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The Bible (from Koine Greek τὰ βιβλία, tà biblía, "the books") is a canonical collection of texts considered sacred inJudaism and Christianity. There is no single "Bible" and many Bibles with varying contents exist.^[1] The term Bible is shared between Judaism and Christianity, although the contents of each of their collections of canonical texts is not the same. Different religious groups include different books within their Biblical canons, in different orders, and sometimes divide or combine books, or incorporate additional material into canonical books.

The Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh, contains twenty-four books divided into three parts: the five books of the Torah("teaching" or "law"), the Nevi'im ("prophets"), and the Ketuvim ("writings").

Christian Bibles range from the sixty-six books of the Protestant canon to the eighty-one books of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church canon. The first part of Christian Bibles is the Old Testament, which contains, at minimum, the twenty-four books of the Hebrew Bible divided into thirty-nine books and ordered differently from the Hebrew Bible. The Catholic Church and Eastern Christian churches also hold certain deuterocanonical books and passages to be part of the Old Testament canon. The second part is the New Testament, containing twenty-seven books: the fourCanonical gospels, Acts of the Apostles, twenty-one Epistles or letters, and the Book of Revelation.

By the 2nd century BCE Jewish groups had called the Bible books "holy," and Christians now commonly call the Old and New Testaments of the Christian Bible "The Holy Bible" (τὰ βιβλία τὰ ἅγια, tà biblía tà ágia) or "the Holy Scriptures" (η Αγία Γραφή, e Agía Graphḗ). Many Christians consider the whole canonical text of the Bible to be divinely inspired. The oldest surviving complete Christian Bibles are Greek manuscripts from the 4th century. The oldest Tanakh manuscript in Hebrew and Aramaic dates to the 10th century CE,^[2] but an early 4th-century Septuagint translation is found in the Codex Vaticanus. The Bible was divided into chapters in the 13th century by Stephen Langton and into verses in the 16th century by French printer Robert Estienne^[3] and is now usually cited by book, chapter, and verse.

The Bible is widely considered to be the best selling book of all time,^[4] has estimated annual sales of 100 million copies,^[5][6] and has been a major influence on literature and history, especially in the West where it was the first mass-printed book. The Gutenberg Bible was the first Bible ever printed using movable type.

Etymology

An American family Bible dating to 1859.

The English word Bible is from the Latin biblia, from the same word in Medieval Latin and Late Latin and ultimately from Koine Greek τὰ βιβλία ta biblia "the books" (singular βιβλίον biblion).^[7]

Medieval Latin biblia is short for biblia sacra "holy book", while biblia in Greek and Late Latin is neuter plural (gen. bibliorum). It gradually came to be regarded as a feminine singular noun (biblia, gen. bibliae) in medieval Latin, and so the word was loaned as a singular into the vernaculars of Western Europe.^[8] Latin biblia sacra "holy books" translates Greek τὰ βιβλία τὰ ἅγια ta biblia ta hagia, "the holy books".^[9]

The word βιβλίον itself had the literal meaning of "paper" or "scroll" and came to be used as the ordinary word for "book". It is the diminutive ofβύβλος bublos, "Egyptian papyrus", possibly so called from the name of the Phoenician sea port Byblos (also known as Gebal) from whence Egyptian papyrus was exported to Greece. The Greek ta biblia (lit. "little papyrus books")^[10] was "an expression Hellenistic Jews used to describe their sacred books (the Septuagint).^[11][12] Christian use of the term can be traced to ca. 223 CE.^[7] The biblical scholar F.F. Brucenotes that Chrysostom appears to be the first writer (in his Homilies on Matthew, delivered between 386 and 388) to use the Greek phrase ta biblia ("the books") to describe both the Old and New Testaments together.^[13]

Development

John Riches^[who?] states that "the biblical texts themselves are the result of a creative dialogue between ancient traditions and different communities through the ages",^[14] and "the biblical texts were produced over a period in which the living conditions of the writers – political, cultural, economic, and ecological – varied enormously".^[15]

Timothy H. Lim, a professor of Hebrew Bible and Second Temple Judaism at the University of Edinburgh, states that the Old Testament "was not written by one man, nor did it drop down from heaven as assumed by fundamentalists. It is not a magical book, but a collection of authoritative texts of apparently divine origin that went through a human process of writing and editing.”^[16] During the solidification of the Hebrew canon (circa 3d century BCE), the Bible began to be translated into Greek, now referred to as the Septuagint.^[17]

In Christian Bibles, the New Testament Gospels were derived from oral traditions (similar to the Hebrew Bible) in a period after Jesus's death,

Scholars have attempted to reconstruct something of the history of the oral traditions behind the Gospels, but the results have not been too encouraging. The period of transmission is short: less than 40 years passed between the death of Jesus and the writing of Mark's Gospel. This means that there was little time for oral traditions to assume fixed form.^[18]

The Bible was later translated into Latin and other languages. John Riches states that,

The translation of the Bible into Latin marks the beginning of a parting of the ways between Western Latin-speaking Christianity and Eastern Christianity, which spoke Greek, Syriac, Coptic, Ethiopic, and other languages. The Bibles of the Eastern Churches vary considerably: the Ethiopic Orthodox canon includes 81 books and contains many apocalyptic texts, such as were found at Qumran and subsequently excluded from the Jewish canon. As a general rule, one can say that the Orthodox Churches generally follow the Septuagint in including more books in their Old Testaments than are in the Jewish canon.^[18]

Hebrew Bible

The Nash Papyrus (2nd century BCE) contains a portion of a pre-Masoretic Text, specifically the Ten Commandments and theShema Yisrael prayer.

The Masoretic Text is the authoritative Hebrew text of the Hebrew Bible. While the Masoretic Text defines the books of the Jewish canon, it also defines the precise letter-text of these biblical books, with their vocalization and accentuation.

The oldest extant manuscripts of the Masoretic Text date from approximately the 9th century CE,^[19] and the Aleppo Codex (once the oldest complete copy of the Masoretic Text, but now missing its Torah section) dates from the 10th century.

Tanakh (Hebrew: תנ"ך) reflects the threefold division of the Hebrew Scriptures, Torah ("Teaching"), Nevi'im ("Prophets") and Ketuvim ("Writings").

Torah

The Torah (תּוֹרָה) is also known as the "Five Books of Moses" or the Pentateuch, meaning "five scroll-cases".^[20] The Hebrew names of the books are derived from the first words in the respective texts.

