Either the Christian Scripture or the Jewish Scripture, those works recognized as sacred and authoritative writings by the respective faiths. The Christian Scriptures are divided between two testaments: the Old Testament (which corresponds roughly to the canon of Jewish Scriptures), and the New Testament. The Old Testament, or Hebrew Bible, is a collection of writings originally composed in Hebrew, except for parts of Daniel and Ezra that are in Aramaic. These writings depict Israelite religion from its beginnings to about the 2nd-c BC. The New Testament is so-called in Christian circles because it is believed to constitute a new testament or covenant in the history of God's dealings with his people, centring on the ministry of Jesus and the early development of the apostolic churches. The New Testament writings were in Greek.
The process of determining precisely which writings were to be accepted in the Jewish or Christian Scriptures is known as the formation of the canon of Scripture. The earliest step towards establishing the canon of Jewish Scriptures was probably the fixing of the Law, viz the Pentateuch (the Books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy), in about the 4th3rd-c BC. In addition, a group of writings known as the Prophets appear to have been recognized by the grandson of Ben Sira (c.117 BC). The remaining books of the Hebrew Bible are called the Writings (eg the Books of Psalms, Proverbs, Job) and were seemingly the last to be settled. It was only AD c.100 that the final selection of authorized Jewish Scriptures was complete, following a decision taken by the council at Jabneh. The Greek translations of the Hebrew Bible (the Septuagint) contained some other writings which were not accepted at Jabneh.
The early Christians largely accepted the Jewish Scriptures, but frequently had access to the larger collection of writings in the Septuagint and some other translations of the Hebrew Bible. Debates about the precise limits of the Old Testament continued into the Reformation period, with a difference emerging in the Protestant and Roman Catholic Churches. At the Council of Trent (1546), the Catholics accepted as deuterocanonical several works which Protestants labelled as Apocrypha and considered outside the canon. Protestant Churches in general have accepted only the writings of the Hebrew canon in their versions of the Old Testament.
Early Christians, however, also began to collect specifically Christian writings. In the 2nd-c, Irenaeus testifies to a growing recognition of exactly four Gospels, the Acts, and 13 Pauline letters as authoritative for the Church. Soon this was the basis for a New Testament, although a number of other disputed works were also considered. The first evidence for a canonical list which completely matches that widely accepted for the New Testament today was the 39th Easter letter of Athanasius (367), which designates 27 books of the New Testament alongside the canon of the Old Testament, although debate continued for some years in the East about the Book of Revelation, and in the West over the Letter to the Hebrews.
While the limits of the canon were effectively set in these early centuries, the status of Scripture has been a topic of scholarly discussion in the later church. Increasingly, the Biblical works have been subjected to literary and historical criticism in efforts to interpret the texts independent of Church and dogmatic influences. Different views of the authority and inspiration of the Bible also continue to be expressed in liberal and fundamentalist churches today. What cannot be denied, however, is the enormous influence which the stories, poetry, and reflections found in the Biblical writings have had, not only on the doctrines and practices of two major faiths, but also on Western culture, its literature, art, and music.
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The word "Bible" refers to the canonical collections of sacred writings of Judaism and Christianity.
Judaism's Bible is often referred to as the Torah, or Hebrew Bible, which includes the sacred texts common to both the Christian and Jewish canons. The Christian Bible is also called the Holy Bible, Scriptures, or Word of God. The Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Old Testament canons contain books not found in the Tanakh, but which were found in the Greek Septuagint.
More than 14,000 manuscripts and fragments of the Hebrew Tanakh exist, as do numerous copies of the Septuagint, and 5,300 manuscripts of the Greek New Testament, more than any other work of antiquity.
