We explain what the Bible is, how it came into being, and its structure. We also explain its characteristics and importance.
What is the Bible?
It is known as the Bible a set of religious texts which serve as a sacred foundation for both the Jewish religion (Old Testament) and the Christian religion (Old and New Testaments). It is the best-selling book of all time, with 100 million copies sold annually and translated into 2,454 languages.
The Bible It is probably one of the most influential books in history. of humanity, given the importance that Christianity had in the destiny of the West and the world. During the Christian Middle Ages it constituted the legal book by which the Catholic Church governed the ways of life in Europe.
The Bible tells an extensive and diverse series of stories that were originally separate documents. It is told from the origin of the world and humanitycreated from the primordial clay by God in the Garden of Eden, until its end and the Day of Judgment.
Also included are the life stories of ancient prophets and, in Christianity, the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. In the New Testament he is presented as the last of the prophets and the son of God.
The term ‘Bible’ comes from the Greek expression ta bible ta hagia (“The Holy Books”)It was used by the Greek-speaking Hebrews in the times before Jesus of Nazareth to refer to the Old Testament. Much later, the first Christians used it to name the set of texts of the Old and New Testaments.
See also: Obscurantism
Bible Interpretations
There is no single point of view about the Bible, within each religion or sect that takes it as a sacred book.
Jewish tradition considers only the Old Testament (called Tanakh).
By contrast, Christian tradition also considers the New Testament validwhich together with the old one make up the Christian Bible.
This Christian Bible reading It was proposed in the year 382 by the Catholic Churchunder the pontificate of Saint Damasus I. It was later ratified at the Council of Trent in 1546.
It is called “canon” (that is, model), since it determines and orders the books considered valid and true.
This selection was challenged at the time by Jewish religious leaders. and later by four Protestant reformers. They founded the different Protestant Churches because they adhered to models of Christianity different from those imposed by the Catholic Church.
Origin of the Bible
The Bible Contains texts of diverse origin and time (called “books”), originally written in different languages: Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek.
the hebrew bible It is composed of the 24 sacred books of Judaism.These were written over a period of 1000 years (between 900 BC and 100 AD). The oldest (from the 10th to the 8th century BC) are found in the Book of Judges and in the so-called “Sources E” (for Jews) or “Pentateuch” (for Christians).
Structure of the Bible
The Bible It is divided into different “books”each of which constitutes an independent volume with a given and particular meaning. It may be extremely different from the next in tone, length and content.
This means that There may be songs of praise to God (as in the Book of Psalms, with 150 different songs), narratives or letters (as in the Epistle of Jude, half a page long).
The books of the Bible They are organized based on the Old and New TestamentsDepending on the biblical canon accepted, the collection will contain some documents or others.
An example of a canon other than the Catholic one is Martin Luther’s German translation of the Bible. This founder of Protestantism chose to include the apocryphal books, at the end, as an edifying appendix. He thus opposed the version accepted and promoted by the Church.
The Old Testament
This first section (unique, in the Jewish case) contains the stories and traditions of the original Israelite people. It also tells the lives and teachings of the prophets: Moses, Samuel, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, among others. All of them were long before the era of Jesus of Nazareth.
Exists a debate in the different churches that take it as sacred, regarding which version should be taken. The Catholic Church and the Orthodox Christian Churches defend the Greek version (with deuterocanonicals), while Judaism maintains that it should coincide with the Hebrew Tanakh.
The Old Testament It consists of 39 books (in the Protestant version)46 books (in the Catholic version) and 51 books (in the Orthodox version).
In the case of all Christian churches, The nomenclature of these books obeys the Greek version and not the Jewish one. In addition, they admit other books rejected by Judaism, such as the Book of Enoch and the Book of Jubilees.
The new Testament
In the New Testament It is recognized as a sacred book only by Christian churches. It narrates the events of the life of Jesus of Nazareth, presented as the messiah predicted by Jewish tradition, known as Christ or Jesus Christ.
This second part of the Bible is made up of 27 books:
- 4 Gospels that narrate the life and work of Jesus of Nazareth.
- The Book of Acts.
- 19 Epistles or “letters” that bring together essays and doctrinal treatises. They are divided into 6 apostolic and 13 Pauline.
- The Apocalypse, which tells of the end of the world and the Final Judgment.
Other books mentioned in the Bible
Apart from what is contained therein, this work refers to books and epistles of which, in the best of cases, fragments are preserved. Among them are:
- He Book of Enochconsidered apocryphal by most Christian churches.
- He Book of the seer Samuel.
- He Book of the prophet Nathan.
- He Book of the battles of Yahweh.
- The Enoch’s prophecies.
- The Paul’s letter to the Loadicenses.
Why is the Bible important?
The Bible is one of the most important texts in Western cultural historyequivalent to the Muslims’ Koran.
During its long existence of more than almost 3 thousand years It has been translated, recomposed and republished in many ways.. This has caused discrepancies of all kinds in its “correct” interpretation.
This type of editorial or curatorial matters would not have greater historical relevance if it were not a sacred text. The cultures that consider it this way, In many cases they have sought in it the foundation of their laws and their ways of life.
How many Bibles are there?
There are numerous versions of the Bible. The most important ones are:
- The “Vulgate Bible”. Its name indicates that it was written in Vulgate Latin, which is why it was simply called “The Vulgate.” It was composed by Saint Jerome at the request of Pope Damasus I in the 4th century. The objective was to unify the different versions that circulated into one, in the language most commonly spoken by the masses of the Roman Empire.
- The Queen Valera. This is the version used by Protestants, translated by Casiodoro de Reina and Cipriano de Valera. It was then subjected to revisions in which its original structure was modified (eliminating the deuterocanonicals). The parent text for this translation was Textus Receptus by Erasmus of Rotterdam.
- The “Greek Bible”. Known as the Septuagint and abbreviated as LXX, it is the Koine Greek translation of the Hebrew and Aramaic texts, even older than the versions used for the Hebrew Tanakh. It is the one used by the Christian Orthodox Church.
The Four Gospels
It is known by this name the stories and testimonies of the life of Jesus of Nazarethwhich focus primarily on his miracles and teachings. Each of them was written by one of his followers or apostles: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
From them comes the term “evangelize”which means “to reveal the gospels,” that is, to reveal the truths of God to someone.
The apocryphal gospels
Also known as extracanonical gospels, they are a set of writings from the first centuries of Christianity. They are about the figure of Jesus Christ, but they have not been recognized as legitimate by any of the official churches, nor by Jewish tradition. Among them are:
- The Nag Hammadi manuscripts.
- The Oxyrhynchus Papyrus.
- The Christian gospels of Philip, Thomas, Bartholomew, Andrew, Judas Iscariot, Simon the Zealot and James the Greater.