What Is The Bible?

The Bible is a collection of books, poems, songs and other writings. The Jews refer to the Hebrew scriptures simply as that or as the “Tanakh” an acronym of the Hebrew names of the three sections of the Jewish holy writings. It is comprised of the holy books from Genesis to Malachi.This Jewish canon was accepted some time between 200 and 100 BC.
The Christian scriptures would include the Hebrew scriptures plus the books of the New Testament. The New Testament canon was accepted by the about the 5th Century.When this collection of Hebrew and Greek scriptures began to be thought of as a unit, it was first referred to simply as “the books” or “biblia” in Greek. Hence, the transliteration of the Greek word “biblia” into English became the term we use, ” Bible”.

Why Read The Bible?

Since the Bible is the Sacred Scriptures of the Jewish and Christian traditions,
Jews and Christians read the Bible as a matter of their cultural and religious
heritage, and to better understand their own faith. All of us should read it
to better grasp the faith of others, the historical beginnings of our nation firmly rooted in the Bible and it’s values, and to better understand the multitude of references to the Bible in art and literature.