Some Facts About the Bible

• The Bible was written over a time frame of 1600 years (1500 BC to AD 100) by forty different men.
• ** The Bible does not go in chronological order! Always good to know this, as thinking it does, could create quite the confusion!
• The Old Testament was written before Jesus was born, and the New Testament was written after Jesus was born and is mainly about Him and His life.
• There are 66 books. Within each book there are chapters and then verses. Ex: Genesis (book) 1:2 (the 1 is stating the chapter and the 2 is stating the second verse within the chapter).
• Each of the books, except 5, are divided into chapters and verses. The 5 which aren’t divided by chapters are Obadiah, Philemon, 2 John, 3 John, and Jude. These are short books which only have verse divisions. Chapters were introduced to the Bible in 1238 by Cardinal Hugo de S. Caro. Verse divisions were not added until 1551 by Robertus Stephanus
• The longest chapter if the Bible is Psalm 119 with 176 verses. The shortest chapter is Psalm 117 with only 2 verses. Incidentally, the middle chapter of the Bible is also Psalm 117.
  The longest book of the Bible is Psalms with 150 chapters. It contains 43,743 words. The shortest book is 3 John with only 1 chapter and 299 words. The longest verse in the Bible is Esther 8:9 with 90 words. The shortest verse is John 11:35 with only 2 words, “Jesus wept.”
• It is one of the most read books in the world.
• It is historically accurate.
• The men who wrote it were inspired to write each and every word by the Holy Spirit, therefore the Bible is God's word, literally.
• There are more than 3,200 verses with fulfilled prophecy either within the Bible itself or since the Bible was written. But there are still more than 3,100 verses with unfulfilled prophecies. While there were at least 40 different people who wrote parts of the Bible, some were more prolific than others. The Apostle Paul wrote at least 13 books of the Bible. He may have also been the author of the book of Hebrews. Moses wrote the first 5 books.
• The Bible never contradicts itself. It seems that way, the information has been taken out of context.
  
  (The above information came from: http://www.whatchristianswanttoknow.com/10-amazing-bible-facts/#ixzz34G0je1jp )

** Please remember that we each have Bibles that are different versions, and therefore have different words. Please remember that the Bible has been translated numerous times and some translations were altered or lost in some versions. Also, some people have used the Bible and it's information OUT OF CONTEXT so that they can use it against the Bible itself and God and Jesus.
** "The Bible was written for us, but not to us," as quoted from Pete Wilson (crosspoint.tv pastor - GREAT resource, site, church, etc.). We have to remember the timeframe in which it was written and what was normal for them at the time; what their lives were like... whether it was farming, nomad living, etc; different cultures and customs that are far different than ours nowadays.


Most importantly, what I want you all to take away from this, and some of you already know this better than I, is that the Bible proves to us that Jesus and God love and completely know each and every one of us so thoroughly and greatly that us humans cannot even fathom. God wants what is best for us, even if it may not seem like it's the best thing in our opinion. He knows what He is doing and He does it out of complete, pure, unconditional love.

If I had to choose one word to describe God & Jesus, it would be: love.

What word would each of you choose?