History of the Bible

The word "Bible" is from Latin biblia and Greek biblion. While we today refer to it as "the Bible," since the word may have been a reference to Egyptian paper used for scrolls that was sold in the Phoenician city of Byblios (in modern Lebanon), the early Church referred to it in Latin and Greek as the "Holy Bible" -- Latin biblia sacra and Greek ta biblio to hagia (plural for "the holy books").

The Old Testament is a collection of Hebrew sacred writings. The New Testament is the Christian "canon" (Church law). See entry here on the Catholic Bible for a list of books of the Bible and its parts (as well as the difference between Catholic and Protestant Bibles).

This page will focus on the New Testament and the various editions of the Bible over time. A larger discussion of the "history" of the Bible, i.e. its origins, historicity, and development is beyond the scope of this article.

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Vulgate

St. Jerome translated the Hebrew and Greek into Latin. As his translation became the most commonly used, it was referred to as "the vulgate," for common.

Bible paper materials

Manuscript

Means "hand written" (manu + script). All Bibles produced until the use of the printing press were thus manuscripts.

Papyrus

The most significant development in the history of the Bible is the spread of Egyptian papyrus scrolls, which, as discussed above, gives us the name "Bible," as papyrus paper was sold in the trade port Byblos. Like modern paper, papyrus paper is constructed from flattened, glued (or sorts) cellulose, in this case from the papyrus plant, a tall reed.

Scrolls

The Hebrew texts were written on papyrus and cut into long pieces that could be rolled up, thus a "scroll." The Pentateuch is the Hebrew Torah, which contains the "Five Books of Moses", thus penta for "five scrolls" or five scroll-cases. Hebrew is read from left to right, so the scrolls would be rolled in that direction. They were stored in clay jars that had lids to protect them.

Codex

From Latin caudex, for "tree trunk," the "codex" is what we would call a "book," i.e. a hard cover with "pages." The word "page" is from Latin pagina for "leaf of paper" and was typically strips of papyrus that were fastened together and folded, so the "page" was the one the reader was reading from. The word "page" comes from PIE *pag- for "to fasten."

Codices (plural for codex) were made by stacking sheets of papyrus or vellum paper, folding them all together, then sewing, or "binding" them with thread along the fold, thus creating a "book" format with pages.

Parchment

Or vellum, is animal skin used as paper, which was preferable to papyrus for its durability.