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The Bible

The Bible is the title of compilations of the sacred texts of Judaism and Christianity.

Bibliographic notes

The canon of texts used in the Bible varies among religious groups. Jewish Bibles contain books written in Hebrew and Aramaic before the rise of the Roman Empire and the birth of Jesus Christ. (Christians call this compilation the Old Testament; it is also called the Tanakh or Hebrew Bible. Editions of just these books can be found under Bible. Old Testament.) Christian Bibles add 27 books written in Greek by early Christians, collectively called the New Testament. Editions containing just the New Testament can be found under Bible. New Testament. Versions listed here include both testaments.

Writers of the New Testament used the Septuagint, a popular Greek Bible, as their "Old Testament". Jews, however, eventually settled on a canon with fewer books, and that smaller canon is also used as the Old Testament in most Protestant Bibles. Catholic and Orthodox Christians include additional books used in the Septuagint, which are also known as the Apocrypha, in their Old Testaments.

See also
 
Multi-version Bible sites Popular versions online

These versions appear in recent CBA best-seller reports (which tend to favor versions bought by American Protestants).

Versions associated with particular Christian groups
-- Catholic Bibles -- Joseph Smith Bibles

Joseph Smith's edited version of the King James Bible is used by some Latter day saint churches, but the largest such church, the LDS Church, uses the more usual King James Version instead.

-- Other groups Missionary translations

These are translations made for use in missions to aboriginal peoples, in their native languages. Some of these are among the earliest records of writings in those languages.

Other versions of particular historic significance Other online editions and versions Editions in libraries

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Edited by John Mark Ockerbloom (onlinebooks@pobox.upenn.edu)
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