Some more sacred writings have been found. These are called the Dead Sea Scrolls. Scholars are studying them to see what new history they hold.

Christians also have

• Hymn books
• Prayer books

These are for use in Church or personal worship but most sacred writings are in the Bible.

The Bible is a library of books named after what the Greeks called it: Biblio or 'The Books'. It is split into two sections:

• The Old Testament which tells the stories of Jewish history
• The New Testament which tells the story of Jesus life and teaching.

The old testament is the story of the creation of the Earth and Jewish history. The new testament is the story of Jesus.

• The Bible is translated into 2000 languages
• There is at least one copy in every church
• It was first printed in English in 1535
• It is made up of 66 books written by different writers
• It was written over about 1000 years
• It is made up of stories, poems, psalms, prayers, laws and letters.
• The first four books of the New Testament are called the gospels - which means Good News!
• The New Testament is 27 books - 5 history books, 21 letters and the Book of Revelation which is a prophecy about the future.
• The gospel of Mark tells the story of Jesus 40 years after his death.
• Matthew's and Luke gospels are similar telling us what the writer thought we ought to know about Jesus' life.
• The Gospel of John was written later.

Other books of the New Testament are The Acts of the Apostles and the letters. These tell the story of the first few years of Christianity…how the message was spread and how people were converted. Paul who was a very important teacher wrote the letters and his letters contain many lessons for the early Christians.

This is the history for the Christian church - just as the Old Testament is the history for the Jewish religion!

The bible is the best selling book of all time!