Interesting Facts About The Bible

The Christians most sacred book is called the Holy Bible. It contains 66 books that are divided between an Old and New Testament. The word "Testament" means “covenant” or “contract.” The Old Testament was taken from the Hebrew Bible, which is often referred to as the Tanakh - a word combining the first letter from the names of each of the three main divisions. The Bible was written under divine inspiration by over 40 different authors, including 8 various authors of the New Testament. These ancient scribes were from all walks of life: shepherds, farmers, tent-makers, physicians, fishermen, priests, philosophers and kings. 

There are four (4) divisions of the Old Testament that include:

1- Law [recorded in the Books of Moses]; 2- History [early history of the Hebrews/Israelites]; 3- Wisdom/Poetry [ex: Proverbs, Psalms, Song of Solomon, etc.]; 4- The Prophets [ex: Isaiah, Daniel, Jonah, and others]. 

Within the 39 books of the Old Testament, the following are interesting facts to know:

• The Old Testament was originally written in the Hebrew language between 1200 to 165 B.C. 

• There are a total of 23,145 verses contained within the canons of the Old Testament.

• The longest book in the Old Testament is the Book of Psalms with 150 chapters. The shortest book is Obadiah with just 21 verses.

• Esther 8:9 is the longest verse in the entire Bible by number of words.

• There are 11 parables incorporated within the Old Testament.

• There are 110 supernatural events that occur throughout the Old Testament.

• There are 70 different stories contained within the Book of Genesis.

• The first prophet mentioned in the Old Testament is Enoch, who was seventh in line from Adam; the last prophet mentioned is Malachi, yet it is not entirely clear who Malachi was.

• Methuselah enjoyed the longest life span recorded the Bible; he lived 969 years.

• Moses contributed the most books to the Old Testament. He wrote the first five books of the Bible, referred to as the Pentateuch in Christianity and the Torah in Judaism. 

• When God sent plagues to Egypt almost every one of them confronted an Egyptian god. Ex: God sent darkness over all the land - this was an affront to Ra, the sun god in Egypt.

• The name "manna" comes from the Hebrew words "mah hu", which literally means, "what is it?"

• The Book of Psalms was written between 1000 - 400 B.C.; King David is credited with writing 73 out of the 150 Psalms.

• It is recorded King Solomon had 700 wives and 300 concubines. His eventual downfall [and division of his kingdom] was due to [his] foreign wives leading Solomon to worship their polytheistic gods. 

• There are only two books in the Old Testament named after women: Esther and Ruth.

• There were a total of 43 kings that ruled in the sacred land of Israel/Judah.

• Joash/Johoash was the youngest king to reign in Israel. He was only seven years old. (2nd Kings 11:21)

• Zedekiah was the last Israelite king to rule in the Old Testament. He ruled the southern kingdom of Judah for 11 years (597-586 BC). 

• The last word in the Old Testament is "Amen".               

There are four (4) divisions of the New Testament that include: 

1- Biography [story of Jesus]; 2- History [early stories of Christianity]; 3- Epistles [letters written by Paul]; 4- Apocalyptical Prophecies [found in the Book of Revelation]. 

Within the 27 books of the New Testament, the following are interesting facts to know:

• The New Testament was originally written in the Greek language.

• There are a total of 7,957 verses contained within the canons of the New Testament.

• The longest book in the New Testament is the Book of Acts with 28 chapters. The shortest book is 2 John having one chapter with 13 verses.

• The shortest bible verse in the entire Bible is found in the New Testament (John 11:35, which states, "Jesus wept.").

• The word ‘grace’ appears 128 times in the New Testament.

• While Jesus got his name from an angel, Jesus was a common name during the 1st century A.D.

• While Jesus and His followers quoted many of the Old Testament prophets, Jesus and John the Baptist were the only prophets of the A. D. generation mentioned in the New Testament.

• Luke was the only Gentile to write a Gospel.

• The authorship of the Book of Hebrews has remained anonymous for almost 2,000 years.

• The Gospels record at least 37 detailed miracles of Jesus. However the Apostle John (21:25) said, "And there are also many other things which Jesus did, that which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen."

• Jesus raised three people from the dead. The first resurrection was the son of a widow in Nain (Luke 7:11-17). The second was Jairus’ daughter (Luke 8:52-56), and third was Lazarus (John 11).

• The Apostle Paul contributed the most canons to New Testament. He wrote 13 out of 27 books.

• Jesus fulfilled almost 300 direct and indirect prophecies of the Old Testament in the New Testament.

• There are 110 supernatural events  that occur throughout the New Testament, with 38 supernatural events being recorded in the Book of Revelation. 

• The last word in the New Testament is "Amen".

Other interesting facts about the Bible:

• The Holy Bible has been fully translated into 532 languages. It has been partially translated into 2,883 languages.

• The Bible is the best-selling book of all time! Over 100 million copies of the Bible are sold each year.

• There are a total of 188 women and 1,182 men named in the Bible. 

• There are 21 dreams recorded in the Bible. Majority of them are had by two different men named Joseph!

• The oldest near-complete manuscript of the Bible is the Codex Vaticanus which dates from around 325-350 A.D. and was written on 759 leaves of vellum; it contains both the Old and New Testaments and is currently housed in the  Vatican Library.

• Translating the Bible into any language other than Latin was prohibited during the Middle Ages. John Wycliffe went ahead and did it anyway, translating it into English in the 14th century (1382 A.D.); 43 years after his death, the Roman Catholic Church actually dug up his corpse, burned it, and threw the ashes in the river to punish him for his supposed sins. Another early translator, William Tyndale, was burnt at the stake for heresy in 1536.

• The Bible was the first book printed [by moveable type] in the world.  Johannes Gutenberg finished his first printing around 1455, in Mainz, Germany.

• The Geneva Bible is the first Bible to use numbered verses. It is also the Bible Shakespeare used and the one that the Pilgrims brought to America in 1620.

• Sheep are by far the most frequently mentioned animals in the Scriptures. Goats are a distant second. But there are about 100 other animals ambling across the Bible's pages, including some that have since disappeared from the Middle East such as hippopotami (Job 40:15–25), crocodiles (Ezekiel 29:3–6), leopards (Habakkuk 1:8), bears (2 Kings 2:24) and lions (mentioned on over 150 occasions).

• Muslims believe the Bible is a revelation from God that has been corrupted by men. They believe that the Quran is its correction.

• Robert Aitken’s Bible (The King James Version without the Apocrypha) was the first English Bible printed in America in 1782.

• Sold for more than $14 million at Sotheby’s in 2013, the Bay Psalm Book is one of the most expensive books in the world—and it isn’t even a complete Bible! This book was first printed in America in 1640.