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The World’s Most Fascinating
Book
What Does "Bible" Mean and How Did it Get
That Name?
The
Bible is the very Word of God and makes clear the ways to peace, hope, and
salvation. It tells us how the world began, how it will end, and how we are to
live in the meantime. The lessons learned from the Bible are timeless, and the
wisdom and salvation that it offered to people thousands of years ago continue
to be just as powerful and just as relevant today and will continue to be so
into the unforeseen future. The fact that the Bible itself continues to be such
a strong influence in today’s world is a testament to its timeless meaning and
applications.
Jason
Soroski
The Bible is the world’s most fascinating book.
It is the best-selling
book of all time and is widely considered to be some of the finest literature
ever written.
It has been translated
into numerous languages and is the foundation of modern laws and ethics.
It guides us through
difficult circumstances, gives us wisdom, and has been the foundation of faith for
centuries of believers.
The Bible is the very
Word of God and makes clear the ways to peace, hope, and salvation. It tells us
how the world began, how it will end, and how we are to live in the meantime.
The influence of the
Bible is unmistakable.
So, where does the
word "Bible" come from, and what does it actually mean?
The
Meaning of the Word Bible
The word Bible itself
is simply a transliteration of the Greek word bíblos
(βίβλος), meaning "book."
So, the Bible is,
quite simply, The Book.
However, take a step
further back and the same Greek word also means "scroll" or
"parchment."
Of course, the first
words of Scripture would have been written on parchment, and then copied to
scrolls, then those scrolls would be copied and distributed and so on.
It is thought the
word Biblos itself is likely taken from an ancient
seaport city named Byblos.
Located in modern-day
Lebanon, Byblos was a Phoenician port city known for its export and trade of
papyrus.
Because of this
association, the Greeks likely took the name of this city and adapted it to
create their word for book.
Many familiar words
such as bibliography, bibliophile, library, and even bibliophobia (fear of
books) are based on the same Greek root word.
How Did the Bible Get
That Name?
It is interesting that
the Bible never refers to itself as "the Bible."
So, when did people
start calling these sacred writings by the word Bible?
Again, the Bible is
not really a book, but a collection of books.
Yet, even the New
Testament writers seemed to understand that the things being written about
Jesus were to be considered part of Scripture.
In II Peter 3:16,
Peter addressed the writings of Paul, “He writes the same way in all his
letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things
that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as
they do the other Scriptures…” (bold emphasis added)
So even then there was
something unique about the words being written, that these were the words of
God, and that the words of God were subject to being tampered with and
manipulated.
The collection of
these writings, including the New Testament, were first called the Bible
somewhere around the fourth century in the writings of John Chrysostom.
Chrysostom first
refers to the Old and New Testament together as ta biblia (the
books), the Latin form of biblos.
It was also around
this time that these collections of writings began to be put together in a
certain order, and this collection of letters and writings started shaping into
the one-volume book that we are familiar with today.
Why Is the Bible
Important?
Inside your Bible is a
collection of sixty-six unique and separate books — writings from different
times, different nations, different authors, different situations and different
languages.
Yet, these writings
compiled over the period of 1600 years all weave together in unparalleled
unity, pointing us towards the truth of God and the salvation that is ours in
Christ.
The Bible undergirds
much of our classic literature.
As a former high
school English teacher, I found authors such as Shakespeare, Hemingway,
Mehlville, Twain, Dickens, Orwell, Steinbeck, Shelley, and others difficult to
fully grasp without at least a rudimentary knowledge of the Bible.
They frequently
alluded to the Bible, and the language of the Bible is deeply embedded in the
thoughts and writings of our history and culture.
Speaking of books and
authors, it is important to note that the first book printed on Gutenberg’s
printing press was a Bible.
That was in the 1400s
— before Columbus sailed the ocean blue and a couple hundred years before the
American colonies were established.
The Bible continues to
be the most printed book today.
Although it was
written long before the English language had come into existence, the life and
language of English speakers have been forever impacted by the phrasings of the
Bible.
Is
the Bible Still Relevant Today?
According to the
most recent
research conducted by Barna in 2017, 87% of American households
own a Bible.
But the question is,
how many people are reading it?
Like a lot of people
who grew up in church and stayed around, I have accumulated several Bibles over
the years.
I still own my first
"real" Bible, a King James Version that I received in my 3rd grade
Sunday School class.
When I was young and
feeling ambitious, I made the determined decision to read my Bible cover to
cover.
I stalled out
somewhere in Leviticus and skipped to James, which seemed a bit more manageable
and understandable.
I bet I’m not the only
one who has had this problem, and that is because the Bible isn’t really meant
to be read that way.
The Bible is truly
more of an anthology than a novel, and it is much easier to read it as such.
The lessons learned
from the Bible are timeless, and the wisdom and salvation that it offered to
people thousands of years ago continue to be just as powerful and just as
relevant today and will continue to be so into the unforeseen future.
The word Bible, over
time, has grown to be associated with anything religious such a Bible-thumper
or the Bible Belt.
The word Bible also
suggests an all-encompassing book that claims to be an authority on any given
subject, such as The Woodworkers Bible, The Real Estate Bible, The Car Owners
Bible, and others.
Basically, calling
something a Bible gives it an air of importance and meaning. That is because,
through the centuries, there has been no other book seen as relevant,
meaningful and authoritative as the Bible.
What the Bible Itself
Means.
Many ancient biblical
scrolls dating back thousands of years are still in existence today.
From the discovery of
the Dead Sea Scrolls and other ancient fragments of the Bible, we have
confidence that the Bible we hold in our hands today is the same Bible that has
existed for centuries.
The words we read are
the same as the words that were given to the original writers. That in itself
is astounding.
We now have access to
the Bible everywhere: in print, on our phones, on our computers, the Word of
God continues to be meaningful and so very relevant.
The fact that the
Bible itself continues to be such a strong influence in today’s world is a
testament to its timeless meaning and applications.
The
King James translators called it “that inestimable treasure that excelleth
all the riches of the earth.”
All these years later,
this seems to be the most fitting description of what the Bible means.
Jason
Soroski is a homeschool dad and author of A Journey to
Bethlehem: Inspiring Thoughts for Christmas and Hope for the New Year.
He serves as worship pastor at Calvary Longmont in Colorado and spends his
weekends exploring the Rocky Mountains with his family. Connect on Twitter, Instagram, or at JasonSoroski.net.
https://www.biblestudytools.com/bible-study/explore-the-bible/what-does-bible-mean.html
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