50 Facts About the Bible (Fun Facts That Will Shock You!)


Written by Joshua Schachterle, Ph.D

Author |  Professor | Scholar

Author |  Professor | BE Contributor

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Date written: January 16th, 2025

Date written: January 16th, 2025


Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily match my own. - Dr. Bart D. Ehrman

The Bible is one of the most influential and widely read books in human history. Whether you're a devout believer or simply curious about its content, the Bible offers a vast array of fascinating stories, teachings, and historical data. It’s a complex text that has shaped cultures, laws, and civilizations for millennia. But beyond its religious significance, the Bible is also full of surprising details—many of which are often overlooked or misunderstood.

In this article, we dive into 50 intriguing facts about the Bible, including its characters, content, statistics, and even the mysterious history behind its authorship. From curious anecdotes about Bible figures like Sarah and King David, to the surprising reality of how the Bible was put together, these fun facts will shed new light on a text that has had an unparalleled impact on the world.

facts about the Bible

Shocking Facts About Bible Characters

#1 There is no physical description of Jesus in the Bible.

It’s difficult to believe, but we don’t really know what Jesus looked like. We can certainly infer general ideas about his appearance as a man living in 1st-century Palestine, but there’s no actual description of it in the Bible.

#2 Sarah gave birth at the age of 90.

In the book of Genesis, Abraham’s wife Sarah is said to be unable to bear children. However, an interesting fact about Sarah in the Bible is that she bore a son at the age of 90 (Abraham was 99!). This was the beginning of the fulfillment of God’s promise that Abraham would be the “father of nations.”

#3 Samuel is brought back from the dead to advise Saul.

Despite the fact that King Saul had expelled all mediums and sorcerers from Israel, he consulted a medium in 1 Samuel 28:3-25 in order to ask the advice of the recently-deceased prophet Samuel. Samuel wasn’t happy about being summoned, and told Saul that he would lose his impending battle with the Philistines.

#4 David has a man killed in order to take his wife.

In 2 Samuel 11, we find a shocking fact about King David in the Bible. He sleeps with Bathsheba, the wife of one of his soldiers and when she becomes pregnant, David makes sure her husband, Uriah, is sent to the battlefront, all but ensuring he will be killed. Bathsheba then becomes David’s wife.

#5 Elijah doesn’t actually die.

An interesting fact about Elijah in the Bible appears in 2 Kings 2:11 because he doesn’t die. Instead, the prophet Elijah and his successor Elisha are walking together when suddenly “a chariot of fire and horses of fire separated the two of them, and Elijah ascended in a whirlwind into heaven.”

#6 A snake, not the Devil, tempted Adam and Eve.

Shawna Dolansk writes of a surprising fact from the book of Genesis: when the Adam and Eve story was written, the notion of Satan had not yet been invented. While later readers would interpret the serpent as the Devil, this was not the intention of the authors of Genesis.

#7 Jesus was probably John the Baptist’s disciple.

Scholar Joel Marcus writes that John the Baptist’s baptism of Jesus in the Gospels shows that Jesus was probably John’s follower before his own ministry got started.

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# 8 The Paul of the Book of Acts often disagrees with the Paul of the Epistles.

In Reading Acts, Charles Talbert points out several ways in which Paul in his letters differs from the Paul of Acts, including his theology, his miracle-working in Acts, and his submission to the authority of the 12 apostles in Acts (in his letters, he claims to have the same authority as the original apostles).

Interesting Facts About Bible Statistics

#9 The Bible contains about 611,000 words (in its original languages).

This number differs, of course, in translations of the Bible into other languages.

#10 The shortest verse in the Bible Is two words (three in the original Greek).

John 11:35 says that after his friend Lazarus died, “Jesus wept.” In Greek, it’s actually three words, Edakrysen ho Iēsous, but it’s still the shortest.

#11 The longest verse in the Bible, in the original languages, is Revelation 20:4.

This verse has 58 words in the original Greek.

#12 The longest book in the Bible by word count is Jeremiah.

It contains 33,002 words in the original Hebrew.

#13 The shortest book in the Bible by word count is 3 John.

It contains only 219 words in the original Greek.

#14 The complete Christian Bible has been translated into 756 languages.

This is approximately 10% of all existing languages.

#15 The number of books in the Bible varies.

All Christian Bibles contain at least 39 books in the Old Testament and 27 books in the New Testament for a total of 66. However, numbers vary between different Christian denominations. The Catholic Bible contains 73 books, while Orthodox Bibles contain between 79-86 books since there is no universally sanctioned canon in the Orthodox churches.

#16 The Bible is the best-selling book in the world.

The Guinness Book of World Records says the Bible is both the best-selling and the most widely disseminated book in the world.

Surprising Facts About the Ideas in the Bible

#17 The word “trinity” never occurs in the Bible.

