Bible

See also: bible

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English bible, from Middle Latin biblia (“book”) (misinterpreted as a feminine from earlier Latin neuter plural biblia (“books”)), from Ancient Greek βιβλία (biblía, “books”), plural of βιβλίον (biblíon, “small book”), originally a diminutive of βίβλος (bíblos, “book”), from βύβλος (búblos, “papyrus”) (from the ancient Phoenician city of Byblos which exported this writing material).

Old English used biblioþēce (from βιβλιοθήκη) and ġewritu (whence English writs) for "the Scriptures".

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈbaɪbəl/
• Rhymes: -aɪbəl

Proper noun

Bible (plural Bibles)

an open Bible

1. The main religious text in Christianity.

   In my religion class we learn about the Bible, as well as religious texts of other religions.

   • 2009, Across the Spectrum: Understanding Issues in Evangelical Theology, page 16:

     Many non-Christians regard portions of the Bible as “inspiring,” but they do not believe the Bible was “inspired by God” […]

2. The Jewish holy book that was largely incorporated into the Christian Bible.

   She's Jewish, but she doesn't read the Bible because she's not religious.

3. The analogous holy book of another religion.

Synonyms

• (Christian religious text): Christian Bible, Holy Bible, Good Book
• (Jewish religious text): Tanakh, Tanach, Jewish Bible, Hebrew Bible, (loosely) Old Testament
• (other religious text): bible

Coordinate terms

• (religious texts) scripture, religious text; Bible,‎ Qur'an,‎ Tao Te Ching,‎ Torah,‎ Veda ^{(Category: en:Religion) [edit]}

Derived terms

Derived terms

• Bible basher
• Bible bashing
• Bible belt
• Bible scholar
• bible society
• Bible story
• Bible study

• Bible thumper
• biblical
• Biblical
• bibliolatry
• King James Bible
• Satanic Bible
• swear on a stack of Bibles

Translations

Christian holy book

• Afrikaans: Bybel (af)
• Albanian: Bibla (sq)
• Arabic: الْكِتَاب الْمُقَدَّس‎‎ m (al-kitāb al-muqaddas)
• Armenian: Աստվածաշունչ (Astvacašunčʿ)
• Asturian: Biblia f
• Azerbaijani: Tövrat və İncil, Төврат вә Инҹил, İncil
• Bashkir: Библия (Bibliya)
• Basque: Biblia
• Belarusian: бі́блія f (bíblija), Бі́блія f (Bíblija)
• Bengali: বাইবেল (baibel)
• Breton: Bibl (br) m
• Bulgarian: би́блия (bg) f (bíblija)
• Burmese: သမ္မာကျမ်း (my) (samma-kyam:)
• Catalan: Bíblia (ca) f
• Chechen: Библи (Bibli)
• Chichewa: baibulo
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 聖經, 圣经 (sing³ ging¹)

  Mandarin: 聖經 (zh), 圣经 (zh) (shèngjīng)

  Min Nan: 聖經, 圣经 (Sèng-keng)

• Cornish: Bibel m, Beybel m
• Czech: Bible (cs) f
• Danish: bibel (da) c
• Dhivehi: ބައިބަލް‎‎ (baibal)
• Dinka: Wɛ̈t de Nhialic
• Dutch: bijbel (nl) m, Schrift f
• Esperanto: Biblio
• Estonian: Piibel
• Ewe: Biblia
• Faroese: Bíblia f
• Finnish: Raamattu (fi)
• French: Bible (fr) f
• Galician: Biblia f
• Georgian: ბიბლია (biblia)
• German: Bibel (de) f
• Greek: Αγία Γραφή (el) f (Agía Grafí), Βίβλος (el) f (Vívlos), Βύβλος (el) (Vývlos)
• Greenlandic: biibili
• Gujarati: બાઇબલ (bāibal)
• Hebrew: בִּיבְּלִיָּה‎‎ (bíbliya), תָּנָ״ךְ‎‎ m (hatanákh)
• Hindi: बाइबिल (hi) (bāibil), बाइबल (bāibal), इंजील (hi) m (iñjīl)
• Hungarian: biblia (hu)
• Icelandic: biblía f
• Ido: biblo (io)
• Indonesian: alkitab, injil (id), Alkitab (id)
• Interlingua: biblia, Biblia
• Irish: Bíobla m
• Italian: Bibbia (it) f
• Japanese: 聖書 (ja) (せいしょ, seisho), バイブル (baiburu), 経典 (ja) (きょうてん, kyōten, けいてん, keiten)
• Kannada: ಬೈಬಲ್ (kn) (baibal)
• Kashubian: Biblëjô
• Kazakh: Таурат және Інжіл (Tawrat jäne İnjil), інжіл (injil)
• Khmer: គម្ពីរគ្រិស្តសាសនា (kumpii krɨh saasnaa)
• Komi-Permyak: Библия (Biblija)
• Komi-Zyrian: Библия (Biblija)
• Korean: 성경 (ko) (seonggyeong) (聖經 (ko)), 성서 (ko) (seongseo) (聖書 (ko))
• Kyrgyz: Библия (ky) (Bibliya), библия (bibliya)
• Ladino: Biblia
• Lao: ພະຄໍາພີ (pha kham phī), ພະຄຳພີ (pha kham phī)
• Latin: biblia f
• Latvian: Bībele
• Lithuanian: Biblija (lt)

