What is the Bible?

The English word ‘Bible’ is derived from the Old French bible, which is in turn based on Latin biblia and Greek biblia (‘books’)  Most commonly the term refers to the Scriptures of the Christian church, but it may also denote the canon of Jewish scriptures. The Bible has been handed down to us in more than one form. The Hebrew Bible, often called the Masoretic Text (Mt), is a collection of twenty-four books written in Hebrew (but including also a few passages in Aramaic).

Its form is as follows:

The Law 

• Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy
  The Prophets
  Former Prophets: Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings; Latter Prophets: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel; the twelve minor prophets

The Writings

• Psalms, Job, Proverbs, Ruth, Song of Solomon, Ecclesiastes, Lamentations, Esther, Daniel, Ezra-Nehemiah, Chronicles.

• A translation of the Jewish scriptures into Greek, commonly called the Septuagint (LXX), probably had its earliest form as a translation of the Pentateuch (Law) into Greek in the third century B.C.

The Christian Bible consists of the Old Testament (OT) and the New Testament (NT). In the Roman Catholic and Eastern Christian communities, the OT is based on the LXX, while most Protestant churches accept only the books of the Hebrew Bible as their OT canon.

The NT canon we have inherited now consists of twenty-seven books:

• Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, John;

• Acts of the Apostles; Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, 1 and 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon (all attributed to Paul); Hebrews, James, 1 and 2 Peter, 1, 2, and 3 John, Jude, and Revelation.