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In that location's a lot of actually interesting stuff to larn about the Bible beyond its core bulletin. I'm keeping a running listing of really interesting facts that I've learned well-nigh the Bible—experience free to comment with some that you call back should brand the list!

Want more than merely the facts?

I wrote The Beginner's Guide to the Bible to give people a non-preachy, jargon-free overview of what the Bible is, what it'due south for, and what it's all about. Y'all'll walk away from it with enough knowledge to take a thoughtful chat about the Bible with a pastor, an atheist, or anyone else.

ane. The Bible was written in three languages

Those languages are Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. Most of our Sometime Testament was written in Hebrew, which was the language the original readers spoke. A few bits of the Old Testament were written Aramaic (looking at you, Ezra and Daniel). The New Testament was written in Greek, the commonly-spoken language of the time.

If you lot'd like to learn how to study the Bible in these languages yourself, check out Zondervan Bookish's certificate program.*

ii. The Bible is about 611,000 words long

In those original languages, the Bible'due south word count is about 611,000.

That word count is not going to line up with your Bible though, for a few reasons:

When translating the Bible from its original languages to English, translators tend to use more words to get across the original author'due south point.
Different translations word passages differently, which results in a variation in discussion count.

Merely all the same: information technology's interesting to think that while the Bible is longer than Moby Dick, it's nowhere near as long a read as the Harry Potter saga. You tin can learn more than well-nigh just how long the Bible is hither.

3. The longest book of the Bible is Jeremiah

This prophet had a lot to say. He even wrote in the twentieth affiliate of his book:

Just if I say, "I will not mention his word or speak anymore in his proper noun," his word is in my heart like a fire, a burn shut upward in my basic. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot. (Jeremiah xx:9)

Granted, Jeremiah is the longest book based on how nosotros currently adjust the books of the Bible. If nosotros did it the old school fashion, the two-part book of Kings would be the longest book. (Meet Fact #9!)

And if we did it really, really, really old school, the 5-part Torah (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy) would dwarf all other contenders. This megabook lone makes up almost one fifth of the whole Bible!

You lot tin learn more than most the longest books of the Bible here.

iv. The shortest book of the Bible is 3 John

You can read this book in well-nigh i infinitesimal. The book correct before it, ii John, is the second-shortest volume of the Bible. You can learn more about the shortest books of the Bible hither.

5. The Bible was written by more than forty traditional authors

The books of the Bible are traditionally attributed to heroes of the Jewish and Christian faiths. Moses is given credit for the first five books of the Bible, most of the prophets are given credit for the books named afterwards them, etc.

The reality is a fleck messier than this, of course. Moses probably didn't pen every word of Genesis–Deuteronomy—he died before some of the events happened! And there's a proficient risk Jonah didn't write Jonah, and Isaiah may take had some help over the centuries, and so on and then forth.

Plus, there are some books whose authors nosotros just don't know. (See Fact #10.)

six. The Bible was written by people from diverse occupational backgrounds

Parts of the Bible were written by kings. Half of the Psalms, a skilful chunk of Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes seem to be penned by royalty.

Only other parts of the Bible are written by farmers, fishermen, a tentmaker, homeless prophets, a doctor, a professional person scribe, vocational musicians, pastors, etc.

7. The books of the Quondam Testament are arranged differently in Judaism

The English Bibles nosotros use group the books of the Bible loosely by type of literature. So in the Old Testament, you have the books of constabulary kickoff, then books near State of israel'south history in the promised country, so books of wisdom and verse, then books by the prophets.

But the Old Testament isn't always arranged this fashion. For example, in Judaism's Hebrew Bible (the TaNaKh), the books of law come up start (the Torah), followed past the former and latter prophets (a alloy of prophets and history), followed by "the writings" (a blend poetry, history, and prophetic books). In this arrangement, the last volume is Chronicles, not Malachi.

viii. There are at least 185 songs in the Bible

Almost 150 of these are in the book of Psalms. (I say "about" because there'due south some debate as to whether a few of the divide Psalms were originally meant to be sung every bit i.) Merely throughout both the Old and New Testaments, people will sing songs about God or the events around them.

And 185 is a blank minimum—that's only if you count the portions of Scripture that are specifically labelled as "song," "psalm," "dirge," or "chant."

Yous can see the list (and infographic) here.

nine. Some of the "First" and "2d" books were divided after they were written

I mentioned in Fact #iii that if the books of 1 & 2 Kings were combined, they would be the longest book of the Bible. I bring that up because 1 & 2 Kings were originally written equally i volume. The aforementioned goes for 1 & 2 Samuel and 1 & ii Chronicles.

Why did these books get split? Considering in the old days, they couldn't print massive tomes for each book of the Bible. It was hard to fit the very lengthy works on one scroll—and even if the roll was large enough for all that content, it would be too heavy to manage. And then they bankrupt some of the longer books down into two volumes. So the book of 2 Samuel is actually more than like the volume of Samuel, part two.

10. The authorship of Hebrews has remained anonymous for centuries

Several books of the Old Testament were written by people unnamed. Tradition doesn't identify the authors of Joshua–Kings, Esther, or Job. Plus, many of the books with traditional authors assigned to them were likely penned and edited by other people. For example, while Jonah is the traditional author of Jonah, there'southward a skillful case to be made that some later scribe wrote this satire of the compassionate God, the rebellious prophet, and the repentant cows.

The church has been (roughly) consistent with assigning authors (or at least names of authors) to books in the New Testament. Even works that are technically anonymous, like the Gospels, were so of import that the early church leaders consistently assigned their authorship to either the same traditional person or a small group of candidates.

But the book of Hebrews is a glaring exception.Authorship of this book has been debated for centuries. Augustine was certain Paul wrote it. Luther was convinced it was the eloquent Apollos. Tertulian assigns the work to Barnabas. But we just don't know.

Granted, there seems to take always been a large grouping of Christians who uncertainty Simon Peter wrote ii Peter. But pseudepigraphy is a whole other brawl of wax. ;-)

11. The word "Trinity" is never mentioned in the Bible.

Most Christians believe that God eternally exists in iii persons: The Begetter, the Son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. And all three are referred to every bit divine in Scripture—in fact, I've found twenty times when the three of them are mentioned in the same verse.

Withal, do a word search: the word "Trinity" doesn't come upward.

12. The Bible was written on three continents

Nigh was written in what is modern-twenty-four hour period Israel (Asia). But some passages of Jeremiah were written in Egypt (Africa) and several New Testament epistles were written from cities in Europe.

13. At that place are 21 dreams recorded in the Bible

And well-nigh of them are had by 2 different men named Joseph! You lot can see the whole list hither.

14. The book of James is the bossiest book of the Bible

If you make a list of words in each book of the Bible and then a list of commands in the same book, the book with the highest concentration of words is the book of James. (You can read virtually how I found this here.)

I'll exist docking more facts here as I keep studying and writing about the Bible. Stay tuned. =)

*Sometimes I'll partner with organizations to help more people know about their resources—in render, they give me a kickback when people purchase. This is one of those times. ;-)

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Source: https://overviewbible.com/bible-facts/