Facts about the physical Bible | Bible Quiz and Facts

Physical Bible Facts and Trivia

Trivia and Facts about the Physical Bible for your education.

Here are fun facts, trivia, and general commentary from this website author about the physical Bible.

The consensus is that less than 50% of Americans believe in the Bible.

The Bible is an excellent source of information concerning how we should live.
The Bible is the authority of the Christian faith, written by divine authority and with divine inspiration.

The Bible has other popular names.
The Scriptures.
The Canon.
Word of God.
The Book of Truth.
Divine Scripture.
The "Good" Book.
The Gospel(s).
Holy Scripture.
The Word.
The Living Word.
Polyglot.
Book of the Law.
Does the Bible include any secret codes?
Several people and organizations claim to have found codes hidden in the Bible.
Their efforts and the evidence they provided have been debunked and disproved by reputable sources.
The answer is that there are no hidden codes in the Bible.
The Bible is straightforward; however, it does contain many parables.
Parables are meant to bewilder the unbeliever.
However, they are meant to make sense to the believer.
The belief is that if you are filled with the Holy Spirit, you can interpret the parables.

The three most important messages of the New Testament and the entire Bible, for that matter, are that

1. We were created by a supreme being we call God.

2. Jesus, the son of God, sacrificed his earthly life to pay for the sins of the believers.

3. The marriage of believers to Jesus occurred at his crucifixion.

Jesus is a bridegroom now away to create a new home for His bride (believers) to live in the afterlife.

Jesus told his disciples in a parable at the Last Supper that believers are all part of this wedding.
Jesus will return to gather his bride (believers) to live with him in a new world.

These are the three most important messages that the Bible reveals to us.

The foundational core of Christianity is
Creation. God created humans, Earth, and the universe.
Sin: God's creation is not behaving to his expectations.
Sin is the ultimate cause of death for all humans.
Faith. Jesus paid for the sin by dying on the cross in place of the sinners.
Afterlife. There is an eternal life for those who believe in the above.
The fundamentals of Christianity are
Salvation. The death of Jesus paid for our sins.
Repentance. Our lives undergo a transformation from negative to positive.
Judgment. What we do on Earth is judged by God.
Path to heaven. The path to heaven is a gift obtained by having faith in God.
The Bible explains why we are here and gives hope for an everlasting afterlife.
"Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea."
Revelation 21:

"I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.
And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Look!
God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them.
In addition to God himself being with them, they will be his people. He will be their God.
He will wipe every tear from their eyes.
There will be no more death, mourning, crying, or pain, for the old order of things has passed away."

The entire purpose of Jesus is His "sacrifice" for our sins and His return to "rapture" His believers.

God's creation is not following the rules.
We are sinning and must pay for those sins.
This approach is similar to how a father might hold his child accountable for their mistakes as they grow up.
However, God gives us an escape plan to pay for our sins by allowing Jesus to take our place.
Because Jesus took the ultimate punishment in our place, we won't have to bear the consequences of our wrongdoings.
God also will allow believers to live forever in a new world.
Jesus will return to earth, gather all his believers (dead and alive), place their souls in a spiritual body, and settle them in a new home.
The Bible describes this process as the "Second Coming" and the "Marriage."
Following his crucifixion and payment for our sins, Jesus rose from the dead and ascended to heaven.
At that point, Jesus became the husband, and all believers became the bride, according to the Bible.
Jesus explained this relationship to his disciples.
He left for heaven to create a new home for us, and when that is complete, he will come back and gather us up to take us to our new home in our new bodies.

There are well over a hundred translations of the Bible into English.
This number includes all dialects of English, ancient and modern.
The complete Bible has been translated into approximately 724 different world languages.
Over 2,000 different languages have translated individual portions of the Bible.
The United Bible Society is a global fellowship of around 150 Bible groups translating, publishing, and distributing the Bible worldwide.
The creation of the Bible begins with copies of the original Hebrew and Greek texts, followed by translations .
The most popular and well-studied versions are the NIV and KJV, which scholars have worked on to make accurate translations.
The New King James Version (NKJV) Protestant Bible is perhaps the most popular.
The sale of the New International Version (NIV) surpassed King James recently.
However, it did not necessarily surpass King James in terms of general use.
The Bible is not a book.
The Bible is a bound collection of "individual books" translated from ancient manuscripts.
Facts concerning the physical Bible depend on the translation and which version.
The results vary depending on the websites consulted, the Bible used, and the revision referred to.

