The Bible survives in more manuscripts than other ancient documents.
| Author | Title | Surviving Manuscripts |
| Tacitus | Annals | 33 |
| Thucydides | History of the Peloponnesian War | 96 |
| Herodotus | History | 109 |
| Livy | History of Rome | 150 |
| Sophocles | Tragedies | 193 |
| Pliny the Elder | Natural History | 200 |
| Plato | Tetralogies | 210 |
| Julius Caesar | Gallic Wars | 251 |
| Demosthenes | Speeches | 340 |
| Homer | Iliad | 1,757 |
| Various | New Testament1 | 5,795 |
The Bible is available in more languages than other books.
| Author | Title | Languages |
| J. R. R. Tolkien | The Lord of the Rings | 57 |
| Mark Twain | The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn | 65 |
| J. K. Rowling | Harry Potter | 85 |
| Muhammed | Qur’an (Arabic) | 102 |
| Joseph Smith | Book of Mormon | 115 |
| Lewis Carroll | Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland | 174 |
| Laozi | Dao De Jing (Chinese) | 250 |
| Carlo Collodi | The Adventures of Pinocchio | 260 |
| Antoine de Saint-Exupéry | The Little Prince (French) | 505 |
| Various | The Bible | 6982 |
The Bible sells more copies than other books.
| Author | Title | Sales |
| Leo Tolstoy | War and Peace (Russian) | 36 million |
| Dan Brown | The Da Vinci Code | 80 million |
| J. R. R. Tolkien | The Hobbit | 100 million |
| Cao Xueqin | Dream of the Red Chamber (Chinese) | 100 million |
| J. K. Rowling | Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone | 120 million |
| Charles Dickens | A Tale of Two Cities | 200 million |
| Antoine de Saint-Exupéry | The Little Prince (French) | 200 million |
| Various | The Bible (Hebrew/Aramaic/Greek) | 5-7 billion3 |
Which two sayings are in the Bible?
- Cleanliness is next to godliness
- Am I my brother’s keeper?
- God helps those who help themselves
- This too shall pass
- A living dog is better than a dead lion
- God works in mysterious ways
- Moderation in all things
God inspired the Bible, resulting in an authoritative book for belief and practice.
2 Timothy 3.14–17 (NRSVue4)
14 continue in what you have learned and firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it 15 and how from childhood you have known sacred writings that are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16 All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 so that the person of God may be proficient, equipped for every good work.
Review:
- The Bible is a fascinating book because it has way more surviving manuscripts, it is available in way more languages, and it has sold way more copies than other books.
- The content of scripture alone should make you want to read it since it teaches about God, life, morals, and eternal life.
- This class will help you develop the ability to discern between the genuine and the counterfeit.
- God inspired scripture, making its contents useful for training and authoritative.
- Even recognizing the authority of scripture and studying it assiduously does not guarantee correct interpretation.
- If we added in manuscripts of the Old Testament the number would jump up considerably, especially after the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls and the documents recovered from the Cairo genizah.[↩]
- If we limit ourselves to only the New Testament, the number of language jumps to 2,191.[↩]
- See Guiness Book of World Records, “Best-Selling Book,” accessed Nov 10, 2023, https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/best-selling-book-of-non-fiction. [↩]
- New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition, National Council of Churches, 2021.[↩]