The Torah comprises the following five books:

• Genesis, Bereshith (בראשית)
• Exodus, Shemot (שמות)
• Leviticus, Vayikra (ויקרא)
• Numbers, Bamidbar (במדבר)
• Deuteronomy, Devarim (דברים)

The first eleven chapters of Genesis provide accounts of the 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 Biblical patriarchs Abraham, Isaac andJacob (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. He leads the Children of Israel from slavery in Ancient Egypt to the renewal of their covenant with God at Mount Sinai and their wanderings in the desert until a new generation was ready to enter the land of Canaan. The Torah ends with the death of Moses.^[21]

The Torah contains the commandments of God, revealed at Mount Sinai (although there is some debate among traditional scholars as to whether these were all written down at one time, or over a period of time during the 40 years of the wanderings in the desert, while several modern Jewish movements reject the idea of a literal revelation, and critical scholars believe that many of these laws developed later in Jewish history).^{[22][23][24][25]} These commandments provide the basis for Jewish religious law. Tradition states that there are 613 commandments (taryag mitzvot).

Nevi'im

Nevi'im (Hebrew: נְבִיאִים Nəḇî'îm‎, "Prophets") is the second main division of the Tanakh, between the Torah and Ketuvim. It contains two sub-groups, the Former Prophets (Nevi'im Rishonim נביאים ראשונים, the narrative books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings) and the Latter Prophets (Nevi'im Aharonim נביאים אחרונים, the books of Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel and the Twelve Minor Prophets).

The Nevi'im tell the story of the rise of the Hebrew monarchy and its division into two kingdoms, ancient Israel and Judah, focusing on conflicts between the Israelites and other nations, and conflicts among Israelites, specifically, struggles between believers in "the LORDGod"^[26] and believers in foreign gods,^[27][28] and the criticism of unethical and unjust behavior of Israelite elites and rulers;^[29][30][31] in which prophets played a crucial and leading role. It ends with the conquest of the Kingdom of Israel by the Assyrians followed by the conquest of the Kingdom of Judah by the Babylonians and the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem.

Former Prophets

The Former Prophets are the books Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings. They contain narratives that begin immediately after the death of Moses with the divine appointment of Joshua as his successor, who then leads the people of Israel into the Promised Land, and end with the release from imprisonment of the last king of Judah. Treating Samuel and Kings as single books, they cover:

• Joshua's conquest of the land of Canaan (in the Book of Joshua),
• the struggle of the people to possess the land (in the Book of Judges),
• the people's request to God to give them a king so that they can occupy the land in the face of their enemies (in the books of 1st and 2nd Samuel)
• the possession of the land under the divinely appointed kings of the House of David, ending in conquest and foreign exile (1st and 2nd Kings)

Joshua

The Book of Joshua (Yehoshua יהושע) contains a history of the Israelites from the death of Moses to that of Joshua. After Moses' death, Joshua, by virtue of his previous appointment as Moses' successor, receives from God the command to cross the Jordan River.

The book consists of three parts:

• the history of the conquest of the land (1–12).
• allotment of the land to the different tribes, with the appointment of cities of refuge, the provision for the Levites (13–22), and the dismissal of the eastern tribes to their homes.
• the farewell addresses of Joshua, with an account of his death (23, 24).

Judges

The Book of Judges (Shoftim שופטים) consists of three distinct parts:

• the introduction (1:1–3:10 and 3:12) giving a summary of the book of Joshua
• the main text (3:11–16:31), discussing the five Great Judges, Abimelech, and providing glosses for a few minor Judges
• appendices (17:1–21:25), giving two stories set in the time of the Judges, but not discussing the Judges themselves.

Samuel

The Books of Samuel (Shmu'el שמואל) consists of five parts:

• the period of God's rejection of Eli, Samuel's birth, and subsequent judgment (1 Samuel 1:1–7:17)
• the life of Saul prior to meeting David (1 Samuel 8:1–15:35)
• Saul's interaction with David (1 Samuel 16:1–2 Samuel 1:27)
• David's reign and the rebellions he suffers (2 Samuel 2:1–20:22)
• an appendix of material concerning David in no particular order, and out of sequence with the rest of the text (2 Samuel 22:1–24:25)

A conclusion of sorts appears at 1 Kings 1-2, concerning Solomon enacting a final revenge on those who did what David perceived as wrongdoing, and having a similar narrative style. While the subject matter in the Book(s) of Samuel is also covered by the narrative in Chronicles, it is noticeable that the section (2 Sam. 11:2-12:29) containing an account of the matter of Bathsheba is omitted in the corresponding passage in 1 Chr. 20.

Kings

The Books of Kings (Melakhim מלכים) contains accounts of the kings of the ancient Kingdom of Israel and the Kingdom of Judah, and the annals of the Jewish commonwealth from the accession of Solomon until the subjugation of the kingdom by Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians.

Latter Prophets

The Latter Prophets are divided into two groups, the "major" prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel, and the twelve minor prophets, collected into a single book.

Isaiah

The 66 chapters of Isaiah (Yeshayahu [ישעיהו]) consist primarily of prophecies of the judgments awaiting nations that are persecuting Judah. These nations include Babylon,Assyria, Philistia, Moab, Syria, Israel (the northern kingdom), Ethiopia, Egypt, Arabia, and Phoenicia. The prophecies concerning them can be summarized as saying that Jehovahis the God of the whole earth, and that nations which think of themselves as secure in their own power might well be conquered by other nations, at God's command.

Chapter 6 describes Isaiah's call to be a prophet of God. Chapters 35–39 provide material about King Hezekiah. Chapters 24–34, while too complex to characterize easily, are primarily concerned with prophecies of a messiah, the Lord's "chosen one", a person anointed or given power by God, and of the messiah's kingdom, where justice and righteousness will reign. This section is seen by Jews as describing a king, a descendant of their great king, David, who will make Judah a great kingdom and Jerusalem a truly holy city.

The prophecy continues with what can be characterized as a "book of comfort"^[32] which begins in chapter 40 and completes the writing. In the first eight chapters of this book of comfort, Isaiah prophesies the deliverance of the Jews from the hands of the Babylonians and restoration of Israel as a unified nation in the land promised to them by God. Isaiah reaffirms that the Jews are indeed the chosen people of God in chapter 44 and that Jehovah is the only God for the Jews as he will show his power over the gods of Babylon in due time in chapter 46. In chapter 45:1 the Persian ruler Cyrus is named as the messiah who will overthrow the Babylonians and allow the return of Israel to their original land. The remaining chapters of the book contain prophecies of the future glory of Zion under the rule of a righteous servant (52 and 54). Chapter 53 contains a poetic prophecy about this servant which is generally considered by Christians to refer to Jesus, although Jews generally interpret it as a reference to God's people. Although there is still the mention of judgment of false worshippers and idolaters (65 & 66), the book ends with a message of hope of a righteous ruler who extends salvation to his righteous subjects living in the Lord's kingdom on earth.

