The name 'Bible' comes from the Greek Biblos, which was the name of papyrus skin in the 11th century BC. The first people to use the term "Bible" to designate the Holy Scriptures were the disciples of Christ in the Second Century - AD.

When analyzed, the ancient texts of the Bible contain only 1% variation while 99% is in complete agreement. It's worthy to note that the same method (Textual Criticism) is used to check the authenticity of other historical documents such as Homer’s Iliad for example.

With the invention of the printing press and movable type, Gutenberg made manuscript copies obsolete.
The chapter divisions were introduced by the Parisian university professor Stephen Langton, in 1227, who would be elected as the bishop of Canterbury a little later.
The verse divisions were introduced in 1551 by the Parisian publisher Robert Stephanus. Both divisions had as their goal to facilitate the study of the Bible and were universally accepted by everybody including the Jews.
The text was originally written on various mediums dependent upon the time period, culture and geography of the region. The mediums included:clay tablets, skins, papyrus and shards of clay.
With the exception of parts of Esther and Daniel, which were written in Aramaic, the original text of the Old Testament was written in Hebrew. Hebrew and Aramaic are both of the Semitic family of languages characterized by the predominance of consonants.
The word 'Hebrew' comes from 'Hebron' , the region of Canaan where the patriarch Abraham dwelled when he arrived from Ur.
The 39 Books which compose the Old Testament (without the apocrypha) were compiled since 400 AD, being accepted by the Jew Canon, by the Protestants, Orthodox Catholics, Russian Catholic Church and part of the Traditional Catholic Church. The New Testament is composed of 27 books. Observe the Bible division above.
The first Portuguese Bible was printed in 1748. This translation was made from the Latin Vulgate and was initiated by D. Dinis (1279-1325)

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