Bible is the most sacred book of the Jewish and Christian religions. Jews and Christians consider the Bible to be the Word of God, and they base their most important beliefs, ceremonies, and holidays on it. The Bible is also known as Holy Writ or the Holy Scriptures.

 

The Bible has two major parts, commonly called the Old Testament and the New Testament. Jews accept only the Old Testament, which is also known as the Hebrew Bible. Christians accept both Testaments. Some Christian groups also accept as part of the Bible a collection of writings called the Apocrypha.

 

 

The Old Testament begins with an account of God's creation of the heavens and the earth. It then largely deals with the history and religious life of ancient Israel from about 1300 B.C. to the 100's B.C. The New Testament covers about 100 years. It begins by describing the birth of Jesus Christ and ends about A.D. 125.

 

The Bible tells how God worked with and through His people from the time of ancient Israel to the early days of the Christian church. The Bible views God as the chief character of the events it describes, though God's role may not always be immediately apparent. The Bible does not define God or try to prove His existence. It testifies to who God is, what He does in the world, and what He expects from and promises to all human beings. The Bible was obviously produced by people who believed in God. These people found evidence of God's presence in the history of ancient Israel, the life of Jesus Christ, and the development of the early church.

 

The Bible began as oral literature (stories passed on by word of mouth) thousands of years ago. As time passed, people wrote down various parts of the book. For many centuries, the Bible existed only in handwritten manuscript form. During the Middle Ages, artists decorated many Biblical manuscripts with beautiful designs and pictures. In the mid-1400's, the Bible became one of the first books in Europe to be printed from movable type. It was first printed in the workshop of Johannes Gutenberg in Mainz, Germany. The Gutenberg Bible remains one of the most famous and valuable books ever printed.

 

Although the Bible is often thought of as a single book, it actually consists of many sections called books. Jews and various Christian groups have chosen for their particular Bible only the books they believe to have been inspired by God. The Hebrew Bible has 24 books; the Protestant Bible, 66; and the Roman Catholic, 73. In fact, the name Bible comes from a Greek word that means books. The books officially accepted by any group as part of its Bible are called the canon.

 

The Bible is the most widely read book in history. It is probably also the most influential. More copies have been distributed of the Bible than of any other book. It has also been translated more times, and into more languages, than any other book. Countless people have turned to the Bible for comfort, hope, and guidance during times of trouble and uncertainty. Millions of people have been named after Biblical characters, and the names of many cities and other places come from the Bible. Thousands of works of art have been based on Biblical characters and stories.

 

The authors of the Bible used many forms of literature. At least 50 forms appear in the Old Testament alone. They include love poetry, songs, hymns, riddles, essays, fiction, history, and proverbs. Much of the Bible consists of stories about both great and ordinary people. These stories tell of struggles, hopes, failures, and triumphs. The Bible is admired for its realistic view of human life, its stirring descriptions of the glories of faith, and its vivid portraits of people. Most of all, literary critics have praised the beautiful style found in many books of the Bible.

 

Readers have long differed over how to explain the meaning of parts of the Bible. Some people believe that every event mentioned in the Bible actually happened exactly as the Bible says it did. Other people feel that many events in the Bible must be read as symbols of religious belief. Many Biblical scholars today consider the Bible to be chiefly an expression of faith.

 

THE BOOKS OF THE BIBLE

The table below gives the titles of the books of the Old Testament and the New Testament. The three lists of Old Testament books show the names and order of books as accepted by Jews, Protestants, and Roman Catholics. Protestants and Roman Catholics accept the same names and the same order of books in the New Testament.

The Old Testament

Jewish Version

THE LAW

1.      Genesis

2.      Numbers

3.      Exodus

4.      Deuteronomy

5.      Leviticus

THE PROPHETS

1.      Joshua

2.      Isaiah

3.      Judges

4.      Jeremiah

5.      Samuel

6.      Ezekiel

7.      Kings

 

THE WRITINGS

1.      Psalms

2.      Ruth

3.      Daniel

4.      Proverbs

5.      Lamentations

6.      Ezra-Nehemiah

7.      Job

8.      Ecclesiastes

9.      Chronicles

10.  Song of Songs

11.  Esther

Protestant Version (Authorized, or King James Bible)

