Is There Such a Thing as “THE Bible”?

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“The Bible” as an Official Book?

On October 4th of 2021, Texas state representative Glenn Rogers introduced a bill to make the Bible the official state book of Texas.

The opening paragraph of the resolution claims, “The Bible has filled many roles in the saga of Texas, serving as a social and cultural touchstone that has been integral to the state’s history and development.”

References to “The Bible” are common in the Christian world. Such language assumes that there is one, definitive Bible.

Is there such a thing as “THE Bible,” however?

It’s not as simple as the Texas legislator seems to think!

Whose Bible?

If you have a Bible, take a look at the table of contents.

If it is a Protestant Bible, you will see sixty-six books listed. Thirty-nine will be listed as the Old Testament and twenty-seven as the New Testament. These are the books most Protestant Christians consider as scripture.

If you have a Roman Catholic Bible, however, you will find seventy-three books listed as having scriptural authority. Seven books are included in addition to those found in the Protestant Bible. These are sometimes referred to as the Deuterocanonical books, or as the Apocrypha. Included are: Tobit, Judith, Wisdom of Solomon, Sirach, Baruch, and 1 and 2 Maccabees. The Catholic canon also includes passages in the books of Esther and Daniel not found in Protestant Bibles.

Other Christians recognize other books, too. For example, the 36 million members of the Ethiopian Orthodox church recognize eight-one books. In addition to the books that Roman Catholics recognize, they include titles such as Jubilees, Enoch, 2 Esdras, and 3 Maccabees, among others

Other Christian churches recognize different lists of books. Jewish groups recognize the books Christians call the Old Testament as scriptures grouped differently and called the Tanakh.

So whose Bible is “THE Bible”?

Which Translation?

None of the books of these Bibles were written in English. The books were written in ancient languages, mostly Hebrew and Greek. All the Bibles in English are translations from these ancient languages. Some translations represent the work of a large team of translators. A few are the work of individuals.

Each translation represents thousands upon thousands of choices. First, a choice has been made of which manuscript to follow. Many different versions of each book may exist in the ancient languages. The versions are not identical. Where they vary, a choice must be made. Then more choices are made for how each word and phrase is rendered in English. Translators are human beings with their own points of view. They make human choices that reflect methods of translation as well as their assumptions, so translations are different.

So which translation is “THE Bible”?

No Single Bible

Even if we only consider Christianity, in the twenty-first century it does not have a single Bible, in the United States or around the globe. Historically, Christianity has actually never had a single scripture. The debate over which texts are truly scripture has been ongoing since the church began.

A list of the books recognized as scripture is known as a “canon.”  Books included are called “canonical.” Christians have never agreed on a canon. Each group’s canon represents a history of its own.

While each sect of the Christian world may think of their own Bible as THE Bible, history shows there never has been one definitive Christian scripture.

So which one is “THE Bible”?

Is there any such thing?

There is not really any such thing as "THE Bible,” but we commonly refer to “The Bible” as if it exists as a single thing. That’s why we have not answered this as “No.”