HISTORY OF BIBLE
Introduction
Four bodies of written works: the Old Testament writings
according to the Hebrew canon; intertestamental works, including the Old
Testament Apocrypha; the New Testament writings; and the New Testament
Apocrypha.
The Old Testament is a collection of
writings that was first compiled and preserved as the sacred books of the
ancient Hebrew people. As the Bible of the
Hebrews and their Jewish descendants down
to the present, these books have been perhaps the most decisive single factor
in the preservation of the Jews as a cultural entity and Judaism as a religion.
The Old Testament and the New Testament—a body of writings that chronicle the
origin and early dissemination of Christianity—constitute the Bible of the Christians.
The literature of the Bible,
encompassing the Old and New Testaments and various non canonical works, has
played a special role in the history and culture of the Western world and has
itself become the subject of intensive critical study. This field of scholarship,
including exegesis (critical interpretation) and hermeneutics (the science of
interpretive principles), has assumed an important place in the theologies of
Judaism and Christianity. The methods and purposes of exegesis and hermeneutics
are treated below. For the cultural and historical contexts in which this
literature developed, see Judaism
and Christianity.

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