10 Fascinating Facts About the Bible You Never Knew

Ever wonder what makes the Bible such a remarkable book beyond its spiritual significance? Today's episode uncovers ten fascinating facts about Scripture that highlight its extraordinary nature as a historical and literary achievement. From its impressive scale (600,000-800,000 words depending on translation) to its diverse authorship (over 40 writers from kings to farmers), the Bible's composition spans 1,500 years across three continents and three languages. 
Whether you're a lifelong Bible reader or simply curious about this influential text, today's episode offers a fresh perspective on Scripture's enduring relevance. Join me every weekday morning for five minutes of inspiration and insight that will help you start your day by starting right. God loves you and is with you every step of today's journey – never forget that truth as you face whatever lays ahead.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:10):
Good morning and welcome to Starting Right.
I am Danny Mac and I'm going tobe here every Monday to Friday
to help you get a great start toyour day.
So grab your cup of coffee, sitback and relax for the next
five minutes as I help you startyour day by starting right.
King David wrote the 119thPsalm, and many people believe

(00:38):
it was written to giveinstruction to his son, solomon,
to try to help him get ready tobecome king of Israel, and the
words that God spoke throughDavid to David's son, solomon,
were the foundation of Solomonbecoming the wisest man who ever
lived.
In Psalm 119, verse 105, davidwrote these words to help guide
his son.

(00:58):
Speaking about the Lord, hesaid your word is a lamp to
guide my feet and a light for mypath.
Today I want to give you 10facts about the Bible, things
that will help you to understandit a little bit more, and what
an incredible book this reallyis.
So 10 facts that will help youto see that God's word is
trustworthy to be a light foryour path.
Here we go.

(01:18):
Number one do you know thatyour Bible contains anywhere
from 600,000 to 800,000 words?
That's because, in thetranslation process, different
translators use differentEnglish phrases to put together
the Bible as we have it inEnglish, that process involves
anywhere from 600,000 to 800,000words.
Now, aside from the book ofPsalms, which was composed by a

(01:40):
variety of different authors,which book of the Bible do,
which was composed by a varietyof different authors?
Which book of the Bible do youbelieve is the longest?
Would you be surprised to hearthat it's the book of Jeremiah,
which comes in at over 42,000words?
Now, I say that Jeremiah is thelongest book, but there is a
codicil that goes with that aswell.
You see, there are a number ofbooks that are written in two

(02:03):
parts 1 and 2 Samuel.
1 and 2 Kings.
1 and 2 Chronicles.
Each of those pairs of bookswere originally written as one.
There was the book of Samuel,the book of Kings and the book
of Chronicles, but they werebroken into two because there
wasn't a scroll big enough tohold the entire book, so they
had to break it up into twoparts.

(02:23):
What we have today, then, in 1and 2 Samuel is one book.
1 and 2 Kings is entire book,so they had to break it up into
two parts.
What we have today, then, in 1and 2 Samuel is one book.
1 and 2.
Kings is one book.
1 and 2 Chronicles one book.
So if you take into accounteach of these two books being
one, then the book we would knowas Kings would be the longest
book of the Bible.
Did you know that 3 John is theshortest book of the Bible?
You can read it during yourcoffee break.
Did you know that the Bible isthe shortest book of the Bible?
You can read it during yourcoffee break.

(02:45):
Did you know that the Bible waswritten in three languages
Hebrew, aramaic and Greek andwas written by more than 40
authors, from Moses rightthrough to John, from Genesis to
Revelation, 40 differentauthors in different locations
around the world wrote the BibleIn Africa and Europe, and it

(03:11):
took over 1,500 years to writethe Bible, which makes the
consistency of Scripture all themore incredible.
God's hand was on it allthroughout time.
Did you know that virtuallyevery class of citizen was
represented amongst the authors,from kings to farmers and
fishermen, a tent maker,homeless prophets, a doctor, a

(03:34):
scribe and ministers of music?
There were all kinds of peoplefrom every strata of society who
were involved in writing theBible.
Did you know that there are atleast 185 songs in the Bible.
Now, it's true that about 150of these are from the book of
Psalms, but throughout both theOld and New Testaments of these
are from the book of Psalms, butthroughout both the Old and New

(03:55):
Testaments, people sang theirpraises to God or the events
around them, and that number of185 is probably low.
There were probably a whole lotmore than that.
Did you know that there were 21dreams recorded in the Bible,
and most of them are had by twodifferent men living centuries
apart, but both named Joseph?
And did you know that the wordTrinity is never mentioned in

(04:16):
the Bible, although we allbelieve and know that God exists
in three persons the Father,son and Holy Spirit?
All three are referred to asdivine in Scripture and there
are over 20 times when the threeof them are mentioned in the
same verse, but the word Trinityis never mentioned.
Yet we know how important it isand what it really means.
There's just a few facts foryou this morning, some things to

(04:39):
help you get started in yourday, and let's finish today in
the same place where we started,back in Psalm 119, verse 105.
Your word is a lamp to guide myfeet and a light for my path.
The darkness implied in thatverse is not necessarily evil.
It simply represents thoseareas where we can't see what's

(05:01):
happening around us, we don'tknow what's going to take place,
places where we can be fearfuland uncertain because we just
don't know.
It's at those times that God'sword is our strength.
It gives us light to see wherehe's leading us.
It gives us the ability to walkahead without fear because we
know that God is with us.

(05:21):
I hope you all have a reallygreat day and I know that God is
with you.
God loves you.
He's with you every step of theway today.
Never forget that, never doubtthat.
Have a great day, my friends.
We will talk again tomorrow.
Thank you for listening todayand I invite you to join me

(05:46):
Monday to Friday, right here onStarting Right with Danny Mac.