Essentially, the original bible was created (put together) by a bunch of 4th century Catholic priests. The Christian bible, originally, was simply a collection of letters and poems and such that had been gathered by the beginnings of what would become the Catholic Church. Eventually, sometime in the late 300's the church decided to create a bible like the Jews had (the Old Testament). This first meeting gathered all the leading priests and they all decided which of the letters and poems was most relevant to propagating the story of Jesus. The Vatican had umpteen thousands of pages of stuff about Jesus by the authors of those that are included in the current version of the bible plus they have more. Much more. Some “books” of the bible have been replaced by others a few times throughout the years but most of the ones that are in it now are the same ones as the original first version.

If you mean the oldest original manuscript (hand-printed copy) of any part of the Bible, it dates back centuries BC. The different books of the Bible were written over a span of several centuries, so the oldest manuscripts for different books usually have different ages. The oldest manuscripts of the New Testament books (the records of Jesus and his followers) date to approximately within the lifetimes of people who could have known Jesus disciples, but we do not believe we have any originals. Modern translations by major publishers are based on the oldest and best available manuscripts uncovered by archeology. Many published Bibles include marginal or foot notes that specify when various manuscripts have alternate readings. You can study and learn the original Greek and Hebrew and see for yourself if the translations are good. For any published Bible, you have to take into account the use of language at the time of the translation (e.g. in the King James, "spirit" had approximately the current meaning of "ghost" and vice versa). If you mean the oldest single volume that contains the all the current contents of the Bible, it is not that old because "books" were not really "published" as such till Gutenberg and the printing press in the mid 1400s. There are older bound-manuscript complete Bibles but they still aren't all that old.

The Bible was not put under one cover until 397 AD at the Council of Carthage. It took a monk 10 months to hand copy the Bible. Prior to the Bible being put under one cover, there was only the Catholic church. The Catholic Church thoroughly examined all the books that were in question to be used in the New Testament and it was the Catholic Church that decided what books were inspired and which were not. Catholic monks spent their lives copying scripture over and over again until printing was developed in 1440 AD. So this means that for over 1,400 years the Church taught the members by tradition. Even after the invention of printing, it was far too expensive for every member of a household to own a Bible. John Gutenberg printed the first edition of the Catholic Bible. It wasn't until 1534, that Luther's translation of the Bible appeared. The Catholic Bible has 7 more books in it than Protestant churches.

The world's oldest known copy of the complete bible (in bound book form), dating from 300-350 AD, is the Codex Sinaiticus. It is a translation from Hebrew and Greek manuscripts into an all Greek bible. It is believed that it may be one of 50 original bibles that the Emperor Constantine commissioned after converting the Eastern Roman Empire to Christianity. It was discovered at the Monastery of St. Catherine in Sinai, Egypt, which was built on what is traditionally believed to be the site of Moses' burning bush. Although most of the Old Testament text has been destroyed, the New Testament text has survived and is in general agreement with the text used to establish the KJV of the bible.

I just found this. The oldest actual fragment of the New Testament we have is from the Gospel John and is dated around 125 A.D. We have at least a part of every New Testament book that predates 300 A.D. except James, 1 & 2 Peter, 1,2 & 3 John, and Jude which are all dated around 300 A.D. And all of them are in unison with our current copies. Check out the website below for more information. http://odyssey.lib.duke.edu/papyrus/texts/manuscripts.html

