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The title of this book contains within it two ways of referring to its subject matter: Scripture and the Bible. The first, Scripture, sometimes used in the plural (the Scriptures), comes from the Latin for “writings” (scriptura); this in turn corresponds to a common way of referring to sacred writings in Greek: hai graphai (the writings). The second, Bible, comes from the Greek word for “book,” biblion. What we are about to explore, then, is a book, or collection, of sacred writings. For this reason, people of faith sometimes call this book the Sacred Scriptures or the Holy Bible. Although many people use the terms “Bible” and “Scripture” interchangeably, as we will here, the two terms can suggest different nuances of meaning. For instance, many religious traditions have sacred texts, or scriptures, but only Judaism and Christianity refer to their scriptures as “the Bible.” Ironically, however, some people feel that the term “Bible” is more religiously neutral, and perhaps more academic, than the term “Scripture,” with its connotation of holiness or divine inspiration. In fact, this situation is now so commonplace that some biblical scholars, including many contributors to this book, insist that when we interpret the Bible from the perspective of faith, even from an academic point of view, we are treating it as Scripture, as sacred text—not merely as ancient literature. In this and the following chapters, we will attempt to look at the Bible, or Scripture, from both an academic perspective and a faith perspective. That is to say, we want to understand it, simultaneously, as both human book and sacred text. Our investigation begins with a consideration of the Bible as both book and library, and then, more briefly, as both story and invitation. The Bible as Book As we have just explained, the English word “Bible” originated from the Greek term for book (biblion), which is derived in turn from the Greek words for the papyrus plant (byblos) and its inner bark (biblos). Egyptian craftsmen produced an ancient version of paper by matting together strips of this marshland plant. The dried sheets of papyrus were then glued together in rolls to become a scroll. Jeremiah, especially in its ancient Greek version (the Septuagint, Scripture and Its Interpretation : gives a colorful example of how the invention of these materials contributed greatly to the development of the Bible: