ChatterBank2 mins ago
The Bible
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For more on marking an answer as the "Best Answer", please visit our FAQ.Originally, the Greek word βιβλία [if that transcription was rendered as gobbledegook, then it is Beta Iota-Beta lamda Iota (with Tonos) Alpha] was the plural form of βιβλίον [Beta Iota Beta Lamda Iota (with Tonos) Omicron Nu] which roughly meant "paper" and later, "book". Biblia became the Latin for "Scriptures" particularly with regards to Christian and Jewish scriptures.
N.B. Biblia also became Bibliothēca ("the Scriptures") which you can still find used in modern French, German and Dutch (and no doubt other languages that I don't know) as biblioth�que, Bibliothek and bibliotheek respectively meaning "library" (where the Scriptures would have been stored!)
The French, German and Dutch words for "Bible" also remain similar: la Bible, die Bibel and de Bijbel.
Just as an addition to Indie's fine historical outline of the word, it first appeared in English - with a variety of spellings such as bibul, bibyle, bibel etc as well as bible - in the early 1300s.
The early Church Fathers clearly used it originally to mean "the books", in the sense of "holy books"