Derivation
According to the Online Etymology Dictionary the word bible is from the early 1300s, from Anglo-Latin biblia, traced from the same word through Medieval Latin and Late Latin, as used in the phrase biblia sacra ("holy books"). This then stemmed from the term (Greek: τὰ βιβλία τὰ ἅγια ta biblia ta hagia, "the holy books"), which derived from biblion ("paper" or "scroll", the ordinary word for "book"), which was originally a diminutive of byblos ("Egyptian papyrus"), possibly so called from the name of the Phoenician port from which Egyptian papyrus was exported to Greece. Biblical scholar Mark Hamilton states that the Greek phrase ta biblia ("the books") was "an expression Hellenistic Jews used to describe their sacred books several centuries before the time of Jesus," and would have referred to the Septuagint. The word "Bible" replaced Old English biblioðece ("the Scriptures") from the Greek bibliotheke (lit. "book-repository" from biblion + theke, meaning "case, chest, or sheath"), used of the Bible by Jerome and the common Latin word for it until Biblia began to displace it 9c.
The Hebrew Bible
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The Hebrew Bible (Hebrew: תנ"ך) is a term that refers to the common portions of the Jewish and Christian biblical canons.
"Hebrew" in "Hebrew Bible" may refer to either the Hebrew language or to the Hebrew people who historically used Hebrew as a spoken language, and have continuously used the language in prayer and study, or both.
Because "Hebrew Bible" refers to the common portions of the Jewish and Christian biblical canons, it does not encompass the deuterocanonical books (largely from the Koine Greek Septuagint translation (LXX), included in the canon of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches). Thus the term "Hebrew Bible" corresponds most fully to the Old Testament in use by Protestant denominations (adhering to Jerome's Hebraica veritas doctrine).
The Hebrew Bible consists of 38 books. Tanakh is an acronym for the three parts of the Hebrew Bible: the Torah ("Teaching/Law" also known as the Pentateuch), Nevi'im ("Prophets"), and Ketuvim ("Writings", or Hagiographa).
(see Table of books of Judeo-Christian Scripture)
Torah
The Torah, or "Teaching," is also known as the five books of Moses, thus Chumash or Pentateuch (Hebrew and Greek for "five," respectively).
The Pentateuch is composed of the following five books:
I Genesis (Bereisheet בראשית), II Exodus (Shemot שמות), III Leviticus (Vayikra ויקרא), IV Numbers (Bemidbar במדבר), and V Deuteronomy (Devarim דברים)The Hebrew book titles come from the first words in the respective texts. written material from the Ancient Near East is relatively scarce, the Bible itself and Josephus being major historical sources from that time and place).
According to Jewish tradition, Nevi'im is divided into eight books. The Book of Ruth is the only biblical book that centers entirely on a non-Jew. according to the Bible, she was the great-grandmother of King David.
Ketuvim contains eleven books:
I. Ezra (often divided into two books, Book of Ezra and Book of Nehemiah (עזרא (נחמיה XI. Divrei ha-Yamim (Chronicles, often divided into two books) דבריהימים
Translations and editions
The Tanakh was mainly written in Biblical Hebrew, with some portions (notably in Daniel and Ezra) in Aramaic.
Some time in the 2nd or 3rd century BC, the Torah was translated into Koine Greek, and over the next century, other books were translated (or composed) as well.
From the 800s to the 1400s, Jewish scholars today known as Karaites Masoretes compared the text of all known Biblical manuscripts in an effort to create a unified, standardized text.
Versions of the Septuagint contain several passages and whole books beyond what was included in the Masoretic texts of the Tanakh. In some cases these additions were originally composed in Greek, while in other cases they are translations of Hebrew books or variants not present in the Masoretic texts.
The Old Testament
Christian Old Testament, while having most or all books in common with the Jewish Tanakh, varies from Judaism in the emphasis it places and the interpretations it gives them. In addition, some Christian groups recognize additional books as canonical members of the Old Testament, and they may use a different text as the canonical basis for translations.
Differing Christian usages of the Old Testament
The Septuagint (Greek translation, from Alexandria in Egypt under the Ptolemies) was generally abandoned in favor of the Masoretic text as the basis for translations of the Old Testament into Western languages from Saint Jerome's Vulgate to the present day.
