has a miraculous harmony. Take for example prophecies or predictions about the coming Messiah. Hundreds of years beforehand they stated very specifically where he would be born, why and how he would die and where he would be buried and Jesus fulfilled them all in a remarkable way even though he had no control over where he'd be born or buried. Now as we go through the Bible together I think we're going to see the big picture of the whole story and be amazed by its miraculous harmony. But the final reason why I believe the Bible is God's book is that it has power to transform us. We started this session considering the sheer impact of the Bible on the world all around us but the great news is that the Bible can also transform our lives today. I was a drug dealer, I was suffered from mental health issues, I was dealing in cannabis and amphetamines mainly and what I was making I was using. Drug dispute with a fellow drug dealer that led to quite a serious offense. I was almost charged with attempted murder. Miraculously they dropped their charges to aggravated burglary and threats to kill. As I was remanded into HMP Exeter I was put into my cell which was nothing new, nothing unusual, something that I'd been used to time and time before but for this time round there was something different that I noticed in that prison cell and it was the Bible. As I open this Bible that I feel unusually drawn to I feel God saying if you want to know more about my truth you need to start living and speaking truth. If you can imagine a man wrapped in chains that was me when I was in my prison cell all those years ago. I didn't have to be in prison to be a prisoner I was a prisoner on the outside wrapped in all those chains of addiction mental health disorders and the only thing that's changed my life outside of the prison system is the Word of God is the Bible. So every now and then I'd be in my prison cell and I'd read a scripture and Qing one of those chains one of those padlocks would just fall off and that chain would feel a little bit looser and then a couple of days later I'd be reading something else somewhere else in the Bible and Qing another padlock would fall off and that chain would feel a little bit looser until the point where my four years were up and I was walking out the doors of HMP high point and I was really walking out a free man because those chains were gone but the only thing that has changed my life from what it was to what it is now is the Word of God. In this session we have explored the amazing impact of the Bible now it's our chance to read it for ourselves to help get started we've given six daily Bible readings at the end of each session in the manual you'll also find a quick guide on how to locate a passage from the reference given each daily reading only takes about 15 minutes to read or you could listen to the passage through an audio Bible so find a comfortable and quiet place say a quick prayer like God please speak to me through the Bible and then read the passage carefully and in a modern translation and ask those two simple questions what what did this passage mean in its context and now what now what does this passage mean for my life today perhaps have a notebook handy to write down a verse or a truth that stands out these daily readings will really help to prepare for the next session of the course so let's commit to doing the daily readings each week so we're all on the same page this session has given us lots to think about so let's finish with a moment of personal reflection as we consider the key verse all scripture is inspired or breathed out by God