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Definition: Bible |
BibleNoun1. The sacred writings of the Christian religion; "he went to carry the Word to the heathen". 2. A book regarded as authoritative in its field. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "Bible" was first used: sometime in the early 14th century. (references) |
Etymology: Bible \Bi"ble\ (b[imac]"b'l), noun. [French expression bible, from Latin expression biblia, plural, from the Greek expression bibli`a, plural of bibli`on, diminutive of bi`blos, by`blos, book, prop. Egyptian papyrus.]. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Computing | Bible n. 1. One of a small number of fundamental source books such as Knuth, K&R, or the Camel Book. 2. The most detailed and authoritative reference for a particular language, operating system, or other complex software system. Source: Jargon File. |
Bible | Bible Bible, the English form of the Greek name _Biblia_, meaning "books," the name which in the fifth century began to be given to the entire collection of sacred books, the "Library of Divine Revelation." The name Bible was adopted by Wickliffe, and came gradually into use in our English language. The Bible consists of sixty-six different books, composed by many different writers, in three different languages, under different circumstances; writers of almost every social rank, statesmen and peasants, kings, herdsmen, fishermen, priests, tax-gatherers, tentmakers; educated and uneducated, Jews and Gentiles; most of them unknown to each other, and writing at various periods during the space of about 1600 years: and yet, after all, it is only one book dealing with only one subject in its numberless aspects and relations, the subject of man's redemption. It is divided into the Old Testament, containing thirty-nine books, and the New Testament, containing twenty-seven books. The names given to the Old in the writings of the New are "the scriptures" (Matt. 21:42), "scripture" (2 Pet. 1:20), "the holy scriptures" (Rom. 1:2), "the law" (John 12:34), "the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms" (Luke 24:44), "the law and the prophets" (Matt. 5:17), "the old covenant" (2 Cor. 3:14, R.V.). There is a break of 400 years between the Old Testament and the New. (See APOCRYPHA.) The Old Testament is divided into three parts:, 1. The Law (Torah), consisting of the Pentateuch, or five books of Moses. 2. The Prophets, consisting of (1) the former, namely, Joshua, Judges, the Books of Samuel, and the Books of Kings; (2) the latter, namely, the greater prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, and the twelve minor prophets. 3. The Hagiographa, or holy writings, including the rest of the books. These were ranked in three divisions:, (1) The Psalms, Proverbs, and Job, distinguished by the Hebrew name, a word formed of the initial letters of these books, _emeth_, meaning truth. (2) Canticles, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, and Esther, called the five rolls, as being written for the synagogue use on five separate rolls. (3) Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, and 1 and 2 Chronicles. Between the Old and the New Testament no addition was made to the revelation God had already given. The period of New Testament revelation, extending over a century, began with the appearance of John the Baptist. The New Testament consists of (1) the historical books, viz., the Gospels, and the Acts of the Apostles; (2) the Epistles; and (3) the book of prophecy, the Revelation. The division of the Bible into chapters and verses is altogether of human invention, designed to facilitate reference to it. The ancient Jews divided the Old Testament into certain sections for use in the synagogue service, and then at a later period, in the ninth century A.D., into verses. Our modern system of chapters for all the books of the Bible was introduced by Cardinal Hugo about the middle of the thirteenth century (he died 1263). The system of verses for the New Testament was introduced by Stephens in 1551, and generally adopted, although neither Tyndale's nor Coverdale's English translation of the Bible has verses. The division is not always wisely made, yet it is very useful. (See VERSION.). Source: Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary. |
Dream Interpretation | To dream of the Bible, foretells that innocent and disillusioned enjoyment will be proffered for your acceptance. To dream that you villify{sic} the teachings of the Bible, forewarns you that you are about to succumb to resisted temptations through the seductive persuasiveness of a friend. Source: Ten Thousand Dreams Interpreted .... |
Literature | Bible means simply a book, but is now exclusively confined to the "Book of Books." (Greek, biblos, a book.) The headings of the chapters were prefixed by Miles Smith, Bishop of Gloucester, one of the translators. (i) BIBLES NAMED FROM ERRORS OF TYPE, or from archaic words:- The Breeches Bible. So called because Genesis iii. 7 was rendered, "The eyes of them bothe were opened . . . . and they sowed figge-tree leaves together, and made themselves breeches." By Whittingham, Gilby, and Sampson, 1579. The Idle Bible, 1809. In which the "idole shepherd" (Zech. xi. 17) is printed "the idle shepherd." The Bug Bible, 1551. So called because Psalm xci. 5 is translated, "Thou shalt not be afraid of bugges [bogies] by nighte." The Great Bible. The same as Matthew Parker's Bible (q.v.). The Place-maker's Bible. So called from a printer's error in Matt. v. 9, "Blessed are the placemakers [peace-makers], for they shall be called the children of God." The Printers' Bible makes David pathetically complain that "the printers [princes] have persecuted me without a cause" (Ps. cxix. 161). The Treacle Bible, 1549 (Beck's Bible), in which the word "balm" is rendered "treacle." The Bishops' Bible has tryacle in Jer. iii. 28; xlvi. 11; and in Ezek. xxvii. 17. The Unrighteous Bible, 1652 (Cambridge Press). So called from the printer's error, "Know ye not that the unrighteous shall inherit the Kingdom of God?" (1 Cor. vi. 9). The Vinegar Bible. So called because the heading to Luke xx. is given as "The parable of the Vinegar" (instead of Vineyard). Printed at the Clarendon Press in 1717. The Wicked Bible. So called because the word not is omitted in the seventh commandment, making it, "Thou shalt commit adultery." Printed by Barker and Lucas, 1632. To these may be added: the Discharge Bible, the Ears to Ear Bible, Rebecca's Camels Bible, the Rosin Bible, the Standing Fishes Bible, and some others. (ii) BIBLES NAMED FROM PROPER NAMES, or dignities. Bishop's Bible. The revised edition of Archbishop Parker's version. Published 1568. Coverdale's Bible, 1535. Translated by Miles Coverdale, afterwards Bishop of Exeter. This was the first Bible sanctioned by royal authority. Cranmer's Bible, 1539. This is Coverdale's Bible corrected by Archbishop Cranmer. It was printed in 1540, and in 1549 every parish church was enjoined to have a copy under a penalty of 40s. a month. The Douay Bible, 1581. A translation made by the professors of the Douay College for the use of English boys destined for the Catholic priesthood. The Geneva Bible. The Bible translated by the English exiles at Geneva. The same as the "Breeches Bible" (q.v.). King James's Bible. The Authorised Version; so called because it was undertaken by command of James I. Published 1611. Matthew Parker's Bible, or "The Great Bible," published in the reign of Henry VIII. under the care of Archbishop Parker and his staff (1539-1541). In 1572 several prolegomena were added. Matthews' Bible is Tindal's version. It was so called by John Rogers, superintendent of the English churches in Germany, and was published with notes under the fictitious name of Thomas Matthews, 1537. The Mazarine Bible. The earliest book printed in movable metal type. It contains no date. Copies have been recently sold from 3,900. Called the Mazarine Bible from the Bibliothèque Mazarine, founded in Paris by Cardinal Mazarine in 1648. Sacy's Bible. So called from Isaac Louis Sacy (Le-maistre), director of the Port Royal Monastery. He was imprisoned for three years in the Bastille for his Jansenist opinions, and translated the Bible during his captivity (1666-1670). Tyndale's Bible. William Tyndale, or Tindal, having embraced the Reformed religion, retired to Antwerp, where he printed an English translation of the Scriptures. All the copies were bought up, whereupon Tyndale printed a revised edition. The book excited the rancour of the Catholics, who strangled the "heretic" and burnt his body near Antwerp in 1536. Wyclif's Bible, 1380, but first printed in 1850. (iii) VERSIONS. The Authorised Version, 1611. (See King James's Bible.) The Revised Version. Published in May, 1885. The work was begun in June, 1870, by twenty-five scholars, ten of whom died before the version was completed. The revisers had eighty-five sessions, which extended over fourteen years. Source: Brewer's Dictionary. |
Slang in 1811 | BIBLE. A boatswain's great axe. Sea term. Source: 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
The Bible refers to the primary sacred scriptures of either the Jewish or Christian religions. These scriptures are compilations of what were originally separate documents (called "books"); they were written over a long period of time; later compiled to form first the Jewish Bible (Tanach) and, with later additions, the Christian Bible.
Overview
The Jewish Bible (called the Tanach) consists of the five books of Moses (the Torah), several books written by the Hebrew prophets (Neviim), and a few books that do not fit in either of the previous two categories (the Writings or Ketuvim); these are known as either the hagiographa or simply as "the writings". The Jewish Bible was written predominantly in Hebrew but has some small portions that were written in Aramaic.The Christian Bible contains the entirety of the Tanach (there called the Old Testament), along with a set of later writings known as the New Testament. Roman Catholics, the Eastern Orthodox, and some Anglicans (but not most Protestants) also include some additional works from in the Septuagint, an early (pre-Christian) translation of the Old Testament into Greek. Within Christianity, there is not complete agreement on what the Christian Bible contains, i.e. on the Biblical canon. However, this only extends to a few books -- there is no dispute as to the majority of books of the Bible.
The various books of the New Testament were written in koine Greek. Early Christian Bibles used texts of the Old Testament dependent on the Greek Septuagint, which differs in places from the primarily Hebrew Masoretic text. Most modern translations of the Old Testament are based primarily on the Masoretic text. Some modern editions of the Old Testament also adopt different readings found in the Dead Sea Scrolls. For more information, see the entry on Bible translations.
Contents: The Bible tells how the one God relates to the world and his creations, especially mankind; it also details mankind's relationship and obligations to God. It also includes a great deal of the history of the Jews. Many Christians use the Bible as a source of religious beliefs and doctrines. Most Protestant Christians advocate that it is the incomparably authoritative guide in all matters of faith and practice, a principle called sola scriptura.
Definition of Biblical Terms
The English word "Bible" means "book of books" (from the Greek word for "books", biblia: βιβλια ). A book of the Bible is an established group of writings. For example, the book of Psalms consists of 150 songs (151 in the Septuagint), while the book of Jude is a half-page letter. Canon refers to the accepted books of the Bible differentiated from other sacred writings not accepted as part of the canon, which are not accepted as part of the Bible. Catholics and Orthodox call writings that they do not accept Apocrypha; Protestants call those writings they do not accept but that Catholics and Orthodox do Apocrypha or Deuterocanonical, and call other writings that neither accepts Pseudepigrapha. The Protestant Bible consists of 66 books. The Roman Catholic version, including the Deuterocanonical books, counts altogether 76 books, while the Eastern Orthodox version includes 77 or 78. (4 Maccabees is sometimes included in an appendix, sometimes not.)
Description Of The Bible
The Hebrew Bible (Tanach) is divided into 3 sections, the Law (Torah), the Prophets, the Writings. The Hebrew Bible is called the Old Testament in the Christian Bible. The Christian Bible includes the Old Testament plus the New Testament, which chronicles the doings of Jesus and the reaction to them. The New Testament is divided into the four Gospels, History (Acts of the Apostles), the Letters to Christian churches by Paul and other apostles, and the Book of Revelation.
See Books of the Bible
Bible Canon - Which books are biblical?
In addition to the diverse traditions concerning which books belong in the Canon of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Bible, modern scholarship proposes alternative views concerning the authenticity of books, and of texts within books. See the entries on the Biblical canon, Higher criticism and Textual criticism.
Biblical Versions and Translations
In scholarly writing, ancient translations are frequently referred to as 'versions', with the term 'translation' being reserved for medieval or modern translations. Information about Bible versions is given below, while Bible translations can be found on a separate page.
Tanach
The oldest books of the Bible are the Pentateuch, also known as the Torah. They are written in Hebrew and are also titled the 'Books of Moses'. Traditionally Judaism and Christianity held that these books were actually written by the prophet Moses; but many today believe that the current form of the Torah came about by a redactor bringing together several earlier, distinct sources. This idea is called the documentary hypothesis.
The original text of the Tanach was in Hebrew, with some portions in Aramaic. From the 800s to the 1400s rabbinic Jewish scholars known as the Massoretes compared the text of all known Biblical manuscripts, in an effort to create a unified and standardized text; a series of highly similar texts eventually emerged, and any of these texts are known as Masoretic Texts (MT). The Masoretes also added vowel points (called nikud) to the text, since the original text only contained consonants. This sometimes required the selection of an interpretation, since words can differ only in their vowels, and thus the text can vary depending upon the choice of vowels to be inserted. In antiquity there were other variant readings which were popular, some of which have survived in the Samaritan Pentateuch, the Dead Sea scrolls, and other ancient fragments, as well as being attested in ancient translations to other languages.
By the beginning of the common era, most Jews no longer spoke Hebrew, but spoke Greek or Aramaic instead. Thus they made translations or paraphrases into these languages. The most important of the translations into the Greek was the Septuagint, though other translations were made as well. The Septuagint contains several additional passages, and whole additional books, compared to what was eventually compiled as the masoretic texts. In some cases these additions were originally composed in Greek, while in other cases they are translations of Hebrew books or variants that the Masoretes did not accept. Recent discoveries have shown that more of the Septuagint additions have a Hebrew origin than was once thought. While there are no surviving manuscripts of the Hebrew text on which the Septuagint was based, many scholars believe that it was a different textual tradition than the one that eventually became the basis for the Masoretic texts.
The Jews also produced non-literal translations known as targums, primarily in Aramaic. Targums were not literal translations but paraphrases. They frequently expanded on the text with additional details taken from Jewish oral tradition.