Jeremiah

The Book of Jeremiah (Yirmiyahu [ירמיהו]) can be divided into twenty-three subsections, and its contents organized into five sub-sections:

• the introduction, ch. 1
• scorn for the sins of Israel, consisting of seven sections, (1.) ch. 2; (2.) ch. 3–6; (3.) ch. 7–10; (4.) ch. 11–13; (5.) ch. 14–17:18; (6.) ch. 17:19–ch. 20; (7.) ch. 21–24
• a general review of all nations, foreseeing their destruction, in two sections, (1.) ch. 46–49; (2.) ch. 25; with an historical appendix of three sections, (1.) ch. 26; (2.) ch. 27; (3.) ch. 28, 29
• two sections picturing the hopes of better times, (1.) ch. 30, 31; (2.) ch. 32, 33; to which is added an historical appendix in three sections, (1.) ch. 34:1–7; (2.) ch. 34:8–22; (3.) ch. 35

1. the conclusion, in two sections, (1.) ch. 36; (2.) ch. 45.

In Egypt, after an interval, Jeremiah is supposed to have added three sections, viz., ch. 37–39; 40–43; and 44. The principal messianic prophecies are found in 23:1–8; 31:31–40; and 33:14–26.

Jeremiah's prophecies are noted for the frequent repetitions found in them of the same words, phrases, and imagery. They cover the period of about 30 years. They are not in chronological order.

Ezekiel

The Book of Ezekiel (Yehezq'el [יחזקאל]) contains three distinct sections.

• the Judgment on Israel – Ezekiel makes a series of denunciations against his fellow Judeans ( 3:22–24), warning them of the certain destruction of Jerusalem, in opposition to the words of the false prophets (4:1–3). The symbolic acts, by which the extremities to which Jerusalem would be reduced are described in Chapters 4 and 5, show his intimate acquaintance with the levitical legislation. (See, for example, Exodus 22:30; Deuteronomy 14:21; Leviticus 5:2; 7:18, 24; 17:15; 19:7; 22:8)
• prophecies against various neighboring nations, the Ammonites ( Ezek. 25:1–7), the Moabites ( 25:8–11), the Edomites ( 25:12–14), the Philistines ( 25:15–17), Tyreand Sidon ( 26–28), and against Egypt (29–32)
• prophecies delivered after the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar II: the triumphs of Israel and of the kingdom of God on earth ( Ezek. 33–39 ); Messianic times, and the establishment and prosperity of the kingdom of God (40–48).

Twelve Minor Prophets

The Twelve, Trei Asar (תרי עשר), also called the Twelve Minor Prophets

• Hosea, Hoshea (הושע)
• Joel, Yoel (יואל)
• Amos, Amos (עמוס)
• Obadiah, Ovadyah (עבדיה)
• Jonah, Yonah (יונה)
• Micah, Mikhah (מיכה)
• Nahum, Nahum (נחום)
• Habakkuk, Havakuk (חבקוק)
• Zephaniah, Tsefanya (צפניה)
• Haggai, Khagay (חגי)
• Zechariah, Zekharyah (זכריה)
• Malachi, Malakhi (מלאכי)

Ketuvim

Ketuvim or Kəṯûḇîm (in Biblical Hebrew: כְּתוּבִים "writings") is the third and final section of the Tanakh. The Ketuvim are believed to have been written under the Ruach HaKodesh (the Holy Spirit) but with one level less authority than that of prophecy.^[33]

The poetic books

In Masoretic manuscripts (and some printed editions), Psalms, Proverbs and Job are presented in a special two-column form emphasizing the parallel stitches in the verses, which are a function of their poetry. Collectively, these three books are known asSifrei Emet (an acronym of the titles in Hebrew, איוב, משלי, תהלים yields Emet אמ"ת, which is also the Hebrew for "truth").

These three books are also the only ones in Tanakh with a special system of cantillation notes that are designed to emphasize parallel stichs within verses. However, the beginning and end of the book of Job are in the normal prose system.

The five scrolls (Hamesh Megillot)

The five relatively short books of Song of Songs, Book of Ruth, the Book of Lamentations, Ecclesiastes and Book of Esther are collectively known as the Hamesh Megillot (Five Megillot). These are the latest books collected and designated as "authoritative" in the Jewish canon even though they were not complete until the 2nd century CE.^[34]

Other books

Besides the three poetic books and the five scrolls, the remaining books in Ketuvim are Daniel, Ezra-Nehemiah and Chronicles. Although there is no formal grouping for these books in the Jewish tradition, they nevertheless share a number of distinguishing characteristics:

• Their narratives all openly describe relatively late events (i.e., the Babylonian captivity and the subsequent restoration of Zion).
• The Talmudic tradition ascribes late authorship to all of them.
• Two of them (Daniel and Ezra) are the only books in Tanakh with significant portions in Aramaic.

Order of the books

The following list presents the books of Ketuvim in the order they appear in most printed editions. It also divides them into three subgroups based on the distinctiveness of Sifrei Emet and Hamesh Megillot.

The Three Poetic Books (Sifrei Emet)

• Tehillim (Psalms) תְהִלִּים
• Mishlei (Book of Proverbs) מִשְלֵי
• Iyyôbh (Book of Job) אִיּוֹב

The Five Megillot (Hamesh Megillot)

• Shīr Hashshīrīm (Song of Songs) or (Song of Solomon) שִׁיר הַשׁשִׁירִים (Passover)
• Rūth (Book of Ruth) רוּת (Shābhû‘ôth)
• Eikhah (Lamentations) איכה (Ninth of Av) [Also called Kinnot in Hebrew.]
• Qōheleth (Ecclesiastes) קהלת (Sukkôth)
• Estēr (Book of Esther) אֶסְתֵר (Pûrîm)

Other books

• Dānî’ēl (Book of Daniel) דָּנִיֵּאל
• ‘Ezrā (Book of Ezra-Book of Nehemiah) עזרא
• Divrei ha-Yamim (Chronicles) דברי הימים

The Jewish textual tradition never finalized the order of the books in Ketuvim. The Babylonian Talmud (Bava Batra 14b-15a) gives their order as Ruth, Psalms, Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, Lamentations of Jeremiah, Daniel, Scroll of Esther, Ezra, Chronicles.^[35]

In Tiberian Masoretic codices, including the Aleppo Codex and the Leningrad Codex, and often in old Spanish manuscripts as well, the order is Chronicles, Psalms, Job, Proverbs, Ruth, Song of Solomon, Ecclesiastes, Lamentations of Jeremiah, Esther, Daniel, Ezra.^[36]

Canonization

The Ketuvim is the last of the three portions of the Tanakh to have been accepted as biblical canon. While the Torah may have been considered canon by Israel as early as the 5th century BCE and the Former and Latter Prophets were canonized by the 2nd century BCE, the Ketuvim was not a fixed canon until the 2nd century of the Common Era.^[37]

Evidence suggests, however, that the people of Israel were adding what would become the Ketuvim to their holy literature shortly after the canonization of the prophets. As early as 132 BCE references suggest that the Ketuvim was starting to take shape, although it lacked a formal title.^[38] References in the four Gospels as well as other books of the New Testament that many of these texts were both commonly known and counted as having some degree of religious authority early in the 1st century CE.

