The Bible is the central sacred text of Christianity, made up of the Old Testament and the New Testament, and has shaped religious belief, ethics, literature, and culture for centuries. Originally written in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek, it has been translated into hundreds of languages, making it one of the most widely read and influential books in history. Bibles printed in the 1800s reflect major changes in both religion and publishing: advances in industrial printing made them cheaper and more widely available, while Bible societies such as the British and Foreign Bible Society and the American Bible Society focused on mass distribution for education, mission work, and personal devotion. Nineteenth-century Bibles range from simple cloth-bound editions for everyday use to finely bound family and presentation Bibles with illustrations, genealogical pages, and ornate bindings, reflecting both growing literacy and the importance of the Bible in domestic and public life during that period.