PENTATEUCH

1.      Genesis

2.      Numbers

3.      Exodus

4.      Deuteronomy

5.      Leviticus

HISTORICAL BOOKS

1.      Joshua

2.      2 Samuel

3.      2 Chronicles

4.      Judges

5.      1 Kings

6.      Ezra

7.      Ruth

8.      2 Kings

9.      Nehemiah

10.  1 Samuel

11.  1 Chronicles

12.  Esther

WISDOM BOOKS

1.      Job

2.      Ecclesiastes

3.      Psalms

4.      Song of Solomon

5.      Proverbs

PROPHETS

1.      Isaiah

2.      Joel

3.      Habakkuk

4.      Jeremiah

5.      Amos

6.      Zephaniah

7.      Lamentations

8.      Obadiah

9.      Haggai

10.  Ezekiel

11.  Jonah

12.  Zechariah

13.  Daniel

14.  Micah

15.  Malachi

16.  Hosea

17.  Nahum

Roman Catholic Version (New American Bible)

PENTATEUCH

1.      Genesis

2.      Numbers

3.      Exodus

4.      Deuteronomy

5.      Leviticus

HISTORICAL BOOKS

1.      Joshua

2.      2 Kings

3.      Tobit

4.      Judges

5.      1 Chronicles

6.      Judith

7.      Ruth

8.      2 Chronicles

9.      Esther

10.  1 Samuel

11.  Ezra

12.  1 Maccabees

13.  2 Samuel

14.  Nehemiah

15.  2 Maccabees

16.  1 Kings

WISDOM BOOKS

1.      Job

2.      Song of Songs

3.      Psalms

4.      Wisdom

5.      Proverbs

6.      Sirach

7.      Ecclesiastes (Ecclesiasticus)

PROPHETS

1.      Isaiah

2.      Hosea

3.      Nahum

4.      Jeremiah

5.      Joel

6.      Habakkuk

7.      Lamentations

8.      Amos

9.      Zephaniah

10.  Baruch

11.  Obadiah

12.  Haggai

13.  Ezekiel

14.  Jonah

15.  Zechariah

16.  Daniel

17.  Micah

18.  Malachi

The New Testament

GOSPELS

1.      Matthew

2.      Luke

3.      Mark

4.      John

ACTS OF THE APOSTLES

LETTERS

1.      Romans

2.      1 Thessalonians

3.      James

4.      1 Corinthians

5.      2 Thessalonians

6.      1 Peter

7.      2 Corinthians

8.      1 Timothy

9.      2 Peter

10.  Galatians

11.  2 Timothy

12.  1 John

13.  Ephesians

14.  Titus

15.  2 John

16.  Philippians

17.  Philemon

18.  3 John

19.  Colossians

20.  Hebrews

21.  Jude

REVELATION

 

The Old Testament

 

The Old Testament tells about the ancient Israelites. It begins with the creation of the world, but most of the story deals with the Israelites after Moses led them out of slavery in Egypt. Almost all the Old Testament was written in the Hebrew language. A few parts were written in Aramaic, a language that resembles Hebrew.

 

Books of the Old Testament: The Old Testament canon differs between Judaism and Christianity and even among major Christian groups. The Jewish canon consists of 24 books. Protestant and Roman Catholic editions of the Old Testament adopt the Jewish canon but divide some of the books, increasing the number to 39. In addition, Catholic Bibles add 7 books to the canon that Protestants consider part of the Apocrypha. The canon of the Greek Orthodox Church is the same as that of the Catholic Church, except for 5 additional books. They are 1 and 2 Esdras, Prayer of Manasseh, Psalm 151, and 3 Maccabees.

 

The Jewish canon is organized into three sections. The sections, with their Hebrew names in parentheses, are the Law (Torah); the Prophets (Nebiim); and the Writings (Kethubim). The books of the Christian Bibles are organized into four sections--Pentateuch, Historical Books, Wisdom Books, and Prophets. For the complete Jewish, Protestant, and Roman Catholic canons, see the table in this article.

 

The following discussion describes the Old Testament as it is organized into the three sections of the Hebrew Bible.

 

The Law consists of five books: The Law is also called the Pentateuch, from two Greek words that mean five books. The books that make up the Law are especially important in Judaism because they form the basis of Jewish religious life and education. The Law begins by describing God's creation of the heavens and the earth. It then tells about the ancestry of the Israelites and the Exodus--the departure of the Israelites from Egypt under their leader Moses. The Law ends with the Israelites' approach to the Promised Land of Canaan and the death of Moses.

 

The Prophets: Prophets were teachers and thinkers who played a major role in the political and religious life of the ancient Hebrews. The teachings of many of the prophets are contained in the eight books that make up this section of the Old Testament. The books are divided into the Former Prophets and the Latter Prophets.

