question

Well the answer could depend on exactly what you mean by bible. Do you mean the Christian bible, the Torah which predates the Christian bible but is used as a basis for the Christian bible, or do you mean the oldest religious text? The Torah is of course the oldest bible. It is used and called the Old Testament by Christians. The first translation of the Hebrew Text known now as the New Testament was a translation into Greek and was known as Septuagint. But if you are asking what is the oldest religious text then I couldn't even begin to tell you as there are many religions that predated Christianity and had their own text.

Wow good discusion, What was the first bible? Well it depends on your definition of bible, If you are talking about a christian bible the first was the Septuagent, writen by Coptic Jewish Christians in Egypt, The Latan Volgate came later in the 3rd centery ane was much derived from the Coptic, and much of it was thrown out becouse it would not speak favorably on the newly formed Roman Church autority, and their veiw of the place of women, servants, preist and more importantly the government. The Jewish Bible is actualy comprised of three books. The first is the book of the lawcalled the Torah, or the greek Pentatuch. wich is the first 5 books of the bible and would have been the first book(s) of the bible writen, next would be the "writings" these would be the historicle acounts and other sacred writings, Like Ruth, Ester, I-II kings and so on. The third is the Prophets. I realy enjoyed this discussion.

The official canon of Scripture for the New Testament was defined at the end of the 4th century. Prior to this there were various translations of the Old Testament and what eventually became the New Testament. The Latin Vulgate could be considered the first "Bible" because it was completed following the definition of the New Testament and it was a complete book rather than separate manuscripts. It was translated from the original Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic texts by St. Jerome in the late 4th century/early 5th century. Monks hand copied Scriptures until the printing press was invented in the 15th century. The Gutenberg Bible is the first printed Bible and is the printed version of the Latin Vulgate. It was only after the printing press was invented that the Bible became widely available.