And was it unique at the time? In other words, did it refer to just the one Book, or was it used like it is today - “The Golf Bible” (etc).
At what point did that particular set of writings become “The Bible”? Do any of the DSS’s count as part of It?
And, of course, by “Bible”, I don’t mean the English word, per se. I mean the translated name as well, Hebrew, etc.
Any info would help, thanks.
Steven
It comes through Latin from a diminuitive of the Greek word “biblos”, meaning “book”. In the Bible itself, people like Jesus refered to the Hebrew writings as “graphe” (51 instances in Strongs). The set of writings you’re likely talking about became the biblical canon when the Nicene council met under the authority of Emperor Constantine in the fourth century.
The usual Hebrew term for the (Jewish) Bible is “Tanakh,” an acronym for its three component sections: Torah (Pentateuch), Nevi’im (Prophets), and Ketuvim (Hagiographa). The Talmud refers to these by name (as individual units), but as far as I know, the acronym didn’t come into use until much later.
The Mishnah - which dates to the 1st-2nd centuries CE - refers to the Bible collectively as “Kitvei ha-Kodesh” (the sacred writings), or occasionally, “Mikra” (material for reading).
By the way, what are the DSS’s?
DSS’s i suppose are the “Dead Sea Scrolls”. There are many of them that are not in our current Bible, but many also have the usual Bible books, though not a complete set IIRC.
According to the OED, a reference to “the holy books” can be found as early as I Maccabees 12:9 (after 134 B.C.E). Both Clement of Alexandria (d. 215) and Origen (185 - 254) use the phrase “the books” in reference to works found in both Old and New Testaments, although they do not use a single word for the collection of works. St. Jerome (ca 342 - 420) used the word bilbliotheca to refer to the complete collection of Scripture. There are references to biblia in 9th century Gothic writings, but the usage in the Romance languages indicates a much earlier origin although there are no extant examples.
Old English uses only biblioþeca, but that word is interchanged with *biblia in Anglo-Latin works of the 11th century, being supplanted by biblia alone by the 13th century.