Many scholars believe that the limits of the Ketuvim as canonized scripture were determined by the Council of Jamnia c. 90 CE. Against Apion, the writing of Josephus in 95 CE, treated the text of the Hebrew Bible as a closed canon to which "... no one has ventured either to add, or to remove, or to alter a syllable..."^[39] For a long time following this date the divine inspiration of Esther, the Song of Songs, and Ecclesiastes was often under scrutiny.^[40]

Original languages

The Tanakh was mainly written in biblical Hebrew, with some portions (Ezra 4:8–6:18 and 7:12–26, Jeremiah 10:11, Daniel 2:4–7:28) in biblical Aramaic, a sister language which became the lingua franca of the Semitic world.^[41]

Septuagint

The Septuagint, or LXX, is a translation of the Hebrew scriptures and some related texts into Koine Greek, begun in the late 3rd century BCE and completed by 132 BCE,^[42][43][44] initially in Alexandria, but in time elsewhere as well.^[45] It is not altogether clear which was translated when, or where; some may even have been translated twice, into different versions, and then revised.^[46]

As the work of translation progressed the canon of the Greek Bible expanded. The Torah always maintained its pre-eminence as the basis of the canon but the collection of prophetic writings, based on the Nevi'im, had various hagiographical works incorporated into it. In addition, some newer books were included in the Septuagint, among these are the Maccabees and the Wisdom of Ben Sira. The Septuagint version of some Biblical books, like Daniel and Esther, are longer than those in the Jewish canon.^[47] Some of theseapocryphal books (e.g. the Wisdom of Solomon, and the second book of Maccabees) were not translated, but composed directly in Greek.^{[citation needed]}

Since Late Antiquity, once attributed to a hypothetical late 1st-century Council of Jamnia, mainstream Rabbinic Judaism rejected the Septuagint as valid Jewish scriptural texts. Several reasons have been given for this. First, some mistranslations were claimed. Second, the Hebrew source texts used for the Septuagint differed from the Masoretic tradition of Hebrew texts, which was chosen as canonical by the Jewish rabbis.^[48] Third, the rabbis wanted to distinguish their tradition from the newly emerging tradition of Christianity.^[44][49] Finally, the rabbis claimed for the Hebrew language a divine authority, in contrast to Aramaic or Greek - even though these languages were the lingua franca of Jews during this period (and Aramaic would eventually be given the same holy language status as Hebrew).^[50]

The Septuagint is the basis for the Old Latin, Slavonic, Syriac, Old Armenian, Old Georgian and Coptic versions of the Christian Old Testament.^[51] The Roman Catholic andEastern Orthodox Churches use most of the books of the Septuagint, while Protestant churches usually do not. After the Protestant Reformation, many Protestant Bibles began to follow the Jewish canon and exclude the additional texts, which came to be called Biblical apocrypha. The Apocrypha are included under a separate heading in the King James Version of the Bible, the basis for the Revised Standard Version.^[52]

Incorporations from Theodotion

In most ancient copies of the Bible which contain the Septuagint version of the Old Testament, the Book of Daniel is not the original Septuagint version, but instead is a copy ofTheodotion's translation from the Hebrew, which more closely resembles the Masoretic text. The Septuagint version was discarded in favour of Theodotion's version in the 2nd to 3rd centuries CE. In Greek-speaking areas, this happened near the end of the 2nd century, and in Latin-speaking areas (at least in North Africa), it occurred in the middle of the 3rd century. History does not record the reason for this, and St. Jerome reports, in the preface to the Vulgate version of Daniel, "This thing 'just' happened."^[53] One of two Old Greek texts of the Book of Daniel has been recently rediscovered and work is ongoing in reconstructing the original form of the book.^[54]

The canonical Ezra-Nehemiah is known in the Septuagint as "Esdras B", and 1 Esdras is "Esdras A". 1 Esdras is a very similar text to the books of Ezra-Nehemiah, and the two are widely thought by scholars to be derived from the same original text. It has been proposed, and is thought highly likely by scholars, that "Esdras B" – the canonical Ezra-Nehemiah – is Theodotion's version of this material, and "Esdras A" is the version which was previously in the Septuagint on its own.^[53]

Final form

Some texts are found in the Septuagint but are not present in the Hebrew. These additional books are Tobit, Judith, Wisdom of Solomon, Wisdom of Jesus son of Sirach, Baruch,Letter of Jeremiah (which later became chapter 6 of Baruch in the Vulgate), additions to Daniel (The Prayer of Azarias, the Song of the Three Children, Susanna and Bel and the Dragon), additions to Esther, 1 Maccabees, 2 Maccabees, 3 Maccabees, 4 Maccabees, 1 Esdras, Odes, including the Prayer of Manasseh, the Psalms of Solomon, and Psalm 151.

Some books that are set apart in the Masoretic text are grouped together. For example the Books of Samuel and the Books of Kings are in the LXX one book in four parts called Βασιλειῶν ("Of Reigns"). In LXX, the Books of Chronicles supplement Reigns and it is called Paralipomenon (Παραλειπομένων—things left out). The Septuagint organizes the minor prophets as twelve parts of one Book of Twelve.^[54]

Christian Bibles

The Bible translated into German byMartin Luther

A Christian Bible is a set of books that a Christian denomination regards as divinely inspired and thus constituting scripture. Although theEarly Church primarily used the Septuagint or the Targums among Aramaic speakers, the apostles did not leave a defined set of new scriptures; instead the canon of the New Testament developed over time. Groups within Christianity include differing books as part of their sacred writings, most prominent among which are the biblical apocrypha or deuterocanonical books.

Significant versions of the English Christian Bible include the Douay-Rheims Bible, the Authorized King James Version, the English Revised Version, the American Standard Version, the Revised Standard Version, the New American Standard Version, the New King James Version, the New International Version, and the English Standard Version.

Old Testament

The books which make up the Christian Old Testament differ between the Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant churches, with the Protestant movement accepting only those books contained in the Hebrew Bible, while Catholics and Orthodox have wider canons. A few groups consider particular translations to be divinely inspired, notably the Greek Septuagint, the Aramaic Peshitta, and the English King James Version.^{[citation needed]}

Apocryphal or deuterocanonical books

In Eastern Christianity, translations based on the Septuagint still prevail. The Septuagint was generally abandoned in favour of the 10th-century Masoretic Text as the basis for translations of the Old Testament into Western languages.^{[citation needed]} Some modern Western translations since the 14th century make use of the Septuagint to clarify passages in the Masoretic Text, where the Septuagint may preserve a variant reading of the Hebrew text.^{[citation needed]} They also sometimes adopt variants that appear in other texts, e.g., those discovered among the Dead Sea Scrolls.^[63][64]

A number of books which are part of the Peshitta or Greek Septuagint but are not found in the Hebrew (Rabbinic) Bible (i.e., among the protocanonical books) are often referred to as deuterocanonical books by Roman Catholics referring to a later secondary (i.e., deutero) canon, that canon as fixed definitively by the Council of Trent 1545–1563.^[65][66] It includes 46 books for the Old Testament (45 if Jeremiah and Lamentations are counted as one) and 27 for the New.^[67]

Most Protestants term these books as apocrypha. Modern Protestant traditions do not accept the deuterocanonical books as canonical, although Protestant Bibles included them in Apocrypha sections until the 1820s. However, Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches include these books as part of their Old Testament.

