The term Bible was not used in the old Semitic languages of Hebrew or Aramaic. The English word Bible comes from the old french bible that was derived from the Greek word biblia which meant "books". The original term for the Bible was "Scriptures" or "the Writings". The term Bible came about when the Greek word for scriptures was translated into Latin and the word biblia was substituted to show a collection or library of books. To understand or know what was written in the original or earliest scriptures, one must come at the English translations from a Near Eastern/Aramaic /Hebrew point of view. In Hebrew the name for the Bible is torah. Most scholars translate this Semitic word as the "Law". The torah originally referred to the first five books of Moses, Genesis through Deuteronomy. Later on the Jewish people also used torah to refer to the entire Hebrew sacred writings.( see Tanakh). The Aramaic speaking Semites call the sacred writing auretha. Both torah and auretha derive from the Semitic root yrh and mean "to teach," "to instruct" and by inference "to enlighten". Therefore, the early portions of the book we call "The Bible" is a book of directions, teachings, or enlightenment. One must always consider the Near Eastern culture and times when trying to understand the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament sometimes called the Greek Testament or Greek Scriptures, and sometimes also New Covenant.
And Then There was Light: DR. Rocco A. Errico (Noohra Foundation)
