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The '''Bible''' (''
Hebrew language Hebrew:'' ×ª× ×´×š ''
tanakh'', ''
Greek language Greek:'' η Βίβλος ''hē biblos'') (sometimes '''The
Holy Bible''', '''The Book''', '''
Word of God''', '''The Word''' '''
Scripture''', '''Scripture'''), from
Greek language Greek (τα) βίβλια, ''(ta) biblia'', "(the) books", is the name used by Jews and Christians for their (differing but overlapping) canons of sacred texts.
For most Christians, it refers to the combination of Hebrew Scripture (known to Christians as the "Old Testament" or "First" Testament, the Apocrypha/Deuterocanon (various writings important in the Second-Temple period of Judaism), and the "New Testament," describing the life and message of Jesus. For Jews, it refers to the
Hebrew Bible. Many
Christian English language English speakers refer to the Bible as "the good book."
Christianity and
Judaism regard the Bible as the
revelation revealed word of
God, with widespread variation on what this means or to what extent (or what books) it applies.
The Bible is the most widely distributed book in the world. Both Hebrew Scripture and the Christian Bible have been translated more times and into more languages (more than 2,100 languages) than any other book. It is said that more than five billion copies of the Bible have been sold since 1815, making it the best-selling book of all-time.
Because of Christian domination of Europe from the late
Roman era to the
Age of Enlightenment, the Bible has influenced not only religion but language, law and the
natural philosophy of mainstream
Western world Western Civilization. The Age of Enlightenment and the
Scientific Revolution in Europe and America brought skepticism regarding the divine origin and historical accuracy of the Bible. Although some critical scholars, including archeologists, continue to use the Bible as a point of reference in the study of ancient Near Eastern history, most have come to view it as a cultural and literary collection of documents.
The term "Bible" is sometimes used to describe scriptures of other faiths. Thus the ''
Guru Granth Sahib'' is often referred to as the "
Sikhism Sikh Bible". After the publication of the
Book of Mormon in 1830, it was sometimes known as the "Golden Bible" to those outside of Mormonism. Some Christians object to such usage as a misuse, and some non-Christians regard it as
hegemony hegemonistic or at least insensitive. The word "bible" (in
lower case) is also used to refer to any
tome that incorporates coverage of its subject that is comprehensive or authoritative, or both.
As the original meaning of the word indicates, the Jewish and Christian Bibles are actually collections of several books.
The Hebrew Bible
{{main|Tanakh}}
Image:241530 7953 torah.jpg Magen David thumb|The holy Jewish scripture: The Torah. Background: [[Magen David|Star of David,
Menorah..html" title="Meaning of Star of David.html" title="Meaning of thumb|The holy Jewish scripture: The Torah. Background: [[Magen David|Star of David">thumb|The holy Jewish scripture: The Torah. Background: [[Magen David|Star of David,
Menorah.">Star of David.html" title="Meaning of thumb|The holy Jewish scripture: The Torah. Background: [[Magen David|Star of David">thumb|The holy Jewish scripture: The Torah. Background: [[Magen David|Star of David,
Menorah.
The Hebrew Bible (also known as the Jewish Bible, or ×ª× "ך,
Tanakh in
Hebrew language Hebrew) consists of 24 books. Tanakh is an acronym for the three parts of the Hebrew Bible: the
Torah (Pentateuch),
Nevi'im(Prophets), and
Ketuvim (Writings).
Torah
The
Torah, or "Teaching," is also known as the five books of
Moses, thus
Humash Chumash or
Pentateuch (Hebrew and Greek for "five," respectively).
The five books are:
*I
Genesis (''Bereishit'' בר×?שית),
*II
Exodus (''Shemot'' שמות),
*III
Leviticus (''Vayikra'' ויקר×?),
*IV
Numbers (''Bemidbar'' במדבר), and
*V
Deuteronomy (''Devarim'' דברי×?)
The Torah focuses on three moments in the changing relationship between God and people.
*The first eleven chapters of Genesis provide accounts of the
Creation (theology) creation (or ordering) of the world, and the history of God's early relationship with humanity.
*The remaining thirty-nine chapters of Genesis provide an account of God's covenant with the Hebrew patriarchs,
Abraham,
Isaac and
Jacob (also called
Israel), and Jacob's children (the "Children of Israel"), especially
Joseph. It tells of how God commanded Abraham to leave his family and home in the city of Ur, eventually to settle in the land of Canaan, and how the Children of Israel later moved to Egypt.
