Bible

The Bible is a book that Jews and Christians consider sacred. The faithful believe it is a collection of God's messages and instructions for his people, written down by individuals under divine influence. The content was originally passed down orally and was transcribed many years after the events described had occurred. The entire Bible took centuries to complete. There are different versions of the Bible. The Christian Bible includes the entirety of the Jewish scriptures, but some Christian versions also include texts that are excluded from others. Despite these differences, those who follow the Jewish or Christian traditions believe that the Bible contains God's word on their faith history and tells them how they should live their lives in the present day.

Background

The word bible comes from the Greek word biblion, which means "book." The term is sometimes used generically to apply to any book that contains the most authoritative information one needs to know about a particular subject, such as a cooking bible or gardener's bible. This is drawn from the religious concept of the Bible as the most authoritative book on how people of faith should live their lives. Both Christians and Jews believe that their Bible is the word of God. Therefore, it is the most authoritative source of information on what God wants for and from his people. However, the two faiths differ on exactly what that word includes.

The Jewish or Hebrew Bible includes twenty-four books divided into three sections. The first five books are known as "the book of law," or the Torah. The next section, "the prophets," includes eight books and is known in Hebrew as Nevi'im. The final section has eleven books collectively known as "writings," or Ketuvim in Hebrew. Collectively, the Hebrew Bible is sometimes referred to as the Tanakh.

The Tanakh begins with the creation of the world and follows the Jewish people through their history to around four hundred BCE. While Moses is credited as the writer of the Torah, it is generally accepted that the books were not written until decades after his time. Instead, it is believed that the stories in the Bible were told orally for many years before they were ever written out. This is supported by the repetition of some elements of the stories and by the long genealogical lists that appear in some of the texts. In ancient times, repetition of such facts helped to preserve history. Biblical historians have found references to a book including the complete Hebrew canon, or official list of books, in the first century, meaning the stories were compiled and agreed upon by that time. Many historians believe that the Hebrew canon was discussed and may have been determined by the rabbis gathered at the Council of Jamnia around 70 CE.

The Christian Bible includes all the books of the Hebrew Bible, which Christians refer to as the Old Testament. It also includes the New Testament, which is a collection of books related to the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The Bible used by Catholics includes another section of books known as the deuterocanonical, or second canon, books. They are also referred to as the apocrypha, meaning "hidden away" or non-canonical books, by most Protestants. Those who follow the Anglican, Episcopal, and some orthodox traditions also include the deuterocanonical texts, though they are not given the same emphasis as the books of the Old and New Testaments.

The differences in Christian Bibles arose in the early centuries of the church. For the first several decades after the crucifixion of Jesus, his followers shared his stories and teachings orally. By the end of the first century, the four Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, and the letters of Paul, which make up the bulk of the twenty-seven books of the New Testament, had been written. These books were considered authoritative because observers of Christ's life and ministry had supposedly written them. Seven additional books containing epistles and letters attributed to other apostles took longer to gain acceptance. In contemporary times, many experts believe that some of the books were not necessarily written by the apostles whose name they bear but by a follower of that apostle.

In all, it took about four centuries and several councils of church leaders for the entire Christian canon to be agreed upon. The first known list to include the twenty-seven books that are in most Christian Bibles appeared as part of the Easter letter of Athanasius, an Alexandrian bishop, in 367 CE. These books were considered to be the most authentic based on the presumed identity of the authors. Other books—including several that were said to include stories of Jesus's childhood not found in the canonical Gospels—were not considered authoritative and were excluded.

Overview

Although those who follow the faiths that use the Bible consider it to be God's word and, in some cases, view it as infallible, these scriptures have had a turbulent history. In addition to disagreements about what should be included, there were also numerous issues among church leaders regarding various translations of the Bible. For instance, the Vulgate Bible translated by the monk Jerome around 405 CE was initially criticized because he translated directly from Hebrew to Latin instead of from the Greek, as was common at the time. The translation eventually became popular. When King James I decided he did not like the Geneva Bible that was favored by the Puritans, he commissioned a new version. The King James Bible took forty-seven scholars almost three years to translate and several more years to typeset. After it was published in 1611, it went on to become very popular. It remains in print in the twenty-first century.

By 1980, more than 1,600 translations of the Bible existed. Modern scholars continue to learn more about the books as well. For instance, the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in Qumran in 1947 revealed handwritten copies of the Hebrew texts, preserved for centuries, that contained wording identical to that in contemporary scriptures. The discovery of texts written by the ancient Christian sect known as the Gnostics provided alternate viewpoints of some of the stories and people in the canonical Bible. For believers, however, the Bible remains the source of God's word and teachings.

Bibliography

Collins, John J. A Short Introduction to the Hebrew Bible. Fortress Press, 2007, pp. 1–13.

Donkor, Kwabena. "Who Decided Which Books Should Be Included in the Bible?" Ministry Magazine, Mar. 2012, www.ministrymagazine.org/archive/2012/03/who-decided-which-books-should-be-included-in-the-bible. Accessed 7 Mar. 2017.

Jones, Timothy Paul. Christian History Made Easy. Rose Publishing, 2009, pp. 26–27, 42–43, 126–27, 164.

"The King James Bible: Its History and Influence." Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas, 2012, www.hrc.utexas.edu/exhibitions/2012/kingjamesbible/. Accessed 7 Mar. 2017.

MacCulloch, Diarmaid. Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years. Penguin, 2009, pp. 6–9, 68, 294–96, 596–97, 905–06.

Mattison, Mark M. "What Is the Bible?" Auburn University, www.auburn.edu/~allenkc/openhse/whatbible.html. Accessed 7 Mar. 2017.

Pinero, Antonio. "The Forbidden Books of the Gnostics: Seeking the Hidden Gospels." National Geographic, Mar./Apr. 2017, pp. 54–63.

Schniedewind, William M. "Origins of the Written Bible." PBS, 18 Nov. 2008, www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/ancient/origins-written-bible.html. Accessed 7 Mar. 2017.

Skinner, Debbie Hannah. "Why Do Christians Read the Bible?" Christian Broadcasting Network, www1.cbn.com/why-do-christians-read-the-bible. Accessed 7 Mar. 2017.