Forms: 3–4 bibul, 4 bibel, 4–6 bibil(l, 5 bybulle, bybylle, 5–6 byble, 6 bybill, bybul, 4– bible. [a. F. bible, 13th c. (= Pr. bibla, Sp. and Pg. biblia, It. bibbia; whence also Ger. bibel, Du. bijbel, all fem.):—late L. biblia fem. sing., for earlier biblia neut. pl., the Scriptures, a. Gr. τὰ βιβλία, lit. ‘the books,’ in later Christian writers spec. ‘the canonical books, the Scriptures.’
The Gr. βιβλία was pl. of βιβλίον, dim. of βίβλος (1. the inner bark of the papyrus, ‘paper’; 2. a paper, scroll, roll or book), which had ceased to have a diminutive sense, and was the ordinary word for ‘book,’ whether as a distinct treatise, or as a subdivision of a treatise, before its application to the Jewish and Christian Scriptures. In reference to the former, see τὰ βιβλία τὰ ἄγια ‘the holy books,’ in 1 Macc. xii. 9: in Clemens Alex. probably, and Origen (in Joannem v. iv., ed. Lomm. I. 168) c. 223, certainly, τὰ βιβλία include the N. Test. books. In Latin, the first appearance of biblia is not ascertained. Jerome uses bibliothēca for the Scriptures, and this name continued in literary use for several centuries. Of biblia, Becker, Catal. Biblioth. Antiq. 42, has a 9th c. example (see also those under sense 1 below); but the evidence of the Romanic langs. shows that biblia must have been the popular name, and have been treated as a fem. sing., much earlier than this. The common change of a Lat. neuter pl. into a fem. sing. in -a (as in arma, battalia, folia, gaudia, gesta, opera, etc.) was in the case of biblia facilitated by the habit of regarding the Scriptures as one work. In OE. biblioþéce alone occurs; in Anglo-Latin biblia and bibliothēca interchange in the 11th c. catalogue of the library of Lindisfarne; in the 13th c. catalogue of the Durham books only biblia occurs.]
I. 1. The Scriptures of the Old and New Testament. (Sometimes in early use, and still dial., used for the Old Testament; e.g., ‘neither in the Bible nor the Testament.’)
[1095. Catal. Lindisfarne (Becker Catal. Biblioth. Antiq. 172). Unum bibliam in duobus voluminibus … Bibliotheca, id est vetus et novum testamentum in duobus libris.
1266. Catal. Eccles. Dunelm (ibid. 256). Unam bibliam in IV magnis voluminibus … aliam bibliam in duobus voluminibus.]
a. 1300. Cursor M., 1900. As þe bibul [v.r. bibil, bibel, bible].
c. 1330. R. Brunne, Chron., 290. Þe bible may not lie.
c. 1430. Lydg., Min. Poems, 179. Like as the bibylle rehersith.
1528. More, Heresyes, I. Wks. 154/1. He lerned the articles of his beleue in the byble.
1530. Rastell, Bk. Purgat., I. i. Neyther of the bokys of the olde byble nor of the newe testament.
1587. Golding, De Mornay, xxiv. 357. Certaine bookes which we call the Bible or Olde Testament.
1798. Southey, Eng. Eclog., v. Is that the charity your Bible teaches?
1850. Prescott, Mexico, I. 363. [They] carried with them the sword in one hand and the Bible in the other.
b. A copy of the Scriptures.
1468. Sir J. Paston, Lett., 592, II. 329. As for the Byble that the master hath, I wend the uttermost pryse had not passyd v. mark.
1539. Coverdale, Let. Cromwell, in Bible (Bagster), Pref. 18. License and privilege for the sale of his Bibles and New Testaments.
1704. Nelson, Fest. & Fasts, xviii. (1739), 227. To force from Christians their Bibles.
1852. H. Cotton, Edit. Bible, Pref. 8. Mutilated church Bibles.
c. A particular edition, or a copy of it.
1538. Coverdale, Let. Cromwell, in Bible (Bagster), Pref. 16. I may know your pleasure concerning the annotations of this Bible.
1644. Evelyn, Mem. (1857), I. 120. They are described in some of St. Hierom’s bibles.
1835. Penny Cycl., IV. 374/2. This [Geneva] edition is often called the ‘Breeches Bible’ on account of a rendering given in Gen. iii. 7.
1842. Macaulay, Fred. Gt., Ess. (1854), 659/2. To Frederic William, this huge Irishman was what a brass Otho, or a Vinegar Bible, is to a collector of a different kind.
2. Hence fig. A text-book, an authority (of religion, politics, etc.); a sacred book.
1804. Southey, in Robberds, Mem. W. Taylor, I. 517. The Annual … bids fair to become my political bible.
1856. Emerson, Eng. Traits, Wks. 1874, II. The poets who have contributed to the Bible of existing England sentences of guidance.
1883. M. Williams, Relig. Thought Ind., ii. 21. This phase of the Brahmanical system has for its special bible the sacred treatises called Brāhmanas.
† 3. transf. A large book, a tome, a long treatise.
1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. XV. 87. Of þis matere I myȝte make a longe bible.
c. 1384. Chaucer, H. Fame, 1334. Men myght make of hem a bible xxti. foote thykke.
1542. Udall, Erasm. Apophth., 205 a. When he had read a long bible writen and sent to hym from Antipater.
1629. Z. Boyd, Last Battell, 656 (Jam.). I would gladlie know what a blacke bible is that which is called, the Book of the wicked.
II. A collection of books; a library. [One of the senses of Gr. βιβλία: not cited by Du Cange in med.L.; but cf. the converse use of bibliothēca in sense of biblia.]
1382. Wyclif, 2 Macc. ii. 13. He makynge a litil bible [Vulgate bibliothecam] gadride of cuntrees bokis.
c. 1425. in Wr.-Wülcker, Voc., 648. Bibleoteca, bybulle.
1483. Cath. Angl., 31. A Bybylle, biblia, bibliotheca.
III. Comb., chiefly attrib., as Bible-composition, -distributor, -lore, -matter, -reader, -seller, -student, -tone, -version; and Bible-bearing, -reading, adjs. Also Bible-class, a class for the study of the Bible; Bible-oath, a solemn oath taken upon the Bible; Bible-press, bibble-, Naut. a hand rolling-board for cartridges, rocket-cases, etc.; Bible-reader, a reader of the Bible; also, like Bible-woman, one employed to read the Bible from house to house.
1624. Bp. Mountagu, App. Caesarem, in Forster, Sir J. Eliot, I. 256. Saint-seeming, *bible-bearing, and hypocritical.
1820. Southey, Wesley, I. 47. They were called, in derision, the Sacramentarians, *Bible-bigots, Bible-moths.
1698. Congreve, Way of World, V. ii. (D.). So long as it was not a *Bible-oath, we may break it with a safe conscience.
1859. Thackeray, Virginians (1876), 539. He would take his *Bible oath of that.
1874. M. Arnold, in Contemp. Rev., Oct., 806. These two things achieved by us … for the *Bible-reader’s benefit.
1849. Stovel, Introd. Canne’s Necess., 53. The demands of its *Bible-reading members.
1863. M. L. Whately, Ragged Life Egypt, xi. 99. This *Bible-reading continued for several months.
1707. Lond. Gaz., No. 4342/4. Robert Whitledge, *Bible-seller, at the Bible in Creed-lane.
1853. Lynch, Self-Improvement (1859), 43. No *Bible-student can mistake Christianity.
