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Portal:Bible

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The Bible Portal

The Gutenberg Bible, the first printed Bible (mid-15th century)

A Bible is a collection of religious texts that is central to Christianity or Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. Bibles are anthologies (compilations of texts of a variety of forms) with varying canonical texts across traditions. The Hebrew Bible was originally written in Hebrew (with some parts in Aramaic) and the second portion of the Christian Bible, known as the New Testament, was originally written in Koine Greek. Biblical texts include instructions, narratives, allegories, poetry, letters, prophecies, and other genres. The collection of materials accepted as part of the Bible by a particular religious tradition or community is called a biblical canon. Believers generally consider it to be a product of divine inspiration, but the way they understand what that means and how they interpret the text varies.

The religious texts, or scriptures, were compiled by different religious communities into various official collections. The earliest contained the first five books of the Bible, called the Torah ('Teaching') in Hebrew and the Pentateuch (meaning 'five books') in Greek. The second-oldest part was a collection of narrative histories and prophecies (the Nevi'im). The third collection, the Ketuvim, contains psalms, proverbs, and narrative histories. Tanakh (Hebrew: תָּנָ״ךְ‎, romanizedTanaḵ) is an alternate term for the Hebrew Bible. The Masoretic Text is the medieval version of the Tanakh—written in Hebrew and Aramaic—that is considered the authoritative text of the Hebrew Bible by modern Rabbinic Judaism. The Septuagint is a Koine Greek translation of the Tanakh from the third and second centuries BCE; it largely overlaps with the Hebrew Bible.

Christianity began as an outgrowth of Second Temple Judaism, using the Septuagint as the basis of the first portion of the Christian Bible, known as the Old Testament. The early Church continued the Jewish tradition of writing and incorporating what it saw as inspired, authoritative religious books. The gospels, which are narratives about the life and teachings of Jesus, along with the Pauline epistles and other texts quickly coalesced into the New Testament. The oldest parts of the Bible may be as early as c. 1200 BCE, while the books of the New Testament were mostly written in the 1st century CE.

With estimated total sales of over five billion copies, the Christian Bible is the best-selling publication of all time. Biblical texts have had a profound influence both on Western culture and history and on cultures around the globe. The study of these texts through biblical criticism has also indirectly impacted culture and history. Some view biblical texts as morally problematic, historically inaccurate, or corrupted by time; others find it a useful historical source for certain peoples and events or a source of ethical teachings. The Christian Bible is currently translated or in the process of being translated into about half of the world's languages. (Full article...)

The High Priest offers the sacrifice of a goat performing korban

In Judaism, the korban (pronounced [/qɔrˈbɑːn/]; Biblical Hebrew: קָרְבָּן, romanized: qorbān; ), also romanized as qorban or corban, is any of a variety of sacrificial offerings described and commanded in the Torah.

The term korban primarily refers to sacrificial offerings given by humans to God to show homage, win favor, or secure pardon. The object sacrificed was usually an animal that was ritually slaughtered and then transferred from the human to the divine realm by being burned upon an altar. Other sacrifices included grain offerings, which were made from flour and oil instead of meat. (Full article...)

Did you know (auto-generated) - load new batch

  • ... that a poem by Moses da Rieti includes an encyclopedia of the sciences, a Jewish paradise fantasy, and a post-biblical history of Jewish literature?
  • ... that Geoffrey Cuming edited what has been called a gramophone librarian's "Bible"?
  • ... that meetings between Biblical and post-Biblical characters, such as when Moses sees Rabbi Akiva teach and be martyred, are rare in Talmudic stories?
  • ... that conservationist Stephen King was kicked out of Bible College for refusing to wear shoes?
  • ... that the Biblical Magi dispense mysterious vision-inducing foods in the Revelation of the Magi, which a scholar proposed to be an account of ritual hallucinogen intake?
  • ... that the scriptural phrase "fear and trembling" has been used to celebrate hospitality, explore the nature of faith, and justify slavery?

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"For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." Hebrews 4:12 nkjv

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