THE BiBLE

Fun and generally unacademic facts. Enjoy.

• The Bible is the best seller of all time. Out of the top ten, if you add best sellers 2-10 together, they will still not be as popular as the Bible.
• Someone has calculated that the Bible is so influential that if every Bible in the world ceased to exist right now, it could all be put back together with books from the public libraries.
• Of Christ, Voltaire said, "Curse the wretch!" Voltaire once boasted, "In 20 years Christ will be no more. My single hand shall destroy the edifice it took twelve apostles to rear." Shortly after his death, the house in which he printed his literature became the depot of the Geneva Bible Society.
• For almost 1600-1800 years the Catholic Church had a list of forbidden books that should not be read by Catholilcs. It is said that the Bible was on this list for nearly 1000 years [see here, here, and here]. This is not to bash any of my Catholic brethren. It's fun facts, remember :)
• The Bible has close to 500 verses on prayer, a little less than 500 verses on faith, but over 2000 verses on money and possessions.
• There are nearly 5700 Greek manuscripts of the New Testament. None are originals. The earliest we have comes from the beginning of the second century. Lest ye think this yields doubt, let's take a look at the second most popular ancient text - Homer's "Iliad." There are about 2500 manuscripts. The earliest is from 400 BC. However, Homer wrote the Iliad about 800 BC. Some scholars even say 900 BC. Without a doubt, "the New Testament is the best attested collection of writings from the ancient world" [Dr Matthew Harmon, here].