Oldest Bible! I think the oldest existing Bible of any sort is called the Codex Sinaiticus. It may be one of the original fifty(?) copies commissioned by Constantine after his conversion from which all modern Christian Bibles descend. http://www.septuagint.net/ This was the very first time all, and only, the books we know as the books of the Bible were assembled into one larger document, both Old and New Testaments together. The "publishers/redactors" decided what documents were important enough to include in this single work. However, the Old Testament in the Codex is almost certainly not the Hebrew Bible of the same era. Instead, it is almost certainly derived from the Septuagint. The Septuagint was a collection of separate Jewish texts available in the second(?) century BCE, translated into Greek, and accumulated into a single document. The Greek speaking Jews of Alexandria commissioned the work for their own use, and it is from the Greek term for this work that we get the word Bible. http://www.septuagint.net/ The Hebrew Bible known today was assembled in the first century CE. This was likely an effort to salvage, organize, and propagate important texts that survived the destruction inflicted on the temple and nation during that era. I believe all the books included also appear in the Septuagint, but not all of the books in the Septuagint appear in the Hebrew Bible. Reasons for the difference might be explained by simple deliberate exclusion because the books were not important enough. In addition, perhaps they were not available in the original Hebrew. Original Hebrew being required for a number of reasons. Apparently, no copy of the Septuagint is available that is older then the Constantine Bible. In addition, I do not believe a Hebrew Bible older then about 1,000 years has ever been found, although various forms of most books were included in the Dead Sea Scrolls. The Old Testaments in both Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches derive from the Septuagent and include books not in the modern Hebrew Bible. Protestant Bibles use the modern Hebrew Bible as the basis for the Old Testament.

PS Some people claim the Codex Vaticanus is the oldest existing Bible, dating from the third(?) century. It's old testament is apparently from the Septuagint, and it also includes a number of New Testament Books. However, I am not sure this document can rightly be called "The Christian Bible" anymore the the Septuagent can be called The Hebrew Bible. Both are simply accumulations of various documents in circulation at their respective times. I see no evidence either one was considered the difinitive work on the two separate subjects. Further, some people say the Septuagint was a translation of the Hebrew Bible. No such document existed at the time; the Septuagent itself was simply an accumulation of separate documents.

The oldest existing complete bible (old and new testaments) I have identified is Codex Amiatinus from about the year 700 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Codex_Amiatinus . Now located at Biblioteca Laurenziana, Florence. http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/jod/cassiodorus.html It is also the oldest known copy of the Latin Vulgate bible. St. Jerome finished the original Vulgate in about 400CE, using, I believe, both the Sptuagent [http://www.geocities.com/~alyza/Jewish/lxx-dss.htm] and the Masoretic [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masoretic_Text] Jewish Old Testament as sources for the Old Testament portions. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Jerome Codex Sinaiticus is perhaps older, but only portions of the old testament (from the Septuagent) survive. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Codex_Sinaiticus Further, The New Testament books, though originally complete, have been divided amongst various intitutions since it was discovered. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Codex_Sinaiticus [see 'Current Location]. More on Codex Amiatinus http://www.unc.edu/celtic/catalogue/manuscripts/CoAm.html http://www.umilta.net/pandect.html

We have all of it. Jesus said: "heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall never pass away." As for the oldest Bible, I'm not so sure. It doesn't matter to me because I believe the Word was and is preserved to this day in the King James Bible. It's the Word that is inspired, not the paper, ink, or bookcover. I believe that the King James Bible is the preserved Word of God for english speaking people and that it matches the true, God-inspired, original copies of the Word of God. Thank you and God bless you!

Actually while you are both right, the History of the New Testment is different from what we know today. the First Recorded New Testment included the 7 books of deuterocanonical. they were removed during the Protestant Reformation ( Martin Luther). You would have to go to the Catholic Bible to get the complete New Testment. Side note when the Dead Seas Schrolls were discovered they included these 7 deuterocanonical.

actually I think the pevious person meant to say the Old Testment and not the New Testment. Possible an opps on the responders part. But the person is right the 7 books are not part of the King James or the revised versions do not contain the seven books. King James use to contain the seven books. But the oldest Bibles and the Dead Sea Scrolls do contain the seven books of the Old Testment.

i have a bible wrttien with gold & its 1430 years old

a long time ago but please lisen one day you will seem like you saw jesus in the sky and merged in to all other religions as one to tell you that your passed religion was not true but in the bible it worns us about this very thing happening and how not to be deceved lie to in revaltion it lets us know that no one knows when jesus comes not even jesus him self knows when he says he will come like a theaf when no one expects it we people need to open our eyes and see whats in front of us were blind just like jesus sayed we would be but if you want the truth read your bible your self dont let anyone eles read it for you and make sure that you pray to the right one

idk, but abe lincolnd bible is still around..

