Page 20 - Doctrine and History of the Preservation of the Bible Student Textbook

Study Section 3: Terms which Reference the Bible

3.1 Connect

Do you have a nick name? Sometimes people will call someone else a name that is not their
given name, but a name that describes something about them. For example, I had an uncle
who had red hair and everyone called him “Red!” They called my dad, “BJ” because no one
could pronounce his last name. I call my wife “Gorgeous” because even though she is getting
up there in age, she is still beautiful to me (She calls me “Honey”). So nick names often tell us
something about the person to which we are referencing. Well, in the same sense, the Bible
has several “nick names.” These names tell us some characteristic of the Bible. So let’s examine some
of the Bible’s nicknames…

3.2 Objectives

1. The student should be able to list reference words that are used in place of the word Bible but
describe the same book.

2. The student should be able to explain why the Bible is unique among all the other ancient books
ever written.

3.3 Terms which Reference the Bible

Bible or Biblios

Early books were written on a paper made of papyrus, a reed grown in the Nile River Basin in
Egypt. The reed was harvested and shipped to a Phoenician seaport city called Byblos (also
called Gebal). A Codex(books) was then created by binding pages together, with both sides of
the paper used. Writing material was made from the papyrus plant by cutting the pith of the
plant in one foot strips and setting it in the sun to dry. The strips were then laid in horizontal rows with
rows of vertical strips glued to the horizontal rows in a crisscross fashion similar to the way plywood is
constructed today. The horizontal rows were smoother and became the writing surface. A book,
therefore, became known as byblos. The Latin word, biblia, was a derivative of the original word. The
French translated the word, Bible, which means, “the books.” Eventually, the plural form biblia was
used by Latin-speaking Christians to denote all the books of the Old and New Testaments.

Scripture
Another term used for the Bible is the word, “Scripture,” from the
Greek grafh, meaning “a writing.” The plural is used collectively of the sacred
writings as a whole, the Scriptures (i.e., the Old Testament, Matt. 21:42;
26:54; John 5:39; Rom. 15:4). The singular is sometimes used of the sacred
writings as a whole (Rom. 4:3; John 7:42) and sometimes of a specific passage
(Mark 12:10; 15:28; Luke 4:21). In the New Testament this term is used
exclusively of the Scripture.

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