What Is the Bible?

In this post

An introduction to the Bible: where its name comes from, how its books were gathered and what we mean when we call it the Word of God.

“All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”

2 Timothy 3:16-17 (ESV)

1. The meaning of the word “Bible”

Where the word comes from

“Bible” comes from the Greek biblia, which means “books” (Easton, 1897 · Orr, 1915). It is the plural of biblion, a diminutive of biblos which in Hellenistic Greek had almost lost its diminutive force and was used for a scroll or a small book (Vine, 1940).

Biblos was the inner part of the papyrus stalk. It later came to name the paper made from it in Egypt and, finally, a written book, a scroll or a volume (Vine, 1940). The International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia says the same: biblia is a diminutive of biblos, the inner bark of the papyrus (Orr, 1915). Smith's dictionary, on the other hand, connects the root with the inner bark of the linden tree, on which the ancients wrote their books (Smith, 1863).

“The books” in Scripture

The New Testament already uses biblos and biblion for the books of Scripture: the Book of Moses (Mark 12:26), the book of the prophet Isaiah (Luke 4:17) and the whole Old Testament (Hebrews 10:7) (Vine, 1940). The expression “the books” (ta biblia) appears in the Septuagint, in Daniel 9:2, for the writings of the prophets (Orr, 1915).

From “the books” to “the Bible”

• The Christian church took up that usage to name the Old Testament, as seen in 2 Clement 14:2 (Orr, 1915).
• In the 4th century, Jerome called the Bible “the Divine Library” (Bibliotheca Divina) (Orr, 1915).
• In the 5th century the name began to be used for the whole collection of sacred books, Old and New Testaments (Easton, 1897 · Smith, 1863 · Orr, 1915). Easton calls it the “Library of Divine Revelation” (Easton, 1897).
• In the 13th century, in the Western church, the Greek neuter plural began to be read as a feminine singular: “the books” became “the book” and, in that form, passed into the modern languages of Europe (Orr, 1915, citing B. F. Westcott).
• In English, the name first appears in Piers Plowman, in Chaucer and in Wycliffe (Orr, 1915). Easton notes that “the name Bible was adopted by Wickliffe, and came gradually into use in our English language” (Easton, 1897).

Smith adds that the Bible is “the Book” because it is superior to all other books (Smith, 1863).

Other names for the Word of God

Before the name “Bible” existed, Jesus and the apostles referred to the Old Testament as “the Scriptures” (Matthew 21:42, John 5:39, Romans 15:4), “the holy Scriptures” (Romans 1:2) and “the sacred writings” (2 Timothy 3:15). They also spoke of “the Law or the Prophets” (Matthew 5:17), and Paul speaks of “the oracles of God” (Romans 3:2) (Orr, 1915). Smith gathers other names: the Scriptures, the Oracles, the Word, the Testaments and the Law (Smith, 1863).

2. The meaning of the canon of Scripture

This section follows F. F. Bruce, one of the most respected New Testament scholars of the 20th century, in his book The Canon of Scripture and in an earlier article with the same title.

What the canon is

For Bruce, the word has a simple meaning: the canon is the list of the books contained in Scripture, the books recognized as worthy to be included among the sacred writings of a worshiping community. In the Christian context he defines it as the list of writings acknowledged by the Church as documents of divine revelation (Bruce, 1988).

Elsewhere he puts it this way: “The Canon of Scripture, then, is the list of writings delivered to us as the divinely inspired record of God's self-revelation to men—that self-revelation of which Jesus Christ our Lord is the centre” (Bruce, 1954).

Where the word comes from

• “Canon” comes into English through Latin, from the Greek kanōn (Bruce, 1988).
• In Greek, a kanōn was a rod, especially a straight rod used as a ruler. Hence the sense of “rule” or “standard” (Bruce, 1988).
• The Greek word was probably borrowed from the Semitic root that appears in Hebrew as qāneh, “reed” or “rod.” The Latin canna and the English cane come from the same origin (Bruce, 1988).
• A rod used as a ruler could have measuring marks, like a ruler marked in inches. So kanōn came to name the series of those marks and then any “series” or “list.” That last sense is the one behind “the canon of Scripture” (Bruce, 1988).

Two senses that came together

Before it meant “list,” the church used the word in the phrase “the rule of faith” or “the rule of truth”: a summary of Christian teaching, believed to reproduce what the apostles taught, by which any doctrine or interpretation of Scripture could be assessed. Once the limits of Scripture came to be accepted by all, Scripture itself became the rule of faith (Bruce, 1988).

• Origen, early in the 3rd century, applied to the Bible the sense of the “standard” or “rule” of faith (Bruce, 1954).
• Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria, was apparently the first to use “canon” for the list of books, in a letter circulated in 367 (Bruce, 1988 · Bruce, 1954).
• Thomas Aquinas wrote that canonical Scripture alone is the rule of faith, and the Westminster Confession of Faith (1647), after listing the 66 books, says they are “all which are given by inspiration of God to be the rule of faith and life” (Bruce, 1988).

So although the canon is the list, the sense of “rule” stayed attached to it: the canon of Scripture is the list of books recognized as, in a unique sense, the rule of what we believe and how we live (Bruce, 1988).

Authority comes before the list

“The writings are not authoritative because they are included in the list; they are in the list because their authority has been recognized.”

F. F. Bruce (1954)

Bruce illustrates this with the prophet Amos: his oracles “were stamped with divine authority as he uttered them in the name of Israel's God.” They were written down later, and later still included in the list of prophetic writings. The same happened with Paul's letters, which carried authority because he wrote them as an apostle of the risen Christ (1 Corinthians 14:37). In his words: “Divine authority comes first: canonicity follows authority and is dependent upon it” (Bruce, 1954).

3. When the books of the Old Testament were received

In progress.

4. When the books of the New Testament were received

In progress.

5. Word of God, Scripture and Bible

In progress.

Bibliography

• Bruce, F. F. (1954). “The Canon of Scripture.” Inter-Varsity (Autumn 1954), 19-22. View online.
• Bruce, F. F. (1988). The Canon of Scripture. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press. Chapter 1, “Holy Scripture,” section “The Word ‘Canon.’”
• Easton, M. G. (1897). “Bible.” In Easton's Illustrated Bible Dictionary (3rd ed.). London: T. Nelson and Sons. Public domain. View online.
• Orr, J. (ed.) (1915). “Bible, The.” In The International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia (vol. 1). Chicago: The Howard-Severance Company. Public domain. View online.
• Smith, W. (1863). “Bible.” In Smith's Bible Dictionary. Public domain. View online.
• Vine, W. E. (1940). “Book.” In An Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words. London: Oliphants. View online.

Keep learning

The history of the Bible has a timeline of the moments that shaped how it reached us. While I finish this post, Free resources to grow in the faith lists courses and libraries for studying the Bible.

Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.