The Trinity is a doctrine developed by Christians long after the Bible had been written. As Bart Ehrman writes, “The doctrine of the Trinity is not taught anywhere in the Bible, even if later theologians read it into the Bible (as most Christians still do today).”

#18 God is never specifically alluded to in the Book of Esther.

In this book, Esther is a Jewish heroine who ultimately saves her people from a murderous plot. However, one interesting fact about the book of Esther is that God is never mentioned at all in the story, causing some, such as Protestant Reformer Martin Luther, to argue that it shouldn’t be included in the Bible at all. 

#19 Some biblical books disagree with each other.

Examples:

Topic

Verse 1

Verse 2

Seeing God

“I have seen God face to face, yet my life is preserved.” (Gen 32:30)

“No one has ever seen God.” (John 1:18)

Punishing Crime

“A child shall not suffer for the iniquity of a parent.” (Ezekiel 18:20)

“I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents.” (Exodus 20:5)

Permanence of the Earth

“A generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever.” (Ecclesiastes 1:4)

“… the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, and the elements will be destroyed with fire, and the earth and everything that is done on it will be burned up.” (2 Peter 3:10)

#20 The Bible doesn’t say how many wise men visited Jesus.

Although tradition says that there were three wise men or magi, Matthew 2 merely says they brought three gifts: gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

#21 Genesis contains two different stories of the creation of humans.

Genesis 1 says God created humans who merely appear at his insistence. But in Genesis 2, God forms a man (Hebrew: Adam) out of dust and breathes life into him. Later, he takes a rib from Adam to create Eve.

#22 In the Old Testament, many characters live to extremely advanced ages.

Noah is said to live to the age of 950, and Adam dies at 930 years of age. The oldest figure mentioned is Methuselah, Noah’s grandfather, who lives to the ripe old age of 969.

#23 The feeding of the 5,000 is the only one of Jesus’ miracles repeated in all four Gospels.

The Synoptic Gospels — Matthew, Mark, and Luke — share a lot of material. John, on the other hand, often differs significantly on the details of Jesus’ life. This means that very few of Jesus' miracles are repeated in John, and the feeding of the multitude is in all four: (Matthew 14:13-21; Mark 6:31-44; Luke 9:12-17; John 6:1-14).

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Fun Facts About the Bible

#24 Many common phrases in the modern world originated with the Bible.

"Apple of my eye" -- Deuteronomy 2:10
"Wolf in sheep's clothing" -- Matthew 7:15
"By the skin of our teeth" -- Job 19:20
"Drop in the bucket" -- Isaiah 40:15

#25 The “She Bible” includes an astonishing typo.

In an edition of the King James Bible from 1611, there is a significant typo in Ruth 3:15. It says "She went into the city.” However, because this verse refers to God, it is calling God female.

#26 There Is a shocking typo in the “Sinner’s Bible”.

One of the most famous of the Ten Commandments states “Thou shall not commit adultery.” Nevertheless, an unintentionally lurid typo in a 1631 copy of the King James Bible causes the commandment to read “Thou shalt commit adultery.”

#27 It wasn’t until the 13th century CE that chapters and verses were added.

The original writings of the Bible had no divisions between verses (or even letters!). However, Stephen Langton, an Archbishop of Canterbury, created the modern chapter divisions in 1227 CE.

#28 The Bible was written in three languages.

The vast majority of the Old Testament was written in Hebrew, with a small amount written in Aramaic. The entire New Testament was written in a form of Greek called Koine.

#29 The Bible was written on three continents.

Much of it was written in modern-day Israel (Asia) with some parts written in Egypt (Africa) and several New Testament epistles in cities in Europe.

#30 We have no original writings of any biblical book.

One shocking fact about the Bible is that the manuscripts we have of every book of the Bible are copies of copies of copies of copies, etc.

Surprising Facts About Later Additions to the Bible

#31 The original ending of Mark was shorter.

Originally, the Gospel of Mark ended at 16:8, where the women who found Jesus’ tomb empty “went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them, and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.” A much later scribe or scribes found this unsatisfying and added the rest of chapter 16.

#32 The story of the woman taken in adultery was not originally in John.

John 8:1-11 tells the story of a woman who is condemned to be stoned for the sin of adultery, only to have Jesus save her by telling her tormentors “Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” Our oldest manuscripts of John, however, don’t include this story. It was added much later.

#33 Paul probably didn’t say that women should be silent in church.

In 1 Corinthians 14, Paul is instructing the church at Corinth on how to worship in an orderly manner. Suddenly, though, in verses 34-35, he writes several sentences about how women should not speak in church. Scholars have long recognized that a later scribe probably added this to Paul’s letter. If you take out those sentences, the book makes more sense.

#34 Jesus probably didn’t sweat blood.

