The Greek noun biblos means a book, scroll, or written document — deriving from the Phoenician city Byblos (modern Jbeil, Lebanon), a major source of papyrus in the ancient world. The related diminutive biblion also means book. Biblos appears in the title "Book of Life" (biblō zōēs) and in the genealogies of Matthew and Luke.
The opening phrase of Matthew's Gospel — "The book (biblos) of the genealogy of Jesus Christ" — deliberately echoes Genesis 5:1's "book of the generations of Adam." The implication: Jesus is the new Adam, beginning a new chapter in the book of humanity. The most theologically weighty use of biblos is in Revelation's "Book of Life" — the scroll on which the names of the redeemed are written. To have one's name in the biblos zōēs is the ultimate security: what God has written, no one can erase.