The Bible, book by book
A short animated video for every book, so the words make sense when you read them. Watch one, read a few of its own words, then read the book.
13 min Start here · Old Testament The Old Testament, in one video The story before Jesus: creation, Israel, the prophets. The Bible Jesus read. Watch it 
8 min Start here · New Testament The New Testament, in one video Jesus, his first followers, and the letters they wrote to new churches. Watch it These videos explain how each book is built and how it fits the whole story. They are made by BibleProject, a nonprofit studio, not a church, so they don’t tell you what Lutherans believe about a book. The Bible comes first here: every page opens with the book’s own words, and links to the whole book, free.
Then see it acted out: The Gospels, acted outScenes from The Chosen, each beside the passage it shows
The five books of Moses
Genesis to Deuteronomy. Creation, Abraham, the escape from Egypt, and the law.
Genesis 1–11 Genesis, part 1
Creation, the garden, the first wrong, Cain and Abel, the flood, and the tower. Why the world is both good and broken.
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Genesis 12–50 Genesis, part 2
God promises Abraham a family that will bless the whole world. Then four generations of that family, flaws and all: Isaac, Jacob, Joseph.
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Exodus 1–18 Exodus, part 1
Israel enslaved in Egypt. God hears, sends Moses, and brings them out through the sea. The night of Passover is here.
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Exodus 19–40 Exodus, part 2
At Mount Sinai God makes a covenant with Israel, gives the Ten Commandments, and comes to live among them in a tent.
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Leviticus 1–27 Leviticus
How a holy God can live with an unholy people: sacrifices, priests, clean and unclean, and the Day of Atonement.
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Numbers 1–36 Numbers
Forty years in the wilderness. Israel grumbles, rebels and fails, and God stays faithful anyway. The blessing "The Lord bless you and keep you" is here.
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Deuteronomy 1–34 Deuteronomy
Moses' last speeches before Israel enters the land: remember, love God with all your heart, choose life.
Watch and readIsrael's story
Joshua to Esther. A land, judges, kings, exile, and a long way home.
Joshua 1–24 Joshua
Israel crosses the Jordan into the land God promised. Jericho falls, the land is shared out, and the people promise to serve God.
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Judges 1–21 Judges
Israel forgets God, gets into trouble, cries out, and God raises a rescuer. Again and again, with each cycle worse. Deborah, Gideon, Samson.
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Ruth 1–4 Ruth
A short story set in the time of the judges. A foreign widow stays loyal to her mother-in-law, and ordinary kindness changes the story of Israel.
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1 Samuel 1–31 1 Samuel
Israel asks for a king. They get Saul, who looks the part and fails. God chooses David, a shepherd boy, instead.
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2 Samuel 1–24 2 Samuel
David becomes king, God promises his family a throne forever, and then David falls badly. A great king who is still not the one.
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1 Kings 1 to 2 Kings 25 1 and 2 Kings
Solomon builds the temple, the kingdom splits, and a long line of kings mostly fail. Elijah and Elisha. It ends in exile.
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1 Chronicles 1 to 2 Chronicles 36 1 and 2 Chronicles
The same history as Samuel and Kings, retold after the exile for people who needed hope: David, the temple, and what God still promised.
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Ezra 1 to Nehemiah 13 Ezra and Nehemiah
The exiles come home to Jerusalem. They rebuild the temple and the walls, read the law aloud, and find that coming home isn't the same as being changed.
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Esther 1–10 Esther
A Jewish queen in Persia risks her life to stop a plan to kill her people. God is never named, and is everywhere in the story.
Watch and readSongs and wisdom
Job to Song of Songs. Prayers, proverbs and hard questions, in poetry.
Job 1–42 Job
A good man loses everything. His friends say he must have deserved it. Job argues with God, and God answers, though not with reasons.
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Psalms 1–150 Psalms
150 prayers and songs: praise, grief, anger, trust, thanks. The prayer book of Israel, and still the church's.
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Proverbs 1–31 Proverbs
Short sayings about living well: money, words, work, friends, anger. Wisdom begins with taking God seriously.
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Ecclesiastes 1–12 Ecclesiastes
A teacher looks hard at life, work, pleasure and death, and calls much of it "vapour". Honest about how little we control.
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Song of Songs 1–8 Song of Songs
Love poems between two people who delight in each other. The Bible says love and desire are good gifts.
