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Question: When was the Bible first referred to as the "Holy" Bible?

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Rabrrrrrr Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-15-09 02:08 PM
Original message
Question: When was the Bible first referred to as the "Holy" Bible?
Edited on Sun Feb-15-09 02:09 PM by Rabrrrrrr
Someone asked me that a while ago, and I have no idea.

And it doesn't have to be in English - in whatever language, when was the first time that the collection of Christian scriptures was called "Holy"?

Any idea?

Clearly it had to be between about 400 and 1611, but I can't narrow it down any more than that.
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Critters2 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-15-09 03:41 PM
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1. Interesting question. I have no idea, I'll try find out. nt
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54anickel Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-15-09 05:21 PM
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2. Wow, that is an interesting question. The word "holy" wasn't even around until
the 13th century, at least according to this wiki article...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacred

Etymology
Main article: Hailag
The word "sacred" descends from the Latin sacrum, which referred to the gods or anything in their power, and to sacer, priest; sanctum, set apart. It was generally conceived spatially, as referring to the area around a temple.

The origin of the word "holy" comes from the 11th Century Old High German hulis and Old English holegn meaning Holly as in Holly Tree, considered a sacred plant to both pre-Christian Celtic and Roman worship. The word hulis originates from an even older proto-Germanic word khuli a shortened derivation of the ancient Gaelic cuilieann both meaning Holly. The distinction of the word holy appeared around the 13th Century with the Old English word hālig derived from hāl meaning health, happiness and wholeness. As “wholeness”, holiness may be taken to indicate a state of religious completeness or perfection.

In non-specialist contexts, the term "holy" is used in a more general way, to refer to someone or something that is associated with a divine power, such as water used for Baptism.


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Rabrrrrrr Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-15-09 11:21 PM
Response to Reply #2
3. In English, yes; but, the concept of "holiness" has been around for millenia
existing in Hebrew, and, I assume, pre-Hebraic Akkadian and more than likely Ugaritic.

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54anickel Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-15-09 11:58 PM
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4. Ah, I misunderstood your quotes around "Holy" as referring to the exact term rather than the
concept of the Bible being holy/sacred/sanctified/etc. Sorry, my bad.
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Critters2 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Feb-16-09 08:52 PM
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5. True. The Hebrew word most commonly translated as "holy" is
Edited on Mon Feb-16-09 08:53 PM by Critters2
kaddish. Or qadesh, or, well, pick your favorite transliteration. Those who are greater experts on Hebrew than me (and who isn't?) say that its meaning is really closer to "separate", or "set apart" than the connotations we usually intend when we use the word "holy".
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Rabrrrrrr Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Feb-16-09 10:53 PM
Response to Reply #5
6. Ah... Hebrew. How I love it!
Edited on Mon Feb-16-09 10:56 PM by Rabrrrrrr
And how reading it makes me wish I'd been raised in a Jewish household.

And yes, you're right, it's really more about being set apart as a sacred item/person/whatever than our modern day sense of "holy" which seems to have an inference that the item/person/whatever has somehow magically been hocus-pocused into holiness.

A somewhat slight distinction, but it is, I think, an important one.
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