The Roman Catholic Church recognizes:^[68]

• Tobit
• Judith
• 1 Maccabees
• 2 Maccabees
• Wisdom
• Sirach (or Ecclesiasticus)
• Baruch
• The Letter of Jeremiah (Baruch Chapter 6)
• Greek Additions to Esther (Book of Esther, chapters 10:4 – 12:6)
• The Prayer of Azariah and Song of the Three Holy Children verses 1–68 (Book of Daniel, chapter 3, verses 24–90)
• Susanna (Book of Daniel, chapter 13)
• Bel and the Dragon (Book of Daniel, chapter 14)

In addition to those, the Greek and Russian Orthodox Churches recognize the following:^{[citation needed]}

• 3 Maccabees
• 1 Esdras
• Prayer of Manasseh
• Psalm 151

Russian and Georgian Orthodox Churches include:^{[citation needed]}

• 2 Esdras i.e., Latin Esdras in the Russian and Georgian Bibles

There is also 4 Maccabees which is only accepted as canonical in the Georgian Church, but was included by St. Jerome in an appendix to the Vulgate, and is an appendix to the Greek Orthodox Bible, and it is therefore sometimes included in collections of the Apocrypha.^{[citation needed]}

The Syriac Orthodox tradition includes:^{[citation needed]}

• Psalms 151–155
• The Apocalypse of Baruch
• The Letter of Baruch

The Ethiopian Biblical canon includes:^{[citation needed]}

• Jubilees
• Enoch
• 1–3 Meqabyan

and some other books.

The Anglican Church uses some of the Apocryphal books liturgically. Therefore, editions of the Bible intended for use in the Anglican Church include the Deuterocanonical books accepted by the Catholic Church, plus 1 Esdras, 2 Esdras and the Prayer of Manasseh, which were in the Vulgate appendix.^{[citation needed]}

Pseudepigraphal texts

The term Pseudepigrapha commonly describes numerous works of Jewish religious literature written from about 300 BCE to 300 CE. Not all of these works are actually pseudepigraphical. It also refers to books of the New Testament canon whose authorship is misrepresented. The "Old Testament" Pseudepigraphal works include the following:^[69]

• 3 Maccabees
• 4 Maccabees
• Assumption of Moses
• Ethiopic Book of Enoch (1 Enoch)
• Slavonic Book of Enoch (2 Enoch)
• Book of Jubilees
• Greek Apocalypse of Baruch (3 Baruch)
• Letter of Aristeas (Letter to Philocrates regarding the translating of the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek)
• Life of Adam and Eve
• Martyrdom and Ascension of Isaiah
• Psalms of Solomon
• Sibylline Oracles
• Syriac Apocalypse of Baruch (2 Baruch)
• Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs

Book of Enoch

Notable pseudepigraphal works include the Books of Enoch (such as 1 Enoch). The books named "Enoch": 2 Enoch, surviving only in Old Slavonic (Eng. trans. by R. H. Charles1896) and 3 Enoch (surviving in Hebrew, c. 5th to 6th century CE). These are ancient Jewish religious works, traditionally ascribed to the prophet Enoch, the great-grandfather of the patriarch Noah. They are not part of the biblical canon as used by Jews, apart from Beta Israel. Most Christian denominations and traditions may accept the Books of Enoch as having some historical or theological interest or significance, but they generally regard the Books of Enoch as non-canonical or non-inspired. However, the Enoch books are treated as canonical by the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church and Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church.

The older sections (mainly in the Book of the Watchers) are estimated to date from about 300 BC, and the latest part (Book of Parables) probably was composed at the end of the 1st century BC.^[70]

Denominational views of Pseudepigrapha

There arose in some Protestant biblical scholarship an extended use of the term pseudepigrapha for works that appeared as though they ought to be part of the biblical canon, because of the authorship ascribed to them, but which stood outside both the biblical canons recognized by Protestants and Catholics. These works were also outside the particular set of books that Roman Catholics called deuterocanonical and to which Protestants had generally applied the term Apocryphal. Accordingly, the term pseudepigraphical, as now used often among both Protestants and Roman Catholics (allegedly for the clarity it brings to the discussion), may make it difficult to discuss questions of pseudepigraphical authorship of canonical books dispassionately with a lay audience. To confuse the matter even more, Eastern Orthodox Christians accept books as canonical that Roman Catholics and most Protestant denominations consider pseudepigraphical or at best of much less authority. There exist also churches that reject some of the books that Roman Catholics, Orthodox and Protestants accept. The same is true of some Jewish sects. Many works that are "apocryphal" are otherwise considered genuine.

Role of Old Testament in Christian theology

The Old Testament has always been central to the life of the Christian church. Bible scholar N.T. Wright says "Jesus himself was profoundly shaped by the scriptures."^[71] He adds that the earliest Christians also searched those same Hebrew scriptures in their effort to understand the earthly life of Jesus. They regarded the ancient Israelites' scriptures as having reached a climactic fulfillment in Jesus himself, generating the "new covenant" prophesied by Jeremiah.^[72]

New Testament

The New Testament is a collection of 27 books^[73] of 4 different genres of Christian literature (Gospels, one account of the Acts of the Apostles, Epistles and an Apocalypse).Jesus is its central figure. The New Testament presupposes the inspiration of the Old Testament^[74] (2 Timothy 3:16). Nearly all Christians recognize the New Testament as canonical scripture. These books can be grouped into:

The New Testament books are ordered differently in the Catholic/Orthodox/Protestant tradition, the Slavonic tradition, the Syriac tradition and the Ethiopian tradition.

Original language

The mainstream consensus is that the New Testament was written in a form of Koine Greek,^[75][76] which was the common language of the Eastern Mediterranean^{[77][78][79][80]}from the Conquests of Alexander the Great (335–323 BC) until the evolution of Byzantine Greek (c. 600).

Historic editions

The Codex Gigas from the 13th century, held at the Royal Library inSweden.

The original autographs, that is, the original Greek writings and manuscripts written by the original authors of the New Testament, have not survived.^[81] But historically copies exist of those original autographs, transmitted and preserved in a number of manuscript traditions. When ancient scribes copied earlier books, they sometimes wrote notes on the margins of the page (marginal glosses) to correct their text—especially if a scribe accidentally omitted a word or line—and to comment about the text. When later scribes were copying the copy, they were sometimes uncertain if a note was intended to be included as part of the text. Over time, different regions evolved different versions, each with its own assemblage of omissions and additions.^[82]

The three main textual traditions of the Greek New Testament are sometimes called the Alexandrian text-type (generally minimalist), theByzantine text-type (generally maximalist), and the Western text-type (occasionally wild). Together they comprise most of the ancient manuscripts.

Development of the Christian canons

The Old Testament canon entered into Christian use in the Greek Septuagint translations and original books, and their differing lists of texts. In addition to the Septuagint, Christianity subsequently added various writings that would become the New Testament. Somewhat different lists of accepted works continued to develop in antiquity. In the 4th century a series of synods produced a list of texts equal to the 39, 46(51),54, or 57 book canon of the Old Testament and to the 27-book canon of the New Testament that would be subsequently used to today, most notably the Synod of Hippo in AD 393. Also c. 400, Jerome produced a definitive Latin edition of the Bible (see Vulgate), the canon of which, at the insistence of the Pope, was in accord with the earlier Synods. With the benefit of hindsight it can be said that this process effectively set the New Testament canon, although there are examples of other canonical lists in use after this time. A definitive list did not come from an Ecumenical Council until the Council of Trent (1545–63).^[83]

During the Protestant Reformation, certain reformers proposed different canonical lists to those currently in use. Though not without debate, see Antilegomena, the list of New Testament books would come to remain the same; however, the Old Testament texts present in the Septuagint but not included in the Jewish canon fell out of favor. In time they would come to be removed from most Protestant canons. Hence, in a Catholic context, these texts are referred to as deuterocanonical books, whereas in a Protestant context they are referred to as the Apocrypha, which means "hidden", the label applied to all texts excluded from the biblical canon but which were in the Septuagint. It should also be noted that Catholics and Protestants both describe certain other books, such as the Acts of Peter, as apocryphal.^{[citation needed]}

Thus, the Protestant Old Testament of today has a 39-book canon—the number of books (though not the content) varies from the Jewish Tanakh only because of a different method of division—while the Roman Catholic Church recognizes 46 books (51 books with some books combined into 46 books) as the canonical Old Testament. The Eastern Orthodox Churches recognise 3 Maccabees, 1 Esdras, Prayer of Manasseh and Psalm 151 in addition to the Catholic canon. Some include 2 Esdras. The Anglican Church also recognises a longer canon. The term "Hebrew Scriptures" is often used as being synonymous with the Protestant Old Testament, since the surviving scriptures in Hebrew include only those books, while Catholics and Orthodox include additional texts that have not survived in Hebrew. Both Catholics and Protestants (as well as Greek Orthodox) have the same 27-book New Testament Canon.^[84]

The New Testament writers assumed the inspiration of the Old Testament, probably earliest stated in 2 Timothy 3:16, "All scripture is given by inspiration of God".^[10]

Ethiopian Orthodox canon

The Canon of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church is wider than the canons used by most other Christian churches. There are 81 books in the Ethiopian Orthodox Bible.^[85]The Ethiopian Old Testament Canon includes the books found in the Septuagint accepted by other Orthodox Christians, in addition to Enoch and Jubilees which are ancient Jewish books that only survived in Ge'ez but are quoted in the New Testament,^{[citation needed]} also Greek Ezra First and the Apocalypse of Ezra, 3 books of Meqabyan, and Psalm 151 at the end of the Psalter. The three books of Meqabyan are not to be confused with the books of Maccabees. The order of the other books is somewhat different from other groups', as well. The Old Testament follows the Septuagint order for the Minor Prophets rather than the Jewish order.^{[citation needed]}

Divine inspiration

The Second Epistle to Timothy says that "all scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness". (2 Timothy 3:16)^[86] Some Christians believe that the Bible is the inspired word of God, that God, through the Holy Spirit, intervened and influenced the words, message, and collation of the Bible.^{[citation needed]} For many Christians the Bible is also infallible, and is incapable of error in matters of faith and practice, but not necessarily in historic or scientific matters. A related, but distinguishable belief is that the Bible is the inerrant word of God, without error in any aspect, spoken by God and written down in its perfect form by humans. Within these broad beliefs there are many schools of hermeneutics. "Bible scholars claim that discussions about the Bible must be put into its context within church history and then into the context of contemporary culture."^[72] Fundamentalist Christians are associated with the doctrine of biblical literalism, where the Bible is not only inerrant, but the meaning of the text is clear to the average reader.^[87]

Belief in sacred texts is attested to in Jewish antiquity,^[88][89] and this belief can also be seen in the earliest of Christian writings. Various texts of the Bible mention divine agency in relation to its writings.^[90] In their book A General Introduction to the Bible, Norman Geisler and William Nix wrote: "The process of inspiration is a mystery of the providence of God, but the result of this process is a verbal, plenary, inerrant, and authoritative record."^[91] Most evangelical biblical scholars^[92][93][94] associate inspiration with only the original text; for example some American Protestants adhere to the 1978 Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy which asserted that inspiration applied only to the autographic text of Scripture.^[95] Among adherents of Biblical literalism, a minority, such as the King-James-Only Movement, extend the claim of inerrancy only to a particular translation.^[96]

Versions and translations

A Bible handwritten in Latin, on display in Malmesbury Abbey, Wiltshire, England. This Bible was transcribed inBelgium in 1407 for reading aloud in a monastery.

The original texts of the Tanakh were mainly in Hebrew, with some portions 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. There are several different ancient versions of the Tanakh in Hebrew, mostly differing by spelling, and the traditional Jewish version is based on the version known as Aleppo Codex. Even in this version there are words which are traditionally read differently from written, because the oral tradition is considered more fundamental than the written one, and presumably mistakes had been made in copying the text over the generations.^{[citation needed]}

The primary biblical text for early Christians was the Septuagint. In addition, they translated the Hebrew Bible into several other languages. Translations were made into Syriac, Coptic, Ge'ez 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 translations 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.

Pope Damasus I assembled the first list of books of the Bible at the Council of Rome in AD 382. He commissioned Saint Jerome to produce a reliable and consistent text by translating the original Greek and Hebrew texts into Latin. This translation became known as the Latin Vulgate Bible and in 1546 at theCouncil of Trent was declared by the Roman Catholic Church to be the only authentic and official Bible in the Latin Church.

Since the Protestant Reformation, Bible translations for many languages have been made. The Bible continues to be translated to new languages, largely by Christian organisations such as Wycliffe Bible Translators, New Tribes Mission and Bible societies.

Views

John Riches provides the following analysis of the Bible:

It has inspired some of the great monuments of human thought, literature, and art; it has equally fuelled some of the worst excesses of human savagery, self-interest, and narrow-mindedness. It has inspired men and women to acts of great service and courage, to fight for liberation and human development; and it has provided the ideological fuel for societies which have enslaved their fellow human beings and reduced them to abject poverty. ... It has, perhaps above all, provided a source of religious and moral norms which have enabled communities to hold together, to care for, and to protect one another; yet precisely this strong sense of belonging has in turn fuelled ethnic, racial, and international tension and conflict.^[98]

Other religions

In Islam, the Bible is held to reflect true unfolding revelation from God; but revelation which had been corrupted or distorted (in Arabic: tahrif); which necessitated the giving of theQur'an to the Islamic prophet, Muhammad, to correct this deviation.

Members of other religions may also seek inspiration from the Bible. For example Rastafaris view the Bible as essential to their religion^[99] and Unitarian Universalists view it as "one of many important religious texts".^[100]

Biblical studies

Biblical criticism refers to the investigation of the Bible as a text, and addresses questions such as authorship, dates of composition, and authorial intention. It is not the same ascriticism of the Bible, which is an assertion against the Bible being a source of information or ethical guidance, or observations that the Bible may have translation errors.^[101]

Higher criticism

In the 17th century Thomas Hobbes collected the current evidence to conclude outright that Moses could not have written the bulk of the Torah. Shortly afterwards the philosopherBaruch Spinoza published a unified critical analysis, arguing that the problematic passages were not isolated cases that could be explained away one by one, but pervasive throughout the five books, concluding that it was "clearer than the sun at noon that the Pentateuch was not written by Moses . . ."^[102][103] Despite determined opposition from Christians, both Catholic and Protestant, the views of Hobbes and Spinoza gained increasing acceptance amongst scholars.

Archaeological and historical research

Biblical archaeology is the archaeology that relates to and sheds light upon the Hebrew Scriptures and the Christian Greek Scriptures (or "New Testament"). It is used to help determine the lifestyle and practices of people living in biblical times. There are a wide range of interpretations in the field of biblical archaeology. One broad division includes biblical maximalism which generally takes the view that most of the Old Testament or Hebrew Bible is based on history although it is presented through the religious viewpoint of its time. It is considered the opposite of biblical minimalism which considers the Bible a purely post-exilic (5th century BCE and later) composition. Even among those scholars who adhere to biblical minimalism, the Bible is a historical document containing first-hand information on the Hellenistic and Roman eras, and there is universal scholarly consensus that the events of the 6th century BCE Babylonian captivity have a basis in history.

The historicity of the biblical account of the history of ancient Israel and Judah of the 10th to 7th-centuries BCE is disputed in scholarship. The biblical account of the 8th to 7th centuries BCE is widely, but not universally, accepted as historical, while the verdict on the earliest period of the United Monarchy (10th-century BCE) and the historicity of David is unclear. Archaeological evidence providing information on this period, such as the Tel Dan Stele, can potentially be decisive. The biblical account of events of the Exodus from Egypt in the Torah, and the migration to the Promised Land and the period of Judges are not considered historical in scholarship.^[104][105] Regarding the New Testament, the setting being the Roman Empire in the 1st century CE, the historical context is well established. There has been some debate on the historicity of Jesus, but the mainstream opinion is that Jesus was one of several known historical itinerant preachers in 1st-century Roman Judea, teaching in the context of the religious upheavals and sectarianism ofSecond Temple Judaism.^{[citation needed]}

Criticism

In modern times, the view that the Bible should be accepted as historically accurate and as a reliable guide to morality has been questioned by many mainstream academics in the field of biblical criticism. Most Christian groups claim that the Bible is inspired by God, and some oppose interpretations of the Bible that are not traditional or "plain reading". Some groups within the most conservative Protestant circles believe that the Authorized King James Version is the only accurate English translation of the Bible, and accept it as infallible. They are generally referred to as "King James Only". Many within Christian fundamentalism – as well as much of Orthodox Judaism—strongly support the idea that the Bible is a historically accurate record of actual events and a primary source of moral guidance.

In addition to concerns about morality, inerrancy, or historicity, there remain some questions of which books should be included in the Bible (see canon of scripture). Jews discount the New Testament, most Christians deny the legitimacy of the New Testament apocrypha, and a view sometimes referred to as Jesusism does not affirm the scriptural authority of any biblical text other than the teachings of Jesus in the Gospels.

聖經類別的一部分
聖經
聖經正典和各卷
塔納赫    摩西五經   先知書   詩歌智慧書     舊約聖經   希伯來聖經   新約聖經   次經 有爭執經   經外書   丟失的書信   聖經章節 偽經    猶太教的   舊約的   新約的
發展和執筆者
執筆者   猶太教正典   舊約聖經正典 新約聖經正典   摩西/梅瑟五經的作者 使徒保羅/保祿書信   使徒約翰/若望著作
譯本和抄本
七十士譯本   撒馬利亞五經   死海古卷 塔庫姆譯本   別西大譯本   古拉丁文譯本 武加大譯本   梵蒂岡抄本   西乃抄本 伯撒抄本   哥德語聖經   路德聖經   英語聖經 漢語聖經
聖經研究
聖經成書的年代   聖經批評   史學批評 經文鑑別學   希臘文新約聖經   新約原文分類 底本學說   對觀福音問題   聖經和歷史 聖經考古學
闡釋
釋經學   別沙式解經   米德拉什註釋 理性法註釋   寓意解經   直譯解經   預言
觀點
絕對無誤   真理無誤   批評   伊斯蘭的 古蘭經的   諾斯底的   基督教和猶太教 基督教律法
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基督教
基督耶穌顯示▼
基礎顯示▼
文獻顯示▼
神學顯示▼
歷史顯示▼
派系與運動顯示▼
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《希伯來聖經》 各版本目錄
[顯示]猶太教《塔納赫》
[顯示]天主教《舊約聖經》
[顯示]基督新教《舊約聖經》
轉到《新約聖經》目錄 →
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基督教《新約聖經》目錄
1-4：四福音書
1 馬太福音／瑪竇福音 2 馬可福音／馬爾谷福音 3 路加福音 4 約翰福音／若望福音
5 使徒行傳／宗徒大事錄
6-18：保羅書信／保祿書信
6 羅馬書／羅馬人書 7 哥林多前書／格林多前書 8 哥林多後書／格林多後書 9 加拉太書／迦拉達書 10 以弗所書／厄弗所書 11 腓立比書／斐理伯書 12 歌羅西書／哥羅森書 13 帖撒羅尼迦前書／得撒洛尼前書 14 帖撒羅尼迦後書／得撒洛尼後書 15 提摩太前書／弟茂德前書 16 提摩太後書／弟茂德後書 17 提多書／弟鐸書 18 腓利門書／費肋孟書
19-26 大公書信
19 希伯來書 20 雅各書／雅各伯書 21 彼得前書／伯多祿前書 22 彼得後書／伯多祿後書 23 約翰一書／若望一書 24 約翰二書／若望二書 25 約翰三書／若望三書 26 猶大書／猶達書
27 啟示錄／若望默示錄
註1：左側為新教譯名、右側為天主教譯名。 註2：下劃線為縮寫。
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一本天主教會出版的《聖經》^[1]

