Brilliant and creative writers have penned many great books down the centuries. Books of different genres written in multiple languages from diverse cultures have enriched, informed, and entertained mankind over generations.
The Bible stands unique among all these great books. It is unique in several ways.
Its Name – The Book
The Bible literally means ‘The Book’. The Bible was the first volume in history to be put into the 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 led to increased literacy as societies adopted this bound page form.
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 several dozen authors. As such 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. Prime Ministers, kings and senior government officials to shepherds, rabbis, and fishermen comprise the some of the authors’ backgrounds. However, these books still create and form a unified theme. That is remarkable. Pick a controversial topic today, like economics. If you scan the foremost writers in that topic you will see how they contradict and 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 Most Ancient 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).
Diverse Writing Genres
The books of the Bible form a wide variety of writing genres. History, poetry, philosophy, prophecy all incorporate into the various Bible books. These books look back to the ancient past and also forward to the end of history.
… But its message not readily known.
This book is also a long book, with a complex epic story. Because its setting is so ancient, its theme so profound, 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 take different perspectives to understand the Biblical story. The list below provides a few on this website: