Introduction to CRE and the Bible | High School CRE Form 1

1. It helps to unite people thus promoting the spirit of National unity and international consciousness.
2. The subject helps to bring one up morally as it contributes to the persons growth and maturity in life.
3. It builds our faith in God. It enables us to develop certain principles that make us stand firm in times of problems.
4. The subject helps one to develop a sense of self-respect and respect for others. Religious virtues will help one in making the right decision.
5. It enables Christians to be prepared to cope with social changes in modern society e.g. how to face challenges.
6. It makes one to be a good citizen who respects the laws of the land having known that authority comes from God.
7. It helps to appreciate the environment as Gods creation and therefore there is need to take care of it
8. Religious Education helps us to learn and appreciate some practices in African culture.
9. It promotes social equality and justice. It makes people aware that they are all equal before God.
10. It helps to explain certain aspects of life that look mysterious. For example, it helps us to explain things such as why people die and what happens after death.
11. It is also a career subject it can lead us into good professions such as teaching, law, Pastoral work, guidance and counselling etc.
12. The study of C.R.E enhances the realisation of national goals such as;
    • National unity
    • National social and economic development
    • Individual development and self-fulfilment
    • Social equality
    • Respect and development of cultural heritage
    • International consciousness

- The Bible is referred to as a holy book written by people inspired by Holy Spirit.
- Christians believe that the Bible is the inspired word of God.
- By referring to the Bible as a word of God it means:

• It contains the words of people such as the prophets who were sent by God.
• It contains predictions and prophecies which eventually came to true.
• God Himself took part in the writing: God wrote the 10 commandments.( Exd.34:1)
• The authors of the Bible wrote under the influence of the Holy Spirit.
• Much of the New Testament is concerned with the Good News of Jesus Christ.
• The Bible contains the true message of God for daily living. Therefore, Christians believe that God communicates to us through the Bible.
• Those who wrote were told on what to write by God.

- The human authors were inspired by God. They wrote what God Himself revealed to them.
- This is brought out in 2 Peter:1:20-21 where he says,

"Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of the scriptures came about by the prophets own interpretation, because no prophecy ever came by the will of human beings, but it was spoken from God as it were and carried out by the Holy Spirit."

- The authors who contributed to the writing of the Bible lived over a long time.
- They were from different walks of life. They had different ideas, talents and purposes.
- Some compiled oral traditions that had existed for many generations.
- Others composed songs or recorded the wise sayings, such as Solomon and David.
- Some wrote as scribes for their own teachers. For example, Jeremiah dictated to Baruch what to write.
- Others such as Joshua and Esther wrote to record the History of their people and their dealings with God.
- While others like Moses were interested in the religious law and regulations.
The different authors used different styles of writing (literary forms). This was because:

• They wrote at different times in history.
• The audience was also different.
• They also wrote under different circumstances e.g.in the wilderness, dungeon, prison.

- Some of the styles or literary forms used in the Bible are:

1. Poetic (poems) — Book of Psalms.
2. Wise sayings — The Book of Proverbs.
3. Prose, narratives or stories - Genesis, Exodus, Numbers.
4. Prayers — The Book of Nehemiah.
5. Legal expressions — the book of Leviticus.
6. Prophecies — The Books of prophet the Prophets.
7. Letters — Paul's letters.
8. Songs — Songs of Solomon.

The Bible as a library
- The Bible is referred as a Library because:

• It is a collection of several, 66 books under one cover.
• The books are written under different authors.
• The books were also written at different times.
• They were addressed to different people or individuals.
• The Bible also had different messages for different people.
• The books in the Bible have been written in different styles.
• The language used is also different from one author to another.
• It took over 10 centuries to have the whole Bible written.

• The Bible has two main sections namely The Old Testament and The New Testament.
• The word Testament means covenant.
• The standard Bibles that are recommended for all the Christians contain 39 books in the Old Testament and 27 books in the New Testament section, making a total of 66 books.
• The main difference between the Old and the New Testaments is that the Old Testament was written before Christ while the New Testament was written after Christ
• However,some Bibles, such as the Jerusalem Bible and the African Bible mostly used by the Roman Catholic Church contain additional books in the Old Testament.
• These books include:
  Judith, Ecclesiasticus, Baruch, Maccabees 1 and 2, Wisdom and obit.
  
