Fascinating Trivia About the Bible Quiz

Answer: Asia, Africa, Europe

The Christian Bible was written on three different continents -- Asia, Africa and Europe. With Israel being part of the Middle East, it only stands to reason a vast majority of the content of the Bible was penned in Asia. However, it must be remembered some passages of Jeremiah were written in Egypt, part of Africa, while Paul wrote a number of New Testament books when he was in Europe.

(Source factretriever.com/bible-facts)

Answer: Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek

The Christian Bible as we know it today was written in three languages -- Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. The vast majority of the content in the Old Testament was written in Hebrew, the language the original readers spoke. However, some parts of the Old Testament were written in Aramaic with Ezra and Daniel being two examples.

Meanwhile, the New Testament was written in Greek, the common language of the day.

(Source -- overviewbible.com/bible-facts)

Answer: 1382

In 1382, a team of scholars, led by John Wycliffe, translated the Old and New Testaments into English with the version now known as Wycliffe's Bible. Wycliffe was born in 1320 and was, among other things, a seminary professor at the University of Oxford. He was known as a strong opponent of the privileged status of the clergy as well as the "luxury and pomp of local parishes and their ceremonies," according to Wikipedia.

While no one knows for certain, it is believed Wycliffe personally translated the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John and it is possible he translated the entire New Testament. Meanwhile, his associates translated the Old Testament.

Updated versions of the Wycliffe Bible were made available in 1388 and 1395.

Answer: More than 670

It boggles the mind, but the full Bible, containing the Old and New Testaments, has been translated into more than 670 languages. However, this number pales in comparison to the New Testament alone being translated into 1,521 languages.

To put things in perspective, the works of William Shakespeare have been translated into about 50 languages. This even though Shakespeare is regarded by many as the premier writer of the the English language.

(Information gleaned from Wikipedia.)

Answer: 1454

The Bible was first printed in 1454 by Johannes Gutenberg, the German inventor of the printing press. (Some historians cite 1455 as the year the first Bible was printed by Gutenberg.)

Previously, copies of the Bible were either printed by hand or with the use of wooden blocks. The two processes could take years for an entire Bible to be produced.

Looney_tunes, my most excellent FunTrivia editor, points out it is incorrect to state the Bible was the first book ever printed with a movable type process as books had been printed in China and Korea a whopping six hundred years before Gutenberg. For more details see https://io9.gizmodo.com/printed-books-existed-nearly-600-years-before-gutenberg-5910249?IR=T

It is correct to say, however, that the Bible was the world's first mass produced book.

Answer: More than 40

The works of at least forty different authors are featured in the Old and New Testaments of the Protestant Bible. The writers come from an extremely diverse backgrounds, including shepherds, tent-makers, kings and fishermen.

Many Christians believe the authors who wrote the books that form today's Bible where guided by the Holy Spirit. Numerous scholars have described the Bible as an extremely cohesive and unified book, even though it has so many different authors and the books were written over a vast period time.

Answer: True

It might come as a surprise to some, but the Old and New Testaments of the Bible were written over a period of time that spans about 1,500 years. In other words, scholars believe the first five books of Old Testament were written by Moses in about 1,450 BC while some books in the New Testament were written about 100 AD, following the death and and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Answer: China

China, officially an atheist country, was the world's largest supplier of Bibles, according to various Websites. 'Christianity Today' reported, in October, 2014, that Amity Printing Company was China's only government approved Bible publisher and was making a major impact on the world as the majority of its Bibles are exported.

Worldwatchmonitor.org reports Amity produced 12 million Bibles in 2015 with distribution in no less than seventy countries. Bibles have been published in more than ninety languages by Amity. The Website reports Amity has the capacity to produce twenty million Bibles annually.

Answer: $5.4 million

The most expensive Bible is the Gutenberg Bible which sold for $5.4 million in 1987, according to Readers Digest. (https://www.rd.com/culture/most-expensive-books/) As of September 2019, it holds the record for the most expensive Bible. (Additional information can be found at https://www.womansday.com/life/g25633063/bible-trivia/?slide=12)

As explained in the answer section to Question No. 5, the Gutenberg Bible was the first book produced in Europe using a moveable-type printing process in the 1450s.

Answer: True

True. According to Wikipedia, Gideons International has distributed two billion copies of the Bible worldwide. The distribution of the historic two billionth Bible took place in late April, 2015.

It appears distribution is speeding up substantially. The Gideon organization was founded in 1908 and it was after ninety-three years that the one billionth Bible was distributed. However, it took less than fourteen years for the second billion to be attained -- 2002 to 2015.

The Gideons is an evangelical Christian organization dedicated to making the Word of God available to the masses. The organization takes its name from Gideon, a noted judge of Israel from Judges 6, 7 and 8.

Overall, there is no way of knowing the exact total, but the number of Bibles that have been sold and/or distributed surpasses that of any other book. Simply Google the information and you will encounter an array of Websites listing the Bible as the No. 1 book of all time. However, there seems to be little in the way of agreement as to the number of Bibles that have been produced with numbers ranging as high as six billion.

Other books that have high publishing numbers include Chairman Mao's 'The Little Red Book' and The Qur'an. Once again, there is no way of knowing for certain the totals for 'The Little Red Book' or for The Qur'an.