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The Bible |
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Books of the Old Testament |
In Christianity, the Old Testament refers to the books that form
the first of the two-part Christian Biblical canon. These works
correspond to the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh), with some variations and
additions. In the Eastern Orthodox Church the comparable texts are
known as the Septuagint, from the original Greek translation of the
Hebrew scriptures. In the Syriac Orthodox church, they are known as
the Peshitta. The term "Old Testament" itself is credited to Melito
of Sardis. Tertullian also used the Latin vetus testamentum. The Old
Testament in the Protestant, Roman Catholic, and Greek Orthodox
Bibles have 39 books in common.
Some scholars believe much of the Old Testament was written in
Mesopotamia. It is believed the Old Testament was composed and
compiled between the 12th and the 2nd century BC. Jesus and his
disciples referenced it when discussing Jesus's teachings, referring
to it as "the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms ... the
scriptures". (Luke 24:44–45) The accounts of Jesus and his disciples
are recorded in the New Testament. |
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Books of The New Testament |
The New Testament is the name
given to the second major division of the Christian Bible, the first
such division being the much longer Old Testament. The New Testament
is sometimes called the Greek New Testament or Greek Scriptures, or
the New Covenant.
The original texts were written by various authors sometime after c.
AD 45, in Koine Greek, the lingua franca of the eastern part of the
Roman Empire. Rylands Papyrus 52 is generally accepted as the
earliest extant record of a canonical New Testament, which dates
somewhere between 117 AD and 138 AD.
Its books were gradually collected into a single volume. Although
Christian denominations differ as to which works are included in the
New Testament, the majority have settled on the same twenty-seven
book canon: it consists of the four narratives of the life and death
of Jesus, called "Gospels"; a narrative of the Apostles' ministries
in the early church, probably by the same author as the Gospel of
Luke, which it continues; twenty-one early letters, commonly called
"epistles" in Biblical context, written by various authors and
consisting mostly of Christian counsel and instruction; and an
Apocalyptic prophecy. |
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The Apocrypha |
The biblical apocrypha are books published in an edition of the Bible whose
canonicity the publisher either rejects or doubts. For this
reason they are typically printed in a third section of the Bible
apart from the Old and New Testaments. In many editions they are
omitted entirely.
Different churches and congregations have differing views on what
constitutes their biblical canon. A comparative list can be found in
the article on books of the Bible. The biblical apocrypha are
sometimes called simply "the" Apocrypha. For extra-biblical works
sometimes referred to as '"apocrypha", see the articles on apocrypha
and on Pseudepigrapha. For biblical works sometimes classified as
"apocrypha" despite being considered canonical by many Christians,
see the article on deuterocanonical books.
Although the term apocrypha simply means hidden, this usage is
sometimes considered pejorative by those who consider some such
works to be canonical parts of scripture. |
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Descriptions of the parts of the Bible are from
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