The Bible (from the Greek βιβλία, plural of βιβλίον, transliterated biblion, meaning ‘scroll’ or ‘book,’ a diminutive of byblos, ‘Egyptian papyrus,’ probably derived from the name of the city from which this material was exported to Greece—Byblos, present-day Jbeil in Lebanon) is a collection of religious texts regarded as sacred in Christianity, in which religious interpretations concerning the purpose of human existence on Earth are presented. It is considered by Christians to be divinely inspired and serves as an important doctrinal document.
According to the tradition accepted by most Christians, the Bible was written by 40 authors between 1500 B.C. and 450 B.C. (the books of the Old Testament) and between A.D. 45 and A.D. 90 (the books of the New Testament), covering a period of nearly 1,600 years. Most historians, however, consider the date of the earliest writings regarded as sacred to be much later. For example, while Christian tradition attributes the first five books of the Bible (the Pentateuch) to Moses, many scholars believe they were first compiled only after the Babylonian Exile, drawing from earlier texts dated between the tenth and the fourth centuries B.C. Many scholars also maintain that the Bible was written by dozens of individuals from different regions and nations.
According to a literal interpretation of Genesis (the first book of the Bible), humankind was created by God from the dust after the heavens and the earth, between six and eight thousand years ago, and received life when God breathed the breath of life into his nostrils. The Bible is the best-selling book of all time, with more than six billion copies distributed worldwide—about seven times the number of copies of the second best-selling book, Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung (commonly known as The Little Red Book). In the United States, according to the official records of the Architect of the Capitol, the only president who did not take the presidential oath of office with his hand on a Bible was Theodore Roosevelt (1901–1909). John Quincy Adams (1825–1829), at his inauguration, according to letters he wrote, placed his hand on a volume of constitutional law rather than on a Bible to indicate where his loyalty lay. There are no official records for presidents prior to John Tyler (1841–1845).
Divine Inspiration
The Bible presents itself as having been written by people under divine inspiration. The apostle Paul states that ‘all Scripture is inspired by God,’ literally ‘God-breathed’—which is the translation of the Greek word θεόπνευστος (theopneustos) (2 Timothy 3:16). The apostle Peter likewise declares that ‘no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit’ (2 Peter 1:21). Peter also attributes to Paul’s writings the same authority as the Old Testament Scriptures: ‘Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given to him. He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them about these matters. Some things in them are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction’ (2 Peter 3:15–16).
Interpretation
According to journalist David Plotz of the online magazine Slate, until about a century ago most well-educated Americans had a thorough knowledge of the Bible. Plotz also notes that, even among the faithful, Bible reading is often irregular. The Catholic Church includes only a relatively small portion of the Old Testament in its official liturgical readings; Jews devote significant study to the first five books of the Bible but generally pay less attention to the rest; Orthodox Jews tend to focus more on the Talmud; and Protestants typically place greater emphasis on the New Testament. The inaccessibility of the Bible between Antiquity and the Middle Ages led to the creation of many narratives about biblical figures, resulting in additions and distortions. The Catholic Church could not distribute many copies of the Bible due to various limitations.