《聖經》（希伯來語：ביבליה‎；拉丁語：Biblia，原意「書」）是猶太教與基督教（包括天主教、東正教和新教）的宗教經典。猶太教以《希伯來聖經》正統版本《塔納赫》為其經典，聖經包括舊約聖經與新約聖經，然而基督教的《聖經》全書，刪去了天主教保留的六本次經。

體系概況[編輯]

因為原作者眾多且內容大多口耳傳抄，所以本書在各宗教團體內修訂版本繁多，各宗教團體對外宣稱自己修訂的版本為正統。《希伯來聖經》從耶和華（或稱雅威）如何創世開始，到古時猶太人的歷史及傳說。基督教的聖經則由《舊約》和《新約》兩部分所構成的，而其《舊約聖經》與《希伯來聖經》內容大致相同，不過天主教、東正教和普世聖公宗的版本就多了數篇《塔納赫》跟基督教新教《舊約》都沒有的數篇經卷，那些經卷被新教多數教派稱為「次經」和「偽經」，《新約聖經》記載耶穌基督和其門徒的言行與早期基督教的事件紀錄。 聖經經歷長時間的編輯、千年的翻譯、流傳形成專門的「釋經學」。 抄本傳入中國經過不同朝代與翻譯，一些民初時代譯本因不同教會普遍共通使用，已形成既成譯句，一些用語已與現今用語辭意大不相同，形成詞語障礙，近年已有多個以編譯新版聖經成立的組織。

希伯來聖經[編輯]

希伯來聖經包括了不同時代的作品，最早是摩西五經。寫作目的是作歷史紀念^[2]、律法條文。後期加上不同時期的先知和君王的智慧和詩歌，為當時的人明白神的心意^[3]。所以《希伯來聖經》在當時來說是沒有固定的版本。

《希伯來聖經》發現最早的版本是用希伯來文和亞蘭文（例如但以理書和以斯拉記）抄寫。《希伯來聖經》書卷構成，一般可以分為三個版本，三個版本都有一點不同之處，但主要在編排和經卷數目，三個版本分別是由猶太教拉比所編定的《塔納赫》24卷，而加了注音符號的《標準猶太聖經》就有39卷。基督宗教新教的《舊約聖經》就跟猶太教《標準猶太聖經》基本上一樣，都是有39卷，只是在排序上有一點不同。而基督宗教公教（即天主教）的《舊約聖經》就有46卷，基督宗教正教《舊約聖經》就有50卷，多出來的那些在基督教新教跟猶太教稱為次經。

除了這三個現在最流通的版本之外，還有很多其他不同古本，這些古本都比這三個流通版本多了或少了一些經卷，這些古本有：《七十士希臘文譯本》（七十士譯本）、《拉丁通行本》或《武加大譯本》、《敘利亞簡明譯本》或《別西大譯本》（Peshitta）、《塔耳古木》或《塔庫姆譯本》、《撒馬利亞五經》和《死海古卷》。

天主教的舊約聖經次正經部分（新教稱之為旁經）全採用《七十士希臘文譯本》（《七十士譯本》、《七十賢士譯本》）的希臘譯文為原文。

以色列數學家Eliyahu Rips和物理學家Doron Witstum，嘗試利用等距字母序列重新替聖經原文（希伯來文）編碼，進行一系列的研究，發現聖經中可能隱藏了一些密碼，稱之為聖經密碼，並以此撰寫論文《Equidistant Letter Sequences in the Book of Genesis（創世紀裡的等距字母序列）》。^[4]

基督教舊約聖經[編輯]

《舊約全書》發現最早的版本是用希伯來文和亞蘭文（如但以理書和以斯拉記）抄寫的，是猶太教聖經的正典，但有人指出內容並非完全一樣^[5]。

在舊約方面，衣索比亞正教承認52卷；東正教承認48卷；天主教承認46卷；新教承認39卷。相比下，猶太教的《聖經》由於保持書卷合一，沒有將長書分為幾卷，並將十二卷小先知書合一^[6]，總數只有24卷，但實際上相當於新教的舊約聖經。

基督教新約聖經[編輯]

《新約全書》的數量比較一致，都有27卷。《新約聖經》正典書目，於公元397年舉行的迦太基會議正式確定。但據近代就聖經抄本的研究發現，《新約聖經》正典書目已追溯至2世紀。《新約聖經》的形成原因主要如下：

• 教會需要權威的教導。
• 異端的威脅：
  • 諾斯底主義（善惡二元論、耶穌是天使、幻影）
  • 馬吉安主義（拒斥《聖經·舊約》）
  • 孟他努主義(Montanism)（否定《聖經》權威，高舉聖靈權威）
• 與猶太教分別。猶太教並不承認《聖經·新約》為正典，因為他們否認耶穌就是先知所預言的彌賽亞。

《新約聖經》的主要內容如下：

• 四福音書
• 使徒行傳（宗徒大事錄）
• 使徒保羅的與教會之間的信件（參見保羅書信，天主教譯為保祿書信）
• 使徒彼得的信件
• 使徒約翰的信件
• 啟示錄（默示錄）

而中文版聖經，新教所用的和合本聖經、天主教所用的思高本聖經和牧靈聖經、和東正教的新遺詔聖經，在中文譯名上均有分別：

漢語譯本[編輯]

現在流通的中文聖經主要有兩個版本，一個是天主教普遍使用的「思高聖經」，1968年正式出版。另一個版本是基督教新教普遍使用的和合本，1919年出版。

思高譯本跟和合本除了在經卷數目上有分別之外，很多中文譯名都不同，除了經卷名稱，經卷中很多名稱都有分別。除此之外還有其他中文譯本，例如：《呂振中譯本》（1970年）、《現代中文譯本》（1979年）、《聖經新譯本》（1993年）、《聖經恢復本》（2003年）、《和合本修訂版》（2000年－2010年）

東正教的譯本為《新遺詔聖經》（1864年）、《聖詠經》（1879年）、《官話聖詠經》主教英諾肯提乙譯本（1910年）、《新約聖經》主教英諾肯提乙譯本（1910年）、《創世紀第一書》（1911年俄7月出版　主教英諾肯提乙准印）。

其他數據[編輯]

中國是世界上最大的單體聖經生產國^[7]。但在中國的一般書店裡卻買不到聖經。

國外一些組織統計認為《聖經》是全球歷史上印量最高的出版物，毛語錄的印刷數量緊隨其後。^[8]不過宜家產品目錄2013年印行量達2.08億，是《聖經》一年印行量的兩倍。^[9]

中國重慶市西南大學附屬中學2011年起將聖經作為高中選修課。^[10]

聖經書卷結構[編輯]