• Macedonian: Библија f (Biblija), Свето Писмо n (Sveto Pismo)
• Malay: alkitab, Alkitab, Injil, kitab Injil
• Malayalam: ബൈബിൾ (ml) (baibiḷ)
• Maltese: Il-Bibbja f
• Manx: Yn Vible
• Maore Comorian: Labiblu, Urongozi wa Mungu class 11
• Maori: Paipera
• Marathi: बायबल (bāyabal)
• Mongolian: библи (mn) (bibli)
• Nahuatl: huehuetlahtolli
• Navajo: Diyin God Bizaad
• Nepali: बाइबल (bāibal)
• Ngazidja Comorian: makalima ya Mngu class 6
• Norman: Bibl'ye f
• Northern Sami: Biibbal
• Norwegian: bibel (no) m
• Ossetian: Библи (Bibli)
• Paiwan: Kai nua Cemas
• Persian: کتاب مقدس‎‎ (kitâb-e moqaddas), انجیل‎‎ (fa) (enjil)
• Polish: Biblia (pl) f, Pismo Święte (pl) n
• Portuguese: Bíblia (pt) f
• Romanian: Biblie (ro) f
• Romansch: Bibgia f, Bibla f
• Russian: би́блия (ru) f (bíblija), Свяще́нное Писа́ние (ru) n (Svjaščénnoje Pisánije), Би́блия (ru) f (Bíblija)
• Rwanda-Rundi: Bibiliya
• Saterland Frisian: Biebel f
• Scottish Gaelic: Bìoball m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: Библија f, Свето Писмо n

  Roman: Biblija (sh) f, Sveto Pismo n

• Sikaiana: Laumea Tapu
• Sindhi: بائبل‎‎
• Sinhalese: බයිබලය (bayibalaya)
• Slovak: biblia (sk) f
• Slovene: Biblija (sl) f, Sveto pismo n
• Sorbian:

  Lower Sorbian: Biblija f

  Upper Sorbian: Biblija f

• Spanish: Biblia (es) f
• Swahili: Biblia (sw), Neno la Mungu class 5
• Swedish: bibel (sv) c
• Tagalog: Bibliya
• Tajik: Таврот ва Инҷил (tg) (Tavrot va Injil), Инҷил (tg) (Injil)
• Tamil: விவிலியம் (ta) (viviliyam)
• Tatar: Библия (Bibliya), библия (bibliya)
• Telugu: బైబిల్ (baibil)
• Thai: พระคัมภีร์
• Tok Pisin: Baibel
• Turkish: Kitab-ı Mukaddes (tr), Kutsal Kitap (tr), İncil (tr)
• Turkmen: Injil, Инҗил
• Ukrainian: бі́блія (uk) f (bíblija), Бі́блія (uk) f (Bíblija)
• Urdu: بائبل‎‎ (ur) (bā'ibil), انجیل اور تورات‎‎ (injīl ōr tōrāt)
• Uyghur: ئىنجىل‎‎ (ug) (injil)
• Uzbek: Tavrot va Injil, Таврот ва Инжил, injil (uz), Muqaddas Kitob
• Vietnamese: Kinh Thánh (vi)
• Volapük: bib (vo)
• Wallisian: Tohi tapu
• Welsh: Beibl (cy) m
• West Frisian: Bibel
• Yiddish: ביבל‎‎ f (bibl)
• Yup'ik: Qaneryaraq, Qaneryaraqegtaar

Jewish holy book — see Tanakh

holy book of another religion

• Finnish: raamattu (fi), pyhä kirja
• Hindi: धर्मग्रंथ (hi) m (dharmagranth)

• Khmer: គម្ពីរសៃយ (kumpii say) (Buddhist scriptures)

Noun

Bible (plural Bibles)

1. A specific version, edition, translation, or copy of one of the above-mentioned texts.

Synonyms

• (specific version or copy): bible

See also

• Bible on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Bible on Wikisource.Wikisource

Etymology 2

From a Middle English diminutive of the given name Isabel.

Proper noun

Bible

1. A matronymic surname​.

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Czech

Alternative forms

• bible

Proper noun

Bible f

1. The Bible (The Christian holy book; the Old and New Testaments)

Related terms

• biblický
• biblista
• biblistický
• biblistika

Further reading

• Bible in Kartotéka Novočeského lexikálního archivu
• bible in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého, 1960–1971, 1989

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French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bibl/

Proper noun

Bible f

1. The Bible (The Christian holy book; the Old and New Testaments)

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Middle English

Proper noun

Bible

1. Alternative form of bible

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Middle French

Proper noun

Bible f

1. The Bible (The Christian holy book; the Old and New Testaments)