{"id":5207,"date":"2020-11-04T10:20:39","date_gmt":"2020-11-04T16:20:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.tyndale.com\/tyndalebibles\/?post_type=article&#038;p=5207"},"modified":"2020-12-08T10:16:08","modified_gmt":"2020-12-08T16:16:08","slug":"where-does-the-word-bible-come-from","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/sites.tyndale.com\/tyndalebibles\/article\/where-does-the-word-bible-come-from\/","title":{"rendered":"Where does the word \u201cBible\u201d come from?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The word \u201cBible\u201d is derived through Latin from the Greek word biblia (books), specifically the books that are acknowledged as canonical by the Christian church. The earliest Christian use of <em>ta biblia<\/em> (the books) in this sense is said to be 2\u00a0Clement 2:14 (c. a.d. 150): \u201cThe books and the apostles declare that the church .\u00a0.\u00a0. has existed from the beginning.\u201d (Compare Dan. 9:2, \u201cI, Daniel, understood from the Scriptures,\u201d where the reference is to the corpus of Old Testament prophetic writings.) Greek <em>biblion<\/em> (of which <em>biblia<\/em> is the plural) is a diminutive of <em>biblos<\/em>, which in practice denotes any kind of written document, but originally one written on papyrus.<\/p>\n<p>A term synonymous with \u201cthe Bible\u201d is \u201cthe writings\u201d or \u201cthe Scriptures\u201d (Greek <em>hai graphai<\/em>, <em>ta grammata<\/em>), frequently used in the New Testament to denote the Old Testament documents in whole or in part. For example, Matthew 21:42 says, \u201cHave you never read in the Scriptures?\u201d (<em>en tais graphais<\/em>). The parallel passage, Mark 12:10, has the singular, referring to the particular text quoted, \u201cHaven\u2019t you read this Scripture?\u201d (<em>ten graphen tauten<\/em>). Second Timothy 3:15 (RSV) speaks of \u201cthe sacred writings\u201d (<em>ta hiera grammata<\/em>), and the next verse says, \u201cAll Scripture is Godbreathed\u201d (<em>pasa graphe theopneustos<\/em>). In 2\u00a0Peter 3:16 \u201call\u201d the letters of Paul are included along with \u201cthe other Scriptures\u201d (<em>tas loipas graphas<\/em>), by which the Old Testament writings and probably also the Gospels are meant.<\/p>\n<p>This is an excerpt from <em>The Origin of the Bible <\/em>by F.\u00a0F.\u00a0Bruce, J.\u00a0I.\u00a0Packer, Philip Comfort, and Carl F.\u00a0H.\u00a0Henry. To read more, you can purchase this book from many Christian bookstores and online retailers, including Tyndale.com: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tyndale.com\/p\/the-origin-of-the-bible\/9781414379326\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/www.tyndale.com\/p\/the-origin-of-the-bible\/9781414379326<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Bruce, F. F., et al. <em>The Origin of the Bible.<\/em> Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2020.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"template":"","article_categories":[264],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.tyndale.com\/tyndalebibles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article\/5207"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.tyndale.com\/tyndalebibles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.tyndale.com\/tyndalebibles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/article"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.tyndale.com\/tyndalebibles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.tyndale.com\/tyndalebibles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"article_categories","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.tyndale.com\/tyndalebibles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article_categories?post=5207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}