Why do some bibles have pictures and some don’t?
Answer: The people who wrote the Bible didn’t put pictures in them. But in recent years, the people who print Bibles wanted to help us better understand the Bible stories.
So they put pictures at various places in the Bible to help us see what Bible people and places may have looked like. The pictures are drawings or paintings, not photographs.
These pictures were made recently – they’re not very old. The artists knew what to draw by learning about that part of the world and by reading what the Bible says about how people lived in Bible times.
Key verse: When you come, bring the coat I left at Troas with Carpus. Also bring the books, but especially bring the parchments. (2 Timothy 4:13)
Related verses: 2 Timothy 3:16-17
Related question: Why are there different Bibles?
Note To Parents: In the key verse, Paul was in prison, just before his death when he wrote this letter to Timothy. The “parchments” were copies of the Old Testament Scriptures.
With this question, children may also be asking why there are different versions of the Bible or why there is a difference between their Bible storybook and your Bible.
When did “bible times” stop?
Answer: The last book in the Bible was written about seventy years after the time Jesus lived on earth. That’s a very long time ago, almost two thousand years.
In one way that’s when Bible times stopped. But in other ways we are still in Bible times. God still speaks to us through his Word, he still cares about us, and he still does miracles.
We may not see God divide a sea like he did for Moses, and we may not see anyone walk on water like Jesus did, but God still answers prayer and changes lives.
Key verse: Tell each other when you do wrong. Pray for each other. Then you will be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous man has great power and wonderful results. (James 5:16)
Related verses: John 20:30-31; Hebrews 1:1-3;4:7
Related questions: How long ago was the Bible written? When was the Bible made?