Polyglot Bible, Bible in which different texts, often in different languages, are laid out in parallel columns. Polyglot Bibles serve as tools for textual criticism. Origen's Hexapla was the most famous ancient example. More recent Polyglot Bibles include the Complutensian Polyglot, which contained the first printed Greek New Testament (prepared at Alcalá, Spain, 1514-17); the Antwerp Polyglot (1571-80); the Paris Polyglot (1629-57); and the London, or Walton's, Polyglot (1654-57). The latter is the most elaborate and contains—besides the usual Hebrew and Greek—the Samaritan Pentateuch and the Aramaic, Latin, Ethiopian, Syrian, Arabic, and Persian biblical texts.

Mazarin Bible, considered to be the first important work printed by Gutenberg and the earliest book printed from movable types. The Bible, printed at Mainz, probably required several years of work; it was completed not later than 1455 and printed in an edition of about 180 copies. The text of the Bible is Latin. The type is a Gothic style related to Old English and similar to the best handwriting of the time. Colored initials and other illuminations were hand drawn. The pages of the book are folio, each page is in two columns, and, with few exceptions, each column has 42 lines. The edition includes both vellum and paper copies. In design and workmanship, the Mazarin Bible holds its place as one of the finest of all printed books. It is called the Mazarin Bible because the first copy to recapture attention was in the library of Cardinal Mazarin, in Paris. It is called also the Gutenberg Bible and the 42-line Bible.

Bible societies, a movement formed for the translation, printing, and dissemination of the Holy Scriptures; for much of its history it was predominantly Protestant, but there now is considerable Roman Catholic and Orthodox involvement. The Canstein Bible Society established (1710) by Baron von Canstein at Halle, Germany was an important early organization. In 1780 the Bible Society was formed in England to distribute Bibles among soldiers and sailors; the name was later changed to the Naval and Military Bible Society. A pioneer and leader is the British and Foreign Bible Society founded (1804) in London, beginning its work with Welsh Bibles for Thomas Charles. With branches throughout the world, it has distributed Bibles in hundreds of languages. In the United States the formation of Bible societies began early in the 19th cent. Delegates from these associations founded (1816) the American Bible Society, which has many affiliates. Through its work, the Bible has been translated into many languages and has been distributed widely. A 1898 meeting in Boscobel, Wis., led to the founding of the Christian Commercial Men's Association of America, more usually known as the Gideons, International. Its program of placing Bibles in hotel rooms for use by commercial travelers and others has made the organization internationally known. In 1946, delegates from 13 countries formed an international association known as the United Bible Societies, with headquarters in London and in Geneva; there are now 127 member societies.

Bible Christians, denomination of Methodists in England founded by William O'Bryan. They seceded from the Wesleyan Methodist Church (1815-19) and in 1907 were merged with two other branches in the United Methodist Church.

Bible [Gr.,=the books], term used since the 4th cent. to denote the Christian Scriptures and later, by extension, those of various religious traditions. This article discusses the nature of religious scripture generally and the Christian Scriptures specifically, as well as the history of the translation of the Bible into English. For the composition and the canon of the Hebrew and Christian Bible, see Old Testament; New Testament; Apocrypha; Pseudepigrapha.

The Nature of Scripture

The sacred writings of the religions of the world exhibit a variety of genres—prayers, visions, ritual, moral codes, myths, historical narratives, legends, and revelatory discourses. Such works have tended to be transmitted orally at first and committed to writing at a later date. This is true of much of the content of the Christian Bible as well as of the Hindu Vedas and the Jewish Mishnah.

The sacred character of such writings is accorded them by communities that have come to value the traditions they embody. Scripture is also perceived in some sense as heavenly in origin—the Qur'an and the Book of Mormon are good examples of this. Religious communities value highly those who interpret their scriptures at both the scholarly and popular levels. Translation of scripture into the vernacular, though resisted in some religious traditions, is a common phenomenon. However, the original Arabic of the Qur'an is regarded as the actual words of God, and therefore as sacrosanct, and is printed alongside its translation. Translations can assume the status of inspired text, as did the Greek translation of the Jewish Scriptures (the Septuagint) in Hellenistic Jewish and Christian communities. The process of canonizing scripture has been an extended one in many religious traditions, e.g., the Jewish, Christian, and Buddhist faiths. Other traditions authorized their respective bodies of scripture early, e.g., the Sikhs, Muslims, and Manichaeans. Inspiration is an adjunct of the idea of the divine authority of scripture.

