What is the Bible?
Who would not know what a Bible is? I think none. As you go further in reading this article, you would notice that what are being talked about are strictly the Bible contents and not the theological belief which regards the source of the belief of a lot of communities on sacred scripture. Hence, if you are to ask “What is the Bible?” you would find different answers as each person has different view about the Bible. The different views of Catholic from Jewish and Protestant on the contents of the Bible are some examples.
For a Jewish, they would refer to the term Bible as the Christian Books for both Protestant and Catholic, which Christians call as the Old Testament. In fact, the books that comprises the Protestant Old Testament is similar to what the Hebrew Bible or Hebrew Scriptures contain. Despite such fact of similarity, the order, however, differs. When you look at a Hebrew Bible, you would see that there are three division to which their books are ordered and they are the “Law,” the “Prophets,” and the “Writings.” If you translate these words in Hebrew, these three words would start with the letters T-N-Kh and an “a” would be inserted to form the acronym “TaNaKh.” On the other hand, when you look at a Protestant Old Testament, you would see that there are also divisions to which the books are classified and they are the Pentateuch, the Historical Books, the Poetic Books, the Major Prophets and the Minor Prophets.
Adding to the books that the Hebrew Bible provide would be the New Testament which both modern day Catholics and Protestants have included in their Bible contents. All the books under the New Testament are ordered similarly in both the Catholic and Protestants Bible. The difference lies on the matter of historical view. At the time of the earliest Christian communities, a disagreement arose as to what books should be included in the New Testament. Books included in the New Testament at present were not contained in the earliest Bibles in some cases while in other cases, books that are not included in the New Testament at present were in the earliest Bibles like for instance, the Epistle of Clement of Rome.
Finally, the Bible contents of Roman Catholics contain seven other books and they are known as Deuterocanonical or Apocryphal dependent based on community’s views. It is however, alluring to utilize the term “seven additional” books. Nonetheless, this matter exposes a topic of viewpoint. The questions that may be asked would be: Is it that Protestant Bibles have “subtracted” these texts? Or is it that the Catholic Bible contains books that are an “addition?” Accordingly, the fact that you are a Catholic, Jewish, Protestant matters as the answer to the question “what is the Bible?” would vary. The answers given by these three may be determined only as correct based on whatever the the result of the discussion of these communities. Nevertheless, in case someone desires to make use of the term Bible in a proper manner, realizing that the word’s meaning is contextual is important. If you wish to know more about the bible and its meaningful passages, it’s best to visit a group bible study or an adult bible study. Let the bible enlighten you and be able to recover from your problems. Surely thereafter, you will celebrate your recovery.
