ABSTRACT
The Hebrew Bible in acknowledgement that they are in the Hebrew language and come from Hebraic culture. Hebrew Bible, at least in a British context, is a clear way of saying: these books are Jewish. The Christian terms Old Testament and New Testament are part of that lexical baggage. The term also fails to register that for Catholic and Orthodox Christians the collection includes books that never existed in Hebrew at all. A moment's thought will show how damaging they can be, at all levels, literary, theological and political. On some Christian theories of biblical authority that authority is indeed diffused evenly through Scripture. Much as another religion Islam for example is practised in its indigenous cultural context but studied in a Religious Studies course, so the Bible is one thing for the practising Jew or Christian but another for the student of Religious or Biblical Studies.
