What Is the Bible?

The big picture

The Bible is not one book written by one person. It is a collection of books—essentially, a library.

Those books were written, collected, and edited over many centuries. They include stories, laws, poetry, prophecy, wisdom, letters, prayers, genealogies, and visions. They also come from different times and places.

The biblical world covered a wide area, including Egypt, Mesopotamia, Israel and nearby lands, Asia Minor, Greece, and Rome. Most of the Old Testament was written in Hebrew, with some passages in Aramaic, while the New Testament was written in Greek.

That variety contributes both to the Bible's richness and to some of the difficulties readers encounter.

Who wrote the Bible?

Tradition connects many biblical books with well-known people.

The Torah is the foundational text of Judaism and consists of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. It is also called the Pentateuch or the Five Books of Moses. The Hebrew word Torah can mean teaching, instruction, or law.

Many Psalms are associated with David, and several wisdom books are connected with Solomon. The prophetic books carry names such as Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Amos, Hosea, and Micah.

In the New Testament, the four Gospels are traditionally attributed to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Thirteen New Testament letters carry Paul's name.

Authorship, however, is not always simple.

Ancient books were often produced differently from modern books. Stories and teachings could be passed down orally, written in different forms, collected, expanded, and edited over time. Because of this, traditional understandings and modern scholarship sometimes reach different conclusions about who wrote a book or when it took its final form.

Many scholars, for example, believe the first five books of the Bible developed over a long period rather than being written entirely by one person. Isaiah contains material associated with more than one historical period. Scholars generally agree that some of the thirteen letters bearing Paul's name are his while debating the authorship of others. The letter to the Hebrews does not identify its author.

OBG does not attempt to settle every authorship debate. When such questions materially affect the understanding of a story, the goal is to acknowledge the uncertainty rather than present a disputed conclusion as fact.

Which books are in the Bible?

Different religious traditions do not have exactly the same collection of biblical books.

The Jewish Bible contains the books Christians call the Old Testament, although the books are arranged and counted differently. Protestant Bibles contain 39 books in the Old Testament and 27 in the New Testament. Catholic Bibles contain 46 books in the Old Testament and the same 27 books in the New Testament.

Orthodox Bibles include additional Old Testament material, with some variation among Orthodox traditions. These differences developed over centuries as Jewish and Christian communities recognized particular writings as scripture.

The Apocrypha

Definition

The word apocrypha comes from Greek apokryphos, meaning roughly “hidden” or “concealed.” Over time, it also became a general term for religious texts considered outside an accepted biblical canon.

The Apocrypha most commonly refers to books written roughly between the Old and New Testament periods. It's a collection of ancient Jewish religious writings that are included in some versions of the Christian Bible but not others.

These books and passages lie outside the standard Protestant Bible represented by translations such the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), which is the source material for OBG. (The BSB is a modern, public-domain English translation of the Bible and can be quoted freely without violating copyright.)

These writings also differ in form. Some are narratives. Others are wisdom literature, prayers, psalms, historical works, or expansions of stories found elsewhere in the Old Testament.

Common books associated with the Apocrypha include Tobit, Judith, Wisdom of Solomon, Sirach (Ecclesiasticus), Baruch, 1 and 2 Maccabees, plus additional portions of Esther and Daniel.

Faith tradition differences

The New Testament is essentially the same across Protestant, Catholic, and Eastern Orthodox traditions.

The additional Old Testament material is not identical in every tradition. Books and passages such as Tobit, Judith, 1–2 Maccabees, and additions to Esther and Daniel are accepted by both Catholics and Eastern Orthodox Christians. Eastern Orthodox Bibles may contain further works, including 1 Esdras, 3 Maccabees, Psalm 151, and the Prayer of Manasseh, with additional variation among Orthodox traditions.

The status of books normally considered part of The Apocrypha differs by Christian tradition.

Jewish Bibles do not include them in the Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh.

Protestant Bibles generally do not treat these books as Scripture, although older Protestant Bibles such as the 1611 King James Version printed them in a separate section called the Apocrypha.

Roman Catholic Bibles include several of them as part of the Old Testament and call them the Deuterocanonical books (“second canon”).

Eastern Orthodox Bibles generally include these and sometimes additional books, depending on the particular Orthodox tradition.

Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Bibles reflect in part the broader collection of Jewish writings preserved in the ancient Greek Septuagint.

There are also New Testament apocrypha, such as the Gospel of Thomas or Gospel of Peter, but these are a different category from what Christians usually mean when they refer to “the Apocrypha” as a section of the Bible.

Stories from the The Apocrypha

OBG Old Testament content does not include stories specifically associated with books in The Apocrypha. These stories are important and worth reading in their own right. To explore them, the OBG has a dedicated Apocrypha section.

From ancient languages to modern Bibles

The Bible most of us read today is a translation.

Long before English Bibles existed, Jewish scriptures were translated from Hebrew into Greek. This ancient Greek translation became known as the Septuagint. Centuries later, much of the Bible was translated into Latin in the version known as the Vulgate.

The Bible was eventually translated into English and hundreds of other languages.

Translation is not always simple. An ancient Hebrew or Greek word may have more than one possible meaning, and a phrase that sounded natural thousands of years ago may not translate neatly into modern English.

For that reason, different Bible translations sometimes use different words or phrasing for the same passage.