Watch and readThe prophets
Isaiah to Malachi. Hard words for a people who wandered, and hope for what God would do.
Isaiah 1–39 Isaiah, part 1
Isaiah warns Jerusalem that its injustice will bring ruin, and promises a king from David's line who will set things right.
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Isaiah 40–66 Isaiah, part 2
"Comfort, comfort my people." Hope for exiles: a servant who suffers for others, a new Jerusalem, a new creation.
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Jeremiah 1–52 Jeremiah
A prophet who did not want the job, warning Jerusalem for forty years. Grief, protest, and a promise of a new covenant written on the heart.
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Lamentations 1–5 Lamentations
Five poems of grief after Jerusalem burned. The Bible makes room for sorrow that has no quick answer.
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Ezekiel 1–33 Ezekiel, part 1
A priest in exile sees God's glory on wheels, far from the temple. Strange visions and acted-out warnings about why Jerusalem fell.
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Ezekiel 34–48 Ezekiel, part 2
After the fall, hope: a true shepherd, a new heart and a new spirit, a valley of dry bones that live again, and a new temple.
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Daniel 1–12 Daniel
Stories of faithfulness in Babylon, the lions' den and the furnace, then visions of empires rising and falling until God's kingdom comes.
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Hosea 1–14 Hosea
God tells a prophet to marry a woman who will leave him, so Israel can see what its unfaithfulness feels like, and how God still loves.
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Joel 1–3 Joel
A plague of locusts becomes a picture of the day of the Lord. Turn back, and God promises to pour out his Spirit on everyone.
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Amos 1–9 Amos
A shepherd from the south tells a rich, religious nation that God is not impressed by worship while the poor are crushed.
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Obadiah Obadiah
The shortest book in the Old Testament: one chapter against Edom, a neighbour who watched Jerusalem fall and cheered.
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Jonah 1–4 Jonah
A prophet runs from God rather than preach to his enemies. A storm, a fish, a city that repents, and a prophet sulking under a plant.
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Micah 1–7 Micah
Judgement on leaders who sell justice, and hope for a ruler from little Bethlehem. "Do justice, love mercy, walk humbly."
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Nahum 1–3 Nahum
The fall of Nineveh, the capital of a cruel empire. God is slow to anger, and he does not let cruelty win forever.
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Habakkuk 1–3 Habakkuk
A prophet asks God the hard question, why do you let this happen, and waits for an answer. It ends in a song of trust.
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Zephaniah 1–3 Zephaniah
The day of the Lord is coming for everyone, Judah included. Then, after the fire, God rejoicing over his people with singing.
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Haggai 1–2 Haggai
The exiles are home but the temple is still rubble. Four short messages: build it, and I am with you.
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Zechariah 1–14 Zechariah
Night visions and promises for a small, discouraged community: a coming king, a struck shepherd, a fountain for sin.
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Malachi 1–4 Malachi
The last prophet. God's people have grown tired and careless, and God promises a messenger who will prepare the way.
Watch and readThe Gospels and Acts
Four accounts of Jesus, then the story of the first churches.
Matthew 1–13 Matthew, part 1
Jesus as the promised son of David and Abraham. His birth, baptism, the Sermon on the Mount, healings, and parables of the kingdom.
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Matthew 14–28 Matthew, part 2
Jesus turns toward Jerusalem. Conflict with the leaders, the last week, the cross, the empty tomb, and "go and make disciples."
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Mark 1–16 Mark
The shortest Gospel, and the fastest. Jesus acts more than he explains, and the question all through is, who is this?
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Luke 1–9 Luke, part 1
A careful account for a Gentile reader. Mary's song, the shepherds, Jesus' first sermon in Nazareth, and good news for the poor.
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Luke 10–24 Luke, part 2
The long road to Jerusalem, full of stories only Luke tells: the Good Samaritan, the Prodigal Son, Zacchaeus. Then the cross and Emmaus.
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John 1–12 John, part 1
A different kind of Gospel: seven signs and long conversations. Water to wine, Nicodemus, the woman at the well, Lazarus.
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John 13–21 John, part 2
Jesus washes his friends' feet, talks with them through the last night, prays for them, dies, and meets them again by the lake.
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Acts 1–12 Acts, part 1
Luke's second book. The Spirit comes at Pentecost, the church begins in Jerusalem, and the good news starts to spread, to Samaritans and Gentiles.
