Bible - Definition

The Bible (From Greek βιβλια—biblia, meaning "books", which in turn is derived from βυβλος—byblos meaning
"papyrus", from the ancient Phoenician city of Byblos which exported papyrus) is the "sacred" scripture of Christianity. The
Old Testament, or Hebrew Bible (so called because it is written almost entirely in the Hebrew language), is also part of the
Jewish faith. It is also called "the Word of God", from the belief that the writings were inspired by an all-powerful creator.
These scriptures are groups of what were originally separate books, written over a long period of history, but sharing the
same overall God-view. The first group, which later formed the Jewish Bible (Tanakh) consisted of 24 books, though
Protestant Christians count this as 39 books. Later additions after the birth of Jesus made up the New Testament, consisting
of 27 books in almost all Christian dominations.

The Bible is the most widely read book in history. As such, it is probably the most influential collection of books in human
history. More copies of the Bible have been distributed than of any other book. The Bible has also been translated more
times, and into more languages, than any other book. The complete Bible, or portions, have been translated into more than
2,100 languages. Therefore, the Bible is available in whole or in part to 90% of the world's population. Each year, it is
estimated that approximately 60 million copies of the entire Bible or significant portions are distributed.

Many educators strongly feel that because the Bible has become so firmly embedded in Western culture, "anyone, believer
or unbeliever, who is not familiar with Biblical teachings and accounts will be culturally illiterate." — Emerging Trends,
November 1994, p. 4.

Contents [hide]
1 Overview
2 Definition of Biblical terms
3 What parts of the Bible are canon?
4 Biblical versions and translations

4.1 Tanakh
4.2 New Testament
4.3 Chapters and verses

5 Biblical interpretation
6 The Bible and history
7 The supernatural in monotheistic religions
8 See also
9 WikiSource References
10 References
11 External links
11.1 Protestant Online Bibles
11.2 Catholic online Bibles
11.3 Skeptical views
11.4 The Bible in different languages
11.5 Miscellaneous Resources

Overview
The Hebrew Bible consists of the five books of Moses (the Torah or Pentateuch), a section called "Prophets" (Nevi'im), and
a third section called "Writings" (also Ketuvim or Hagiographa). The term "Tanakh" is a Hebrew acronym formed from
these three names. Though the Hebrew Bible is predominantly in Biblical Hebrew, it has some small portions in Biblical
Aramaic.

The Christian Bible is divided into two sections, the Old Testament and the New Testament. The Old Testament is in large
part identical to the Jewish Tanakh, but with the books differently ordered. In addition, Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox
and Oriental Orthodox include several other books that have not been preserved in Hebrew, but rather only in the Greek
Septuagint, a translation allegedly made by Greek-speaking Jews in Alexandria between the third and first centuries BC.

The various books of the New Testament were written in koine Greek, and there is almost no dispute about the contents of
the New Testament among Christians today. Early Christian Bibles used texts of the Old Testament dependent on the Greek
Septuagint, which differs in some places from the primarily Hebrew Masoretic text. Beginning with Jerome's Vulgate, most
modern translations of the Old Testament in Western Christianity are based primarily on the Masoretic text; in Eastern
Christianity, translations based on the Septuagint prevail. Some modern editions of the Old Testament also adopt different
readings found in the Dead Sea Scrolls. For more information, see the entry on Bible translations.

The Hebrew scriptures of the Bible—portions of which contain stories traditionally held to be historical accounts of much of
the early history of the Hebrew Nation—teach that there is one God, whose name is represented by the tetragrammaton, ‫יהוה‬
(usually transliterated as Jehovah or Yahweh). He is "creator of Heaven and Earth" who created man "in his own image",
and details the relationship between Man and his Creator.

For Christians, the New Testament continues—with the birth of Jesus—the story begun in the Hebrew scriptures, and is
both a primary source of religious doctrine and a foundation for their spiritual beliefs. The New Testament is divided into
the four Gospels, History (Acts of the Apostles), the Letters to Christian churches by Paul and other apostles, and the Book
of Revelation. Some religious groups, notably, several of the Protestant Christian groups, believe the Bible to be the ultimate
and authoritative guide in all spiritual matters, following a principle called sola scriptura.

Definition of Biblical terms

The English word "Bible" comes from the Greek word for "books", biblia: βιβλια . A book of the Bible is an established
collection of writings. For example, the book of Psalms consists of 150 songs (151 in some editions of the Septuagint),
while the book of Jude is a half-page letter. Canon refers to the accepted books of the Bible differentiated from other sacred
writings not accepted as inspired by God, which are not accepted as part of the Bible. Those who do not accept writings in
the Catholic and Orthodox Bibles as canon call those texts Apocrypha, while Catholics and Orthodox call them
deuterocanonical books. Additionally, other religious writings that no major Christian sect accepts are referred to as
Pseudepigrapha.

