The Bible is the most amazing, influential, unique, and transformational book ever written. There are so many ways to talk about the Bible and plumb the depths of its divine wisdom that no wonder it is the best selling book of all time. I thought it would be fun to share ten interesting facts about the Holy Scriptures that you might not be completely aware. So here we go:
The Bible – the best-selling book of all time (1)
The Bible is far and away the best selling book of all time. In fact, it has been on the best seller list for 2,000 years – that’s 100,000 weeks! It is estimated that the Bible has sold over 5 billion copies.
The Bible – the only book to be completely alphabetized (2)
Back in 1890 James Strong, who spent 35 years manually alphabetizing all 750,000-plus words of the Bible, published Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible. In addition, the reference and the context of every appearance of that word is given. In Dr. Strong’s original work even words such as: a, an, in, I, etc., are shown, with reference to every occurrence of them. Can you imagine if someone tried to alphabetize every word in Charles Dicken’s masterpiece novel, A Tale of Two Cities? They probably would lock them up in an insane asylum – for what purpose could this ever serve. Only a crazy person would attempt such a foolish project. But the alphabetizing of every word in the Bible has still proven, 130 years after it was first published, to be a fabulous Bible study tool. Once again the Bible has proven itself to be a very unique book with a fascinating history.
The Bible – some statistics (3)
The Bible has a total of 66 books.
39 Books in the Old Testament.
27 Books in the New Testament.
31,173 verses total in the Bible (depending on the translation).
23,214 verses are in the Old Testament.
7,959 verses are in the New Testament.
The whole King James Bible has 788,258 words, 31,102 verses, and 1,189 chapters.1
The Bible – no book has been translated into more languages (4)
As of 2019, the entire Bible has been translated into 698 different languages while the New Testament has been translated into 1,548 languages. No other book even comes close.2
The Bible – the origin of verse divisions (5)
According to Don Stewart: “The modern Old Testament division into verses was standardized by the Ben Asher family around A.D. 900. However, the practice of dividing the Old Testament books into verses goes back centuries earlier. Modern verse division for the New Testament was the work of Robert Stephanus (Stephens), a French printer. He divided the Greek text into verses for his Greek New Testament published in 1551. The first entire Bible, in which these chapter and verse divisions were used, was Stephens’s edition of the Latin Vulgate (1555). The first English Bible to have both chapter and verse divisions was the Geneva Bible (1560).”3
The Bible – first message sent on the telegraph was from the Bible (6)
The telegraph, invented in 1844 by Samuel Morse, was one of the greatest inventions of the 19th century. It was only fitting that the first message sent on the telegraph was from the Bible – (Numbers 23:23), “What hath God wrought,” since Samuel Morse was a deeply committed Christian whose purpose in life was to honor the Lord in everything he did.
The Bible – shortest and longest verses (7)
The shortest verse in the Bible is found in (John 11:35 NKJV): “Jesus wept.” The longest verse is found in (Esther 8:9 NKJV): “So the king’s scribes were called at that time, in the third month, which is the month of Sivan, on the twenty-third day; and it was written, according to all that Mordecai commanded, to the Jews, the satraps, the governors, and the princes of the provinces from India to Ethiopia, one hundred and twenty-seven provinces in all, to every province in its own script, to every people in their own language, and to the Jews in their own script and language.”
The Bible – the number one book stolen each year (8)
The Bible is unique in four ways. First, as mentioned before, the Bible has sold over 5 billion copies – more than any other book ever written. Second, the Bible has been given away for free more than any other book. Third, the Bible is banned from being read by more people in the world than any other book. And fourth, the Bible is the book that is most stolen by people in the world. And I would say that this is so because Bibles are everywhere; especially in hotel rooms and churches.
The Bible – its longest word (9)
The longest word in the Bible is found in (Isaiah 8:3): “Mahershalalhashbaz.”
The Bible – why did Israel wander in the wilderness for 40 years? (10)
Many of you are familiar with the story of how Israel was forced to wander in the wilderness after being delivered from Egyptian bondage for 40 years; because of their disobedience to God. But have you ever wondered why 40 years and not some other timeframe? The answer is given to us in (Numbers 14:33-34): “And your sons shall be shepherds in the wilderness forty years, and bear the brunt of your infidelity, until your carcasses are consumed in the wilderness. According to the number of the days in which you spied out the land, forty days, for each day you shall bear your guilt one year, namely forty years, and you shall know My rejection.”
1 27 Fun Facts About The Bible | Think About Such Things
2 27 Fun Facts About The Bible | Think About Such Things
3 Why Is the Bible Divided into Chapters and Verses? by Don Stewart (blueletterbible.org)
I didn’t know all this Curt…it’s very interesting.
Thanks!
Elaine Enos