*The remaining four books of the Torah tell the story of
Moses, who lived hundreds of years after the patriarchs. His story coincides with the story of the liberation of the Children of Israel from slavery in Egypt, to the renewal of their covenant with God at Mount Sinai, and their wanderings in the desert until a new generation would be ready to enter the land of Canaan. The Torah ends with the death of Moses.
Traditionally, the Torah contains 613
Mitzvah mitzvot, or commandments, of God, revealed during the passage from slavery in the land of Egypt to freedom in the land of Canaan. These commandments provide the basis for Jewish law
Halakha and are elaborated in the
Talmud.
The Torah is divided into fifty-four portions which are read in turn in Jewish liturgy, from the beginning of
Genesis to the end of Deuteronomy, each
Shabbat Sabbath. The cycle ends and recommences at the end of
Sukkot, which is called
Simchat Torah.
=The Two Torahs
=
By the Hellenistic period of Jewish history, Jews were divided over the nature of the Torah. Some (for example, the
Sadducees) believed that the Chumash contained the entire Torah, that is, the entire contents of what God revealed to Moses at Sinai and in the desert. Others, principally the
Pharisees, believed that the Chumash represented only that portion of the revelation that had been written down (i.e., the Written Torah or the Written Law), but that the rest of God's revelation had been passed down orally (thus composing the Oral Law or Oral Torah). Orthodox Jews today believe that the
Talmud contains some of the Oral Torah.
=The Four Sources
=
Although Orthodox Jews generally believe that the Torah was given to the Children of Israel at Sinai "Min Hashamayim", from the heavens — that is, that God actually dictated the words of
Torah to
Moses atop Mount Sinai — most
Conservative Judaism Conservative,
Reform Judaism Reform and
Reconstructionist Judaism Reconstructionist Jews, as well as many Christian scholars, now accept the
documentary hypothesis. This theory posits that the Written Torah has its origins in sources who lived during the time of the monarchy or later, labeled J (Yahwists), E (Elohim), D (Deuteronomists), and P (Priests). These in turn may go back to oral traditions and/or draw on (and sometimes parody) earlier
Ancient Near East ancient Near Eastern mythology. Julius Wellhausen, who in the late 1800s gave this hypothesis a definitive formulation, suggested that these sources were edited together or redacted during the time of
Ezra, perhaps by Ezra himself. Since that time Wellhausen's theory has been widely debated by critical scholars (e.g.
Yehezkel Kaufman). Nevertheless, virtually all scholars accept that the Bible was written by human beings over some period of time.
Scholars who accept the documentary hypothesis differ as to whether these sources were or were not divinely inspired, and also differ over the nature and extent of their obligation to the 613 commandments and to the body of law represented in the Oral Torah, although each branch of Judaism recognizes both the Written and Oral Torahs as central to Jewish tradition, whether it be conceived of as sacred, national, or cultural.
Nevi'im
The
Nevi'im, or "Prophets," tells the story of the rise of the Hebrew monarchy, its division into two kingdoms, and the prophets who, in God's name, judged the kings and the Children of Israel. It ends with the conquest of the Kingdom of Israel by the Assyrians and the conquest of the Kingdom of Judah by the Babylonians, and the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem. Portions of the prophetic books are read by Jews on the Sabbath (Shabbat). The
Book of Jonah is read on
Yom Kippur.
According to Jewish tradition, Nevi'im is divided into eight books. Contemporary translations subdivide these into seventeen books.
The eight books are:
* I.
Book of Joshua Joshua or Yehoshua [יהושע]
* II.
Book of Judges Judges or Shoftim [שופטי×?]
* III.
Books of Samuel Samuel or Shmu'el [שמו×?ל] (often divided into two books; Samuel may be considered the last of the judges (his sons were named judges, but rejected by the people) or the first of the prophets; it was he who negotiated on behalf of the Children of Israel with God to anoint a King)
* IV.
Books of Kings Kings or Melakhim [מלכי×?] (often divided into two books)
* V.
Book of Isaiah Isaiah or Yeshayahu [ישעיהו]
* VI.
Book of Jeremiah Jeremiah or Yirmiyahu [ירמיהו]
* VII.
Book of Ezekiel Ezekiel or Yehezq'el [יחזק×?ל]
* VIII. Trei Asar (The Twelve
Minor Prophets) תרי עשר
*#
Book of Hosea Hosea or Hoshea [הושע]
*#
Book of Joel Joel or Yo'el [יו×?ל]
*#
Book of Amos Amos [עמוס]
*#
Book of Obadiah Obadiah or Ovadyah [עבדיה]
*#
Book of Jonah Jonah or Yonah [×™×•× ×”]
*#
Book of Micah Micah or Mikhah [מיכה]
*#
Book of Nahum Nahum or Nachum [× ×—×•×?]
*#
Book of Habakkuk Habakkuk or Habaquq [חבקוק]
*#
Book of Zephaniah Zephaniah or Tsefania [×¦×¤× ×™×”]
*#
Book of Haggai Haggai [×—×’×™]
*#
Book of Zechariah Zechariah or Zekharia [זכריה]
*#
Book of Malachi Malachi or Malakhi [מל×?×›×™]
The Torah and the Nevi'im have an epical quality, although they have no human hero (Moses and David are, in many ways, antiheroes; one may consider the Children of Israel collectively to be the hero of the epic, or, if one must choose a single character, God).
Ketuvim
The
Ketuvim, or "Writings," were probably written during or after the Babylonian Exile and were among the last books to be canonized. According to Rabbinic tradition, many of the psalms in the book of
Psalms are attributed to
King David;
King Solomon is believed to have written
Song of Songs in his youth,
Book of Proverbs Proverbs at the prime of his life, and
Ecclesiastes at old age; and the prophet
Jeremiah is thought to have written
Lamentations. The
Book of Job is the only biblical book that centers entirely on a non-Jew. The book of Ruth tells the story of a non-Jew (specifically, a Moabite) who married a Jew and, upon his death, followed in the ways of the Jews; according to the Bible, she was the great-grandmother of
King David. Five of the books, called "The Five Scrolls" (Megilot), are read on Jewish holidays:
Song of Songs on
Passover; the
Book of Ruth on
Shavuot;
Lamentations on the
Ninth of Av;
Ecclesiastes on
Sukkot; and the
Book of zuffi on
Purim. Collectively, the
Ketuvim contain lyrical poetry, philosophical reflections on life, and the stories of the prophets and other Jewish leaders during the Babylonian exile. It ends with the Persian decree allowing Jews to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the Temple.
Ketuvim contains eleven books:
* I. Tehillim (
Psalms) תהלי×?
* II. Mishlei (
Book of Proverbs) משלי
* III. 'Iyyov (
Book of Job) ×?יוב
* IV. Shir ha-Shirim (
Song of Songs) שיר השירי×?
* V. Ruth (
Book of Ruth) רות
* VI. Eikhah (
Lamentations) ×?×™×›×” [Also called ''Kinnot'' (×§×™× ×•×ª) in Hebrew.]
* VII. Kohelet (
Ecclesiastes) קהלת
* VIII. Esther (
Book of Esther) ×?סתר
* IX. Daniel (
Book of Daniel) ×“× ×™×?ל
* X. Ezra (often divided into two books,
Book of Ezra and
Book of Nehemiah (עזר×? (× ×—×ž×™×”
* XI. Divrei ha-Yamim (
Books of Chronicles Chronicles, often divided into two books) דברי הימי×?
Translations and editions
The Tanakh was mainly written in
Biblical Hebrew, with some portions (notably in
Book of Daniel Daniel and
Book of Ezra Ezra) in
Aramaic language Aramaic.
Some time in the 2nd or
3rd century BCE, the Torah was translated into
Koine Greek, and over the next century, other books were translated (or composed) as well. This translation became known as the
Septuagint and was widely used by Greek-speaking
Jews, and later by
Christians. It differs somewhat from the Hebrew (
Masoretic Text) as standardized later. This translation was promoted by way of a legend that 70 separate translators all produced identical texts, indicating that the translation was divinely inspired.
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, 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 some words differ only in their vowels— their meaning can vary in accordance with the vowels chosen. In antiquity variant Hebrew readings existed, some of which have survived in the
Samaritan Pentateuch, the
Dead Sea scrolls, and other ancient fragments, as well as being attested in ancient versions in other languages.
Versions of the
Septuagint contain several passages and whole books beyond what was included in the Masoretic texts of the Tanakh/Old Testament. 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. 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 texts on which the Septuagint was based, many scholars believe that they represent a different textual tradition ("vorlage") from the one that became the basis for the Masoretic texts.
Jews also produced nonliteral translations or paraphrases known as
targums, primarily in Aramaic. They frequently expanded on the text with additional details taken from Rabbinic oral tradition.