General Bible Facts and Physical Bible Information.

There are 66 books in the combined New and Old Testaments.
39 in the Old Testament.
27 in the New Testament.
There are 1189 chapters in the combined two testaments.
929 in the Old Testament.
260 in the New Testament.
There are 31,102 verses in the combined two testaments.
23,145 in the Old Testament.
7,947 in the New Testament.
There are 788,280 words in the combined two testaments.
609,269 in the Old Testament.
179,011 in the New Testament.
There are 1.2 million individual letters in the Bible.
These are characters or letters of the English alphabet.
There are 150 songs in the Book of Psalms.
The Book of Psalms is the only Bible book that does not have chapters.
It is a collection of individual poems and songs identified as simply Psalms 1 through 150.
It does have numbered verses, however.
There are 14,000 words, more or less, spoken by women.
Eight women talked to God.
Approximately 200 women are mentioned in the Bible.
Not all are identified by name.
There are 31,426 words in the Bible spoken by Jesus.
This total does not count duplicate sentences in the Gospels.
Some Bibles include a third set of books called the Apocrypha.
There are 14 "approved" books in the Apocrypha.
The Apocrypha are books not considered "authorized" as part of the Bible.
They are important enough to be valid scripture and are useful for instruction and teaching.
The original Latin Vulgate and Greek Septuagint included the Apocrypha.
Not all churches recognize the Apocrypha as valid scripture.
The Hebrew Bible and many Protestant Bibles do not include the Apocrypha.
The Bible includes the Apocrypha bound between the Old and New Testaments.
The Bible has a total of 80 books, which include the Apocrypha.
The Apocrypha generally recognizes 14 books.
Esdras
2 Maccabees
1 Maccabees
Prayer of Manasseh
The Idol Bel and the Dragon
Susanna
The Song of the Three Children
Jeremiah
Sirach or Ecclesiasticus
Wisdom
Esther
Judith
Tobit
2 Esdras
The original scripture is in three different languages.
These are Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek.
The Old Testament is written mostly in Hebrew.
The New Testament is written mostly in Greek.
This distinction is due to the popular spoken language at the time of the writing.
Aramaic was spoken during the time of Jesus.
This interval is the time between the Old and New Testaments.
The most popular King James Bible was published in 1611.
Before the King James Version, three other popular Bibles were written and used.
The Great Bible (published in 1539)
The Geneva Bible (1560)
The Bishop's Bible (1568)
King James Charles Stuart was King James VI of England, aka King James I of Scotland.
He was the son of Mary, Queen of Scots, and the third-generation grandson of Henry VII, King of England.
He was a converted Christian.
James was a writer in his own right and is credited with writing The Book of Common Prayer.
He decreed that the Bible be read aloud in church.
The Great Bible was the authorized Bible at the time.
James ordered a rewriting of the Bible, declaring it to be the only one in use.
The change was mainly due to the Puritan sect of the church having issues with the earlier translations.
King James mandated the writing of the New Bible in the prevailing language, ensuring universal accessibility and comprehension.
The Bible was originally called "The Holy Bible" and not the King James Version.
That came later.
The King James Version included 80 books in total.
There are 39 books in the Old Testament.
There are 14 books in the Apocrypha.
There are 27 books in the New Testament.

