BIBLE, THE

   (i. e. the Book par excellence, and not so much a book as a library of books), a collection of sacred writings divided into two parts, the Old Testament and the New; the Old, written in Hebrew, comprehending three groups of books, the Pentateuch, the Prophets, and the Hagiographa, bearing on the religion, the history, the institutions, and the manners of the Jews; and the New, written in Greek, comprehending the Four Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, and the Epistles. The Old Testament was translated into Greek at Alexandria by 72 Jews, 280 B.C., and is known as the Septuagint; and the whole book, Old and New, was translated into Latin in a grotto near Bethlehem by St. Jerome, A.D. 385-404, and is known as the Vulgate, after which the two came to be regarded by the Church as of equal divine authority and as sections of one book. It may be permitted to note that the Bible is written throughout, not in a speculative or a scientific, but a spiritual interest, and that its final aim is to guide men in the way of life. The spirit in which it is composed is the spirit of conviction; its essence, both in the root of it and the fruit of it, is faith, and that primarily in a moral power above, and ultimately a moral principle within, both equally divine. The one principle of the book is that loyalty to the divine commands is the one foundation of all well-being, individual and social.