See below for a partial list of contemporary English translations.
The Christian Bible
{{Christianity}}
image:bible.malmesbury.arp.jpg thumb|left|250px|A Bible handwritten in Latin, on display in Malmesbury Abbey, Wiltshire, England. This Bible was transcribed in Belgium in 1407, for reading aloud in a monastery.
The
Septuagint was generally abandoned in favor of the Masoretic text as the basis for translations into
Western world Western languages from
Jerome Saint Jerome's Vulgate to the present day. In
Eastern Christianity translations based on the Septuagint still prevail. Some modern Western translations make use of the Septuagint to clarify passages in the Masoretic text that seem to have suffered corruption in transcription. They also sometimes adopt variants that appear in texts discovered among the
Dead Sea Scrolls. (For more information, see the entry on
Bible translations.)
The Old Testament
Some Christian Old Testaments include the books of the Hebrew Bible as well as other
deuterocanonical books, often referred to as the Apocrypha. These books are part of the Greek Septuagint but not in the Hebrew Bible. Because of this, certain Protestant traditions and all Jewish traditions have rejected their status as Scripture. However, the majority of
Christians (including members of the
Roman Catholic Church Roman Catholic,
Eastern Orthodoxy Eastern Orthodox, and
Oriental Orthodoxy Oriental Orthodox Churches) include the Apocrypha in the canons. The
Roman Catholic Church recognizes seven such books (
Book of Tobit Tobit,
Book of Judith Judith,
1 Maccabees,
2 Maccabees,
Wisdom of Solomon,
Sirach Ecclesiasticus, and
Book of Baruch Baruch), as well as some passages in
Book of Esther Esther and
Book of Daniel Daniel. Various Orthodox Churches include a few others, typically
3 Maccabees,
Psalm 151,
1 Esdras,
Odes,
Psalms of Solomon, and occasionally
4 Maccabees.
Protestantism Protestants in general do not recognize these books as part of the Bible. However, this practice is fairly recent; most Protestant Bibles included the Apocrypha until around the 1820s.
The New Testament
The
New Testament is a Christian collection of 27 books with
Jesus as its central figure, written primarily in
Koine Greek in the early
Christian period, that almost all
Christians recognize as
Sacred text Scripture. These can be grouped into:
*The
Synoptic Gospels
**the
Gospel According to Matthew
**the
Gospel According to Mark
**the
Gospel According to Luke
*The
Gospel of John
*The
Acts of the Apostles
*The
Pauline Epistles
*The
General Epistles
*The
Book of Revelation Revelation of
John the Divine John "the divine" (traditionally identified as
John the Apostle).
= Original language
=
The
New Testament was probably completely composed in Greek. The three main textual traditions are sometimes called the
Western text-type, the
Alexandrian text-type, and
Byzantine text-type. Together they compose the majority of New Testament
manuscripts. There are also several ancient versions in other languages, most important of which are the
Syriac language Syriac (including the
Peshitta and the
Diatessaron gospel harmony) and the
Latin (both the
Vetus Latina and the Vulgate).
A few scholars believe in
Aramaic primacy — that parts of the Greek New Testament are actually a translation of an Aramaic original, in particular, the
Gospel of Matthew. Of these, a small number accept the
Syriac language Syriac Peshitta as representing the original.
= Historic editions
=
The earliest printed edition of the New Testament in Greek appeared in
1516 from the
Johann Froben Froben press. It was compiled by
Erasmus Desiderius Erasmus on the basis of the few recent Greek
manuscripts, all of
Wiktionary:Byzantine Byzantine tradition, at his disposal, which he completed by translating from the Vulgate parts for which he did not have a Greek text. He produced four later editions of the text.
Erasmus was a Roman Catholic, but his preference for the textual tradition represented in
Medieval Greek Byzantine Greek text of the time rather than that in the Latin Vulgate led to him being viewed with suspicion by some authorities of his Church.
The first edition with critical apparatus (variant readings in manuscripts) was produced by the printer
Robert Estienne of Paris in
1550. The type of text printed in this edition and in those of Erasmus became known as the ''
Textus Receptus'' (Latin for "received text"), a name given to it in the
Elsevier Elzevier edition of
1633, which termed it the text ''nunc ab omnibus receptum'' ("now received by all"). On it the Churches of the
Protestant Reformation based their translations into
vernacular languages, such as the
King James Version of the Bible King James Version.
