Review:
When you study the Bible, do you find yourself confused by how what you're reading fits in with other parts of the Bible? Wouldn't it be nice to have an easy visual resource that helps you connect the pieces together and start to get a better sense of the whole?
This may be just what you're looking for. This colorful six-page laminated fold-out chart (written by Scott Hahn!) is a handy reference guide to have by your side when studying the Bible. It has brief, but helpful overviews on the following topics:
What is the Bible?
The Shape of the Bible?
Who Wrote the Bible?
What Belongs in the Bible?
The Bible and the Church
Interpreting the Bible
Your Reading Program
The Books of the Bible
Where to Find...
The last two sections constitute the bulk of this resource and, I believe, will be very helpful to many students of the Bible.
The "Books of the Bible" segment provides brief overviews of each book of the Old and New Testaments (including information on the Deuterocanonical books - those that have been left out of Protestant Bibles) and provides a helpful understanding of the major sections in both the Old and New Testament.
The "Where to Find..." section provides an easy to follow chart of major events from the Bible and what passage they can be found in. This section is divided into the following segments:
Old Testament:
Stories of the World's Beginning
Stories of the Patriarchs
Stories of Moses and the Exodus
Stories of the Conquest and the Judges
Stories of the United Kingdom
Stories of the Divided Kingdoms
Stories of the Exile and After
Prophecies of Christ
New Testament:
Jesus' Life - the Mysteries of the Rosary
Other Events in Jesus' Life
Jesus' Parables
The Birth of the Church
The Sacraments
The Bible in the Mass
Some Famous Sayings
I think it's particularly nice for busy homeschool moms to be able glance through this reference and find exactly what they're looking for. It also looks to be excellent for independent high school (and upper grade school) studies.
You don't have to look very many years back to find a time in which Catholics had to purchase Protestant materials in order to find such helpful, colorful Bible resources. This is happily no longer the case! Here, not only do you find relevant Biblical information, but also explanations of things like basic Catholic teaching on the relationship of Scripture and Tradition and where our Bible came from.
This chart also goes nicely with Scott Hahn's little Pocket Guide to the Bible (79 pgs, approximately 4x6 in.) which includes a great deal of the content found on this resource, but with more extensive explanations and less in the way of charts and overviews.