Christianity book of worship

Answer 1

The Bible is the written Word of God and thus the ultimate set of guiding principles governing all areas of life for the people of God. Through these writings, God communicates his will, his laws, his nature, and his saving purpose to humanity.

The Bible is a compilation of 66 books and letters written by more than 40 authors during a period of approximately 1,500 years. The original text of the Bible was communicated in just three languages: Hebrew, koine or common Greek, and Aramaic. The Old Testament was written for the most part in Hebrew, with a small percentage in Aramaic. The New Testament was written in Greek.

The English word "Bible" comes from bíblia in Latin and bíblos in Greek. The term means book, or books, and may have originated from the ancient Egyptian port of Byblos (in modern-day Lebanon), where papyrus used for making books and scrolls was exported to Greece. Other terms for the Bible are the Holy Scriptures, Holy Writ, Scripture, or the Scriptures, which means "sacred writings." For Christians, the simplest definition of the Bible is "the Word of God to humankind."

Beyond its two main sections (the Old Testament and the New Testament), the Bible contains several more divisions: the Pentateuch, the Historical Books, the Poetry and Wisdom Books, the books of Prophecy, the Gospels, and the Epistles.

Originally, the Holy Scriptures were written on scrolls of papyrus and later parchment, until the invention of the codex. A codex is a handwritten manuscript formatted like a modern book, with pages bound together at the spine within a hardcover.

On so many levels, the Bible is an extraordinary book, from its diverse content and literary styles to its miraculous preservation down through the ages. While the Bible is certainly not the oldest book in history, it is the only ancient text with existing manuscripts that number in the thousands.

In ancient days, the authors of the Bible recorded its messages with whatever resources were available at the time. The Scriptures themselves reveal some of the materials used: engravings in clay, inscriptions on tablets of stone, ink and papyrus, vellum, parchment, leather, and metals.

For a long period in the history of the Bible, common men and women were forbidden access to the Scriptures and their life-transforming truths. The first full copy of the Bible was completed in the Greek language around A.D. 312. It was called the Codex Vaticanus, as it was kept in the Vatican library. By 405 A.D., Jerome had translated both Old and New Testaments into Latin, which the Catholic church made the official language of the Bible in A.D. 600. It wasn't until the 16th century that the entire Bible was translated into English.

Today the Bible is the best-selling book of all time, with billions of copies distributed throughout the world in more than 2,400 languages.

Answer 2

The Bible.