The short and long of it:

The shortest verse in the Bible is John 11:35.
"Jesus wept."
The longest verse is Esther 8:9.
"Then there were the king's scribes."
The shortest chapter is Psalm 117.
It has only 30 words in 2 verses.
The longest chapter is Psalm 119.
It has 176 verses.
The shortest book is 3 John or 2 John.
3 John has 14 verses and about 219 words.
2 John contains 13 verses with 245 words.
Choose between having fewer verses or fewer words.
The longest book is Jeremiah.
It has 25 chapters and about 33,000 words.
Some say Psalms is longer because it has more chapters.
But it has only about 30,000 words.
The first and last books of the Old Testament are Genesis and Malachi.
The first and last books of the New Testament are Matthew and Revelation.
The first verse in the Bible is Genesis 1:1.
"In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth."
The last verse in the Bible is Revelation 22:21.
"The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all. Amen."
The original, non-translated Hebrew text has the following:
Psalm 119 has 22 sections, with eight lines in each.
Each of the eight lines in each section starts with a Hebrew letter in the alphabet.
The Hebrew alphabet outlines the chapters from A to Z (Alef to Tav), ordered alphabetically.
The longest word in the Bible is in Isaiah 8:1.
"Mahershalalhashbaz"
Mahershalalhashbaz is a Hebrew name or word meaning "swift are the spoils, speedy is the plunder."
God told Isaiah to give his son this name.
The Nano Bible is the smallest known Bible.
The Nano Bible resides on an aluminum disk.
The disk is 600 nanometers in diameter and requires an electron microscope to read it.
It was taken to the International Space Station by astronaut Eytan Stibbe.
It now resides at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, next to the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Technion created the Nano Bible.
The biggest known modern Bible weighs over 1000 lbs.
Louis Waynai of Texas completed the creation in 1930.
It currently resides at Abilene Christian University in Abilene, Texas.
It is approximately 43 inches thick and spans about 98 inches when opened.
One of the worst things concerning the Bible is that it is the most stolen book in history.
However, it is also the most purchased book in history.
The estimate is that over 100 million copies of the Bible, all translations, are sold worldwide each year.

The first five books of the Old Testament are also called the Pentateuch.

The Tanakh is the Jewish Holy Scriptures, aka the Jewish Bible.
The Torah is one section of the Hebrew Bible.
The Torah makes up about one-fourth of the "Tanakh."
It is also called the Pentateuch (five books).
The translation of the Pentateuch is a volume of five.
Moses has been recognized as the author of these books.
We also refer to them as the Books of the Law.
The Jewish community calls this section the "Torah" or the "Chumash."
The five-book set includes the books of

Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.

The four sections include

the Chumash (the Five Books of Moses),
the Neviim (the Prophets),
the Treisar (the Minor Prophets), and
The Ketuvim (the Writings).

The Torah is also one section of the Protestant Bible (the Old Testament).
It's the first five books of the standard Christian Bible.
Christians call this section the Pentateuch.

The first four books of the New Testament are called the Gospels.

The books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are called the Gospels.
The Jewish faith does not recognize the New Testament as true scripture.
The Jewish faith also does not accept Jesus as the Messiah.
The faithful believe that the Messiah has yet to come.
As time moved on, many Jews recognized, of course, that Jesus was the catalyst of the Christian movement.
They admit that he was at least a teacher.

We have identified and considered forty people as the main authors of the Bible.

However, there is controversy over this question between ancient and modern scholars.
Other writers besides the forty have been identified as authors or aides in helping.
The authors of many books are unknown.
Most of the authors of the Old Testament were Hebrew.
Many of the authors of the New Testament were Christian Jews.
However, Luke was not. He was a Gentile and a doctor.
Credit is given to Luke for writing the Book of Luke and the Book of Acts.

The Bible was mostly written in Israel, some in Egypt, and a few in European cities.

There were many unwritten manuscripts at the time.
Generations passed down the stories orally, following no set order.

The order of the "Books" in the Bible is neither chronological nor authorial.

We arranged the books according to their intended use.
Law, history, wisdom, poetry, and prophets are the five groups of the Old Testament.
Gospels, history, epistles, and prophecy are the four groups of the New Testament.

There are interesting derivatives of biblical words to explore.

The Bible comes from the Greek word "biblia," which means "books."
Christ is from the Greek word "khristos," which means "the anointed."
Lucifer's name is derived from the Latin phrase "lux ferre," which translates to "light bringing."
Amen is derived from the Hebrew word "āmēn," which means “certainty."

The Protestant Bible is generally believed to be true and accurate.