 

The Former Prophets consist of four books--Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings. The books deal with Hebrew life from the settlement in Canaan to the capture of Jerusalem by the Babylonians in 587 or 586 B.C. The authors of the Former Prophets used historical sources to write about Hebrew kings, judges, prophets, and other leaders. But they had mainly a religious purpose rather than a historical one. The authors used Hebrew history to show the cost of disobedience to God. They called on their people to repent and to renew their hope in God.

 

The Latter Prophets consist of four books: Three of the books are named after the prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel and include their teachings. The fourth book, called The Twelve, contains the teachings of 12 other prophets. The books of the Latter Prophets are less concerned with history than are the books of the Former Prophets. Instead, the Latter Prophets contain sermon like messages spoken in the name of God.

 

The Writings consist of 11 books: The Book of Psalms contains prayers and hymns. The Book of Job includes a dialogue between Job and his friends about God's presence in the world. The Book of Proverbs contains short sayings, many about proper conduct. The Song of Solomon is a collection of love poems. Ecclesiastes is a pessimistic discussion of the meaning of life. The other books deal with the history of the ancient Hebrews.

 

Development of the Old Testament: Scholars have much evidence that the ancient Hebrews adopted some of the religious and legal traditions of other Near Eastern cultures. But they have no written sources that tell how the Old Testament began to develop. Clues to its early development must be taken almost entirely from the Old Testament itself.

 

Since the 1700's, Biblical scholars have paid special attention to how the Law--the first five books of the Bible--came to be written. According to Jewish and Christian tradition, these books are "the books of Moses." But the books themselves do not say Moses was the author. Scholars believe that the Law was written down after about 1000 B.C.

 

In analysing the books of the Law, Biblical scholars have noted differences in vocabulary, style, the names for God, and the idea of God. They have also noted duplications of stories. Many scholars believe this evidence shows that several persons or groups wrote the Law. They suggest that four versions originally existed. These versions were written over a period of at least 500 years and were combined by a number of editors.

 

The books of the Prophets partly reflect the way the prophets' words were remembered and honoured long after their death. The words of later generations are mixed with those of the prophets, either as an explanation or as actual changes in what the prophets said. Only by careful study can modern readers separate the original messages of the prophets from later revisions.

 

The authors of the Writings are unknown, though several books are said to have been written by such ancient leaders as Daniel and Solomon. According to tradition, David wrote the Psalms, but most scholars doubt whether he wrote any of them.

 

The ancient Jews probably recognized the five books of the Law as a distinct collection before 250 B.C. A collection of the Prophets existed before 200 B.C. The final Hebrew canon was established by an assembly of rabbis in Jamnia, Palestine, in about A.D. 100. A standard text of the Hebrew Bible had appeared by about A.D. 150.

 

The New Testament

 

The New Testament records the life of Jesus Christ. It also deals with the early church and the meaning of faith in Jesus. The New Testament was written in Greek, which was widely spoken during the time of Jesus. However, Jesus and His disciples spoke Aramaic.

 

Books of the New Testament: The New Testament consists of 27 books organized into four sections--the Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, the Letters, and Revelation. The number of books and their order are the same in the Roman Catholic and Protestant versions.

 

The Gospels consist of four books: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. They appear as the first books in the New Testament, though they are not the earliest works in the canon. The word gospel comes from the Old English word god spell, which means good news.

 

The early church probably accepted the four Gospels as authentic, even though the authors were unknown. Gradually, the church associated the Gospels with two of Christ's apostles, Matthew and John, and two companions of apostles, Mark and Luke. Traditionally, they are considered to be the authors of the Gospels.

 

The Gospels describe the life of Jesus: Matthew, Mark, and Luke have similarities of detail and arrangement. They are called the Synoptic Gospels. The word synoptic comes from a Greek word that means see together.

 

The Synoptic Gospels differ from the Gospel of John in several ways. In the Synoptic Gospels, for example, Jesus expresses His teachings chiefly in short sayings and in brief stories called parables. In John, He teaches through long statements.

 

Although the Synoptic Gospels generally deal with the same events, each of the four Gospels regards Jesus differently. Matthew describes Him as the lawgiver who tells how Christians and their church should act. Mark shows Him as the Saviour who triumphs through suffering. Luke presents Jesus as the Saviour of all people. John concentrates on Jesus' divine nature.

 

Many scholars believe that Mark was the earliest Gospel, written just before or after the Romans captured Jerusalem in A.D. 70. Matthew and Luke were written a little later. The contents of these two Gospels indicate that both authors knew Mark's Gospel but not each other's. John was written last, perhaps in the A.D. 90's.

