Heresy, Contempt of Court, or crime.

BIBLE, THE HOLY. So called from a Greek word, meaning "the books,"
just as the word _Scriptures_ means "the writings." The Bible is
divided into two parts--the Old and the New Testaments, or
Covenants. The Old Testament, or the Covenant of God with the
Hebrew nation, is written partly in Hebrew, and partly--the latter
part--in Aramaic. It is most important to remember that it was
written by many different persons, and at widely different times,
spreading over the course of 2,000 years. The New Testament, or the
New Covenant of God with His people, whether Jews or Gentiles,
although also written by many various authors, was produced between
the years A.D. 50, and A.D. 100.

The Bible is called the "Word of God" because the authors wrote by
the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, Heb. i.i; Acts iv.25; 2 Peter
i.21; &c. It is important to remember that we do not claim a
_verbal_ inspiration, for the writers, but simply that God put
into their minds what they should write. Inspiration did not
preserve them from errors in grammar, or natural philosophy, or
anything else foreign to the actual design of the Bible, which is
the revelation of God, and of His will to man.

Thus, it is most important that we should know what books are
inspired, and have a right to form a part of the Holy Scriptures,
in other words what books are _canonical_. The Old Testament, as
we have it now, was used by the Jews in the time of our Lord, who
often quotes from its various books Himself, thus stamping them
with the divine authority which they claimed. Ezra seems to have
determined the canon of Old Testament Scriptures. With regard to
the New Testament, the question of the authenticity and canonicity
of some books was very much more difficult to determine, and an
enormous amount of labour and scholarship has been expended on the
subject. There can be no reasonable doubt now with regard to any
of the _books_ of the New Testament; the only thing now doubtful
is what the original words were in the places where the ancient
manuscripts differ. These differences are called _various
readings_. The publication of the Revised Version of the New
Testament in 1881 was partly an attempt to settle this question.
The differences, as a rule, are very unimportant.

The chief translations of the Bible into English are Wiclif's, 1360;
Tindal (or Tyndale) and Coverdale's, 1526; The Geneva Bible, 1560;
The Bishops' Bible, 1568.