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Biafystok \bya-'wi-stok\ City (pop., 2000 est: 285,500), northeastern Poland. Founded in the 14th century, it was annexed to Prussia in 1795— 1807. It passed to Russia, was captured by Germany in 1915, and was restored to Poland in 1919. During World War II it was overrun by Ger¬ mans in 1941, then retaken by Soviet troops in 1944. Returned to Poland in 1945, it is now an important rail junction; it has been a major textile producer since 1863.

Biarritz \bya-'rets\ Town (pop., 1999: 30,005), southwestern France. It lies on the Gulf of Gascogne (Bay of Biscay) near Bayonne, 11 mi (18 km) from Spain. Once a small fishing village, Biarritz became a fashion¬ able summer resort after 1854 with the visits of Napoleon III; visited also by British royalty, it grew additionally as a winter residence. Its mild cli¬ mate and variety of beaches, and the folklore and traditions of the local Basques, continue to draw an international clientele.

biathlon Winter sports event combining cross-country skiing with rifle sharpshooting. It originated in Scandinavian hunting. It was first included in the Winter Olympics program in 1960. Competitors cover a course, carrying a single-shot rifle and ammunition and stopping at four points to fire five shots at small targets. Events are either 10 or 20 km long, and there are a variety of race types, including relay, sprint, and pursuit.

Bibiena family See Galli Bibiena family

Bible Sacred scriptures of Judaism and Christianity. The Jewish scriptures consist of the Torah (or Pentateuch), the Neviim (“Prophets”), and the Ketuvim (“Writings”), which together constitute what Christians call the Old Testament. The Pentateuch and Joshua relate how Israel became a nation and came to possess the Promised Land. The Prophets describe the establishment and development of the monarchy and relate the prophets’ messages. The Writings include poetry, speculation on good and evil, and history. The Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Bible includes addi¬ tional Jewish writings called the Apocrypha. The New Testament consists of early Christian literature. The Gospels tell of the life, person, and teach¬ ings of Jesus. The Acts of the Apostles relates the earliest history of Christianity. The Epistles (Letters) are correspondence of early church leaders (chiefly St. Paul) and address the needs of early congregations. Revelation is the only canonical representative of a large genre of early Christian apocalyptic literature. See also biblical source, biblical translation. See table opposite.

biblical source Any of the original oral or written materials compiled as the Bible. While authorship of many biblical books is anonymous or pseudonymous, scholars have used internal evidence and the tools of bib¬ lical criticism to identify sources and arrange them in chronological order of composition. There are four sources for the Pentateuch: J (sources in which God is called YHWH, German JHVH), eastern (sources in which

Old Testament: Jewish Scripture

Genesis

Isaiah

Nahum

Song of Songs

Exodus

Jeremiah

Habakkuk

Ruth

Leviticus

Ezekiel

Zephaniah

Lamentations

Numbers

Hosea

Haggai

Ecclesiastes

Deuteronomy

Joel

Zechariah

Esther

Joshua

Amos

Malachi

Daniel

Judges

Obadiah

Psalms

Ezra

1 & 2 Samuel

Jonah

Proverbs

Nehemiah

1 & 2 Kings

Micah

Job

1 & 2 Chronicles

Old Testament: Roman Catholic and Protestant Canons

Catholic

Protestant

Catholic

Protestant

Genesis

Wisdom

Exodus

Sirach

Leviticus

Isaiah

Numbers

Jeremiah

Deuteronomy

Lamentations

Joshua

Baruch

Judges

Ezekiel

Ruth

Daniel

1 & 2 Samuel

Hosea

1 & 2 Kings

Joel

1 & 2 Chronicles

Amos

Ezra

Obadiah

Nehemiah

Jonah

Tobit

Micah

Judith

Nahum

Esther

Habakkuk

Job

Zephaniah

Psalms

Haggai

Proverbs

Zechariah

Ecclesiastes

Malachi

Song of Songs

Song of Solomon

1 & 2 Maccabees

Old Testament: Protestant Apocrypha

1 & 2 Esdras

Additions to

Baruch

Bel and the

Tobit

Esther

Prayer of Azariah

Dragon

Judith

Wisdom of

Susanna

Prayer of

Solomon

Manasses

Ecclesiasticus

1 & 2 Maccabees

New Testament

Matthew

Romans

Colossians

Hebrews

Mark

1 & 2

1 & 2 Thessa-

James

Luke

Corinthians

lonians

1 & 2 Peter

John

Galatians

1 & 2 Timothy

1, 2, 3 John

Acts

Ephesians

Titus

Jude

of the Apostles

Philippians

Philemon

Revelation

God is called Elohim), D (sources in the style of Deuteronomy), and P (for sources with priestly style and content). Parts of lost books have also been identified in the Old Testament. New Testament sources include origi¬ nal writings and oral traditions. The first three (synoptic) Gospels have a common source, Matthew and Luke being based on Mark and a lost source called Q; John conveys an independent tradition. Biblical sources are studied to uncover the history of the scriptures and to restore texts as closely as possible to their original content. Scholars may also analyze biblical sources in an effort to reconstruct the oral tradition behind them.

biblical translation Art and practice of translating the Bible. The Old Testament was originally written in Hebrew, with scattered passages of Aramaic. It was first translated in its entirety into Aramaic and then, in the 3rd century ad, into Greek (the Septuagint). Hebrew scholars created the authoritative Masoretic text (6th-10th century) from Aramaic Targums, the original Hebrew scrolls having been lost. The New Testament was originally in Greek or Aramaic. Christians translated both Testaments into Coptic, Ethiopian, Gothic, and Latin. St. Jerome’s Latin Vulgate (405) was the standard Christian translation for 1,000 years. New learning in the 15th—16th century generated new translations. Martin Luther translated the

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entire Bible into German (1522-34). The first complete English transla¬ tion, credited to John Wycliffe, appeared in 1382, but it was the King James version (1611) that became the standard for more than three cen¬ turies. By the late 20th century the entire Bible had been translated into 250 languages and portions of it into more than 1,300.

bibliography Broadly, the systematic study and description of books. The word can refer to the listing of books according to some system (called descriptive, or enumerative, bibliography), to the study of books as tangible objects (called critical, or analytical, bibliography), or to the product of those activities. The purpose of bibliography is to organize information about materials on a given subject so that students of the sub¬ ject may have access to it. A descriptive bibliography may take the form of information about a particular author’s works or about works on a given subject or on a particular nation or period. Critical bibliography, which emerged in the early 20th century, involves meticulous descriptions of the physical features of books, including the paper, binding, printing, typog¬ raphy, and production processes used, to help establish such facts as print¬ ing dates and authenticity.