 

The Acts of the Apostles is one book. It continues the story told in Luke and was written by the same author. Acts tells about the expansion of the early church. The story opens in Jerusalem, where the apostles gather after Jesus is raised from the dead. The book ends in Rome, where Saint Paul, the church's first great missionary, preaches to the Jews while a Roman prisoner.

 

The Letters make up 21 books: These books contain some of the earliest writings in the New Testament, though they appear in the canon after the Gospels and the Acts. The Letters are also known as the Epistles, from a Greek word meaning to send.

 

The first 13 letters are called the Pauline Letters because most of them were written by Saint Paul. The last 8 are called the General Letters. Early church leaders wrote them, but scholars do not know who the authors were or disagree on who they might have been.

 

The Pauline Letters preserve Paul's preaching. He wrote the letters to Christian congregations he had founded. Most of the letters were probably written in the A.D. 50's and early 60's. Paul's letters discuss problems of faith and conduct.

 

The General Letters were written over a number of years until about A.D. 125. They deal with problems faced by second- and third-generation Christians.

 

Revelation is one book: It is also called the Apocalypse, from a Greek word meaning to reveal. A man named John wrote the book, but he is probably not the same person who wrote the Gospel of John.

 

Revelation begins as letters "to the seven churches that are in Asia." It then gives a symbolic description of God's final triumph, through Christ, over evil and death. This description comes from a series of visions of the future sent by God to the author through an angel.

 

Development of the New Testament: The first generation of Christians preserved memories of Jesus' teachings, deeds, and Crucifixion largely by word of mouth. The story of Jesus was not written down in the Gospels until the second generation of the church.

 

The authors of the New Testament did not deliberately try to create a Christian Bible. The early church already had a Bible, the Old Testament of Judaism. However, differing views of Christian faith during the A.D. 100's led the church to form the New Testament canon. It needed the canon as authority against unacceptable religious views. The church also wanted to preserve the authentic story of Jesus' life and death.

 

In selecting books for the canon, the church judged writings chiefly by three standards. (1) The writings had to be widely accepted and used in the church.

(2) They had to follow the church's traditional teachings.

(3) They had to be believed to have been written or authorized by an apostle. By about A.D. 200, the church had a canon that included all the present New Testament books except Hebrews and Revelation. These two books were added in the next century.

 

The Apocrypha

 

The Apocrypha consists of 15 books or parts of books. The writings date from about 200 B.C. to A.D. 100. Some were written in Hebrew, others in Greek, and still others in Aramaic. The word apocrypha comes from a Greek word that means hidden. Scholars disagree on why the word was applied to these writings.

 

The titles in the Apocrypha differ in various editions of the Bible. The following list gives the titles and order of the books in the Revised Standard Version.

 

1.      1 Esdras

 

2.      2 Esdras

 

3.      Tobit

 

4.      Judith

 

5.      Additions to the Book of Esther

 

6.      Wisdom of Solomon

 

7.      Ecclesiasticus, or the Wisdom of Jesus the Son of Sirach

 

8.      Baruch

 

9.      Letter of Jeremiah

 

10.  Prayer of Azariah and the Song of the Three Young Men

 

11.  Susanna

 

12.  Bel and the Dragon

 

13.  Prayer of Manasseh

 

14.  1 Maccabees

 

15.  2 Maccabees

 

Some Bibles include the Letter of Jeremiah in Baruch, reducing the number of books to 14.

 

The Hebrew Bible excludes all the books of the Apocrypha. The Roman Catholic Church places 1 and 2 Esdras and the Prayer of Manasseh after the New Testament. It distributes the 12 remaining books throughout the Old Testament, either as separate titles or as parts of other books. Some Protestant Bibles place the entire Apocrypha between the Old and New Testaments. A few place it after the New Testament. Some Protestant churches omit the Apocrypha from their versions of the Bible.

 

The books of the Apocrypha cover a broad variety of subjects and include various forms of literature. For example, 1 Esdras and 1 Maccabees concern Jewish history. The Wisdom of Solomon deals with philosophy, and Ecclesiasticus tells how young men should behave. Tobit, Judith, and Susanna are among the most popular writings because of their exciting tales of adventure and devotion. Bel and the Dragon consists of two stories that teach a moral.

 

Since the mid-1900's, scholars have taken renewed interest in the Apocrypha. They consider its writings of great importance to the understanding of Judaism during the period between the end of the Old Testament and the beginning of the New Testament.

