Bible

The Bible, also known as the Holy Bible, is a group of religious texts central to Judaism and Christianity. The Bible contains both the Old Testament and the New Testament. It is the best-selling book in the world. A number of its texts are also found in the Hebrew Bible used in Judaism. Many Christians believe that the Bible is the word of God.

The Bible is divided into books. In fact, the word "Bible" comes from the Greek word τὰ βιβλία (biblía), which means "books" in English. Each book includes a number of individual writings. Some books combine texts that may have been written or collected by the same person.

The books of the Bible focus on various subjects, including:

• The history of the Jews, Jesus, or Jesus' followers
• Collections of wise sayings
• Songs of praise to God
• God's commands to his people, which he expects them to obey
• Prophecy (the Bible says these are messages from God that he gave through chosen people called prophets)

Not all groups of Christians agree on which texts should be included in the Bible. Christian Bibles range from the 66 books of the Protestant canon^[1] to 81 books in the Ethiopian Orthodox Bible.^[2]

The oldest surviving Christian Bible is the Codex Sinaiticus, a Greek manuscript from the fourth century AD.^[3] The oldest complete Hebrew manuscripts date from the Middle Ages.^[4]

1. ↑ "Books of the Bible - Full List Order of New and Old Testament". biblestudytools.com. Retrieved 2023-01-23.
2. ↑ "The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church".
3. ↑ Codex Sinaiticus: http://codexsinaiticus.org/en/codex/
4. ↑ Davies, Philip R. (2008). Memories of Ancient Israel: An Introduction to Biblical History - Ancient and Modern. Westminster John Knox Press. p. 7. ISBN 978-0-664-23288-7.