Hebrew for old test. and Greek for new.

The short answer: 1) Canon (choice of texts): The Bible is basically a collection of texts, which have been written separately before it was decided to include them in the Bible. The biblical canon, which is the list of those texts, has been defined with different choices at different times through different authorities. Today, different community still use different biblical canons. 2) Oldest manuscripts / original texts: Various manuscripts of specific texts or of a whole Bible have been found. Some older manuscripts have been found in recent times. The oldest manuscripts are often incomplete, and they are probably not the original / oldest version of the texts. Also, those manuscripts have some errors (caused by the copy /interpretation / translation) and are in different languages. 3) Translations: Apart from the experts and some Jews, few people nowadays read the Bible in the language of the oldest manuscripts (Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek). Most of us use translations in various languages such as English. A lot of different translations have been made at various times, using specific biblical canons, specific manuscripts (sometimes using different manuscripts of the same text) and specific choices. A choice could be to be very near of the original, another choice could be to write something very understandable for modern readers. And there also have been some dogmatic choices (trying to support the dogma of a particular Church). --------- (HIER STARTS THE ORIGINAL, LONG ANSWER) -- 1) "The Tanakh was mainly written in Biblical Hebrew, with some portions (notably in Daniel and Ezra) in Biblical Aramaic. Some time in the 2nd or 3rd century BC, the Torah was translated into Koine Greek, and over the next century, other books were translated (or composed) as well. This translation became known as the Septuagint and was widely used by Greek-speaking Jews, and later by Christians. It differs somewhat from the later standardized Hebrew (Masoretic Text). This translation was promoted by way of a legend (primarily recorded as the Letter of Aristeas) that seventy (or in some sources, seventy-two) separate translators all produced identical texts. From the 800s to the 1400s, Jewish scholars today known as Masoretes compared the text of all known biblical manuscripts in an effort to create a unified, standardized text. A series of highly similar texts eventually emerged, and any of these texts are known as Masoretic Texts (MT). The Masoretes also added vowel points (called niqqud) to the text, since the original text only contained consonant letters. This sometimes required the selection of an interpretation, since some words differ only in their vowels—their meaning can vary in accordance with the vowels chosen. In antiquity, variant Hebrew readings existed, some of which have survived in the Samaritan Pentateuch, the Dead Sea scrolls, and other ancient fragments, as well as being attested in ancient versions in other languages. Versions of the Septuagint contain several passages and whole books beyond what was included in the Masoretic texts of the Tanakh. In some cases these additions were originally composed in Greek, while in other cases they are translations of Hebrew books or variants not present in the Masoretic texts. Recent discoveries have shown that more of the Septuagint additions have a Hebrew origin than was once thought. While there are no complete surviving manuscripts of the Hebrew texts on which the Septuagint was based, many scholars believe that they represent a different textual tradition ("Vorlage") from the one that became the basis for the Masoretic texts." 2) "In 331, the Emperor Constantine commissioned Eusebius to deliver fifty Bibles for the Church of Constantinople. Athanasius (Apol. Const. 4) recorded Alexandrian scribes around 340 preparing Bibles for Constans. Little else is known, though there is plenty of speculation. For example, it is speculated that this may have provided motivation for canon lists, and that Codex Vaticanus, Codex Sinaiticus and Codex Alexandrinus are examples of these Bibles. Together with the Peshitta, these are the earliest extant Christian Bibles. The earliest surviving complete manuscript of the entire Bible is the Codex Amiatinus, a Latin Vulgate edition produced in eighth century England at the double monastery of Wearmouth-Jarrow. The earliest printed edition of the Greek New Testament appeared in 1516 from the Froben press, by Desiderius Erasmus, who reconstructed its Greek text from several recent manuscripts of the Byzantine text-type. He occasionally added a Greek translation of the Latin Vulgate for parts that did not exist in the Greek manuscripts. He produced four later editions of this text. Erasmus was Roman Catholic, but his preference for the Byzantine Greek manuscripts rather than the Latin Vulgate led some church authorities to view him with suspicion. The first printed edition with critical apparatus (noting variant readings among the manuscripts) was produced by the printer Robert Estienne of Paris in 1550. The Greek text of this edition and of those of Erasmus became known as the Textus Receptus (Latin for "received text"), a name given to it in the Elzevier edition of 1633, which termed it as the text nunc ab omnibus receptum ("now received by all"). The churches of the Protestant Reformation translated the Greek of the Textus Receptus to produce vernacular Bibles, such as the German Luther Bible and the English King James Bible. The discovery of older manuscripts, which belong to the Alexandrian text-type, including the 4th century Codex Vaticanus and Codex Sinaiticus, led scholars to revise their view about the original Greek text. Attempts to reconstruct the original text are called critical editions. Karl Lachmann based his critical edition of 1831 on manuscripts dating from the 4th century and earlier, to demonstrate that the Textus Receptus must be corrected according to these earlier texts. Later critical editions incorporate ongoing scholarly research, including discoveries of Greek papyrus fragments from near Alexandria, Egypt, that date in some cases within a few decades of the original New Testament writings. Today, most critical editions of the Greek New Testament, such as UBS4 and NA27, consider the Alexandrian text-type corrected by papyri, to be the Greek text that is closest to the original autographs. Their apparatus includes the result of votes among scholars, ranging from certain {A} to doubtful {E}, on which variants best preserve the original Greek text of the New Testament." Source and further information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bible#New_Testament 3) Today, we have a lot of different Bibles in many languages, some of them trying more to give an accurate idea of the original texts, others more written to be understood by modern readers. You can find some of them here: http://www.biblegateway.com/versions/