 

Translations of the Bible

 

The first translations of the Bible were oral versions of the Old Testament in Aramaic. An Aramaic translation is called a Targum, which comes from a Hebrew word meaning translation. Targums were made for ancient Jewish communities that spoke Aramaic rather than Hebrew. Jews who spoke only Aramaic could not understand the Bible when it was read aloud in Hebrew. A translator would stand beside the reader in a synagogue and translate passages from the Hebrew into the local Aramaic dialect. Perhaps as early as the 100's B.C., the Jews recognized standard translations, which were written Targums.

 

Jews who lived in Greek-speaking parts of the world also needed a translation of the Bible. Scholars first translated the Law into Greek, perhaps about 250 B.C. According to tradition, 70 (or 72) Jewish scholars working in Alexandria, Egypt, translated the entire Old Testament into Greek during the mid-200's B.C. This translation became known as the Septuagint, from the Latin word meaning seventy.

 

Most of the first Christians spoke Greek, and so the early church used the Septuagint translation of the Old Testament. But the need for additional translations arose as Christianity spread to Syria and to Latin-speaking countries. Bibles translated into Syriac and Latin appeared in the A.D. 100's.

 

About A.D. 383, Saint Jerome began a revision of the Latin Bible at the request of Pope Saint Damasus I. As his sources for the Old Testament, Jerome used Hebrew and Greek texts and Latin translations. For the New Testament, he used Greek texts and Latin translations. He completed the project in A.D. 405. His translation became the basis of the version known as the Vulgate, from the Latin word meaning popular. For centuries, the Vulgate was the only version of the Bible authorized by the Roman Catholic Church.

 

Early English translations: The first complete English translation of the Bible appeared in the 1380's. The translation was made by John Wycliffe, an English priest, and his followers.

 

The German Protestant reformer Martin Luther translated the New Testament into German in 1522 and the rest of the Bible in 1534. About the same time, William Tyndale, an Englishman, translated the Bible into English while living in Germany. Tyndale based some of his translation on Luther's German version. Publication of Tyndale's New Testament began in Cologne, Germany, in 1525. Portions of the Old Testament appeared in 1530 and 1531. The vigorous language of Tyndale's translation greatly influenced most later translations of the Bible in English.

 

Miles Coverdale, an English bishop, prepared the first complete English Bible to be printed. He used much of Tyndale's translation and translated portions of Luther's Bible and the Vulgate. Coverdale's Bible was printed in Germany in 1535.

 

English refugees living in France made the first Roman Catholic translation of the Bible from Latin into English. The New Testament was published in Rheims, France, in 1582. The Old Testament was published in Douay, France, in 1609 and 1610. The translation came to be known as the Douay-Rheims Bible or the Douay Bible.

 

The Authorized Version: In 1604, King James I of England authorized a committee of about 50 scholars to prepare a revision of earlier English translations of the Bible. The new version appeared in 1611 and became known as the Authorized, or King James, Version. The beauty and grace of the translation established the Authorized Version as one of the great treasures of the English language.

 

No important English translations of the Bible appeared for more than 200 years after the publication of the Authorized Version. During this time, the Authorized Version was the most widely used translation in the English-speaking world.

 

By the mid-1800's, scholars and religious leaders were calling for fresh translations of the Bible. Scholars had more accurate knowledge of the original Hebrew and Greek texts and uncovered many errors in the texts used by the Authorized revisers. Scholars had also gained more knowledge of other ancient Near Eastern languages, which added to their understanding of the Biblical languages. In addition, the English language had changed greatly over the years. Many words in the King James Version no longer had the same meaning or were even understood by readers of the Bible.

 

In 1870, the Church of England decided to revise the Authorized Version. The New Testament appeared in 1881, the Old Testament in 1885, and the Apocrypha in 1895. But the early popularity of the translation, called the Revised Version, did not last. Most individuals and churches still preferred the Authorized Version.

 

Modern English translations: Several modern English translations of the Bible have tried to replace the out-of-date language of the older versions. They have attempted to reproduce the flavour of everyday speech. These translations also have made improvements in printing the text of the Bible. For example, paragraphs separate the text into logical divisions, dialogue is enclosed in quotation marks, and poetry is printed to show its verse form.

 

Among the earliest of the numerous translations of the Bible that appeared in the 1900's was The American Standard Version of 1901, produced by a committee of American translators. In Britain, R.F. Weymouth's The New Testament in Modern Speech appeared in 1903. The Scots Biblical scholar James Moffatt translated the Bible twice.