# The (Christian) Bible/Scripture



## JLanguage

The context:
"Seventh-day Adventists uphold orthodox Christian teachings such as the infallibility of Scripture, the substitutionary atonement, the resurrection of the dead and justification by faith."

Thanks for your help,
Jonathan.​


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## Nunty

Hi Jonathan,

What is the question that you would like us to answer, please?

Thanks!


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## JLanguage

Nun-Translator said:


> Hi Jonathan,
> 
> What is the question that you would like us to answer, please?
> 
> Thanks!


 
I would like to know how to translate "(Christian) Bible/Scripture". I apologize for not stating that explicitly in my original post.


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## Flaminius

Hi Jonathan,

Christians call their scriptures ספרי הברית החדשה (sifrej ha-brit ha-chadasha).  There may be a word that refers to the same books without  entering the discussion of what are old and new testaments, but I don't know.


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## Nunty

As a Hebrew-speaking Christian, I'll allow myself a little fine tuning of Flaminius' perfectly correct reply. 

There are actually three parts to the question: what do we call the Old Testament (the Jewish Bible), the New Testament, and the whole thing altogether.

Normally we say תנ"ך (tanak), which is the Hebrew acronym for Torah, Prophets and Writings and is the how Jews refer to the Bible ("Bible"for Jews, "Old Testament" for Christians.) Some people, for the sake of parallelism or what they see as precision, say הברית הישנה (habrit yashena) or הברית הראשונה (habrit harishona), which are respectively, the Old Covenant and the First Covenant.

The New Testament is universally referred to as הברית החדשה (habrit hehadasha). If we want to refer to "the books of the New Testament", we would say ספרי הברית החדשה (sifrei havrit hehadasha), as Flaminius indicated.

Referring to the whole Christian Bible, which includes both the OT and the NT, is tricky and there is no one agreed term. In some circles, people simply say תנ"ך (tanak), for which see the first part of my answer. Others use a combined term that I personally find awkward: התנ"ך והברית החדשה (hatanak v'habrit hahadasha). Still others say ביבליה (biblia) from Bible, but I have most often heard this in reference to the bound book itself. My personal preference for what Christians generally mean by "the Bible" is ספר הבריתות (sefer habritot), the book of the covenants.

I hope that somewhere in there, Jonathan, you find the answer to your questions. Things are rarely as straightforward as we would like!


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## Nunty

Jonathan, I am so sorry. I got so involved in the translation of terms (my hobby) that I utterly forgot the context. 



JLanguage said:


> The context:
> "Seventh-day Adventists uphold orthodox Christian teachings such as the infallibility of Scripture, the substitutionary atonement, the resurrection of the dead and justification by faith."​



In that sentence, I would translate Scripture simply as הכתובים (haketuvim) or הכתובים הקדושים (haketuvim hakedoshim), which are respectively Scripture and Holy Scripture.

I'm sorry I left that bit -- the key bit -- out of my first answer. Chalk it up to enthusiasm!


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## amikama

Nun-Translator said:


> In that sentence, I would translate Scripture simply as הכתובים (haketuvim) or *הכתובים הקדושים* (haketuvim hakedoshim), which are respectively Scripture and Holy Scripture.


I think *כתבי הקודש* is better.


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## Nunty

I would agree with you amikama, that כתבי הקודש is better than הכתובים הקדושים, except for the awkward fact that most of the Hebrew terms for Christian concepts that are in current use (such as הכתובים הקדושים) were coined by non-native speakers and non-Jews. Current usage is changing as the demographics of the Hebrew-speaking Christian community is changing, but for the moment I hear הכתובים הקדושים more frequently as a translation for Holy Scripture.

And it's not the worst example by far!


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