In Luke 22, with his arrest and crucifixion imminent, Jesus prays in anguish in the garden. Then, according to verses 43-44, an angel came to give him strength, after which “he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down on the ground.” Scholars have long suspected that later scribes added these two verses since they don’t occur in the oldest manuscripts of Luke.

#35 John 21 was not originally the last chapter of John.

At the end of John chapter 20, the author encourages readers to “believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.” This was probably the original ending until a later scribe added a whole other chapter after it.

fun facts about the Bible

Interesting Facts About Biblical Authors

#36 Not all the letters attributed to Paul were written by him.

In the New Testament, there are 13 letters attributed to Paul. However, most scholars agree that Paul actually only wrote 6 of them: 1 Thessalonians, Galatians, Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, and Philemon.

#37 The authorship of Hebrews has remained anonymous for centuries.

While some early Christians attributed Hebrews to Paul, scholars have known since at least the 19th century that Paul did not write it.

#38 All four Gospels were written anonymously.

Although we have long called the canonical Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, the oldest Gospel manuscripts have no author’s name or title. Instead, Christians of the 2nd century began attributing them to various figures related to the stories of the original apostles.

#39 The book of Genesis was written by three different authors.

Scholars call these authors J, E, and P. The J source called God “Yahweh” (J is the first letter in the German spelling of Yahweh). The E source called God “Elohim” and the P source stands for “priestly” since that author was mostly concerned with ceremonial rules and requirements for priests.

#40 Moses didn’t write the Pentateuch.

The first five books of the Bible — Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy — were traditionally attributed to Moses. However, scholars have instead identified several authors who contributed to those books and there is no evidence outside the Bible that Moses even existed.

General Facts About the Bible

#41 The oldest complete Bible dates to the 4th century.

It’s called Codex Sinaiticus and contains the entire Old and New Testaments, plus some books that were later excluded.

#42 The English word “bible” is derived from the Greek ta biblia, meaning “the books.”

The word comes from the name of an ancient Lebanese city, Byblos, which supplied paper products to the ancient Mediterranean world.

#43 The books of the Bible aren’t in chronological order.

The Bible was not arranged in the order in which each book was written. For example, Mark, our earliest Gospel, was written before Matthew but comes after it in the canon.

#44 There are at least 185 songs in the Bible.

Around 150 of these are found in the book of Psalms. There may, in fact, be more, but 185 is the number for passages specifically called songs, psalms, dirges, or chants.

#45 There are 21 dreams written about in the Bible.

Most of these are found in the books of Genesis and Matthew. Dreams are often messages from the divine in the Bible.

#46 Until the invention of the printing press, scribes copied biblical texts by hand.

As you can imagine, this was a long and arduous process. Due to human error (or sometimes to human intention), manuscripts would often differ from one another, leaving later scholars to wonder what the original writings had actually said.

#47 The authors of the New Testament read the Greek version of the Old Testament — called the Septuagint —rather than the Hebrew.

This led to some interesting mistranslations. One of the most interesting was made in Isaiah 7:14 which says “Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son and shall name him Immanuel.” The Greek translation, however, changed the word “almah,” meaning “young woman,” to “virgin.” This would later be used by the author of Matthew as proof of Jesus’ virgin birth.

#48 The Gospels of Matthew and Luke used Mark as a source.

Mark was our earliest written Gospel, written about 70 CE. The authors of Matthew and Luke, writing 10-20 years later, used most of the material from Mark and added material from other sources.

#49 The author of Luke also wrote the book of Acts.

Scholars have known for many years that Luke and Acts were actually two volumes of a large work about the early church. We can see that both books begin with a dedication to someone named Theophilus, possibly the author’s patron.

#50 The first word of the Bible is “beginning” and the last word is “amen”.

In the original Hebrew, Genesis begins with the word “beginning” (Hebrew: bereshit). The last word of the book of Revelation, “amen,” comes at the end of a benediction: “The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all the saints. Amen.”

Conclusion

The Bible is a vast library of books written by many different people, in many different locations, at many different times, and with a variety of opinions. Its influence throughout the centuries is incalculable and yet most of us know very little about its history and composition.

It is an endlessly fascinating and complex text that continues to capture the curiosity of millions, both for its spiritual teachings and its historical intricacies. It is a cultural and historical cornerstone that has shaped societies, laws, and the way people think for centuries.

However, the Bible did not come together overnight. It was written, revised, and reshaped over the course of centuries. It has been translated into every modern language and is the best-selling book in the world.

I hope that these 50 facts about the Bible offer a fresh perspective on a book that has left an indelible mark on human civilization.

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Josh Schachterle

About the author

After a long career teaching high school English, Joshua Schachterle completed his PhD in New Testament and Early Christianity in 2019. He is the author of "John Cassian and the Creation of Monastic Subjectivity." When not researching, Joshua enjoys reading, composing/playing music, and spending time with his wife and two college-aged children.

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