The Protestant Bible consists of 66 books. The Roman Catholic version, including the Deuterocanonical books, counts
altogether 73 books, while the Eastern Orthodox version includes 77 or more. (4 Maccabees and "Prophecies of Ezra" may
be included in some)

What parts of the Bible are canon?

Main articles: Biblical canon, Books of the Bible

As outlined above, the Jewish, Protestant, Catholic, Orthodox, and other traditions accept slightly different canons of the
Hebrew Bible. For the Jews, the canon was decided some time between 200 BC and AD 200. The Christian canons
developed separately, with the Protestant canon being decided at the time of Martin Luther's Reformation and the Catholic
canon being definitively confirmed at the Council of Trent.
In addition to the diverse traditions concerning which books belong in the canon of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian
Bible, modern scholarship proposes alternative views concerning the authenticity of books, and of texts within the books.
See the entries on higher criticism and textual criticism.

Biblical 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. Information about Bible versions is given below, while Bible translations can be found on
a separate page.

Tanakh

The oldest books of the Bible are the Pentateuch, also known as the Torah. They are written in Hebrew and are also called
the 'Books of Moses'. Traditionally Judaism and Christianity held that these books were actually written by the lawgiver
Moses, but many today believe that the current form of the Torah came about by a redactor bringing together several earlier,
distinct sources. This idea is called the documentary hypothesis.

In addition to the Torah, as noted above, the Jewish scriptures include the Nevi'im ("prophets") and the Ketuvim
("writings"), the combined collection being designated by the Hebrew acronym "Tanakh".

The original text of the Tanakh was in Hebrew, with some portions (notably in Daniel and Ezra) in Aramaic. From the 800s
to the 1400s, rabbinic Jewish scholars known as the Masoretes compared the text of all known Biblical manuscripts in an
effort to create a unified and standardized text; a series of highly similar texts eventually emerged, and any of these texts are
known as Masoretic Texts (MT). The Masoretes also added vowel points (called niqqud) to the text, since the original text
only contained consonants. This sometimes required the selection of an interpretation, since words can differ only in their
vowels, and thus the text can vary depending upon the choice of vowels to be inserted. In antiquity there were other variant
readings which were popular, some of which have survived in the Samaritan Pentateuch, the Dead Sea scrolls, and other
ancient fragments, as well as being attested in ancient translations to other languages.

By AD 1, most Jews no longer spoke Hebrew, but spoke Greek or Aramaic instead. Thus they made translations or
paraphrases into these languages. The most important of the translations into the Greek was the Septuagint, though other
translations were made as well. The Septuagint contains several additional passages, and whole additional books, compared
to what was eventually compiled as 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 text.
Recent discoveries have shown that more of the Septuagint additions have a Hebrew origin than was once thought. While
there are no complete surviving manuscripts of the Hebrew text on which the Septuagint was based, many scholars believe
that it was a different textual tradition than the one that eventually became the basis for the Masoretic texts.

The Jews also produced non-literal translations or paraphrases known as targums, primarily in Aramaic. They frequently
expanded on the text with additional details taken from Rabbinic oral tradition.

Early Christians produced translations of the Hebrew Bible into several languages; their primary Biblical text was the
Septuagint. Translations were made into Syriac, Coptic and Latin, among other languages. The Latin translations were
historically the most important to the Church in the West, while in the Greek-speaking East, they continued to use the
Septuagint translation of the Old Testament and had no need to translate the New Testament.

The earliest Latin translation was the Old Latin text, or Vetus Latina. Exactly who translated it is unknown, but internal
evidence suggests it is the product of several authors over a period of time. It was based on the Septuagint, and thus
included the Septuagint additions.

As a translation, the Old Latin was far from ideal, and so Jerome was commissioned to produce the Vulgate translation as a
replacement. Jerome based his translation on the Hebrew rather than the Septuagint, except in the Psalms, where he
preferred the Greek. He was of the opinion that the Septuagint additions were of doubtful value, but he included them due to
the demands of the church. He did not, however, translate the additional books anew; the Vulgate for these books is identical
to the Old Latin. The Vulgate became the official translation of the Roman Catholic church.

