Some Fun Facts About The Bible God’s unique Word!!
2 Timothy 3:14-17 But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them; 15 And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. 16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: 17 That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.
We believe in the God of the Bible; The Christ of the Bible; The plan of salvation revealed in the Bible; and everything else written in the Bible. To a finer point, we believe the King James Version of the Bible to be the very Word of God in the English language. We hold up our Bibles and we say, “This book is the Word of God! I believe it is true from cover to cover. It is without error and it is absolutely perfect.” I believe that too, but I fear that many do not know why they believe that. Everything we believe either stands or falls on the accuracy of the Bible. Therefore, it is imperative that we know why we believe what we believe about the Bible. The Bible: God’s Perfect Word. I would like for us to consider the doctrine of “Bibliology”. That is a word that means “The study of the Bible.”I think it would be good for us to get to know our Bibles better. We need to know where it came from; A good word that describes the Bible is the word “unique”. The dictionary defines the word “unique” as follows, Only one: being the only one of its kind, better than others: superior to all others unusual: different from others in a way that makes something worthy of note.” It is the only book of its kind in existence! Several features point out its uniqueness, and by way of introduction, I want to share some fun facts with you today.
The Bible is a collection of sixty-six books composed under inspiration of the Holy Spirit written by over 44 authors over a period of about 1500 years throughout the Middle East. Authors include adopted Egyptian nobility (Moses), a shepherd (David), a Babylonian official (Daniel), a tax collector (Matthew), a doctor (Luke), a philosopher/rabbi (Paul), and a fisherman (Peter). The Bible includes poetry, history, government records, prophecy, dialogue, parables, sermons, letters, and religious instructions. The Bible is written in three languages, Hebrew (Old Testament), Aramaic (part of Daniel), and Greek (New Testament). Despite this diversity, the Bible has been remarkably preserved, contains no contradictions, and is widely supported by history, archaeology, science, and philosophy.
When the books of the Bible were originally written, they did not contain chapter or verse references. The Bible was divided into chapters and verses to help us find Scriptures more quickly and easily. It is much easier to find “John chapter 3, verse 16” than it is to find “for God so loved the world…” In a few places, chapter breaks are poorly placed and as a result divide content that should flow together. Overall, though, the chapter and verse divisions are very helpful.
The chapter divisions commonly used today were developed by Stephen Langton, an Archbishop of Canterbury. Langton put the modern chapter divisions into place in around A.D. 1227. The Wycliffe English Bible of 1382 was the first Bible to use this chapter pattern. Since the Wycliffe Bible, nearly all Bible translations have followed Langton’s chapter divisions.
The Hebrew Old Testament was divided into verses by a Jewish rabbi by the name of Nathan in A.D. 1448. Robert Estienne, who was also known as Stephanus, was the first to divide the New Testament into standard numbered verses, in 1555. Stephanus essentially used Nathan’s verse divisions for the Old Testament. Since that time, beginning with the Geneva Bible, the chapter and verse divisions employed by Stephanus have been accepted into nearly all the Bible versions
The Bible has been translated, in whole or in part, into more than 1,100 languages and dialects. About 30,000,000 copies of the complete text of the Bible, or of its principle parts, are distributed annually. The first book printed with movable metal type was the Gutenberg Bible, printed by Johannes Gutenberg, before August 15, 1456, in Mainz, Germany. The first printed Bible divided into verses was a Latin edition by Pagninus, printed in 1528. The Bible was written by some 50 men, only one of whom (Luke) was a Gentile.
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Here are some interesting tidbits of facts and trivia specifically in regards to the King James Version of the Bible.
Books:
Books of the Bible – 66
Books in Old Testament – 39
Books in New Testament – 27
Shortest Book – 2 John (13 verses)
Longest book: Psalms (150 chapters)
Middle book of Old Testament – Proverbs
Middle book of New Testament – 2 Thessalonians
Chapters:
Entire Bible – 1189 Chapters
Old Testament – 929 Chapters
New Testament – 260 Chapters
Middle chapter of Old Testament – Job 29
Middle chapter of New Testament – Romans 13
Middle and shortest chapter of Bible – Psalm 117
Shortest chapter: Psalm 117
Longest chapter – Psalm 119
Chapters that are alike – 2 Kings 19 and Isaiah 37
Verses:
Entire Bible – 31,173
Old Testament – 23,214 Verses
New Testament – 7,959 Verses
Middle verse of the Bible – Psalm 118:8 ( Psalm 97:8?)
Middle verse of the Old Testament – 2 Chronicles 20;17
Middle verse of the New Testament – Acts 17:17
Shortest verse of the Old Testament – 1 Chronicles 1:25
Shortest verse of the New Testament – John 11:35
Longest verse in the bible – Esther 8:9
Verse containing all letters of the alphabet except J – Ezra 7:21
Verse containing all letters of the alphabet except Q – Daniel 4:37
Verses alike – Psalm 107:8,15, 21, 31
Words:
Entire Bible – 773,692
In the Old Testament – 592,439 words
In the New Testament – 181,253 words
Longest word in the Bible (18 letters) – Maher-shalal-hash-baz – Isaiah 8:1,3
The word “God” appears in every book of the Bible except Esther and Song of Solomon
Words occurring only once in the Bible:
Eternity – Isaiah – 57:15
Grandmother – 2 Timothy 1:5
Gnat – Matthew 23:24
Letters:
Entire Bible: 3,566,480
In the Old Testament – 2,728,100
In the New Testament – 838,380
The Four Gospels:
The gospels present four portraits of Jesus, each in its own characteristic manner. Matthew, the Hebrew tax collector, writes for the Hebrew mind. Mark, the travel companion of Paul and Peter, writes for the Roman mind. Luke, Paul’s physician-missionary, writes with the Greek mentality in view. John’s gospel is different by nature from the other three; it is an interpretation of the fact of Jesus’ life rather than a presentation of its facts in historical sequence.