Is the term "Jewish Bible" offensive or acceptable?

Question

As an atheist who is studying Christianity, the terms "Old Testament" and "New Testament" are neutral and academic terms to me. I know that they are unpopular with Jews. In the odd case in which I have to point out the flawed nature of the Christian scriptures, force of habit might lead me to slip up and say "NT" from time to time, but I will try my best to avoid it.

Are "Jewish Bible" and "Christian Bible" acceptable?

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At the risk of being off topic, I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for making me feel welcome here. I look forward to learning from all of you in the future. L'Chaim! (or as my Irish ancestors would say, Sláinte!)

Answer 1

I think "Jewish Bible" (or "Hebrew Bible", as noted elsewhere), though not often used by practicing Jews among themselves, is readily understood and very unlikely to cause offense.

"Christian Bible" is also unlikely to cause offense, but I, for one, would take it to mean the whole thing (including the so-called Old Testament). I can't think of a better way to refer to the so-called New Testament than "the so-called New Testament". Perhaps someone else will post a better answer, though.

Answer 2

FWIW, in academic discourse, "Bible" can be understood more restrictively as the "Hebrew Bible" when used by Jewish authors or in Jewish contexts, while it can be understood more expansively as (some form of) the Christian Bible ("Old Testament" + "New Testament") when used by Christian authors or in Christian contexts. Biblical scholars find this fluctuation in usage quite natural.

Also FWIW, the Jewish Study Bible refers to the New Testament without any impulse to put it in scare quotes. The Preface includes some comments that reflect tangentially on OP's question on page x.

Christian writers sometimes refer to their scriptures as the writings of the "prophets and apostles", picking up a usage implied in the New Testament itself (2 Peter 3:2) and in an early text, the Muratorian Fragment -- an important source for historians of the Christian canon. This suggests another possibility for refering to the New Testament = "apostolic writings". This unambiguously refers only to New Testament texts, and not those of later Christian writers.

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_{P.s. I know this answer is a bit tangential to OP's direct concern, but the Answer thread has raised some corollaries which it seemed fair to address.}

Answer 3

You could always use JW terminology:

What is commonly called the “Old Testament” the Witnesses (and the NWT) call the “Hebrew-Aramaic Scriptures”; what is commonly called the “New Testament” they call the “Christian Greek Scriptures” (the word Christian is intended to prevent any possible confusion with the Septuagint, a Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures).

This is, arguably, more neutral terminology than the usual. I like it.

Of course, the Witnesses like to be different, sometimes, apparently, just for the sake of being different.

Answer 4

As for the Jewish bible, you can call it the Jewish/Hebrew bible; but most people here will just call it Tanach/Tanakh. I wouldn't suggest calling the Christian "nt" as Christian texts, because texts could imply even something written years later by some random Christian about the religion. But the other suggestions given in of msh210's answer and the comments are fine.