Bible

Bible. The word ‘Bible’ derives from a Greek word meaning ‘books’; as the biblical Books came to be regarded as a unity, the word came to be used as a single noun.

JEWISH SCRIPTURES. The Jews classified their Scriptures into three groups: (1) The Law, which comprised the Pentateuch (Gen.-Deut.) and was regarded as on a higher level than the rest; (2) The Prophets (Jos., Jgs., 1 and 2 Sam., 1 and 2 Kgs., Is., Jer., Ezek., and the Twelve Minor Prophets); and (3) The ‘Writings’, comprising the remaining Books of the English OT, as well as some others, e.g., Tobit, which the Jews later rejected. By the time of Christ Jews recognized the Law and Prophets as Scripture, but the exact compass of the Writings was still undefined. The canon of the Jewish Scriptures was settled at about the end of the 1st cent. AD, or perhaps rather later.

GREEK OT. Before the Christian era the Hebrew Scriptures had been translated into Greek, including some which were later rejected from the canon. The translation in most general use was the Septuagint (LXX), and it was in this version that Christians first received the Jewish Bible. The Jewish rejection of certain Books c. AD 100 was at the time unheeded by the Church; later the Books rejected from the Hebrew canon came to be known as the ‘Apocrypha’ (q.v.).

NT. During the 2nd cent. the Church came to regard some of its own writings, especially those of Apostolic origin, as of equal authority and inspiration to those she had received from Judaism. The canon of the NT, based on the four Gospels and the Epistles of St Paul, came into existence largely without definition. It was probably formally fixed at Rome in 382 when the Christian OT (based on the LXX) was also defined.

AUTHORITY AND INTERPRETATION. The respect shown by Christ and the early Church to the Scriptures of Judaism form the basis of the Christian attitude to the Bible. The OT Scriptures, regarded as inspired by the Holy Spirit, were seen as a revelation of God and a preparation for the coming of Christ. Many of the OT ordinances were superseded by the Christian revelation, but the OT as a whole retained its authority; its message was completed by the NT, so that the two formed a single and final revelation. Apart from the challenge of Marcion, this view was accepted by orthodox and heretics alike. The Reformers insisted on the priority of the literal and historical sense over the allegorical, and appealed to Scripture against ecclesiastical tradition; this stress led to the development of theories of verbal inerrancy, and Catholics and Protestants shared a view of inspiration that insisted on the truth of biblical statements, not only in matters of history, doctrine, and ethics, but also in cosmology and natural science. This position was challenged by Cartesian philosophy and modern science and in the 18th cent. it was undermined by linguistic, text-critical, and historical study of the Bible. In 19th-cent. England geology and evolutionary theories did most to shake biblical authority. Despite bitter controversy, by the end of the 19th cent. higher criticism was widely accepted in the Protestant Churches of Europe and North America. The suppression of Modernism by Pius X and the emergence of Fundamentalism in the USA were reactions against biblical criticism, but after 1943 RC biblical scholarship progressed more openly and since the Second Vatican Council has played a major role. Evangelical scholarship has also developed, and newer literary approaches have directed attention away from the more contentious questions of historicity. See also BIBLICAL COMMISSION; BIBLICAL THEOLOGY; FORM CRITICISM; HISTORICAL JESUS, QUEST OF THE; MANUSCRIPTS OF THE BIBLE.

For translation of the Bible into Latin, see OLD LATIN and VULGATE; for other ancient versions see SEPTUAGINT and SYRIAC VERSIONS OF THE BIBLE. For English versions, see following entry.