What is the Bible?
The Bible is regarded as the ‘Holy Book’ of the Christian Religion, just as the Koran is thought of as the basis of Islam.

'Holy Bible'
On the spine of most copies of the Bible are the words "Holy Bible". The word ‘Bible’ is related to the Greek word ‘biblios’ and we find the first part of the word in our word ‘bibliography’, which means a book list – usually a list of books related to a particular subject. The word ‘Bible’ means ‘books; collection of books; library’.

The word ‘Holy,’ means ‘consecrated, sacred; morally and spiritually perfect; belonging to, commissioned by or devoted to God’ (Concise Oxford Dictionary). This word is also used to mean ‘special’ or ‘set apart for a special purpose’.

So the title of this book, the Holy Bible, means that it is a special library or a collection of books – commissioned by God, set apart for a particular purpose.

Already something special
If we study the various books of the Bible carefully we find that about 40 different people were involved as writers. They wrote while living in various countries – Mesopotamia , Greece , Egypt , Italy and, of course, Israel . The books were also written over a long period of time – about 1,500 years. The Bible then, in a very real sense, is not just one book, but a library. It is because this collection is bound together for convenience that it is often printed on very thin paper, to make the book manageable. The fact that we do have all these separate writings bound together in one volume is certainly one thing that makes it different and rather special.

Open the Bible and look at the index at the front. You will see the titles of all the separate booklets, which make up the whole Bible. They are divided into two groups: 39 in the section called the Old Testament and 27 in the part called the New Testament. The books of the Old Testament were all written before the time of Christ and the New Testament books after the time of Christ in the first century AD . Practically the whole of the Old Testament was originally written in Hebrew and the New Testament was written in Greek. So the whole of the Bible has had to be translated so that we can now read it in many languages.

Follow the links below which explain why the Bible can be trusted as a book which brings before us the mind of God Himself. As we read, we can be transported into events which demonstrate the unfolding of the purpose of God. We can be brought close to teaching that can change our lives. We can find the way of salvation and have the opportunity of learning the true Gospel message and eventually receive the gift of eternal life.

More information
The arrangement of the books in the Bible
Divine inspiration of the Bible
How the Bible was written and first translated
The scriptures of Jesus and the apostles
Further translations of the Bible
The Authorised Version and more recent translations of the Bible
Why today's Bible can be trusted