I remember my grandmother always referring to the Bible as the “good book.” The construct traces back to the Puritan preaching that prevailed in early U.S. history. During the era of American continental expansion in the 19th century, the reference became normative. Of course, “good” has several possible layers of meaning, but primarily it meant a book worth reading, a book that had some moral authority. This was especially true in a time when literacy was low and books were scarce. In those days, a family might own only one book, and it was almost certainly the Bible. But in modern times, I have scarcely ever heard the phrase. Most commonly, especially from the conservative Protestant point of view, we hear the Bible referred to as the “word of God.” By this, I think they mean an inerrant text that conveys all that God needs humans to know to gain salvation. They interpret the New Testament comment, “all scripture is God-breathed,” as almost a sacrosanct process of literal dictation. This conservative view, technically, is not verbatim, as the Greek word in some Englis