• These extra-books have been referred to as Deutro-canonical books by the Catholics or are referred to as apocryphal books by the Protestants.

The books of the Old Testament are grouped into:

• 1.The law books
• Historical books
• Books of poetry
• The prophets
  • Major Prophets.
  • Minor Prophets.

1. The Law Books
- Sometimes referred to as the Pentateuch or the Torah. These books are sometimes referred to as the books of Moses. They are five in number; namely;
Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.
2. Books of History
- The books of History record the History of the Israelites from the time they entered and settled in the Promised Land until the time when they were taken to exile in Babylon.
- They are twelve in number, namely:-
Joshua, Judges, Ruth 1 and 2, Samuel 1 and 2, Kings 1 and 2, Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther.
3. The Prophetic Books
- These books contain the prophecies of the people of Israel. They can be divided further into major and minor prophets.

• The Major Prophets
  They are called Major Prophets because they cover longer historical periods. They include;
  Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentation, Ezekiel and Daniel.
• The Minor Prophets
  - They are called Minor Prophets because messages cover shorter historical periods.
  - They include;
  Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi.

4. Books of Poetry
- These books are poetic in nature. These include;
Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Songs of Songs.

1. The gospels or Biographical Books.
- These are the first four books of the New Testament. Namely; Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
- The first three books are called Synoptic gospels because they are almost similar in the arrangement of events and style of writing.
- The gospels talk about the events in the life of Jesus, from his birth to death and to ascension to heaven.
- St. Mark was the first to be written about 70 A.D. Before that, the Good News was spread by word of mouth. This period is referred to as the Oral Tradition.

2.Historical Book / Acts of the Apostles
- St. Luke who is also the writer of the gospel of Luke wrote the book of Acts.
- The book tries to bring out how the apostles and other disciples spread the gospel after the death of Jesus and the persecution they met.

3.The Epistles or Letters
- These are 21 in total, most of them were written by Paul.
- These are called Paul's Epistles. They are; Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, 1 and 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon..
- Some letters were written by authors who are not clearly known. These are called General Epistles.These ; Hebrews, James, 1 and 2 Peter, 1, 2 and 3John and Jude.<

4.Book of Revelation (Prophetic Book)
- This is the last book in the New Testament section of the Bible.
- The book talks of the prophecies that would come at the end of times. Sometimes referred to as the apocalypse.

- The term "translate" means to change something from one language to another without changing the original meaning.
- The Old Testament section of the Bible originally was written in Hebrew, which was the language of the Israelites in Palestine (Jews). And the New Testament was written in Greek.

- However before long the Old Testament also had to be translated in Greek. This was because:

• Greek was the most commonly used language outside Palestine.
• There were also Jews who were living outside Palestine and they knew Greek Language better than Hebrew.
• The number of people who wanted to read the scriptures was also growing.

- The Greek translation of the Old Testament was called the Septuagint.The Jews who were living outside Palestine were called the Jews in the Diaspora or in dispersions.
- During the 4^th CAD, a Christian called Jerome translated the Bible into Latin.This Bible translated into Latin was called the Vulgate.

- When the missionaries came to Africa, the Bible was translated into several local languages.
- This was because;

• To make the missionaries evangelize effectively.
• The missionaries wanted local people to understand the Bible easily.
• To assist the missionaries to learn local languages.
• To indigenize Christianity i.e. to encourage its adaptation to local situations.

- In East Africa the first Bible translations was done by John Ludwig Kraft.It took him nine years to have the New Testament translated intoKiswahili. He also translated the gospel of Mark into Kikamba and the gospel of Luke into Kirabai
. - The work of translating the Bible is still going on. In Kenya this is done by the Bible society of Kenya.

• Revised Standard Version.
• King James Version.
• New International version.
• Jerusalem Bible.
• The Living Bible.
• Jerome Bible.
• Gideon International Bible.
• English Bible.
• New American Bible.
• Authorized Version.
• Good News.
• The Holy Bible.
• New African Bible.

• promote dedication in Kenya. The Bible was used as the first text book.
• More people became Christians because they had the Bible in their own languages.
• The translation helped the missionaries to learn local languages.
• This increased African faith because of a better understanding of the Bible.
• The Africans broke away to form independent churches.
• The translation of the Bible led to the establishment of Bible translation societies.
• The missionaries began to appreciate the African culture this reduced suspicion
• The translation led to Geographical expansion of the Church into new areas