New Testament

The majority of scholars believe the New Testament was originally composed in Greek. There are a number of different
textual traditions of the New Testament. The three main traditions are sometimes called the Western text-type, the
Alexandrian text-type, and Byzantine text-type, and together they comprise the majority of New Testament manuscripts.
There are also several ancient translations into other languages, most important of which are the Syriac (including the
Peshitta and the Diatessaron gospel harmony) and the Latin (both the Vetus Latina and the Vulgate).

A minority of scholars believe the Greek New Testament is actually a translation of an Aramaic original. Of these, some
accept the so called "Syriac" Peshitta as the original, while others take a more critical approach to reconstructing the original
text. For more on this view, see Aramaic primacy.

The earliest critical edition of the New Testament is the Textus Receptus (Latin for "received text") compiled by the
humanist Desiderius Erasmus. It is largely Byzantine in character. The Textus Receptus was for many centuries the standard
critical edition of the New Testament, only losing that position after the discovery of manuscripts such as the Codex
Sinaiticus and the Codex Vaticanus. There are some who believe that many or all of the changes introduced by later critical
editions are incorrect, and that the Textus Receptus is still the best critical edition available. A similar but distinct argument
is sometimes made for the Majority Text.

For a more detailed account of the New Testament's development, see the relevant section of Biblical canon.

Chapters and verses

Main article: Chapters and verses of the Bible

The Masoretic Hebrew text contains verse endings as an important feature. According to the Jewish talmudic tradition, the
verse endings are of ancient origin. The Masoretic textual tradition also contains section endings called parashiyot, which
are indicated by a space within a line (a "closed" section") or a new line beginning (an "open" section). The division of the
text reflected in the parashiyot is usually thematic. The parashiyot are not numbered.

In early manuscripts (most importantly in Tiberian Masoretic manuscripts such as the Aleppo codex) an "open" section may
also be represented by a blank line, and a "closed" section by a new line that is slightly indented (the preceding line may
also not be full). These latter conventions are no longer used in Torah scrolls and printed Hebrew Bibles. In this system, the
one rule differentiating "open" and "closed" sections is that "open" sections must always begin at the beginning of a new
line, while "closed" sections never start at the beginning of a new line.

Another related feature of the Masoretic text is the division of the sedarim. This division is not thematic, but is rather almost
entirely based upon the quantity of text.

The Byzantines also introduced a chapter division of sorts, called Kephalaia. It is not identical to the present chapters.
The current division of the Bible into chapters, however, and the verse numbers within the chapters, have no basis in any
ancient textual tradition. Rather, they are medieval Christian inventions. They were later adopted by many Jews as well, as
technical references within the Hebrew text. Such technical references became crucial to medieval rabbis in the historical
context of forced debates with Christian clergy (who used the chapter and verse numbers), especially in late medieval Spain.
Chapter divisions were first used by Jews in a 1330 manuscript, and for a printed edition in 1516. 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 both traditionalists and modern
scholars alike). Critics charge that the text is often divided into chapters in an incoherent way, or at inappropriate points
within the narrative, and that it encourages citing passages out of context, in effect turning the Bible into a kind of textual
quarry for clerical citations. Nevertheless, even the critics admit that the chapter divisions and verse numbers have become
indispensable as technical references for Bible study.

Stephen Langton is reputed to have been the first person to put the chapter divisions into a Vulgate edition of the Bible in
1205. They came into the Greek manuscripts of the New Testament in the 1400s. Robert Estienne (Robert Stephanus) was
the first to number the verses within each chapter; his verse numbers entered printed editions in 1565 (New Testament) and
1571 (Hebrew Bible).[1] (http://www.fuller.edu/ministry/berean/chs_vss.htm)
[2] (http://www.theexaminer.org/history/chap6.htm)

Biblical interpretation
A wealth of additional stories and legends amplifying the accounts in the Tanakh can be found in the Jewish genre of
rabbinical exegesis known as Midrash.

Throughout antiquity and the medieval periods, allegorical methods of interpretation were popular. The earliest use of these
was probably Philo, who attempted to make Jewish halakah palatable to the Greek mind by interpreting it as symbolising
philosophical doctrines. Allegorical interpretation was adopted by Christians, and continued in popularity until a reaction
against it during the Reformation, and it has not since found much favour in Western Christianity.

The Eastern Orthodox Church generally follows a patristic method of interpretation, attempting to interpret scripture in the
same way that the early church fathers did. It also interprets scripture liturgically. This means that the passages that are
publicly read on certain days of the liturgical year are significant, especially on feast days, and are intended to guide people
in their interpretation as they are praying together. Since it was members of the Church who wrote the New Testament and a
series of church councils that decided the biblical canon, the Orthodox believe that the Church should also be the final
authority in its interpretation. This often includes allegorical interpretations.

