Adjacent Words

Bible definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

BI'BLE, n. [Gr. a book.]
THE BOOK, by way of eminence; the sacred volume, in which are contained the revelations of God, the principles of Christian faith, and the rules of practice. It consists of two parts, called the Old and New Testaments.
The Bible should be the standard of language as well as of faith.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: the sacred writings of the Christian religions; "he went to carry the Word to the heathen" [syn: Bible, Christian Bible, Book, Good Book, Holy Scripture, Holy Writ, Scripture, Word of God, Word]
2: a book regarded as authoritative in its field

Merriam Webster's

noun Etymology: Middle English, from Old French, from Medieval Latin biblia, from Greek, plural of biblion book, diminutive of byblos papyrus, book, from Byblos, ancient Phoenician city from which papyrus was exported Date: 14th century 1. capitalized a. the sacred scriptures of Christians comprising the Old Testament and the New Testament b. the sacred scriptures of some other religion (as Judaism) 2. obsolete book 3. capitalized a copy or an edition of the Bible 4. a publication that is preeminent especially in authoritativeness or wide readership <the fisherman's bible> <the bible of the entertainment industry>

Britannica Concise

Sacred scriptures of Judaism and Christianity. The Jewish scriptures consist of the Torah (or Pentateuch), the Neviim ("Prophets"), and the Ketuvim ("Writings"), which together constitute what Christians call the Old Testament. The Pentateuch and Joshua relate how Israel became a nation and came to possess the Promised Land. The Prophets describe the establishment and development of the monarchy and relate the prophets' messages. The Writings include poetry, speculation on good and evil, and history. The Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Bible includes additional Jewish writings called the Apocrypha. The New Testament consists of early Christian literature. The Gospels tell of the life, person, and teachings of Jesus. The Acts of the Apostles relates the earliest history of Christianity. The Epistles (Letters) are correspondence of early church leaders (chiefly St. Paul) and address the needs of early congregations. Revelation is the only canonical representative of a large genre of early Christian apocalyptic literature. See also biblical source, biblical translation.

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. 1 a the Christian scriptures consisting of the Old and New Testaments. b the Jewish scriptures. c (bible) any copy of these (three bibles on the table). d a particular edition of the Bible (New English Bible). 2 colloq. any authoritative book (Wisden is his Bible). 3 the scriptures of any non-Christian religion. Phrases and idioms: Bible-basher (or -thumper etc.) a person given to Bible-bashing. Bible-bashing (or -thumping etc.) sl. aggressive fundamentalist preaching. Bible belt esp. US the reputedly puritanical area of the southern and central US. Bible oath a solemn oath taken on the Bible. Etymology: ME f. OF f. eccl.L biblia f. Gk biblia books (pl. of biblion), orig. dimin. of biblos, bublos papyrus

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Bible Bi"ble (b[imac]"b'l), n. [F. bible, L. biblia, pl., fr. Gr. bibli`a, pl. of bibli`on, dim. of bi`blos, by`blos, book, prop. Egyptian papyrus.] 1. A book. [Obs.] --Chaucer. 2. The Book by way of eminence, -- that is, the book which is made up of the writings accepted by Christians as of divine origin and authority, whether such writings be in the original language, or translated; the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments; -- sometimes in a restricted sense, the Old Testament; as, King James's Bible; Douay Bible; Luther's Bible. Also, the book which is made up of writings similarly accepted by the Jews; as, a rabbinical Bible. 3. A book containing the sacred writings belonging to any religion; as, the Koran is often called the Mohammedan Bible.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(Bibles) Frequency: The word is one of the 3000 most common words in English. 1. The Bible is the holy book on which the Jewish and Christian religions are based. N-PROPER: the N 2. A Bible is a copy of the Bible. N-COUNT

Easton's Bible Dictionary

Bible, the English form of the Greek name _Biblia_, meaning "books," the name which in the fifth century began to be given to the entire collection of sacred books, the "Library of Divine Revelation." The name Bible was adopted by Wickliffe, and came gradually into use in our English language. The Bible consists of sixty-six different books, composed by many different writers, in three different languages, under different circumstances; writers of almost every social rank, statesmen and peasants, kings, herdsmen, fishermen, priests, tax-gatherers, tentmakers; educated and uneducated, Jews and Gentiles; most of them unknown to each other, and writing at various periods during the space of about 1600 years: and yet, after all, it is only one book dealing with only one subject in its numberless aspects and relations, the subject of man's redemption.

It is divided into the Old Testament, containing thirty-nine books, and the New Testament, containing twenty-seven books. The names given to the Old in the writings of the New are "the scriptures" (Matt. 21:42), "scripture" (2 Pet. 1:20), "the holy scriptures" (Rom. 1:2), "the law" (John 12:34), "the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms" (Luke 24:44), "the law and the prophets" (Matt. 5:17), "the old covenant" (2 Cor. 3:14, R.V.). There is a break of 400 years between the Old Testament and the New. (See APOCRYPHA.)

The Old Testament is divided into three parts:, 1. The Law (Torah), consisting of the Pentateuch, or five books of Moses. 2. The Prophets, consisting of (1) the former, namely, Joshua, Judges, the Books of Samuel, and the Books of Kings; (2) the latter, namely, the greater prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, and the twelve minor prophets. 3. The Hagiographa, or holy writings, including the rest of the books. These were ranked in three divisions:, (1) The Psalms, Proverbs, and Job, distinguished by the Hebrew name, a word formed of the initial letters of these books, _emeth_, meaning truth. (2) Canticles, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, and Esther, called the five rolls, as being written for the synagogue use on five separate rolls. (3) Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, and 1 and 2 Chronicles. Between the Old and the New Testament no addition was made to the revelation God had already given. The period of New Testament revelation, extending over a century, began with the appearance of John the Baptist.

The New Testament consists of (1) the historical books, viz., the Gospels, and the Acts of the Apostles; (2) the Epistles; and (3) the book of prophecy, the Revelation.

The division of the Bible into chapters and verses is altogether of human invention, designed to facilitate reference to it. The ancient Jews divided the Old Testament into certain sections for use in the synagogue service, and then at a later period, in the ninth century A.D., into verses. Our modern system of chapters for all the books of the Bible was introduced by Cardinal Hugo about the middle of the thirteenth century (he died 1263). The system of verses for the New Testament was introduced by Stephens in 1551, and generally adopted, although neither Tyndale's nor Coverdale's English translation of the Bible has verses. The division is not always wisely made, yet it is very useful. (See VERSION.)

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

n. [Used with The prefixed.] The Scriptures, the Old and New Testaments, the sacred volume, the Book of books, the Word of God.

1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue

A boatswain's great axe. Sea term.

Moby Thesaurus

Douay Bible, Holy Scripture, Holy Writ, King James Version, Revised Standard Version, Revised Version, Scripture, Septuagint, Testament, Vulgate, canon, canonical writings, sacred writings, scripture, scriptures, the Book, the Good Book, the Scriptures, the Word