Changes

* [[Ancient Languages Index]] - [[Biblical Hebrew|Hebrew]], [[Aramaic]], [[Koine Greek|Greek]]

* [[Intepreting Interpreting the Bible]] - [[Hermeneutics]], [[Exegesis]], [[Biblical inerrancy]], [[Sola Scriptura]]

* [[Timeline of Biblical History]], - [[Historical accuracy of the Bible]], [[Biblical criticism]]

* [[Scripture (EBD)|Easton's Bible Dictionary entry on Scripture]]* [[The Bible in 50 words]] |

The '''Bible ''' is the collection of documents acknowledged by Christians to be inspired by God. The Protestant Bible contains 66 books (Catholic and Orthodox contain 73, while the Ethiopian Orthodox Bible recognizes the most books: 81 in total) and is divided into the [[Old Testament]] and the [[New Testament]]. It tells of the story of the [[creation]] of the universe and [[man]] by [[God]], the rebellion of man against God and his rescue plan for humanity through his Son, [[Jesus Christ]].

The Bible is divided up into two main sections - the [[Old Testament]] and the [[New Testament]]. Before 1804, practically all protestant Bibles were divided into three main section - with the additional section being between the Old and New testament: the [[Apocrypha]]. By the mid 1820s, a vast majority of protestant Bibles did not include the apocrypha due to controversies surrounding them as well as to make a Bible cheaper to produce.

The New Testament tells the story of Jesus and the early church. The New Testament contains different categories as well including the [[Gospels]] which describe the birth, ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus, and the book of Acts which tells the story of the formation of the early church. The New Testament also contains a number of letters or [[epistles]] to various early Christian communities. It finishes with the Book of Revelation which is apocalyptic prophecy that paints a picture of the final victory of Christ, calling on his followers to pesevere persevere despite persecution.

A number of books are not considered to be part of the Bible by Protestant Christians, but are by other denominations - these books are referred to as [[ApocrphyaApocrypha|apocryphal literature]]. Although not considered canon by Protestants, generally they are not regarded as [[Heresy|heretical]] either (although there are exceptions). The reasons some of the apocryphal books were omitted from the original Hebrew Bible used by the Jews, was due to their original language not using the Hebrew Script (as Hebrew and Aramaic does). The [[Books of the Maccabees]] was written in Greek so it was regarded as divinely inspired but not scripture.

Protestants generally point to the fact that [[Jesus Christ]] did not approve of the 46 canonical books used in the Old Testament, neither did He ever quote from the additional 7 apocryphal books. Catholic and Orthodox Christians place less value on Scripture and instead Tradition which is why this fact doesn't seemingly bother either of those Christian branches. ====Formation of the Bible / [[Biblical Canon]]==== Though the Early Church used the Old Testament, the apostles did not otherwise leave a defined set of new scriptures; instead the New Testament developed over time. All New Testament scripture was wrote during the first century AD. By the fourth century the books included by today's Protestants in the [[Bible]] were roughly agreed upon and officially in 382 AD, the [[Council of Rome]] was held which canonized the Bible as having 66 total books: 39 in the Old Testament (which the Jews agreed upon in the 4th century BC), and 27 in the New Testament. The dispute over the Old Testament would wage on for over a millennia and the Catholic Church agreed at the end of the [[Council of Trent]] in 1563 that the Old Testament would be comprised of 46 books with some books being added onto. The books officially added included the following: [[Book of Tobit|Tobit]], [[Book of Judith|Judith]], [[First book of Maccabees|1 Maccabees]], [[Second book of Maccabees|2 Maccabees]], [[Wisdom of Solomon|Wisdom]], [[Book of Sirach|Sirach]], and [[Book of Baruch|Baruch]]; and the books altered are [[Book of Esther|Esther]] ([[Additions to Esther|additions]]) and [[Book of Daniel|Daniel]] ([[Additions to Daniel|additions]]). The controversial decision at Trent was brought upon due to the [[Protestant Reformation]], which created [[Protestantism]]. All branches of Protestantism don't recognize the decision that was made during the Council of Trent.

The original languages of the various books of the Bible were [[Biblical Hebrew|Hebrew]] (for Old Testament books) and [[Koine Greek]] (for New Testament books). A small amount of the [[book of Daniel]] was originally written in [[Aramaic]].

{{stub}}Interpretation of the Bible is a complex issue. How a person interprets is dependant partly upon that person's presuppositions about the Bible. If a person comes to the Bible with the view that it is simply an ancient text full of mythology then his interpretation will be vastly different from someone who views the Bible as God's revelation. Biblical '''[[Hermeneutics]]''' is the technical term for the study of interpreting and understanding the Bible and applying it to today's context. It is closely related to '''[[exegesis]]''' which is the study of understanding what the Biblical author's meant and what their audience would have understood.  Some Christians hold a literalistic or inerrant view of the Bible. [[Biblical inerrancy]] is the view that the Bible, as the inspired Word of God, is without error and is accurate in all aspects, including in aspects of history and science. [[Biblical infallibility]] on the other hand is the view that the Bible is free from errors on issues of faith and practice, but minor contradictions in history or science can be overlooked as insignificant to its spiritual purpose. Protestant Christians generally hold to [[Sola Scriptura]] which is the teaching that the Bible is the final authority on matters of faith and that it alone gives sufficient information for all matters of faith. This stands in contrast to Orthodox and Catholic Christianity which accept tradition as playing an equally important role in matters of faith. ==Bible Commentaries== * [[Matthew Henry's Concise Bible Commentary]] ==Bible Dictionaries== * [[Easton's Bible Dictionary]]

* [http://bible.crosswalkbiblestudytools.com/ CrosswalkBibleStudyTools.com]

* [http://biblebiblestudytools.crosswalkcom/ BibleStudyTools.com/ Bible Study Tools]