Early Christians produced translations of the Hebrew Bible into several languages; their biblical text was the Septuagint, which had been translated by the Jews into Greek in about the second century B.C. Translations were made into Syriac, Coptic and Latin, among other languages. The Latin translations were historically the most important to the Church in the West, while in the Greek-speaking East, they continued to use the Septuagint translation of the Old Testament and had no need to translate the New Testament.
The earliest Latin translation was the Old Latin text, or Vetus Latina. Exactly who translated it is unknown, but internal evidence suggests it is the product of several authors over a period of time. It was based on the Septuagint, and thus included the Septuagint additions.
As a translation the Old Latin was far from ideal, and so Jerome was commissioned to produce the Vulgate translation as a replacement. Jerome based his translation on the Hebrew rather than the Septuagint. He was of the opinion that the Septuagint additions were of doubtful value, but he included them due to the demands of the church. He did not, however, translate the additional books anew; the Vulgate for these books is identical to the Old Latin. The Vulgate became the official translation of the Roman Catholic church.
New Testament
The New Testament was originally composed in Greek. There are a number of different textual traditions of the New Testament. The three main traditions are sometimes called the Western text-type, the Alexandrian text-type, and Byzantine text-type, which comprises the majority of New Testament manuscripts. There are also several ancient translations into other languages, most important of which are the Syriac (including the Peshitta and the Diatessaron gospel harmony) and the Latin (both the Vetus Latina and the Vulgate).
The textual tradition in the earliest printings of the Greek New Testament is called the 'Textus Receptus' (Latin for 'received text'), and is largely Byzantine in character. This text was the main one known for centuries, until the discovery of manuscripts such as the Codex Sinaiticus and the Codex Vaticanus.
For a more detailed account of the New Testament's development, see the relevant section of Biblical canon.
Chapters and Verses
Stephen Langton was the first person to divide the New Testament into standard chapters, while Robert Estienne was the first to divide it into verses.
The Old Testament is divided into chapters and verses in the Masoretic Hebrew text.
Biblical Interpretation
(Jewish, Christian, Islamic opinion of the text. Eastern. Western, influence of philosophy, fundamentalism, patristic interpretation, medieval interpretation, Reformation, Roman Catholic, Orthodox, inerrancy, biblical theology, inspiration, rationalism, translations , hermeneutics )
A wealth of additional stories and legends amplifying the accounts in the Tanach (Hebrew Bible) can be found in the Jewish genre of rabbinical exegesis known as Midrash.
The Dead Sea scrolls contain many examples of the pesher method of interpretation, in which biblical texts were interpreted as prophecies concerning the authors of the scrolls.
Throughout antiquity and the medieveal periods, allegorical methods of interpretation where popular. The earliest use of these was probably Philo Judaeus, who attempted to make Jewish halakah palatable to the Greek mind by interpreting it as symbolising philosophical doctrines. Allegorical interpretation was adopted by Christians, and continued in popularity until a reaction against it during the Reformation, and it has not since found much favour in Western Christianity.
The Eastern Orthodox Church generally follows a patristic method of interpretation, attempting to interpret scripture in the same way that the early church fathers did. It also interprets scripture liturgically. This means that the passages that are publicly read on certain days of the liturgical year are significant, especially on feast days, and are intended to guide people in their interpretation as they are praying together. Since it was members of the Church who wrote the New Testament and a series of church councils that decided the biblical canon, the Orthodox believe that the Church should also be the final authority in its interpretation. This often includes allegorical interpretations.
The Bible and history
The absence of independent evidence confirming some of the biblical narratives has caused some scholars to question the accuracy or even the historicity of these accounts. For instance, many historians view the Biblical patriarchs, Moses, King David, and King Solomon as little more than legendary figures, though possibly based on historical events and persons. Today there are two loosely defined schools of thought with regard to the historicity of the Bible (biblical minimalism and biblical maximalism) with many in between, in addition to the traditional religious reading of the Bible. This subject is discussed in its own entry, The Bible and history.
The supernatural in monotheistic religions
Many modern skeptical readers of the Bible hold that its authors gradually reinterpreted historical and natural events as miraculous or supernatural. The article on The supernatural in monotheistic religions thus concerns itself with the junction between monotheistic religions, such as Judaism, Christianity and Islam, and the supernatural.
See also
- Ecumenical council
- Biblical canon
- Bible translations
- American Bible Society
- Books of the Bible
- Dating the Bible
- List of Biblical names
- Study Bible
- Ten Commandments
- The Bible and history
External Links
- The Bible Gateway - index of various online (Christian) translations of the Bible.
- The Skeptic's Annotated Bible - a version of the Bible annotated from a skeptical point of view.
- The New American Bible - Catholic translation authorized by the United States Council of Catholic Bishops.
- The New English Translation - The first Bible made for the Internet.
- The Recovery Version New Testament - a recent translation (1991) produced by Living Stream Ministries attempting to express the exact meaning of the original Greek with English that is to the point, easy to understand, and readable; includes extensive footnotes prepared by Witness Lee, founder of Living Stream Ministries, cross references, and outlines for Christian study
- The Polyglot Bible - allows the user to view parallel versions of the Bible in numerous ancient and modern languages.
- "An Interpreting Dictionary of Scripture Proper Names" - from Hitchcock's New and Complete Analysis of the Holy Bible
- Old English Bible - Links to portions of the Bible in Old English.
- "The Inspired Version" - by Joseph Smith Jr.
- The Brick Bible - Scenes from the Bible staged by Lego characters
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Bible."
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
The Tanakh (also spelt Tanach) is the Hebrew acronym for the Jewish Bible, taking its name from the initial letters of its three main sections:
Because the books included in Tanakh were mainly written in Hebrew it may also be called the Hebrew Bible. (Parts of Daniel and Ezra are in Aramaic, but even these are written in the same Hebrew script.)
- Torah (Teaching, Law)
- Nevi'im (Prophets)
- Ketuvim (Writings, Hagiographa)
Tanakh consists of the same books as the Protestant Old Testament, but the order of the books is different. The Catholic and Orthodox Old Testaments contain six books not included in the Tanakh; see apocrypha and deuterocanonical books.
According to the Jewish tradition, Tanakh consists of no more han 24 books. The Christian Old Testament (excluding the deuterocanonical books/apocrypha) counts them as 39 books. This is because Jews often count as a single book what Christians count as several.
As such, one may draw a technical distinction between the text used within Judaism, the Tanakh, and the similar but non-identical text used within Christianity, the Old Testament. Thus, some scholars prefer Hebrew Bible as a term that covers the commonality of the Tanakh and the Old Testament while avoiding sectarian bias.
Sections of the Tanakh
The Tanakh is divided into three sections: The Torah (Hebrew for "Teaching"), Neviim (Prophets) and Ketuvim (Writings, also hagiographa).
The Hebrew text originally consisted only of consonants, together with some inconsistently applied letters used as vowels (matres lectionis). Around the sixth century A.D, the Masoretes added vowel points to the text to indicate the pronunciation. Until then the pronunciation could only be learnt from a teacher.
The books of the Torah have generally-used names which are based on the first prominent word in each book. The English names are not translations of the Hebrew; they are based on the Greek names created for the Septuagint which in turn were based on Rabbinic names describing the thematic content of each of the Books.
(It should be noted that the terms Torah, Chumash, Pentateuch and "five books of Moses" refer to the same works.)
The Torah consists of:
The books of Neviim (The Prophets) are:
- 1. Genesis (בראשית)
- 2. Exodus (שמות)
- 3. Leviticus (ויקרא)
- 4. Numbers(במדבר)
- 5. Deuteronomy (דברים)
The Ketuvim (The Writings) are:
- 6. Joshua(יהושע)
- 7. Judges(שופטים)
- 8. Books of Samuel
- I Samuel I
- II Samuel II
- 9. Books of Kings
- I Kings
- II Kings
- 10. Isaiah
- 11. Jeremiah
- 12. Ezekiel
- 13. The Minor Prophets
- Book of Hosea (הושע)
- Book of Joel
- Book of Amos
- Book of Obadiah
- Book of Jonah
- Book of Micah
- Book of Nahum
- Book of Habakkuk
- Book of Zephaniah
- Book of Haggai
- Book of Zechariah
- Book of Malachi
- 14. Psalms
- 15. Proverbs
- 16. Book of Job
- 17. Song of Songs
- 18. Ruth
- 19. Lamentations
- 20. Ecclesiastes
- 21. Book of Esther
- 22. Daniel
- 23. Ezra-Nehemiah
- Ezra
- Nehemiah
- 24. Books of Chronicles
- 1 Chronicles
- 2 Chronicles
It is fairly clear that the Torah was transmitted side by side with some sort of oral tradition. Many terms and definitions used in the written law are totally undefined; the reader is assumed to be familiar with the context and details. Many fundamental concepts such as shekhita (slaughtering of animals in a kosher fashion), divorce and the rights of the firstborn are all assumed as common knowledge by text, and are not elaborated on. There are literally dozens of cases throughout the Torah where it is assumed that the reader is familiar with the details - from an unwritten (oral) tradition. According to classical Judaism, many of the details of this oral tradition were accurately transmitted, and eventually recorded in a collection of rabbinic works collectively known as "the oral law". These works include the Mishnah, the Tosefta, the two Talmuds (Babylonian and Jerusalem), and the early Midrash compilations.
- In Christian Bibles, Daniel sometimes includes extra material that is not accepted as canonical by Judaism (the material is part of the Apocrypha, so also not accepted by most Protestants).
- The breaking of Samuel (Shmuel), Kings (Melachim), and Chronicles (Divrei hayamim) into two parts is strictly an artifact of the printers who first issued the books. They were simply too big to be issued as single volumes.
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Tanakh."
| The following table is compiled from various sources, across various languages. When English abbreviations or acronyms come from a non-English source, this is noted. | |||
| Entry | Source | Expression | Field |
| BIOLA | English | Bible Institute of Los Angeles | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |||
Synonyms: BibleSynonyms: Good Book (n), Holy Scripture (n), Holy Writ (n), Scripture (n), Word (n), Word of God (n). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Affirmation | Depose, depone, aver, avow, avouch, asseverate, swear; make oath, take one's oath; make an affidavit, swear an affidavit, put in an affidavit; take one's Bible oath, kiss the book, vow, vitam impendere vero; swear till one is black in the face, swear till one is blue in the face, swear till all's blue; be sworn, call Heaven to witness; vouch, warrant, certify, assure, swear by bell book and candle. |
Heterodoxy | Protestant; Huguenot; orthodox dissenter, Congregationalist, Independent; Episcopalian, Presbyterian; Lutheran, Calvinist, Methodist, Wesleyan; Ana, Baptist; Mormon, Latter-day Saint, Irvingite, Sandemanian, Glassite, Erastian; Sublapsarian, Supralapsarian; Gentoo, Antinomian, Swedenborgian; Adventist, Bible Christian, Bryanite, Brownian, Christian Scientist, Dunker, Ebionite, Eusebian; Faith Curer, Curist; Familist, Jovinianist, Libadist, Quaker, Shaker, Stundist, Tunker; ultramontane; Anglican, Oxford School; tractarian, Puseyite, ritualist; Puritan. |
Judeo-Christian Revelation | Word, Word of God; Scripture; the Scriptures, the Bible; Holy Writ, Holy Scriptures; inspired writings, Gospel. |
Prediction | Divination by oracles, Theomancy; by the Bible, Bibliomancy; by ghosts, Psychomancy; by crystal gazing, Crystallomancy; by shadows or manes, Sciomancy; by appearances in the air, Aeromancy, Chaomancy; by the stars at birth, Genethliacs; by meteors, Meteoromancy; by winds, Austromancy; by sacrificial appearances, Aruspicy (or Haruspicy), Hieromancy, Hieroscopy; by the entrails of animals sacrificed, Extispicy, Hieromancy; by the entrails of a human sacrifice, |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | And why does he dress like a bible salesman (American Beauty; writing credit: Alan Ball) One of 'em is the Bible. (Sling Blade; writing credit: Charles Chaplin) I believe in two things: discipline and the Bible. Here you'll receive both (The Shawshank Redemption; writing credit: Frank Darabont) It's the second time he dropped that bible since she's been in. (A League of Their Own; writing credit: Kim Wilson; Kelly Candaele) Well, you look like a bible salesman (Gone in Sixty Seconds; writing credit: Scott Rosenberg) | |
Lyrics | Did you dust off that Bible at home (Where Were You (When The World Stopped Turning); performing artist: Alan Jackson) Long time ago in Bethlehem, so the Holy Bible said, (Mary's Boy Child/Oh My Lord; performing artist: Boney M) If the Bible tells you so (American Pie; performing artist: Don McLean) Let the Bible Belt come and ("Jack and Diane"; performing artist: John Cougar Mellencamp) Read the Bible by a coal oil light ("Coal Miner's Daughter"; performing artist: Loretta Lynn) | |
Clever | The Christian's Bible is a drug store. Its contents remain the same, but the medical practice changes. (references; author: Mark Twain) It ain't those parts of the Bible that I can't understand that bother me, it is the parts that I do understand. (references; author: Mark Twain) Prevent truth decay. Brush up on your Bible. (references; author: unknown) The only thing worse than an ignorant man is an ignorant man with a bible. (references; author: unknown) Reading the Bible without meditating on it is like trying to eat without swallowing. (references; author: unknown) | |
Movie/TV Titles | Bible! (1974) Story of the Bible (1923) Broncho Billy's Bible (1914) The Closed Bible (1912) Billy's Bible (1911) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
Books |
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Periodicals | |||
Theater & Movies | |||
Music |
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High Tech |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | Early settlers on the Oregon Trail with a grieving woman reading the bible and in the background a young boy hanging out the covered wagon reaching to feed a goat. Replica in the NHOTIC. Credit: Unknown. |  | Son reading the Bible to his parents. Credit: Library of Congress. |
 | Mrs. Mildred Gold reads literary quotes to her elementary students from, the book "The school day begins," which replaced the Bible in Pittsburgh classroom after the Supreme Court decision on religion in schools. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | William Cassiday Cattell, holding large Bible, with five page boys. Credit: Library of Congress. |
 | Occupational portrait of an unidentified clergyman, three-quarter length, facing front, holding Bible. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | Bible reading, Sunday school class. Baptist church near project. Dailey, West Virginia. Credit: Library of Congress. |
 | Little girl and her baby brother reading Bible, community camp, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | First Presbyterian Church, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Bible and balcony. Credit: Library of Congress. |
 | President Grover Cleveland's birthplace, in Caldwell, New Jersey. Cleveland's will, family bible, and various candidate medals. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | National Cathedral. Copy of Bible page I, National Cathedral. Credit: Library of Congress. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
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| "Bible" by Uschi Hering Commentary: "In center of the altar." | "Bible 2" by João Estêvão A. De Freitas Commentary: "Old Bible of the year of 1887." |
Source: photographs selected by the editor, with permission from the photographers. | |
| Author | Quotation |
Dwight L. Moody | Where one man reads the Bible, a hundred read you and me. |
E. Nott | Men cannot be well educated without the Bible. |
Gratian | Paintings are the Bible of the laity. |
John Wesley | The Bible knows nothing of solitary religion. |
Rufus Choate | No lawyer can afford to be ignorant of the Bible. |
The Bible | Wine that maketh glad the heart of man. |
| My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me? | |
| Preserve me, O God: for in thee do I put my trust. | |
| If the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch. | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | |
| Title | Author | Quote |
Sylvie and Bruno | Carroll, Lewis | Thirdly, a collection of passages, both prose and verse, from books other than the Bible. |
Les Miserables | Hugo, Victor | And then the Bible! Upon that, I declare that this little gentleman is not mine |
Grapes of Wrath | Steinbeck, John | She brought back a Bible and a half pencil |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Civil Liberties | Algeria | Personal copies of the major works of other religions, such as the Bible, may be brought into the country. (references) |
Ghana | This is a Christian service and includes the recital of The Lord's Prayer, a Bible reading, and a blessing. (references) | |
Gambia | Bible and Koranic studies are provided in both public and private schools throughout the country without Government restriction or interference. (references) | |
Economic History | Ethiopia | The Old Testament of the Bible records the Queen of Sheba's visit to Jerusalem. (references) |
Human Rights | Samoa | In 2000 approximately 60 members of a Bible study group were jailed when they did not adhere to a ban by the village on conducting a religious class. (references) |
Minorities | Georgia | On July 11, Basilists forcibly entered a Tbilisi apartment building and attacked a Christian bible study group--mostly women and children--with clubs and metal pips. (references) |
Lexicography | Devil's Dictionary | SATIRE, n. An obsolete kind of literary composition in which the vices and follies of the author's enemies were expounded with imperfect tenderness. In this country satire never had more than a sickly and uncertain existence, for the soul of it is wit, wherein we are dolefully deficient, the humor that we mistake for it, like all humor, being tolerant and sympathetic. Moreover, although Americans are "endowed by their Creator" with abundant vice and folly, it is not generally known that these are reprehensible qualities, wherefore the satirist is popularly regarded as a soul-spirited knave, and his ever victim's outcry for codefendants evokes a national assent. Hail Satire! be thy praises ever sung In the dead language of a mummy's tongue, For thou thyself art dead, and damned as well -- Thy spirit (usefully employed) in Hell. Had it been such as consecrates the Bible Thou hadst not perished by the law of libel. Barney Stims |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| Speaker | Phrase(s) |
Celine Dion | I've seen diapers. And believe me, my mother is right. What's in the pooh-pooh is like the Bible. The truth is in there. |
David Berkowitz | Well, I have my time at the end of the workday. I can go to the chapel on nights we have Bible studies or services, or I can stay back on other nights and write letters. I read and so forth. |
Rush Limbaugh | The Mayflower Pilgrims, led by William Bradford, established the freest society ever conceived based on the teachings and tolerance of the Bible. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Speaker | Term | Phrase(s) |
Abraham Lincoln | 1861-1865 | Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against the other. |
Ronald Reagan | 1981-1989 | When the first President, George Washington, placed his hand upon the Bible, he stood less than a single day's journey by horseback from raw, untamed wilderness. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| "Bible" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 99.44% of the time. "Bible" is used about 1,974 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 99.44% | 1,963 | 4,379 |
| Noun (proper) | 0.56% | 11 | 106,044 |
| Total | 100.00% | 1,974 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| The following table summarizes the usage of "Bible" based on a population census conducted in the United States. Ranks and frequencies are based on all names reported and classified. |
| Name | Usage/Gender | Usage per 100 million Persons | Rank in USA |
| Bible | Last name | 3,000 | 4,258 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits. | |||
Expressions using "Bible": bible belt ♦ bible Grove ♦ bible leaf ♦ bible paper ♦ bible school ♦ Bible Society ♦ bible story ♦ bible thumper ♦ by the Bible ♦ Douay Bible ♦ Doway Bible ♦ family Bible ♦ Geneva Bible ♦ Genevan Bible ♦ holy bible ♦ king James Bible ♦ Mazarine Bible ♦ new English Bible ♦ numbers in bible ♦ quotation from the bible ♦ reference Bible ♦ ru bible ♦ swear on the bible ♦ the bible ♦ the holy bible ♦ The Revised Version of the Bible. Additional references. | |
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "Bible": bible-based, bible-bashing, bible-believers, bible-believing, bible-belt, bible-bolstering, bible-box, bible-bunk, bible-christian, bible-nest, bible-oath, bible-quoting, bible-reader, bible-reading, bible-selling, bible-spouting, bible-thumping, Bible-worship. | |
Ending with "Bible": black-bible. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day | Expression | Frequency per Day |
bible | 26,462 | bible search | 656 |
bible study | 12,432 | bible game | 643 |
bible online | 9,772 | bible niv | 593 |
bible verse | 9,253 | child bible story | 554 |
holy bible | 7,043 | free bible | 553 |
bible gateway | 2,453 | bible college | 548 |
bible cover | 1,985 | book of the bible | 540 |
king james bible | 1,510 | bible trivia | 536 |
bible on cd | 1,471 | bible prophecy | 531 |
vacation bible school | 1,400 | bible software | 521 |
bible commentary | 1,082 | bible coloring page | 477 |
audio bible | 991 | bible quiz | 462 |
bible code | 927 | black bible | 445 |
bible quote | 899 | bible craft | 439 |
bible story | 743 | bible question | 366 |
bible concordance | 734 | moody bible institute | 344 |
catholic bible | 732 | online bible study | 326 |
bible dictionary | 682 | bible school | 315 |
blue letter bible | 667 | bible history | 315 |
bible scripture | 661 | bible picture | 315 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Language | Translations for "Bible"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Afrikaans | Bybel. (various references) | |
Albanian | bibël (scripture). (various references) | |
Arabic | الكتاب المقدس (book, holy scripture, scripture, the holy scripture, the holy writ), العهدان القديم والجديد. (various references) | |
Bulgarian | библия. (various references) | |
Chinese | 圣经 (Biblical). (various references) | |
Czech | bible (scripture, the book, tome). (various references) | |
Danish | bibel. (various references) | |
Dutch | Bijbel. (various references) | |
Esperanto | Biblio. (various references) | |
Faeroese | bíblia. (various references) | |
Farsi | کتاب مقدس که شامل عهدعتیق وجدیداست , بطورکلی هررساله یاکتاب مقدس . (various references) | |
Finnish | Raamattu (the Bible, the Scriptures). (various references) | |
French | Bible. (various references) | |
Frisian | Bibel. (various references) | |
German | Bibel. (various references) | |
Greek | βίβλος (inner bark, liber, phloem). (various references) | |
Hebrew | תנ'ך (old testament, the holy scriptures), כתבי הקודש (holy scripture, scripture, writ). (various references) | |
Hungarian | Biblia (divine book, good book, holy scripture, scripture), szentírás (divine book, good book, holy scripture, holy writ, sacred writ, scripture, scriptures, word). (various references) | |
Indonesian | bibel. (various references) | |
Irish | Bíobla. (various references) | |
Italian | Bibbia. (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 聖書 (scriptures), 聖書 (scriptures), 経典 (sacred books, scriptures, sutras), バイフュウエル車 (bimetal, bi-polar, bi-polar device, dual-fuel vehicle, supporting actor, vibration, vibrator). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | バイブル , きょうてん (canon, sacred books, scriptures, sutras, teaching guide), せいしょ (clean copy, government-issued report, height of summer, printing, scriptures, square characters), けいてん (criminal law books, sacred books, scriptures, sutras). (various references) | |
Korean | 성경. (various references) | |
Manx | bible. (various references) | |
Papiamen | Beibel. (various references) | |
Pig Latin | iblebay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | bíblia (scripture). (various references) | |
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