The discovery of older manuscripts, such as the
Codex Sinaiticus and the
Codex Vaticanus, led scholars to revise their opinion of this text.
Karl Lachmann’s critical edition of
1831, based on manuscripts dating from the fourth century and earlier, was intended primarily to demonstrate that the Textus Receptus must finally be rejected. Later critical texts are based on further scholarly research and the finding of papyrus fragments dating in some cases from within a few decades of the composition of the New Testament writings. It is on the basis of these that nearly all modern translations or revisions of older translations have, for more than a century, been made, though some still prefer the Textus Receptus or the similar "Byzantine
Majority Text".
The canonization of Scripture
{{main|Biblical Canon}}
In Judaism it is commonly thought that the canonical status of some books was discussed between
200 BC and
100 AD 100, though it is unclear at what point during this period the Jewish canon was decided.
Protestants cite the Old Testament canon defined by the (possibly non-existent)
Council of Jamnia in AD 90 as their basis for not including the
Deuterocanonical books, where
Roman Catholics assert that Jewish council was convened in reaction to the rise of Christianity and its use of the
Septuagint.
To the books accepted by Judaism as Scripture, Christianity subsequently added those of the
New Testament, the 27-book
Biblical canon canon which was finally fixed in the
4th century. Catholicism mostly considers certain deuterocanonical books to be part of the
Old Testament, though Protestantism in general accepts as part of the Old Testament only the books in the canon of Judaism and uses the term
Apocrypha for the deuterocanonical books. The Protestant Old Testament has a 39-book canon — the number varies from that of the books in the
Tanakh because of a different method of division — while the Roman Catholic Church recognizes 46 books as part of the Old Testament. For details, see
Books of the Bible.
Canonicity is distinct from questions of human authorship and the formation of the books of the Bible; these questions are discussed in the entries on
higher criticism and
textual criticism.
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. Information about Bible versions is given below, while Bible translations can be found on a separate page.
The original texts of the Tanakh were in Hebrew, although some portions were in Aramaic. 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. The Onkelos translation is particularly interesting in that it removes most references to God as a physical presence. This move towards a formless God was of immense importance to Jewish philosophy and religious exegesis. It was central to the philosophy of
Maimonides, known in Hebrew as the Rambam, a very influential Jewish thinker of the Middle Ages.
Early Christians produced translations of the Hebrew Bible into several languages; their primary Biblical text was the Septuagint. Translations were made into Syriac,
Coptic language Coptic and Latin, among other languages. The Latin translations were historically the most important for the Church in the West, while the Greek-speaking East 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, 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.
The ever-increasing number of variants in Latin manuscripts induced
Pope Damasus, in
382, to commission his secretary, Saint Jerome, to produce a reliable and consistent text. Jerome later took it on himself to make a completely new translation directly from the Hebrew of the Tanakh. This translation became the basis of the
Vulgate Latin translation. Though he also translated Psalms from Hebrew, the earlier Septuagint-based version, slightly revised by him, is the text that was actually used in Church and is included in editions of the Vulgate. This includes the deuterocanonical books, also revised by Jerome, and became the official translation of the
Roman Catholic Church.
''See
English translations of the Bible for more details of translations and
Origin and Growth of the English Bible for a chart on how the English Bible came to be.''
The Introduction of chapters and verses
{{main|Chapters and verses of the Bible}}; ''see
Tanakh#Chapters and verse numbers.2C book divisions Tanakh for the Jewish textual tradition.''
The
Hebrew language Hebrew Masoretic text contains verse endings as an important feature. According to the
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 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 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 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. They were then inserted into 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 entering printed editions in
1565 (New Testament) and
1571 (Hebrew Bible).[http://www.fuller.edu/ministry/berean/chs_vss.htm][http://www.theexaminer.org/history/chap6.htm]
Interesting facts
The following list contains some of the more interesting facts of the Bible:
*The longest verse in the Bible is Esther chapter 8, verse 9.
*The longest chapter is
Psalm 119, the shortest, Psalm 117.
*Middle verse—see
Middle verse of the Bible.
*The middle chapter is Psalm 117. There are 594 chapters before this one, and 594 after. [http://www.christring.org/thinkabout/middleverse2.htm]
*The shortest book is the
Third Epistle of John. The
Second Epistle of John has one fewer verse, but contains more words.
*There are 773,692 words in the King James version of the Bible.
*The shortest verse in the Bible is John 11:35.
*The longest word is "
Mahershalalhashbaz" found in Isaiah chapter 8, verses 1 and 3.
