Fast Bible Facts

Fast Facts on the Bible as a Whole The Christian Bible consists of the Old Testament (OT) and New Testament (NT) "Bible" comes from Latin biblia, meaning "books" The word "testament" means "covenant" The Bible has 66 books The Bible was written by many different authors writing in many different times and places The Bible was written from about 1450 BC to 100 AD The Bible contains many literary genres - poetry, myth, wisdom literature, prophecy, letters, narratives The Bible was the first book to be printed, in 1454 Miles Coverdale published the first English translation of the entire Bible in 1535 The Bible has been translated into over 2,000 languages The longest book in the Bible is Psalms The shortest book in the Bible is 2 John The longest verse in the Bible is Esther 8:9 The shortest verse in the Bible is John 11:35 Fast Facts about the Old Testament The OT is nearly the same as the Jewish Tanakh The OT was originally written in Hebrew The OT has 39 books The names of OT books in Hebrew are based on the first prominent word or phrase in that book The names of OT books in Greek (and English) are based on the general topic of the book The books of the OT are: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 & 2 Samuel, 1 & 2 Kings, 1 & 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi. The first five books of the OT (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy) are known as the Five Books of Moses, the Pentateuch, or the Torah. They are traditionally held to have been written by Moses, but modern scholars have proposed that there were four or five authors. The book of Esther is the only book of the Bible that never mentions God Fast Facts about the New Testament The NT was originally written in Greek The writers of the NT used a Greek translation of the OT known as the Septuagint The NT has 27 books The NT is about the same size as the Qur'an The books of the NT are: Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans, 1 & 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 & 2 Thessalonians, 1 & 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon, Hebrews, James, 1 & 2 Peter, 1, 2 & 3 John, Jude, Revelation Bible Facts and Trivia 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 first complete English version of the Bible divided into verses was the Geneva Bible, printed in 1560. The Bible was written by some 50 men, only one of whom (Luke) was a Gentile. Statistics: (King James Version) Old Testament New Testament Total (OT & NT) Books 39 27 66 Chapters 929 260 1189 Verses 23,214 7959 31,173 Words 592,439 181,253 773,692 Letters 2,728,100 838,380 3,566,480 Shortest book: 2 John (13 verses) Longest book: Psalms (150 chapters) Shortest chapter: Psalm 117 Longest chapter: Psalm 119 Shortest verse: John 11:35 Longest verse: Esther 8:9 Middle verse: Psalm 97:8 Longest word: Maher-shalal-hash-baz (Isaiah 8:1) Similar chapters are 2 Kings 19 and Isaiah 37 Verse containing all letters except J: Ezra 7:21 Verse containing all letters except Q: Daniel 4:37 The word "God" appears in every book of the Bible except Esther and Song of Solomon Bible Facts – Miscellaneous Facts Various passages which speak of Jesus Christ as God – John 1:1, John 20:28, Romans 9:5, Philippians 2:11, and Colossians 1:16. Various passages which speak of Jesus Christ's humanity – John 1:14, Luke 2:7, Luke 2:40, Luke 8:23, John 4:6 and Hebrews 4:15. Various passages which speak of Jesus name alone used in baptism- Acts 2:38, Acts 10:36-48, Galatians 3:27, Romans 6:4, and Colossians 3:17.