Brilliant and creative writers have written a lot of great books of different types in many languages from diverse cultures which have taught and entertained people for years and years.
The Bible stands unique among all these great books. It is unique in several ways.
Its Name – The Book
The Bible means ‘The Book’. The Bible was the first book in history to be put into book form using pages common today. Before that people kept ‘books’ as scrolls. The change in structure from scroll to bound pages allowed people to keep large volumes in compact and durable form. This format led to increased literacy around the world.
Abraham Meir Habermann, PD-British Mandate Palestine-URAA, via Wikimedia Commons
Joshua Keller, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Multiple Books and Authors
The Bible is a collection of 69 books written by over 40 authors. It is perhaps more accurate to think of the Bible as a library rather than a book. These authors came from different countries, languages, and social positions including Prime Ministers, kings and government officials to shepherds, rabbis, and fishermen. However, these books still create and form a unified theme. That is remarkable. If you pick a controversial topic today, like economics, you you will see how many authors disagree with each other. Not so with the books of the Bible. They form a unified theme, even with their diverse backgrounds, languages and social positions.
The Oldest Book
It took more than 1500 years for these books to all be written from start to finish. In fact, the first authors of the Bible wrote their books about 1000 years before the rest of the world’s earliest authors began their writing.
Most Translated Book
The Bible is the most translated book in the world, with at least one of its books translated into over 3500 languages (out of a total of 7000 languages worldwide).
Best Selling Book
The Bible is the world’s best-selling book of all time and the best-selling book of the year, every year! Fifty Bibles are sold every minute. It’s never shown on the best-seller lists because it dwarfs the sales of all other books. In some North American cities, the Bible is the most shoplifted book!
Diverse Writing genres
The books of the Bible form a wide variety of writing genres. History, poetry, philosophy, prophecy are all part of the various Bible books. These books look back to the ancient past and also forward to the end of time.
… But its message is not readily known.
This book is also a long book, with a complicated story. Because its setting is so ancient, its theme so deep, and its scope so wide many do not know its message. Many do not realize that the Bible, though vast in scope, centers on a very personal invitation. You can read the Bible from different viewpoints to understand the Biblical story. The list below provides a few: