BIBLE BOOKS NT Rom-Efe/Fil-Tit/Heb/Jac/Rev

 

The Bible is a collection of religious texts or scriptures sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other faiths. It appears in the form of an anthology, a compilation of texts of a variety of forms, originally written in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Koine Greek. These texts include theologically-focused historical accounts, hymns, prayers, proverbs, parables, didactic letters, admonitions, essays, poetry, and prophecies. The collection of materials that are accepted as authoritative by a particular religious tradition or community is called a biblical canon. Believers generally consider the Bible to be a product of divine inspiration while understanding what that means in different ways.

The origins of the oldest writings of the Israelites are lost in antiquity. There is no scholarly consensus as to when the Jewish Hebrew Bible canon was settled in its present form. Some scholars argue that it was fixed by the Hasmonean dynasty (140–40 BCE),[1] while others argue it was not fixed until the second century CE or even later.[2] The Masoretic Text, in Hebrew and Aramaic, is considered the authoritative text by Rabbinic Judaism, but there is also the Septuagint, a Koine Greek translation from the third and second centuries BCE, which largely overlaps with the Hebrew Bible.

Christianity began as an outgrowth of Judaism, using the Septuagint as the basis of the “Old Testament“. The early Church continued the Jewish tradition of writing and incorporating what it saw as inspired, authoritative religious books, and soon the gospels, Pauline epistles and other texts coalesced into the “New Testament“. In its first three centuries AD, the concept of a closed canon emerged in response to heretical writings in the second century. A first list of canonical books appears in Athanasius‘ Easter letter from 367 AD.[3] The list of books included in the Catholic Bible was established as the biblical canon by the Councils of Hippo in 393 and in Carthage in 397. Christian biblical canons currently range from the 73 books of the Catholic Church canon, and the 66-book canon of most Protestant denominations, to the 81 books of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church canon.

With estimated total sales of over five billion copies, the Bible is widely considered to be the best-selling book of all time.[4][5] It has had a profound direct influence on Western culture and history.[6] The study of the Bible through biblical criticism has indirectly impacted culture and history as well. The Bible is currently translated or being translated into about half of the world’s languages.

.