Bible
The Bible is the collection of canonical religious texts in Christianity. Most Christians believe that the men who wrote and translated the Bible were under Divine Inspiration, and/or that the Bible is God's infallible Word to men.
The "canon" is the standard set of scriptural books which are deemed to represent the Word of God, as opposed to books which are considered wise or inspirational but not authoritative. The canon has evolved over time.
Some books counted as part of the Bible by the Roman Catholic Church—such as the books of Tobit, Judith, 1st and 2nd Maccabees, Wisdom, and Sirach&mash;are regarded as non-canonical by Protestants. Some modern Protestant Bibles, following the example set by the original King James Version, include these books but categorize them as Apocrypha; but most omit them.
The early church's determination of the canon was based on several criteria, including authorship, consistency with the rest of Scripture, and the level of general acceptance at the time. [1]
Protestants value direct access to the Bible by worshipers, without the need for intervention or interpretation by clergy. The translation of the Bible into "common" languages such as German and English, and the development of printing by Gutenberg, were motivated by the Protestant desire to make the Bible accessible to everyone.