The English word "Bible" is from the Greek phrase ta biblia, "the books," an expression Hellenistic Jews used to describe their sacred books several centuries before the time of Jesus.

Of course, the Bible was not written in one go, but in fact is a collection of writings, the earliest dating back nearly 3,500 years. The Bible is made up of the Old Testament (otherwise known as ...

For Christians, too, it is obvious that the Hebrew Bible represents the books of that part of their Bible that they call the Old Testament in their original languages (mostly Hebrew, some Aramaic).