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So many different meanings and usages are attached to the phrase 'The Bible' that it is desirable at the very outset to understand exactly what is meant when people speak of the Bible as a part of English Literature. To Jews of the modern world, as well as to the Hebrews of the era before Christ, the Bible, or the Holy Scriptures, means the 'Old Testament,' consisting of the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings.

To Christians of the modern world, the Bible consists of (1) these writings of the Old Testament; (2)the writings of the New Testament, a record of the life and work and teaching of the founder of the Christian religion and of his immediate followers; and (3), with certain reservations as to interpretation and use, the books of the Apocrypha, writings composed approximately during the last three centuries of the era before Christ, and for the first time attached to the Hebrew Bible in the Greek translation known as the Septuagint. Of the many translations into English of the whole Bible, extending from the fourteenth to the twentieth century A.D., one only deserves the distinction of being regarded as a part of English literature -- the King James Version of 1611. Later versions or translations -- such as the English Revised of 1885 or the American Standard of 1901 -- are often more accurate in their rendering of the Hebrew or Greek originals; but only in the rarest instances, if at all, more effective in beauty or power of literary expression. For reasons which will appear later, the King James Version is the real 'English Bible,' an enduring classic of our national literature.

The Bible as it appeared in the original version of 1611, and as, with certain differences which may easily be indicated, it is read today by Christian peoples, consists of three main parts: the Old Testament, the Apocrypha, and the New Testament. The thirty-seven books of the Old Testament constitute the Hebrew Bible, as it has existed virtually since about A.D. 100. In this book are preserved the records of the ancient Hebrews -- their laws, their history, their literature, and their religion. The fourteen books of the Apocrypha are writings of various kinds which are similar to the writings of the Old Testament, and were composed during the closing centuries of the era before Christ, but which for one reason or another have never been accepted by the Hebrews as a part of their sacred scriptures, and are not regarded by all Christians as of equal value with the writings of the Old Testament. . . 

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