Bible

From AnglicanWiki
Revision as of 20:23, 19 January 2026 by YoungAnglican (talk | contribs)
(diff) ← Older revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)
Jump to navigation Jump to search
NKJV Bible

The Bible also called the Holy Bible, the Scriptures, or the Holy Scriptures, is the collection of inspired books that make up the Christian canon. They contain the material of the Divine Revelation of Jesus Christ. It is generally divided into two categories of the Old Testament and the New Testament. However, the inspiration of some Old Testaments books are debated amongst different Christian groups and those books are variously called the Deuterocanon or the Apocrypha.

Canon

All Christians include (at least) the so-called 66 Book Protestant canon which includes for the Old Testament:

Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, The First Book of Samuel, The Second Book of Samuel, The First Book of Kings, The Second Book of Kings, The First Book of Chronicles, The Second Book of Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Job, The Psalms, The Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, the Song of Solomon, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi.

and for the New Testament:

Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans, The First Epistle to the Corinthians, The Second Epistle to the Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, The First Epistle to the Thessalonians, The Second Epistle to the Thessalonians, First Timothy, Second Timothy, Titus, Philemon, Hebrews, James, First Peter, Second Peter, The First Epistle of John, The Second Epistle of John, The Third Epistle of John, Jude, Revelation.

Included in traditional Protestant Bibles, like the Luther Bible and the King James Version, the following 'Deuterocanonical' Books are included in the Roman Canon:

Tobit, Judith, Baruch (with the letter of Jeremiah), Sirach, Wisdom, First Maccabees, Second Maccabees, and the Greek endings of Esther and Daniel.

Some Eastern churches include more books including:

First Esdras, Second Esdras, the Prayer of Manasseh, Third Maccabees, Fourth Maccabees, and Psalm 151

The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church also includes:

The Book of Enoch, the Book of Jubilees, First Meqabyan, Second Meqabyan, and Third Meqabyan.

Translations

The Old Testament is originally in Hebrew and Aramaic, while the New Testament was originally in Koine Greek. Yet, even since the early days of the Church, Christians have translated the Bible into other local languages. One of the earliest translations was the Peshitta, a classic translation into Syriac.

In 382, Pope Damasus I commissioned Saint Jerome to do a complete Latin Translation of the Bible, to replace the then current translation called the Vetus Latina. This translation would come to be called the Vulgate, and eventually eclipsed all other translations in the West to become the dominant version of the Bible in the Western Catholic Church. Although St. Jerome did not believe the Deuterocanonical Books were inspired in the same way as the rest of the Bible, he still included those books in his translation.

Throughout the Middle Ages, various portions of the Bible were translated into Vernacular languages, but by the later Middle Ages, the Papacy and the establishment of the Church began to resist efforts to translate the Bible into vernacular languages. In England in the 14th century, John Wycliffe attempted to translate the Bible into Middle English, and was persecuted for it.

First Edition of the King James Bible

At the beginning of the Reformation, William Tyndale began a Bible translation into English which was condemned by the Roman Inquisition, and he was eventually burned at the stake for translating it. Still, his translation remained popular. It was followed by a translation authorized by Henry VIII, called the Great Bible in 1539.

Eventually the Geneva Bible translation was completed by English Reformers in 1560, based upon Tyndale's translation and the Textus Receptus for the New Testament, and the Masoretic Text of the Old Testaments, rather than being translated from the Vulgate, as many other translations were. It was written in Geneva, where many of the Reformers were in exile during the Marian Persecution.

This was followed by the Bishop's Bible in 1568, because the Geneva Bible was thought to be biased towards a Calvinistic Puritanism.

Then in 1607, King James I commissioned a translation of the Bible. This translation was completed in 1611, and is variously called the Authorized Version or the King James Version.