A number of books which are part of the Greek Septuagint but are not found in the Hebrew Bible are often referred to as deutrcanonical books by Roman Catholics referring to a later secondary (i.e.
The New Testament
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The Bible as used by the majority of Christians includes the Hebrew Scripture and the New Testament, which relates the life and teachings of Jesus, the letters of the Apostle Paul and other disciples to the early church and the Book of Revelation.
The New Testament is a collection of 27 books, produced by Christians, with Jesus as its central figure, written primarily in Koine Greek in the early Christian period. These books can be grouped into:
| The Gospels Synoptic Gospels Gospel According to Matthew Gospel According to Mark Gospel According to Luke Gospel According to John Acts of the Apostles Pauline Epistles Epistle to the Romans First Epistle to the Corinthians Second Epistle to the Corinthians Epistle to the Galatians Epistle to the Philippians Epistle to Philemon First Epistle to the Thessalonians Second Epistle to the Thessalonians Epistle to the Ephesians Epistle to the Colossians Pastoral Epistles First Epistle to Timothy Second Epistle to Timothy Epistle to Titus | Epistle to the Hebrews General Epistles Epistle of James First Epistle of Peter Second Epistle of Peter First Epistle of John Second Epistle of John Third Epistle of John Epistle of Jude Revelation |
Original language
The New Testament was probably completely composed in Koine Greek, the language of the earliest manuscripts.
The earliest surviving complete manuscript of the entire Bible is the Codex Amiatinus, a Latin Vulgate edition produced in eighth century England at the double monastery of Wearmouth-Jarrow.
Christian Theology
While individual books within the Christian Bible present narratives set in certain historical periods, most Christian denominations teach that the Bible itself has an overarching message.
There are among Christians wide differences of opinion as to how particular incidents as described in the Bible are to be interpreted and as to what meaning should be attached to various prophecies. However, Christians in general are in agreement as to the Bible's basic message.
Many people who identify themselves as Christians, Muslims, or Jews regard the Bible as inspired by God yet written by a variety of imperfect men over thousands of years. Various texts of the Bible mention Divine agency in relation to prophetic writings, the most explicit being: 2 Timothy 3:16: "All scripture, inspired of God, is profitable to teach, to reprove, to correct, to instruct in justice." However, the Bible neither gives a list of which texts are inspired and their exact contents, nor a precise theological definition of what inspiration entails.
The canonization of the Bible
It has been theorized that canonical status of some books of the Hebrew Bible was still being discussed between 200 BC and AD 100, and that it had yet to reach definitive form.
The Old Testament canon entered into Christian use in the Greek Septuagint translations and original books, and their differing lists of texts. 400, Jerome produced a definitive Latin edition of the Bible (see Vulgate), the canon of which, at the insistence of the Pope, was in accord with the earlier Synods. Hence, in a Catholic context these texts are referred to as deuterocanonical books, whereas in a Protestant context they are referred to as Apocrypha, the label applied to all texts excluded from the Biblical canon.
Thus, the Protestant Old Testament of today has a 39-book canon—the number varies from that of the books in the Tanakh (though not in content) because of a different method of division—while the Roman Catholic Church recognizes 46 books as part of the canonical Old Testament.
Canonicity, which involves the discernment of which texts are divinely inspired, is distinct from questions of human authorship and the formation of the books of the Bible.
Bible versions and translations
In scholarly writing, ancient translations are frequently referred to as "versions", with the term "translation" being reserved for medieval or modern translations. Bible versions are discussed below, while Bible translations can be found on a separate page. In addition to the authoritative Masoretic Text, Jews still refer to the Septuagint, the translation of the Hebrew Bible into Greek, and the Targum Onkelos, an Aramaic version of the Bible. In addition they translated the Hebrew Bible into several other languages.
The earliest Latin translation was the Old Latin text, or Vetus Latina, which, from internal evidence, seems to have been made by several authors over a period of time. It was based on the Septuagint, and thus included books not in the Hebrew Bible.
Pope Damasus I assembled the first list of books of the Bible at the Council of Rome in 382 A.D. This translation became known as the Latin Vulgate Bible and was declared by the Church to be the only authentic and official Bible.
