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While AI obviously isn’t mentioned in the Bible, it has proven useful as a tool for Bible translation and interpretation. Additionally, specialists explore how the Bible informs our understanding of AI as a source of knowledge.

Science and the Bible are sometimes held up as opposing cultural forces, but an understanding of history shows this is not the case. The practice of science owes much to how the world is understood by our society, and in the West, our understanding of the world is created, in part, by our reading of the Bible. For many, the study of the natural world was a vital part of their faithful exploration of God’s creation and the laws that govern it.

The books of the Old Testament were primarily written in Hebrew, with a few later books and passages, such as Esther and parts of Daniel, written in Aramaic. The New Testament books were written in Greek, specifically the Greek of the provinces called Koine Greek. The earliest translations of the Bible are of books of the Old Testament. Aramaic translations and commentaries, known as targums, helped Jewish communities better understand their Scripture as knowledge of the Hebrew language waned. Greek-speaking Jews translated the Bible into Greek in a translation known today as the Septuagint. The Septuagint was eventually adopted by early Christians as their version of the Old Testament.

Though the Bible remains important today, it was written millennia ago, in different times, places, and cultures. Modern ideas and sentiments do not always align with some stories or verses, such as those about slavery or women, and this can make understanding these passages difficult. Every faith tradition wrestles with these verses and their interpretation, but this does not mean they discard the Bible.

The advent of AI has drawn a considerable amount of attention to its possible uses for biblical translation and interpretation, but there are several other technologies that scholars use, as well. As AI becomes better adapted to certain projects, no doubt it will be integrated into the use of some of these other research tools. One of the most important is the role of infrared light in revealing lost or erased text.

The “mass” in “mass production” is a matter of perspective. For example, the hundreds of Paris Pocket Bibles produced in the 13th century were certainly a type of “mass production.” But most often, people think of this phrase to mean the large-scale printing of the Bible. And for that, we turn to the inventor of modern printing in the West: Johannes Gutenberg. Initially, printing was slower than scribing the Bible, but the technology eventually outpaced the number of manuscripts being produced by hand.

Prayer comes in many forms in Scripture. Some of the psalms are deeply personal prayers to God, and the Lord’s Prayer, taught by Jesus to his disciples, is an excellent example from the New Testament. Another type of prayer is the recitation of biblical texts, such as we see in the commandment in Deuteronomy 6:8 for the tefillin. These small boxes contain verses from the Hebrew Bible and are worn on the left arm and the head during prayer.

The books of the Bible were copied and re-copied countless times over the centuries before printing. They were also translated into numerous languages, with those translations also being hand-copied countless times. With all of this copying, how can we be sure of the Bible’s reliability? The field of scholarship dedicated to researching and reconstructing the path of transmission for a text is known as textual criticism, and its practitioners are textual critics.

When approaching ancient texts, scholars combine several methods to try to uncover the historical events they describe. These methods include comparing multiple texts that mention the same event, interpreting archaeological finds, and evaluating the reliability of ancient documents.

The Bible is one of the most famous, influential, and controversial books of all time. It has been translated into more languages than any other book in history, has more than 6 billion copies in print, with another 100 million sold or distributed each year, and is the central religious text for Judaism and Christianity. Its influence on our culture cannot be overestimated—it is central to it. Museum of the Bible has an entire floor dedicated to the impact of this book.

Translation, especially of ancient texts, is a difficult task. In language, there are often multiple ways to express the same thing. The translator’s work is in choosing which expression in the target language matches most closely the meaning of the text being translated. Since each person has their own nuanced understanding of a text and of language, different expressions are sometimes chosen. By comparing translations, one can often detect finer shades of meaning, making for a more robust reading of Scripture.

The Bible’s influence permeates Western culture. Its themes, stories, characters, and literary expressions can be found throughout our letters and arts. Countless studies have traced these influences, and Museum of the Bible has an entire floor dedicated to showing the Bible’s role in these areas and more.

Individuals and communities throughout the past two millennia have looked to the Bible for comfort, encouragement, and hope. The examples that could be collected are almost numberless. Here’s a story that shows the Bible’s steady presence in one person’s life.

Archaeologists are constantly making new discoveries of artifacts and sites tied to the Bible. But that doesn’t mean every mystery is solved. Ancient artifacts can sometimes raise as many questions as they answer. Archaeologists even debate the identification of whole towns. The location of Bethsaida, home of Jesus’s apostles Peter, Andrew, and Philip, is the topic of one such argument.

People have adorned their Bibles with symbols, drawings, notes, and more for centuries. Some have even found a way to ornament the edges of pages of their Bible. This artform allows for stunning displays when the book is closed, showcasing another way people engage with the Bible.

While the invention of writing isn’t directly tied to the Bible, this new technology changed the world, including the world of ancient Israel. Writing technology and scribal culture shaped the way the Bible was written, preserved, and passed on to future generations.

Ancient Israel and Judah were two kingdoms situated amid several larger neighbors, like Mesopotamia and Egypt. The biblical writers interacted with these cultures in positive and negative ways, some of which can be seen in the Bible. One topic that has fostered multiple discussions is the connection between ancient laws and law codes.

The Dead Sea Scrolls are rightly called the most significant archaeological discovery for the history of the Hebrew Bible. These ancient manuscripts shed a light onto various Jewish groups and beliefs during the Second Temple period, as well as provide the oldest-known copies of every book in the Hebrew Bible but for Esther and Nehemiah.

Whether through allusion, adaptation, or direct reference, writers continually interact with the Bible's themes and teachings. And it's not just Western authors. As the Bible has spread around the globe, writers have taken it up as a subject, borrowed from it, and debated its impact in their societies.

Scholars debated this question before the discovery of the Tel Dan Stele in the mid-1990s. The stele, a monument bearing an inscription, mentions the "king of Israel" and the king of the "house of David." For most, this confirmed the existence of David's dynasty and the figure standing behind it. The museum displays a facsimile of the inscription on the History of the Bible Floor. Check it out on your next visit.

This is one of the most fascinating and difficult questions to answer, and research into it continues. In the past, scholars emphasized the decisions made by church councils. Recently, however, focus has shifted to look at how the Bible came together through the copying and collection of books by different communities.

As the New Testament canon stabilized, Christians began making Bibles that included both Old and New Testaments. These Bibles were composed in Greek, and the four most important today are known as the Great Uncial Codices.

An exact answer to this question remains elusive. Scholars have brought together several pieces of historical evidence from biblical, classical, and even astronomical sources to attempt to answer it.

For thousands of years, nations and people have appealed to the Bible to understand war and questions related to it. Interpretations have varied and opinions differ, but the conversation remains vivid and ongoing.

America's founders owned various translations and editions of the Bible, but we know for certain that George Washington owned this one. This popular Bible was mailed in sections that people paid a "subscription" to receive.

This answer to this question is complex. While the text of the Qumran scrolls is not exactly identical to later manuscripts, there are no significant deviations or additions to any biblical doctrine. Scholars have broken the Qumran texts into families, click the link to learn more about them.

The first complete Bible printed in English in America was produced in 1782 in Philadelphia. It's known today as the "Bible of the Revolution.

While archaeologists continue to debate some earlier artifacts, the this Egyptian pharaoh's stele is still considered the earliest reference to Israel outside the Bible. 

The Byzantine Empire (330–1452), the successor to the eastern half of the Roman Empire, was a Christian empire. As such, the Bible was central to the culture, finding expression in various types of books, deeply symbolic icons, and beautiful art.  

Illuminations and illustrations drew on a range of techniques to capture different elements of biblical stories, including some that surprisingly still around.