Bible

Definition

The Bible takes its name from the Latin Biblia (book or books) which comes from the Greek Ta Biblia (the books) traced to the Phoenician port city of Gebal, known as Byblos to the Greeks because it was an exporter of papyrus (used in writing) and the Greek name for papyrus was bublos, linking the city with the written word.

The book is a collection of writings by many different authors over many centuries on the subject of the creation of the world by a supreme deity and said deity’s continual intervention in the affairs of human beings, most notably the Hebrews of what is today known as the Middle-East.

In Judaism the scriptures are called the Tanakh and are recognized as comprising twenty-four books divided into three categories: The Pentateuch (or Teachings of the Five Books of Moses) The Prophets and The Writings. Christianity, which appropriated the Tanakh and claimed it as their own early theological history, call it the Old Testament. Early Christian writers (years after the historical death of the charismatic preacher Jeshua bar Joseph the Nazarene, known today as Jesus Christ) penned the gospels and Saul of Tarsus (who converted to Christianity and became Paul the Apostle) wrote most of the epistles which make up the twenty-seven books of the Christian New Testament along with The Book of the Revelation of St. John which is the last book of the Christian Bible.

It is difficult to accurately date the composition of the books which make up the Bible but scholars generally agree that the Pentateuch dates to the 10th and 6th centuries BCE and that the Tanakh was fixed as scripture well before the 1st century CE. The books of the Christian New Testament were composed between 60-110 CE (the Gospels) 45-130 CE (the Epistles) and 68-100 (The Book of the Revelation of St. John). Many people of the ancient world, and even today, believe the Bible to have been written by God. It is held to be the best-selling book in history and has influenced religious thought world-wide for centuries.

Written by Joshua J. Mark, published on 02 September 2009 under the following license: Creative Commons: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike. This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon this content non-commercially, as long as they credit the author and license their new creations under the identical terms.

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Illustrations

Bible Books

• The Annals of the World James Ussher Master Books; imprint (01 March 2007) Price: $33.98

• The Spirit of Early Christian Thought: Seeking the Face of God Robert Louis Wilken Yale University Press (11 March 2005) Price: $16.96

• The Egyptian Book of the Dead: The Book of Going Forth by Day Raymond Faulkner Chronicle Books (01 August 2000) Currently unavailable

• Exodus Lost S C Compton BookSurge Publishing (24 November 2010) Price: $6.99

• New Testament History F. F. Bruce Galilee / Doubleday (18 May 1980) Price: $12.59