Our Holy Bible is a collection of sixty-six different books, written by forty-plus writers over a period of 1,500 years. It is literally a big book, consisting of over 750,000 words. This is the equivalent of a 1,500-page novel.
Imagine, 1,500 years to write one book. This fact alone would easily make the Guinness Book of World Records, for the longest time ever taken to complete a book. 1,500 pages in 1,500 years comes out to be one page a year or about one word a day!
This one book, however, has lasted for over 2,000 years, and today still is the best-selling book in the world. To have lasted this long, you would think that all of those forty-plus authors would have been men of high intelligence and great scholarly credentials. But the amazing thing about the Bible is that its authorship is so diverse.
Two biblical writers were kings, two were priests, two were fishermen, one was a physician, two were shepherds, one was a tax collector, one a statesman, one a soldier, one a theologian, and the list goes on.
Not only were these authors men of diverse occupations, but the place where they penned their contributions to this magnificent work varied significantly. One man wrote in Syria, another in Greece, one in Italy, and another in Arabia. One man wrote in a Roman prison. Another in a cave (the cave of Adullam), another on a barren island (Patmos), and even one in a palace (Zion).
The contents of the Bible also show how wide and diversified its scope is: History, science, poetry, theology, ethics, philosophy, medicine, love, war, and on it goes.
But throughout its entire length, the central and dominant theme is God and His love relationship with man. From its very first pages right on to its final conclusion, no book is more action-packed or full of hope for mankind than this one book.
From any angle you choose to look at the Bible, there is something most unique about this monumental book. Its themes and messages transcend time periods, transcend cultures, transcend educational backgrounds, and transcend one’s imagination of greatness. Therefore, is it any wonder that the first major book ever printed on Gutenberg’s press was the Bible? Since 1800 well over 2 billion Bibles have been printed. And no book has been translated into more languages than the Holy Bible.
And as I shared in an earlier devotion the Bible is the only book you will find with a whole section devoted to it in a bookstore (whether Christian or secular) – not a section devoted to books about the subject – The Bible – but to the Bible itself! There are so many different translations (King James Version, New American Standard, New International Version, The Amplified Bible, The Message, The Living Bible, etc.), sizes (the entire Bible, The New Testament, pocket editions, large-print editions), and materials (hardcover, paperback, leather bound) that in many of the larger bookstores an entire section is reserved for this one very special book.
This one amazing book has quite an interesting array of credentials to recommend itself to anyone who is thinking about reading a “good book.”