The role of scripture in the life of the community involves its public recitation or reading at worship, its veneration as a cult object, and its citation in public prayer and in prescribing appropriate rituals. In the private devotional life of the faithful, scripture is the focus of meditation. The use of scripture to function as a charm to ward off evil or to induce healing is also common. Scripture is also the inspiration for cultural expression in art, music, and literature.

The Bible as Christian Scripture

The traditional Christian view of the Bible is that it was written under the guidance of God and that it therefore conveys truth, either literally or figuratively. In recent times the view of many Christians has been influenced by the pronouncements of critics (see higher criticism); this has produced a counteraction in the form of fundamentalism, whose chief emphasis has been on the literal inerrancy of the Bible. The interpretation of the Bible is one of the traditional points of difference between Protestants, who believe that the Scriptures speak for themselves, and Roman Catholics, who hold that the church has ultimate authority in the interpretation of the Scriptures.

English Translations of the Christian Bible

John Wyclif was one of the first to project the publication and distribution of the Bible in the vernacular among the English people, and two translations go by his name. In the 15th cent. the Lollards did much to extend the use of the Wyclifite translation. The next name in the history of the English Bible is that of William Tyndale, whose translation was not from the Latin Vulgate, like Wyclif's, but from the Hebrew and Greek. Its quality is attested by its use as a basis of the Authorized Version. Tyndale's New Testament (1525-26) was the first English translation to be printed. Contemporary with Tyndale was Miles Coverdale. The second version of Coverdale and the translation of Thomas Matthew closely followed Tyndale. In 1539 the English crown issued its first official version, in the name of Henry VIII. This, the Great Bible, was done principally by Coverdale. The Geneva Bible, or Breeches Bible, was a revision of the Great Bible, financed and annotated by the Calvinists of Geneva. The Bishops' Bible (1568) was a recasting of Tyndale.

The greatest of all English translations was the Authorized Version (AV), or King James Version (KJV), of 1611, made by a committee of churchmen led by Lancelot Andrewes and composed of many of the finest scholars in England. The beautiful English of this version has had great influence and is generally ranked in English literature with the work of Shakespeare. The phraseology of much of it is that of Tyndale. The Douay, or Rheims-Douay, Version was published by Roman Catholic scholars at Reims (New Testament, 1582) and Douai, France (Old Testament, 1610); it was extensively revised by Richard Challoner. In the 19th cent. the project of revising the Authorized Version from the original tongues was undertaken by the Church of England with the cooperation of nonconformist churches. The results of this revision were the English Revised Version and the American Revised Version (pub. 1880-90).

Many scholars, either cooperatively or independently, have translated the Bible into English. In other literatures, also, the translation of the Bible has had a formative effect on the literary language, notably in the case of Martin Luther's German translation. Occasionally translation of the Bible has been the first or the only notable work in a language, e.g., the translation by Ulfilas into Gothic.

In the 20th cent., American biblical scholars combined to produce the Revised Standard Version (RSV), published in 1952 and immediately adopted by many churches. A completely new translation, the work of a joint committee of representatives of all Protestant denominations in Great Britain, aided by Roman Catholic consultants, was begun in 1946. The New Testament was first published in 1961, and the entire Bible, called The New English Bible, appeared in 1970. New Roman Catholic translations were also undertaken, the Westminster Version in England, and a complete revision of the Rheims-Douay edition sponsored by the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine in the United States. The latter, after undergoing several major revisions and retranslations, was finally published as the New American Bible (1970). In addition, an English translation of the French Catholic Bible de Jerusalem (1961) appeared as the Jerusalem Bible (1966). A revision of the RSV was published in 1989 as the New Revised Standard Version.

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. Seealso biblical source, biblical translation.

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