Most probably the Dead Sea Scrolls which were found in a cave by two boys in 1947.Although they are not bound but written on parchment some of them date date back to 150 BC.

:-bd

that bible is at 300-500AD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I believe that the Vatican MS 1209 and then the Sinaitic manuscript may be the oldest one to have the complete Greek scriptures or New Testament. Someone else gave a link to it as it is now available online. http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/7025764

A report published in 1971 shows that there are possibly 6,000 handwritten copies containing all or part of the Hebrew Scriptures; the oldest dates back to the third century B.C.E. Of the Christian Greek Scriptures, there are some 5,000 in Greek, the oldest dating back to the beginning of the second century C.E. There are also many copies of early translations into other languages. n the introduction to his seven volumes on The Chester Beatty Biblical Papyri, Sir Frederic Kenyon wrote: “The first and most important conclusion derived from the examination of them [the papyri] is the satisfactory one that they confirm the essential soundness of the existing texts. No striking or fundamental variation is shown either in the Old or the New Testament. There are no important omissions or additions of passages, and no variations which affect vital facts or doctrines. The variations of text affect minor matters, such as the order of words or the precise words used . . . But their essential importance is their confirmation, by evidence of an earlier date than was hitherto available, of the integrity of our existing texts.”—(London, 1933), p. 15. Sir Fredrick Kenyon probably knew much more about this than any of us do. I think I will listen to him unless someone can come up with proof otherwise. It is true that some translations of the Bible adhere more closely to what is in the original languages than others do. Modern paraphrase Bibles have taken liberties that at times alter the original meaning. Some translators have allowed personal beliefs to color their renderings. But these weaknesses can be identified by comparison of a variety of translations.

There are pieces of the Bible that are thousands of years old. And they match what we have very well indeed. As to complete editions, one was written 1600 years ago that was put on display fairly recently. http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/worlds-oldest-bible-published-in-full-online-1733208.html