bible: [13] Greek ta biblía meant literally ‘the books’. This was borrowed into ecclesiastical Latin as biblia, where the plural form came to be misanalysed as a feminine singular; hence Old French, and through it English, received bible as a singular noun. Greek biblía itself was the plural of biblíon ‘book’ (whence English bibliography [17]), which was originally a diminutive form of bíblos or búblos. This was used for ‘book’, and for the book’s forerunners, such as scrolls and papyri. It may come from Bublos, an ancient Phoenician port from which papyrus was exported to Greece. => bibliography
early 14c., from Anglo-Latin biblia, Old French bible (13c.) "the Bible," also any large book generally, from Medieval and Late Latin biblia (neuter plural interpreted as feminine singular), in phrase biblia sacra "holy books," a translation of Greek ta biblia to hagia "the holy books," from Greek biblion "paper, scroll," the ordinary word for "book," originally a diminutive of byblos "Egyptian papyrus," possibly so called from Byblos (modern Jebeil, Lebanon), the name of the Phoenician port from which Egyptian papyrus was exported to Greece (compare parchment). Or the place name might be from the Greek word, which then would be probably of Egyptian origin. The Christian scripture was referred to in Greek as Ta Biblia as early as c.223. Bible replaced Old English biblioðece (see bibliothek) as the ordinary word for "the Scriptures." Figurative sense of "any authoritative book" is from 1804.
Walter Scott and Pope's Homer were reading of my own election, but my mother forced me, by steady daily toil, to learn long chapters of the Bible by heart; as well as to read it every syllable through, aloud, hard names and all, from Genesis to the Apocalypse, about once a year; and to that discipline -- patient, accurate, and resolute -- I owe, not only a knowledge of the book, which I find occasionally serviceable, but much of my general power of taking pains, and the best part of my taste in literature. ... [O]nce knowing the 32nd of Deuteronomy, the 119th Psalm, the 15th of 1st Corinthians, the Sermon on the Mount, and most of the Apocalypse, every syllable by heart, and having always a way of thinking with myself what words meant, it was not possible for me, even in the foolishest times of youth, to write entirely superficial or formal English .... [John Ruskin, "Fors Clavigera," 1871]
双语例句
1. Uncle Richard intoned a chapter from the Bible and improvised a prayer.
理查德叔叔吟诵了《圣经》中的一章，又即兴作了一段祈祷文。
来自柯林斯例句
2. She turned back to the Bible lying open in her lap.
她将注意力又转回到摊放在腿上的《圣经》。
来自柯林斯例句
3. He became a model of clean living and Bible Belt virtues.
他成了洁身自好、恪守“圣经地带”德行的典范。
来自柯林斯例句
4. Martin Luther translated the Bible into German.
马丁·路德把《圣经》译成了德语。
来自柯林斯例句
5. According to the Bible we are all the seed of Adam.
