12 facts about the Bible for newbies 🌿

16 October 2024

Angeline Koh

Best-selling book in history

Introduction to the Bible Episode 3

The Bible is the best-selling book in human history, but a lot of people don’t really know much about it. Today’s episode attempts to answer the “What” questions.

I found this 4 ½ minutes video quite informative.

Video by Colson Center

This is a curated list of 12 facts about the Bible to help you get to know the Bible.

These statements answer the “What” questions.

The word “Bible” comes from the Greek word τὰ βιβλία ta biblia meaning “the books” or “the scrolls”. The original Bible was written on papyrus scrolls.
It is a library of 66 books written by about 40 authors from different walks of life over a span of about 1,600 years (from approximately 1500 B.C. to A.D. 100), on three continents (Asia, Europe and Africa), and in three languages (Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek).
The Bible is not a single work but a collection of works from a wide variety of authors, such as shepherds, kings, farmers, priests, poets, scribes, and fisherman. Authors also include traitors, embezzlers, adulterers, murderers, and auditors.
The books of the Bible were collected and arranged and recognised as inspired sacred authority by councils of rabbis and councils of church leaders based on careful guidelines.
No original writings of the Bible exist.
There is much evidence that the Bible we have today is remarkably true to the original writings. Of the thousands of copies made by hand before A.D. 1500, more than 5,900 Greek manuscripts from the New Testament alone still exist today. The text of the Bible is better preserved than the writings of Caesar, Plato, or Aristotle.
The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls confirmed the astonishing reliability of some of the copies of the Old Testament made over the years. Although some spelling variations exist, no variation affects basic Bible doctrines.
Before the printing press was invented, the Bible was copied by hand. The Bible was copied very accurately, in many cases by special scribes who developed intricate methods of counting words and letters to insure that no errors had been made.
Gutenberg chose the Bible as the first product of his marvellous invention of movable type in 1455.
Martin Luther was the first to translate the Bible into the vernacular, in his case, German.
The full Bible has been translated into 704 languages and partially into 3000 languages.
As the Bible was carried to other countries, it was translated into the common language of the people by scholars who wanted others to know God’s Word. Today there are still 2,000 groups with no Bible in their own language.

And now, the “Why” and “So What” questions

➡️ Christian apologist David Gilmore answers the why and so what questions. He says, “External evidence tells us the Bible can be trusted.” Check out his article Why should I trust the Bible?