Biblical

Biblical is an adjective that denotes relation to the Bible, the sacred scriptures of Judaism and Christianity. It can describe the biblical books themselves, their language and interpretation, or ideas, people, and events that appear in the Bible. The word derives from Latin biblicus, via Greek biblos meaning "book" and came into English through Latin and early modern scholarship. In practice, what is considered biblical depends on tradition: the Hebrew Bible or Old Testament is central to Judaism and most Christian denominations; Christian canons differ by tradition regarding the status of the deuterocanonical or apocryphal books.

In scholarship, biblical studies covers textual criticism, historical context, archaeology, exegesis, and linguistics (notably Biblical Hebrew, Aramaic, and Koine Greek). The term also applies to themes such as creation, commands, covenant, exodus, prophecy, and salvation as they are presented in the Bible. It is common to refer to languages (biblical Hebrew, biblical Greek), to biblical archaeology, or to biblical theology—the study of how biblical texts inform doctrines. In everyday usage, "biblical" can describe literature, law, or events described as extraordinary or extreme, as in "biblical floods" or "biblical proportions," though such uses are idiomatic rather than literal claims about the Bible.