The pesher method of interpretation, which views Biblical passages as coded representations of events current to the writing
of the passage, was recently (1992) put forward by Barbara Thiering, Ph.D. It is not taken seriously by most experts.

The Bible and history

The mixed archaeological record has led to a variety of opinions regarding the accuracy or historicity of Biblical accounts.
Today there are two loosely defined schools of thought with regard to the historicity of the Bible (Biblical minimalism and
Biblical maximalism) with many in between, in addition to the traditional religious reading of the Bible. This subject is
discussed in its own entry, The Bible and history.
The supernatural in monotheistic religions
Many modern skeptical readers of the Bible hold that its authors gradually reinterpreted historical and natural events as
miraculous or supernatural. The article on the supernatural in monotheistic religions thus concerns itself with the junction
between monotheistic religions, such as Christianity and Judaism and the supernatural.

See also
 Alleged inconsistencies in the Bible
 American Bible Society
 British and Foreign Bible Society
 The Bible and history
 Bible and reincarnation
 Bible citation (an example in Epistle to the Hebrews).
 Bible errata
 Bible translations
 Bible chronology
 Biblical archaeology
 Biblical canon
 Biblical inerrancy
 Books of the Bible
 Dating the Bible
 Ecumenical council
 Gutenberg Bible
 History of the English Bible
 Jefferson Bible
 Jewish Biblical exegesis
 Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible
 Peachtree Editorial and Proofreading Service
 Similarities between the Bible and the Qur'an
 List of Biblical names
 List of Biblical passages
 List of Bible stories
 List of Bible passages of other than theological interest
 List of movies based on the Bible
 Study Bible
 Tanakh
 The Sword Project
 Ten Commandments
 William Morgan (Bible translator)

WikiSource References
 King James Translation (http://wikisource.org/wiki/Bible%2C_English%2C_King_James)
 World English Translation of the Bible (http://wikisource.org/w/index.php?title=Bible%2C_English
%2C_World_English%2C_Genesis&redirect=no)
References
 Dever, William B. Who Were the Early Israelites and Where Did they Come from? Grand Rapids, MI: William B.
Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2003. ISBN 0802809758.
 Silberman, Neil A. and colleagues. The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin
of Its Sacred Texts. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2001. ISBN 0684869136.

External links
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:
Bible

Protestant Online Bibles

 Net Bible (http://www.bible.org/netbible/)

 Updated King James Version (UKJV) (http://www.believerscafe.com/updatedkjv/index.htm)
 New American Standard Version (http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=NASB&passage=all)
 New English Translation (http://www.bible.org/netbible/index.htm)
 New International Version (http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=NIV&passage=all)
 New King James Version (http://bible.gospelcom.net/cgi-bin/bible?
language=english&passage=Genesis+1%3A1&version=NKJV)
 New Living Translation (http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=NLT&passage=all&language=english)
 New Revised Standard Version (http://www.devotions.net/bible/00bible.htm)
 Revised Standard Version (http://www.bibleontheweb.com/Bible.asp)
 Young's Literal Translation (http://hole-in-one-golftours.com/bibledatabase/online/ylt/)
 World English Bible (Hebrew Names Version) (http://www.ebible.org/bible/hnv/)
 Wycliffe New Testament (http://www.bibledbdata.org/onlinebibles/wycliffe_nt/)

Catholic online Bibles

 Online Douay-Rheims Bible (http://www.scriptours.com/bible/)

 Douay-Rheims Bible Online (http://www.drbo.org/) - Complete text with the Challoner footnotes, index and search
engine.
 The New American Bible (http://www.usccb.org/nab/bible/index.htm) - Catholic translation authorized by the United
States Council of Catholic Bishops.
 The Chinese Catholic Bible (http://www.ccreadbible.org/Chinese%20Bible/) - Chinese translation of Catholic Bible.

Skeptical views

 The Skeptic's Annotated Bible (http://www.skepticsannotatedbible.com/) - a version of the Bible annotated from a
skeptical point of view.

