bible

Everyday

1. (the Bible, capital B) The holy book of Christians; the Christian Bible contains the Old Testament and the New Testament, and the Hebrew Bible is the holy book of Jews. tree →
2. (a bible) A copy of this book. tree →
3. (informal) The most useful and trusted book on a subject: this cookbook is my bible. tree →

In the lessons

In RE (religious education) lessons pupils learn stories from the Bible and about how Christians and Jews use it. In everyday talk "the bible of football" means the most trusted guide. Phrases: Bible story, family Bible, swear on the Bible, my bible (informal).

Examples

• Christians read the Bible in church. tree →
• The story of Noah's Ark comes from the Bible. tree →
• My grandparents have a big old family Bible. tree →
• (informal) This guidebook is the hikers' bible. tree →
• In court, some people swear on the Bible to tell the truth. tree →
• We read a Bible story in RE. tree →
• Her chief inheritance had been an old Bible, which she read and valued. tree →

Note

Write "the Bible" with a capital B for the holy book; small b for the informal meaning. Adjective: biblical. Different religions have different holy books, such as the Qur'an and the Torah.

In Jewish tradition

Interpretation: Jews call their holy book the Tanakh (Torah, Prophets, Writings), and the Torah, the first five books, is the heart of it. In the primary lessons: In RE (religious education) lessons pupils learn stories from the Bible and about how Christians and Jews use it. In everyday talk "the bible of football" means the most trusted guide. Phrases: Bible story, family Bible, swear on the Bible, my bible (informal).

Examples

• Three Hebrew words are used in the Bible to represent the idea of making, producing or creating. (Sefer Yetzirah, Westcott 1893) tree →
• Bible dictionaries generally give the word as Cherubim, but in Hebrew the initial letter is always K and not Ch. (Sefer Yetzirah, Westcott 1893) tree →
• Most literally, it means ‘waste(land)’, the lifeless open desert, a translation of [Genesis 1:2] so far captured in English only by Robert Alter’s The Hebrew Bible (2019), who poetically renders תֹהוּ וָבֹהוּ tohu vavohu as “waste and welter”; cf. (Sefer Yetzirah, Sefaria community translation) tree →

Note

Write "the Bible" with a capital B for the holy book; small b for the informal meaning. Adjective: biblical. Different religions have different holy books, such as the Qur'an and the Torah.