About 50 Bibles are
sold every minute.
Christianity is the
world's most widespread religion (1,7 billion Christians).
The Bible was
written in three languages: Hebrew, Aramaic, and Koine Greek.
The Slavonic
Orthodox Church has twice as many adherents as the Baptist Church.
The 12 disciples
were not were not allowed to carry food, money, or extra clothing.
Delilah was given a
few thousand pieces of silver to deceive Samson into revealing the secret of his
strength. (NKJV) Judges 16:4-5: "And the lords of the Philistines came up
to her and said to her, 'Entice him, and find out where his great strength lies,
and by what means we may over power him....and every one of us will give you
1100 pieces of silver.' "
Dogs are mentioned
14 times in the Bible, and lions 55 times, but domestic cats are not mentioned
at all.
The Bible, the
world's best-selling book, is also the world's most shoplifted book.
The oldest
almost-complete manuscript of the Bible still existing is the Codex Vaticanus,
dating from the first half of the 4th century, now held in the Vatican library.
The word
"Christian" appears only three times in the Bible: Acts 11:26; 26:28;
1 Peter 4:16.
Esther is the only
book in the Bible that does not contain the word "God."
There are 66 books
in the Bible, 39 in the Old Testament and 27 in the New Testament.
The 66 books of the
Bible is divided into 1,189 chapters consisting of 31,173 verses. The Old
Testament has 929 chapters, the New Testament 260. (King James version)
The King James Old
Testament consist of 592,439 words consisting of 2,728,100 letters and the New
Testament 181,253 words consisting of 838,380 letter (total 3,566,480 letters).
The longest line in
the Bible is Esther 8:9 - 89 words, 425 letters.
The longest word in
the Bible is Maher-shalal-hash-baz: Isaiah 8:1.
The shortest verse
in the NIV Bible is John 11:35: "Jesus wept."
The longest book
chapter in the Bible is Psalm 119, the shortest is Psalm 117.
Obadiah, with 21
verses consisting of 602 words, is the shortest book in the Old Testament, and
the third shortest in the Bible.
II John has the
fewest number of verses of any book in the Bible - it is the shortest book in
the Bible.
III John has the
fewest number of words of any book in the Bible.
Job is the oldest
book written in the Bible - it was written by an unknown Israelite around 1500
BC.
Malachi, written
about 400 BC, is the youngest book in the Old Testament.
James, written
around 45 AD, is the oldest book in the New Testament.
Revelation, written
about 95 AD, is the youngest book in the New Testament.
The verse in the
exact middle of the Bible is Psalm 118:8. There are 549 chapters before Psalm
118 and 549 chapters after Psalm 118, the total sum of which is 1188.
St Paul wrote 14
(of the 27) books of the New Testament.
The covering for
the tabernacle was made out of ram skins and sea cow hides: Exodus 36:19.
Nowhere in the
Bible does it say there were three wise men - Matthew 2:1 only says: "Magi
from the east came to Jerusalem" and later they present three gifts. More.
The word
"Lord" appears 1855 times in the Bible.
The word
"God" appears in every book except Esther and Song of Solomon.
The word
"grandmother" appears in the Bible only once: 2 Timothy 1:5.
The word
"eternity" is mentioned only once: Isaiah 57:15.
Seven suicides are
recorded in the Bible.
In Old Testament
times the Mediterranean Sea was called the Great Sea.
There are 7
different Jeremiahs in the Bible: 1 Chronicles 5:24; 12:4, 10, 13; 2 Kings
23:30; Jeremiah 1:1; 35:3.
The raven is the
first bird mention in the Bible. It appears in Genesis 8:7, when it is sent out
from the ark by Noah to see if the flood waters have abated. The second bird was
a dove, in verse 8.
Almonds and
pistachios are the only nuts mentioned in the Bible.
A chariot imported
from Egypt cost around 600 shekels of silver (1 Kings 10:29). That would be
about $77,000. One shekel was 4 days wages.
The word
"trinity" is not mentioned in the Bible.
Methuselah is the
oldest man on record: 969 years old (Genesis 5:27).
The 10 plagues of
Egypt:
1. Water turns to blood
2. Frogs
3. Lice and fleas
4. Flies
5. Cattle die of diseases
6. Boils and sores
7. Hail
8. Locusts
9. Darkness
10. Death of first-born
The 7 last plagues
(Revelation 16):
1. Sores
2. Sea turns to blood
3. Rivers turn to blood
4. People schorched by heat of the sun
5. Darkness
6. River Euphrates dries up
7. Earthquake
The 7 Fathers of
the Church:
St Athanasius, St Gregory of Nazianzus, St John Chrysostom, St John of Damascus,
St Basil of Caesarea, St Gregory of Nyssa, St Cyril of Alexandria.
During the 6th
Century, it was customary to congratulate people who sneezed because it was
thought that they were expelling evil from their bodies. During the great plague
of Europe, the Pope passed a law to say "God bless you" to one who
sneezed.