Today there are dozens of versions of the Bible. Some are translations and some are paraphrases. A paraphrased version is where people take a translation and put it in their own words. As the Bible has been translated into modern languages, it is also possible that there are different translations of the same texts. The Bible is the best selling book of all time. 2.5 billion to more than 6 billion copies of the Bible have been sold to date. A complete version of the Bible exists in 471 languages. Parts have been translated in 2225 languages. Most Bibles can be found in the British Museum in London.
The Christian Bible is a collection of 66 books. The first 39 books are the Old Testament. It is the first part of the God's story of salvation. "Salvation" is God's long work of saving us from our sins. "Sin" is what happened when people decided to live their own way instead of God's way in the world that God created. That was when God began His great work of saving us from our sins.
To prepare the way, God had to destroy the whole world by a great flood, except for the family of Noah. Then God raised up a new people for Himself. They were the ancient Hebrews. God promised the Hebrews they would bring His salvation to the whole world.
The first five books of the Old Testament are mostly the story of how God chose the ancient Hebrews and taught them his laws. Following these are the twelve books that tell the history of the Hebrews. The next five are books of poetry and wisdom. One of these five books, the "Psalms", is a book of songs showing mainly how God wants to be worshiped.
The last seventeen books of the Old Testament were written by Hebrew prophets. These books tell about God's disappointment with the ancient Hebrews and His promise to bring them back to friendship with Him. The prophets also foretell a great surprise God was planning for the world-He was going to send His very own Son, the Messiah (the "Anointed One"), the Saviour, to save us from our sins.
You can read about this Messiah in the New Testament.
In the Old Testament, Tanakh was mostly written in Hebrew; a few parts were written in Aramaic. This part of the Bible is considered to be holy by Jews as well as Christians.
There are also a few books of the Old Testament's time called Deuterocanonical by those Churches that accept them as part of the Bible, and Apocrypha by those that do not.
The second part is called the New Testament. The main part of this book is the story of the life of Jesus Christ. The four different versions of this story in the New Testament are called the Gospels. After the Gospels, there is also the story of what happened to the Church after Jesus's death and resurrection. Part of this is told through letters by early Christian leaders, especially Saint Paul. The final book of the Bible tells about a vision that St. John, one of the disciples of Jesus, had. In the vision John saw what would happen at the end of the world. This included judgement for evil and happiness for the people who had followed Jesus. One of the most quoted verses in the Bible is : "For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish <nowiki>[die]</nowiki> but have eternal life."
People have different ideas about the Bible. Christians believe it is God's Word to people. The Jews believe that only the Old Testament is from God. Protestants and Catholics believe that the Old and New Testaments are God's Word. Catholics also believe that the books called Apocrypha or Deuterocanonical are part of the Bible. Sometimes different denominations disagree over exactly what the Bible means.
According to Islam, the Injil itself is to be followed but it is believed to have been corrupted with time. The Qur'an is believed to be the successor.
Atheists do not believe that gods exist, so the Bible is only an ancient book.
Deists believe in God, but they believe that the Bible was written by people, so they don't see it as important.
Bavaria
Bavaria (; German and Bavarian: "Bayern" ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (German and Bavarian: "Freistaat Bayern" ) is a State ("Bundesland") of Germany. The territory of this state is the largest of the 16 German states. The state capital is Munich with 1.3 million people. About 12.5 million people live in Bavaria. Like many German states, Bavaria was once independent. Ludwig II of Bavaria was its last independent king.
Bavaria has seven parts: Oberbayern (Upper Bavaria), Niederbayern (Lower Bavaria), Schwaben (Swabia), Mittelfranken (Middle Franconia), Unterfranken (Lower Franconia), Oberfranken (Upper Franconia) and Oberpfalz (Upper Palatinate). Bavaria has 71 districts and 25 free cities.
The highest point is the Zugspitze, which is also the highest mountain in Germany. Munich is the largest city, the second biggest city is Nuremberg ("Nürnberg"), which is famous for its gingerbread, a kind of Christmas bread that is often shaped like a Christmas tree, a snowman or Santa Claus.
Pope Benedict XVI was born in Bavaria.
Rome
Rome (Latin: "Roma") is the capital city of Italy. It is also the capital and largest city in the "region" of Lazio, and the geographical region of Latium. It is on the Tiber River and has 2.8 million people. An estimate by the OECD put the number of people of the city area of Rome at 3.47 million. When the Roman Empire was new, Rome was called the "Eternal City" because it was already very old.
Rome is well known for being the home of the Catholic Church, including its leader, the Pope. He lives in the Vatican City, which is an enclave in the north-west part of Rome.
Nothing is known for sure about the founding of ancient Rome; it is prehistoric. The myth of Romulus and Remus is often told. They were supposedly raised by a she-wolf. Romulus killed Remus, and became the first king of Rome, for some time Romulus ruled alongside a Sabine King a neighboring tribe. There is no historical evidence of this, but the story is popular. Numa Pompilius was the next king.
With the overthrow of the Roman Kingdom began the Republican era. The new Roman Republic fought and conquered the people around it. In 390 BC, the town was invaded by Gauls. Between the third and second century BC, Rome fought against the rival Carthage. The Roman army captured and destroyed Carthage.
Only with Julius Caesar in the first century BC, did the city began to grow significantly, especially toward the Campo Marzio, at the north of Capitoline Hill, and its domain was extended to Britannia. Caesar was never crowned emperor, a title which, however, fell to his adopted son Octavian who took the throne under the name of Augustus.
Augustus "found a city of bricks and left it marble". With him, Rome reached one million inhabitants and this was the first time in history that has happened in the world. Later emperors also added new monuments, temples, and triumphal arches to ancient Rome.
With the decline of the Roman Empire, the city declined in importance and fell into ruin. Pope Gregory I created major reforms for the people. The city was ruled by the pope, and soon also became the capital of a state, the Papal States, which remained active until the nineteenth century. Popes, like the emperors, became richer over the centuries and the same happened with the counties ruled by them.
Rome experienced a second "rebirth" in importance during the Italian Renaissance. The city of monuments and churches was called the "capital of Christendom", as the home of the Basilica di San Giovanni Lateran, the most important church of the world. The masterpieces of the Renaissance geniuses, like Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo, embellished the city.
The power of the Pope lessened along with its state.