The Bible in different languages

 Greek New Testament (http://www-user.uni-bremen.de/~wie/GNT/books.html) This is the original text of the New
Testament, specifically the Westcott-Hort text from 1881, combined with the NA26/27 variants.
 Bible Keeper - Online Bible Study Tools (http://www.biblekeeper.com) - Index of several online Bibles in many
languages.
  The Bible Gateway (http://bible.gospelcom.net/) - Free online Bible in many translations and encompassing literally
40 different languages.
 Bible Search (http://www.christnotes.org/bible.asp) - multiple translations of the Bible in searchable format
 The Polyglot Bible (http://davies-linguistics.byu.edu/polyglot/) - allows the user to view parallel versions of the
Bible in numerous ancient and modern languages.
 Bibles for the World (http://www.bibles-for-the-world.com) - Index of online Bibles in many languages and types.
 VulSearch: Latin Vulgate freeware with Douay-Rheims English text (http://vulsearch.sourceforge.net/)
 Welsh language Bible of 1588 (http://digidol.llgc.org.uk/METS/BWM00001/beibl?locale=en) View digital images of
the entire Bible online (digital images of the actual book printed in 1588).
 Old English Bible (http://cyberbuzz.gatech.edu/catholic/scriptures/saxon-bible.html) - Links to portions of the Bible
in Old English.

Miscellaneous Resources

 believerscafe.com (http://www.believerscafe.com/) - Bible downloads and Bible study aids

 Bible4u.info (http://www.Bible4u.info) - downloadable HTML Bible
 biblekeeper.com (http://www.biblekeeper.com) - a free online Bible study resource for anyone who is interested in
reading and researching scripture on the Internet
 BiblePlayer for iPod (http://www.bibleplayer.com) - Read and hear the Bible on the iPod
 The Bible Decoded (http://www.neo-tech.com/bible/) - A transposing of the books of John and Revelations into the
philosophy of Neo-Tech
 The Bible in MP3 Audio (http://www.audiotreasure.com) - Free audio Bible downloads in 17 languages
 Bible Names (http://www.ccel.org/bible_names/title.html) - "An Interpreting Dictionary of Scripture Proper Names"
from Hitchcock's New and Complete Analysis of the Holy Bible
 The Bible Tool (http://thebibletool.com/) - contains a huge collection of bible texts, commentaries, glossaries, and
dictionaries
 bibles @ thanks4supporting.us (http://thanks4supporting.us/bibles) - over 400 Megabytes of Bibles and resources
 Blue Letter Bible (http://www.blueletterbible.org) - online interactive reference library with tools to usefully dig into
original meanings of words in original Biblical languages
 DayByDay Bible (http://www.daybydaybible.com) - Bible in a Year Website
 e-Sword (http://www.e-sword.net) - Dozens of free Bibles in over 25 languages. See also e-Sword.
 The Flaming Fire Illustrated Bible (http://www.flamingfire.com/bible.html) - a project to illustrate each verse of the
Bible using contributions from the public
 GospelTruth.info (http://www.GospelTruth.info/) - Bible information on the Gospel
 John Duns Scotus Bible Reading Promotion Center (http://www.ccreadbible.org/) - website to promote Chinese
Catholic Bible reading
 King James Bible (http://www.gutenberg.net/etext/10) - "Plain Vanilla" text from Project Gutenberg
 King James Bible (http://sources.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bible,_English,_King_James) - at WikiSource
 King James Bible (http://king-james-bible.classic-literature.co.uk/) - HTML version of this title
 King James Bible Search (http://www.freefind.com/find.html?id=24706062)
 LDS King James Bible (http://scriptures.lds.org) - Bible and other scriptures used by The Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints
 The New English Translation (http://www.bible.org/netbible/) - the first Bible made for the Internet
 New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures (http://www.watchtower.org/library/rbi8/) - New World Translation of
the Holy Scriptures in the Web
 The Orthodox Bible (http://www.crestinism-ortodox.ro/html_en/05/main.html) (in English)
 The Recovery Version New Testament (http://online.recoveryversion.org/) - a recent translation (1991) produced by
Living Stream Ministries; includes extensive footnotes prepared by Witness Lee, founder of Living Stream
Ministries, cross references, and outlines for Christian study
 Today's New International Version (http://tniv.info/) (TNIV) - released in the first years of the 21st century, the TNIV
 is an update to the International Bible Society's New International Version, which was completed in 1978
 The World English Bible (http://www.ebible.org/) - a Public Domain (no copyright) Modern English translation of
the Holy Bible, based on the American Standard Version of the Holy Bible first published in 1901, the Biblia
Hebraica Stutgartensia Old Testament, and the Greek Majority Text New Testament. It is in draft form, and currently
being edited for accuracy and readability.
 Bible online (http://www.bible.tc)

Bible - Example Usage

mykidsmom383: @lisanicolegrace I like Colton (Cole) and Cale but Dan seems to want to stick with the Bible
theme. Which hasn't been entirely intentional.

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