Many consider the Bible to be the literal word of God.
Some believe the writers were full of the Holy Spirit when they wrote.
Others believe the Bible is a book authored by inspired believers in God.

The Geneva Bible is recognized as the most heralded Bible of its time.

The Geneva Bible was the first Bible that had numbered verses.

The Geneva Bible was what the Pilgrims used.

They brought it over on the ship Mayflower.
The Geneva Bible was the primary Bible used in the 16th century.
It was the Bible that Shakespeare and other philosophers used.
William Whittingham supervised the writing of the Bible in Geneva.

The Geneva Bible is very significant in history.

The Bible was published in 1560.
It had an affordable cost.
It was small enough for anyone to carry.
The Geneva Bible was mass-produced.
It came with a study guide and illustrations.
It was the first Bible to have its verses numbered
for quick reference and memorization.

The Geneva Bible replaced the Great Bible.

The Great Bible was published in 1539.
It got its name, the Great Bible, because of its large physical size.
The Great Bible was the first "authorized" English Bible by the Church of England.
It was also known as "The King's Bible" because King James authorized it.
King Henry VI mandated the reading of Bibles during services.

The King James Version replaced the Geneva Bible.

The authors of these two versions wrote them 50 years apart.
The Geneva Version came out in 1560.
The King James Version was published in 1611.
America's founders used the King James Bible.

There are six most popular and recognized English Bible translations.

The succession of complete English Bibles by popular use is

1535 - Coverdale Bible,
1539 - The Great Bible,
1560 - The Geneva Bible,
1568 - The Bishop's Bible,
1611 - The King James Bible,
1991 - New Revised Standard Version.
Today, church denominations use these popular translations as they see fit.
Original King James Version (KJV)
1611. It is now published in the public domain.

New American Standard (NASB)
1971. It was published by the Lockman Foundation.

New Revised King James (NKJV)
1982. It was published by Thomas Nelson.

New Living Translation (NLT)
1996. It was published by Tyndale House.
English Standard Version (ESV)
2001. It was published by Crossway.

New International Version (NIV)
2011. It was published by Biblica.
Prior versions were in 1978 and 1984.

Christian Standard Bible (CSB)
2017. It was published by the Lockman Foundation.
Numbered verses were not in the original manuscripts or the early Bibles.
The Tanakh, the Hebrew Old Testament, was the first Hebrew Bible to have phrase divisions.
It was written by Nathan, a Jewish rabbi, in 1448.
The Latin New Testament, or Vulgate, was the first Latin Bible to use verses.
The book was written by Robert Estienne in 1555.
The Geneva Bible was the first English version to use numbered verses.
The project was supervised by William Whittingham in 1557.

Major Bible misprints.

The Sinner's Bible.

In 1631, a King James version had a misprinted commandment.
"Thou shall commit adultery."
Exodus 20:14.
Approximately fifteen copies are on display in various libraries and museums.
Their estimated value is around $85,000.

The She Bible.

In a 1611 King James version, there was a misprint in gender.
The text read "She went into..." instead of "He went into..."
Ruth 3:15
The King James Standard states, "... and she went into the city.”
The King James Original states, "... and he went into the city.”
The discrepancy comes from interpretation of the original scripts.
Some translators believe the entrance into the city was made by Boaz, a male.
Other translators believe the entrance into the city was made by Ruth, a female.
At St. Mary's Parish Church in Lancashire, England, researchers discovered a copy of the She Bible.
Its value is over $65,000.

David Norton wrote a book about the history of the King James Bible.

It is a textual history of the King James Bible (BS186. N67 2005).
Norton lists 351 printer’s errors in the first edition, known as the "He" Bible.
Read all about it.

Below is the Timeline of the most used and notable Bible manuscripts and scriptures.

Bible scripture started with oral tradition.

The holy scriptures were stories, songs, and poetry passed down from the time of Adam and Eve in local languages and dialects, from generation to generation, up to around 1450 BC.
The ancient manuscripts and scriptures eventually appeared in various forms of languages and dialects.
Hebrew was the primary language of writing.
The best estimate is that the practice started about 1450 BC.
The printing of the Bible books started during the time of Moses.
We recognize Moses as the author of the first five books.