*There are two similar chapters in the Bible. They are 2 Kings chapter 19, and Isaiah chapter 37. (The first 14 verses of each chapter are the same, word-for-word, in the King James version).
*A modern analysis using Microsoft Word 2000 yields a count 31,102 verses for the King James Version. [http://www.christring.org/thinkabout/middleverse2.htm]
*There are 5,845 verses in the Torah (Five Books of Moses) corresponding to the Hebrew mneumonic "ha chama" or "the sun."
*The Bible contains 1,189 chapters (Old Testament—929, New Testament—260).
*There are no verses in the King James version that contain all the letters of the alphabet, but Ezekiel 7:21 has all letters except "
J" and Daniel 4:37 has all letters except "
Q".
*There are only two books in the Bible that do not contain the word "God". They are
Book of Esther Esther and
Song of Solomon.
*The word "eternity" occurs only once in the King James Version, in Isaiah 57, verse 15.
*The Bible has been translated to
klingon
References
* Berlin, Adele, Marc Zvi Brettler and Michael Fishbane. [http://www.newjewishbooks.org/0195297512/ ''The Jewish Study Bible'']. Oxford University Press, 2003. ISBN 0195297512
*
Bernhard Anderson Anderson, Bernhard W. ''Understanding the Old Testament'' (ISBN 0139483993)
* 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.
* Head, Tom. ''The Absolute Beginner's Guide to the Bible''. Indianapolis, IN: Que Publishing, 2005. ISBN 0789734192.
* Hoffman, Joel M. [http://www.newjewishbooks.org/ITB/ ''In the Beginning'']. New York University Press. 2004. ISBN 0814736904.
* Lienhard, Joseph T. "The Bible, The Church, and Authority." Liturgical Press, Collegeville, Minnesota, 1995.
* Miller, John W. ''The Origins of the Bible: Rethinking Canon History'' Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 1994. ISBN 0809135221.
*Riches, John. ''The Bible: A Very Short Introduction'', Oxford University Press, 2000. ISBN 0192853430
* 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.
*Taylor, Hawley O., "Mathematics and Prophecy," ''Modern Science and Christian Faith'', Wheaton,: Van Kampen, 1948, pp.175-183.
*''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
See also
{{commons|Bible}}
{{wiktionary|Bible}}
{{wikiquote}}
{{wikisource|Wikisource:Religious texts#Bible_and_Works_about_the_Bible|The Bible and Works about the Bible}}
{{wikisource|EB1911:Bible|1911 Britannica entry}}
*
Jesus
*
Spiritism
*
Biblical archaeology
*
Bible prophecy
*
Bible Society of India
*
Dating the Bible
*
Bible chronology
*
Origin and Growth of the English Bible
*
The Bible and history
*
History of the English Bible
*
Books of the Bible
*
Bible conspiracy theory
*
Bible translations
*
Biblical canon
*
Gutenberg Bible
*
Study Bible
*
Biblical inerrancy
*
Internal consistency and the Bible
*
New Testament view on Jesus' life
*
Adam and Eve
*
Ten Commandments Ten Commandments (ethical)
*
Ritual Decalogue Ten Commandments (ritual)
*
Jewish Biblical exegesis
*
Tanakh
*
Islamic view of the Bible
*
Hindu idealism Hindu idealism and the Bible
*
Metanarrative
*
Byblos
*
God
*
Table of Books of Judeo-Christian Scripture
External links
-
Bible on Demand - Custom
PDF versions of any
Hebrew language Hebrew section of the Bible.
-
BibleGateway.com (NIV, ESV, etc.)
-
BibleStudyTools.net (KJV, NRSV, NKJV, etc.)
-
The Bible
-
Bible Study Wiki
-
French, English and Chinese Online Bible
-
o-bible.com Chinese and English
-
Multilingual Online Bible
-
Online Jewish translation of the Bible With
-
A first introduction to the Bible (Old testament)
*
Rashi Rashi's commentary by The Judaica Press at [http://www.chabad.org chabad.org]
-
SacredBible.org Latin Vulgate
-
Torontogospel.ca Audio Version Of the King James Bible
-
Skeptic's Annotated Bible (KJV)
-
UnboundBible.org Languages other than English
-
''Bible'' entry in the 1728 ''
Cyclopaedia''.
-
World English Bible Public Domain (no copyright) Modern English translation of the Bible
-
ZapBible.com Daily concise meditation based on the traditional daily Bible readings and Psalm
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