The word Bible comes via Latin from the Greek word biblia, which means “small books”. This is again derived from the word biblos, a word that describes the papyrus plant’s pith, which is a simple form to make paper. The Phonecian town Gebal, which was known for its trade of papyrus, was called “Byblos” by the Greeks.

With time the word biblia was used as a definition of script scrolls, book scrolls and books of different kinds, and finally started defining the collection of books that the Bible consists of. Hieronymus called this collection for Bibliotheca Divina, The Divine Library.