Manuelscripts and scripture in ancient languages.

Septuagint (LXX) Koine Greek
3 BC, 72 Jewish translators commanded by Ptolemy II Philadelphus.
Codex Vaticanus (B) Greek
300 AD, unknown scribes.
Codex Sinaiticus (S) Greek
30 AD, unknown author.
Vulgate (V) Latin
382 AD, St. Jerome of the Catholic Church.
Hebrew (Tanakh) Hebrew
400 AD, unknown scribes.
The Torah. Books of Moses only.
Codex Alexandrinus Greek
400 AD, unknown author.
Ephraemi Rescriptus Greek
460 AD, unknown author.
Ketef Scrolls (KH) Hebrew
600 AD, written on silver.
The oldest surviving original text known.
Masoretic Text (MT) Hebrew
700 AD, Talmudic Academy.
Hebrew Bible for 600 years (Old Testament).
King Alfred (KAF) Old English
900 AD, Parts of the Pentateuch.
1st known English translation.
Cdx Aleppo (APC) Hebrew
930 AD, Masoretes.
It was torched in the synagogue riots of 1947.
Cdx Leningrad (LNC) Hebrew
1008 AD, Samuel Ben Jacob mostly.
Oldest complete Hebrew Bible.

Here is a complete table of all known English translations.

Wycliffe's (WYC)
1388 AD, John Wycliffe.
The first whole Bible in English.
Tyndale's (TYN)
1530 AD, William Tyndale.
1st printed book in English—only a partial book.
Coverdale's (CVR)
1535 AD, Myles Coverdale.
The first complete Bible printed in English.
Matthew's (MAT)
1537 AD, John Rogers.
Considered a vital link in translations.
The Great Bible (TGB)
1539 AD, Myles Coverdale.
It was once the "authorized" church Bible.
Geneva Bible (GNV)
1560 AD, William Tyndale.
It was once the most popular Bible.
Bishop's (BSH)
1568 AD, Bishops of the Church of England.
Douay-Rheims (DRV)
1600 AD, Bishop Challoner.
Supervised the translation for Catholics of England.
King James (KJV)
1611 AD, decreed by King James VI.
47 biblical scholars were translators.
Darby's (DBY)
1867 AD, John Nelson Darby.
His translation was for the unlearned.
American Standard (ASV)
901 AD, Phillip Schaff in 1871 as requested by a church conglomerate.
Revised Standard (RSV)
1946 AD, created by the National Council of Churches of Christ.
New American (NASB)
1971 AD, 51 scholars headed by Father Stephen J. Hartdegen.
New King James (NKJV)
1982 AD, T. Nelson Publisher.
Updated to enhance clarity and readability.
New Revised Standard (NRSV)
1989 AD, National Council of the Churches of Christ.
New Living (NLT)
1996 AD, created by Tyndale House.
English Standard Version (ESV)
2001 AD, Lane T. Dennis of the publishing ministry Crossway.
New International (NIV)
2011 AD, started 1965
First print 1973, rev. 1978, 1984, & 2011 by Biblica.
Christian Standard (CSB)
2017 AD, published by the Lockman Foundation.

The New International Version

The NIV is the most popular version in sales, but not necessarily the most popular in use.
It is considered the most accurate and readable English Bible to date.
The text has been translated by more than 100 scholars.
The translation was overseen by 15 members of the Committee on Bible Translation.
It is translated directly from the Hebrew and Greek texts.
Three successive editorial committees translated this version.
Biblical scholars, theologians, and English stylists also examined this version.
Over 500 million copies of the NIV have been sold worldwide since its first printing in 1965.
That's about 50 years, equating to an average of 10 million copies sold annually.

The King James Version

This edition is the most popular Bible used.
Forty-seven translators from six different panel groups translated this version.
Leading biblical scholars in England divided their work among them.
Three groups reviewed the Old Testament.
Two groups held a review of the New Testament.
Only one panel reviewed the Apocrypha.
King James Bibles have sold an estimated 6 billion copies since their first printing.
That's 412 years, equating to an average of 15 million copies sold annually.

What a blessing to have the Word of God in two of the most accurate and understandable books.