nikhilbhide wrote:
Thanks Mike for the response. Actually, I am clear about the grammar, but not able to understand how 2 books of Maccabees can appear in Jewish nor Protestant bibles (kind of a book).
May be Jewish/Protestant bible is a series of books and 2 books of Maccabees belong to a series. Please let me know whether this understanding is correct?
Dear
nikhilbhide,
Aha! I understand your question now, and I am happy to respond.
This is a curious thing about language. First of all, when people say "
The Bible," they may be referring to a few different versions (Jewish, Catholic, Protestant); of course, some groups may even say why their version is the real version and others are wrong--we will leave aside those issues. What I will say here is true for any Bible.
You confusion concerns two completely different uses of the word "book."
The Bible, by its very nature, is a compilation of writings from a number of different historical periods. Each section, originally, in ancient times, was a separate scroll. Each section is now called a "book"--this is a secondary definition of the word. Some "books" of the Bible are
Leviticus,
Proverbs, and
Isaiah--those "books" would be in any Bible. If you were to go into a bookstore and buy any version of the Bible, you would be holding a single book (in the ordinary sense of the word). The primary definition of the word "book" is the ordinary definition, the single physical object that you can hold and read. The secondary definition of the word is "
an independent section of the Bible, attributed to a single author." Thus, if you were holding the single book, the Bible, and opened it up, the contents would be several "books of the Bible." When we refer to an individual one, such as
Judges, we call is a "book" (in the sense of an independent section of the Bible), but of course, physically, all these individual "books" of the Bible are bound together as a single physical book we call the Bible.
My friend, I would say that it's worthwhile to find out a little about the Bible: a little about how it's organized and what it says. This is not so important for the GMAT, but if you plan to be a manager in the modern world, it's important only because it is a book that has had such a monumental impact on the world. Even people in Europe & America who are totally unreligious still act in ways and have values that have been shaped by the Bible. Together, the Bible, the Q'uran, and the Hindu writings have influenced more that half the human race. If you want to be successful in the global economy, it's important to have at least a basic understanding of these books and value systems.
Does all this make sense?
Mike