Christians worldwide look to it as sacred scripture the written word of God, given by divine inspiration. It has influenced art, language, music, and literature for more than 2,000 years: in fact, the history of Western art cannot be fully understood without at least some knowledge of the Bible.
The Bible’s teachings have also shaped social, economic, and political developments, contributing to Western civilization’s emphasis on the value of the individual rather than the state.
It is the subject of academic study by believers and skeptics, and its words are the source of comfort and challenge from pulpits on every continent.
Moved by God The Bible is a collection of 66 books, written by some 40 authors, living on three continents (Africa, Asia, and Europe), over 1,400 years (c.1200 BCE–c.100 CE).
These authors understood themselves to be “moved by God” to write “the word of the Lord.” By the 1st century BCE, most Jews had come to recognize the 39 books of the Hebrew Bible, written in Hebrew and Aramaic, as God’s written word the scriptures (from scriptura, Latin for “writings”).
Later, the Christian churches of the 1st and 2nd centuries CE similarly acknowledged the four Gospels and a range of apostolic letters, written in Greek, as the word of God, alongside the earlier Hebrew scriptures.
These texts communicate to the modern reader through a system of transmission and translation that began with the ancient Israelites. As early as the 3rd century CE, scholars were comparing copies
