5 Interesting Facts That You Probably Didn’t Know About The Bible

The Bible is the most widely distributed and sold book in history with over five billion in total sales. However, although most people are familiar with the Bible, and it is one of the most famous texts in the world, it’s amazing how many people know so little about it.

Below are five interesting facts that you probably didn’t know about the Bible.

1. Bible means scroll or book

The word Bible comes from the Latin word Biblia, which translates as ‘the books’ or ‘the scrolls’. The Encyclopaedia of Britannica asserts that Biblia is derived from Byblos, which is one of the oldest cities and was famous for its supply of paper products to the ancient world.

2. The Bible was written by over 40 traditional authors

The Christian and Jewish religions base their Faith on the Bible and within this are many heroes. For example, you’ll find that Moses is mentioned in the first five books of the Bible, and some prophets are given credit for the books they authored. Some books have no known authors.

3. The Bible has over 180 songs

Although the Bible is not a songbook, it has over 180 songs. You can find 150 songs in the book of Psalms, which was written by David and other authors. There are more than 30 songs, chants, and dirges across the Old and New Testaments.

The Song of Solomon has epic love songs and poems, while Lamentation features some mourning songs for the fall of Jerusalem. Psalm 119 is the longest song with 1,732 words and the shortest is in 2nd Chronicles 5-13 with just seven words.

4. The Bible was written across three continents

Some new Testament Epistles were written in Europe and a few passages of Jeremiah were written in Africa, Egypt. Most of the Bible was written in Israel, which lies on the western side of the Asian continent.

5. The Bible is 611,000 words long

The Bible’s word count is 611,000 in its original language. However, this word count may differ with that of your Bible at home because of different translations of passages lead to variations in the word count. The process of translation can also lead to the use of more words to get the author’s point across.