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Acts 13–28 Acts, part 2
Paul's journeys across the Roman world: new churches, riots, prisons, a shipwreck, and finally Rome. The story ends still open.
Watch and readPaul's letters
Romans to Philemon. Letters to new churches and to the people who led them.
Romans 1–4 Romans, part 1
Paul's fullest explanation of the good news. Everyone has fallen short, Jew and Gentile alike, and everyone is put right by trust in Jesus, as a gift.
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Romans 5–16 Romans, part 2
What the gift changes: peace with God, a new life by the Spirit, nothing able to separate us from God's love, and love as the shape of daily life.
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1 Corinthians 1–16 1 Corinthians
A gifted, divided church in a rich port city. Paul writes about cliques, sex, lawsuits, worship, the Lord's Supper, love, and resurrection.
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2 Corinthians 1–13 2 Corinthians
Paul's most personal letter. He has been hurt by this church, and writes about weakness, suffering, and strength that shows up in weakness.
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Galatians 1–6 Galatians
Churches are being told they need to add the law to Jesus. Paul answers with heat: you are free, and freedom shows itself in love.
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Ephesians 1–6 Ephesians
The big picture: God's plan to bring everything together in Christ, one new people from Jew and Gentile, and what that looks like at home and at work.
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Philippians 1–4 Philippians
A thank-you letter from prison, full of joy. Paul tells a church he loves to have the mind of Christ and not to worry.
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Colossians 1–4 Colossians
A church tempted by add-ons: rules, visions, special knowledge. Paul says Christ is enough, because everything was made through him.
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1 Thessalonians 1–5 1 Thessalonians
Probably Paul's earliest letter. Encouragement for a new church under pressure, and comfort about friends who have died.
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2 Thessalonians 1–3 2 Thessalonians
A follow-up: some have decided the end has already come and stopped working. Paul says stand firm, keep going, and don't be fooled.
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1 Timothy 1–6 1 Timothy
A letter to a young pastor in a difficult church: false teachers, who should lead, how to treat people of every age, and money.
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2 Timothy 1–4 2 Timothy
Paul's last letter, from prison, near death. Don't be ashamed, keep the faith, bring my cloak and my books.
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Titus 1–3 Titus
Setting up churches on Crete, an island with a rough reputation. Good leaders, sound teaching, and lives that make the teaching believable.
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Philemon Philemon
One page. Paul sends a runaway slave, Onesimus, back to his master, and asks the master to receive him as a brother.
Watch and readOther letters
Hebrews to Jude. Written by other first followers of Jesus.
Hebrews 1–13 Hebrews
For Jewish Christians tempted to go back. Jesus is greater than angels, Moses, and the priests; he is the final priest and the final sacrifice.
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James 1–5 James
Blunt wisdom from Jesus' brother: faith that doesn't act is dead, the tongue is a fire, and God sides with the poor.
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1 Peter 1–5 1 Peter
To Christians treated as outsiders: you are chosen, you are a holy people, and suffering for doing good follows the pattern of Christ.
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2 Peter 1–3 2 Peter
A warning about teachers who twist the faith and say nothing will ever change. God is patient, not slow, and a new creation is coming.
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1 John 1 to 3 John 1, 2 and 3 John
Three letters from the same circle as John's Gospel. God is light, God is love, and loving each other is the test of knowing him.
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Jude Jude
A short, urgent note from another of Jesus' brothers: contend for the faith, and don't follow people who use grace as a cover for harm.
Watch and readRevelation
The last book. Less a timetable than a vision of how the story ends.
Revelation 1–11 Revelation, part 1
John's vision on Patmos: letters to seven churches under pressure, a throne, a scroll, and a Lamb who was slain. How to read the pictures.
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Revelation 12–22 Revelation, part 2
The dragon, the beasts and Babylon, then their fall, and a new heaven and a new earth where God wipes every tear away.
Watch and readAbout BibleProject
BibleProject is a nonprofit animation studio in Portland, Oregon, that makes free videos about the Bible as one story that leads to Jesus. Their book overviews are watched in churches of every kind. They ask that their videos be shown whole through YouTube, with credit, and never sold; that is how they are shown here. More at bibleproject.com ↗.
The videos and their pictures are BibleProject’s own, from their YouTube channel, played exactly as they posted them. The Bible passages are from the World English Bible.