Bible translations for many languages have been made through the various influences of Catholicism, Orthodox, Protestant, etc especially since the Protestant Reformation. The Bible has seen a notably large number of English language translations.
The work of Bible translation continues, including by Christian organisations such as Wycliffe Bible Translators (wycliffe.net), New Tribes Missions (ntm.org) and the Bible Societies (biblesociety.org). Of the world's 6,900 languages, 2,400 have some or all of the Bible, 1,600 (spoken by more than a billion people) have translation underway, and some 2,500 (spoken by 270m people) are judged as needing translation to begin.
Differences in Bible Translations
The Hebrew Masoretic text contains verse endings as an important feature.
The current division of the Bible into chapters and the verse numbers within the chapters have no basis in any ancient textual tradition. However, for the past generation, most Jewish editions of the complete Hebrew Bible have made a systematic effort to relegate chapter and verse numbers to the margins of the text.
The division of the Bible into chapters and verses has often elicited severe criticism from traditionalists and modern scholars alike. Critics charge that the text is often divided into chapters in an incoherent way, or at inappropriate rhetorical points, and that it encourages citing passages out of context, in effect turning the Bible into a kind of textual quarry for clerical citations. Nevertheless, the chapter divisions and verse numbers have become indispensable as technical references for Bible study.
Stephen Langton is reputed to have been the first to put the chapter divisions into a Vulgate edition of the Bible, in 1205. Robert Estienne (Robert Stephanus) was the first to number the verses within each chapter, his verse numbers entering printed editions in 1565 (New Testament) and 1571 (Hebrew Bible).
Advocacy of the Bible
Christian apologists advocate a high view of the Bible and sometimes advocate the doctrine of Biblical inerrancy.
Christian scholar Bernard Ramm is often quoted by conservative Christians for writing the following in his work Protestant Christian Evidences:
"Jews preserved it as no other manuscript has ever been preserved.
A thousand times over, the death knell of the Bible has been sounded, the funeral procession formed, the inscription cut on the tombstone, and committal read. What book on philosophy or religion or psychology or belles lettres of classical or modern times has been subject to such a
The Bible is still loved by millions, read by millions, and studied by millions."
Criticism of the Bible
Theologians and clerics, most notably Abraham Ibn Ezra, think that there are contradictions in the Bible. By the 19th century, critical scholars, such as Hermann Gunkel and Julius Wellhausen argued that the various books of the Bible were written not by the presumed authors but by a heterogeneous set of authors over a long period. Although Biblical archeology has confirmed the existence of some of the people, places, and events mentioned in the Bible, many critical scholars have argued that the Bible be read not as an accurate historical document, but rather as a work of literature and theology that often draws on historical events — and often draws on non-Hebrew mythology — as primary source material. For these critics the Bible reveals much about the lives and times of its authors. ^ Online Etymology Dictionary entry for word "Bible" ^ "From Hebrew Bible to Christian Bible" by Mark Hamilton on PBS's site From Jesus to Christ: The First Christians ^ Dictionary.com etymology of the word "Bible" ^ A Summary of the Bible by Lewis, C.S: Believer's Web ^ See Philo of Alexandria, De vita Moysis 3.23; Basic Bible Interpretation:p68. Basic Bible Interpretation. Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why New York, NY: HarperSanFrancisco, 2005. "The Bible, The Church, and Authority." The Origins of the Bible: Rethinking Canon History Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 1994. The Bible: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press, 2000. The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts. Wycliffe Bible Encyclopedia, subject: prophecy, page 1410, Moody Bible Press, Chicago, 1986 Wycliffe Bible Encyclopedia, subject: Book of Ezekiel, page 580, Moody Bible Press, Chicago, 1986 On gender neutrality. gender-neutral Bible translations.
See also
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Wiktionary, the free dictionary. Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Bible Wikisource has original text related to this article: The Bible and Works about the Bible Wikisource has original text related to this article: 1911 Britannica entry
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