What's in the Bible?
A few of weeks ago, I had the privilege to speak to a group of girls in the Awana program at our church. I was excited to tell them about the national "Bring Your Bible to School" day that was happening on Thursday, October 5 of this year. I encouraged each of them to visit the website www.bringyourbible.org to learn more about this event. The website holds a lot of information for kids, parents, and teachers about the day and about our rights. As we were discussing this day, I wanted to remind the girls about how absolutely incredible the Bible is. In a world where we barely have time to visit with our families each day, I know the struggle to find time to read the Bible daily is real. I wanted them to know that the Bible is not just a list of things we are supposed to do or not do. I wanted them to know that the Bible is filled with true stories of actual events that happened. The mere facts that surround the Bible are staggering. I wanted to inspire the girls with all this information so that they would be excited to read the Bible for themselves and be ready and willing to share it with their friends. Keep reading to hear some interesting aspects of the Bible that you might not have known before now.
Fun Facts
The Bible was written over a period of time that spanned 1,600 years (from about 1,500 B.C. to 100 A.D.). Although the Bible was inspired by the Holy Spirit and are the Words of God, it was written by 40 different authors. These authors had various occupations including :
prophets
scribes
cupbearer to the King of Persia
shepherds
kings
singers
priests
chief government official
tax collector
doctor
fishermen
tentmaker
There are 66 books in the Bible. The Bible is divided into 2 main parts...the Old Testament and the New Testament. There are 39 books in the Old Testament and 27 in the New Testament.
Each book of the Bible, except Obadiah, Philemon, 2 John, 3 John, and Jude, is divided into chapters and verses. Chapters were introduced in 1238, and verse divisions appeared first in 1551.
The longest books in the Bible are all in the Old Testament. Based on word count rather than chapter count, the longest book is Jeremiah, followed by Genesis, and the Psalm. There are 150 chapters in the book of Psalm which is why many sources state that it is the longest book.
The longest chapter in the Bible is Psalm 119 with 176 verses.
The longest verse in the Bible is found in Esther 8:9 and is about 78 words, depending on the translation.
The shortest book in the Bible is 3 John.
The shortest chapter in the Bible is Psalm 117 with only 2 verses.
The shortest verse in the Bible is "Jesus wept" found in John 11:35.
Many resources list Psalm 118 as the middle of the Bible.
According to one website, Obadiah is the least read book of the Bible.
More than 6 billion Bibles have been printed.
There are some discrepancies regarding how many Bibles are sold, given away, or printed each year because the information can be difficult to track. Several websites state statistics that indicate about 168,000 Bibles are sold or given away every day. That would mean that 7,000 Bibles are sold or distributed every hour in the world, nearly 2 every second!
The Bible is the best-selling and most widely distributed book of all time. I've also read that the Bible is the most shoplifted book.
The first English translation of the Bible was started by John Wycliffe and completed by John Purvey in 1388. The Bible was first printed around 1455.
The Bible was written in 3 different languages...Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek.
The Bible has been translated into over 2,000 different languages.
If you were to read the Bible aloud, it would take you about 70 hours.
