The Origin of the Bible - Flipbook - Page 9
INTRODUCTION
T H E B I B L E . No other book has had so many books written
about it—so why yet another one? Though there are many books
that help readers understand the content of the Bible, few explain
its origins. This volume provides an overview of how the Bible
was first inspired, canonized, read as sacred literature, copied in
ancient Hebrew and Greek manuscripts, and translated into the
languages of the world.
The first section, “The Authority and Inspiration of the Bible,”
focuses on the Bible’s divine inspiration, lasting authority, and infallibility. The second section, “The Canon of the Bible,” reveals the
processes that went into selecting the thirty-nine books of the Old
Testament and the twenty-seven books of the New Testament to
be part of canonized Scripture. This section also has an essay on the
Old Testament and New Testament apocrypha. The third section,
“The Bible as a Literary Text,” elucidates the literary background
of the Bible and shows how the Bible is a literary masterpiece.
The fourth section, “Bible Texts and Manuscripts,” describes the
ancient biblical manuscripts that have been discovered and used
in forming editions of the Hebrew and Greek texts. The fifth section, “Bible Translation,” provides information about the biblical
languages (Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek) and Bible translation itself.
Furthermore, this section gives a brief history of the English Bible
and of other versions in many languages. For each subsequent
edition of this book (1992, 2003, 2012, 2020), the chapter on the
history of the English Bible has been updated with information
about new and updated English Bible translations.