01 - Facts About the Bible
I. Facts About The Bible
1. The word “Bible” means “books.” The Bible is a library of 66 books written by authors over a period of 1500 years. There arethirty-nine books in the Old Testament (OT) and twenty-seven books in New Testament (NT).
2. These authors claimed that their words were from God, dictatedto them by the Holy Spirit. More on that later in this booklet.
3. Daniel refered to the Old Testament writings (the book of Jeremiah) as the “books” in Daniel 9:2.
4. Jesus refered to the Old Testament writings as the Scriptures (Matthew 21:42), The Law (John 10:34), The Prophets (Matthew 5:17), The Psalms (Luke 24:44).
5. Jesus quoted out of the Old Testament seventy-six times fromtwelve Old Testament books: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Deuteronomy (most), Psalms, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, Hosea, Micah, Zechariah, Malachi.
6. Paul called the Old Testament writings: The Scriptures - Romans 15:4; The Oracles of God - Romans 3:2; The Law - 1 Corinthians 14:2
7. Paul quoted the Old Testament 131 times from seventeen OldTestament books: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Deuteronomy, 2Samuel, 1 Kings, 1 Chronicles, Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Isaiah, Jeremiah., Ezekiel, Hosea, Joel, Habakkuk, Malachi
8. Seven books have no quotes in the New Testament but are referedto in the New Testament:Numbers - 1 Corinthians 10:9; Judges - Acts 13:20; Ruth - Matthew 1:5; 1 Samuel - Hebrews 11:32; 2 Kings - Matthew 1:1-25; 2Chronicles - Matthew 1:1-25; Jonah - Matthew 16:4
9. Old Testament books which are neither quoted from or refered toin the New Testament: Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Lamentations, Obadiah, Nahum, Zephaniah, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, yet by the time of Christ these were considered the Scriptures by theJews and contained in the Canon that Christ approved of. (“Canon” means “the official list of the books contained in theBible; books of the Bible accepted by the churches.”) 10. A total of 314 verses are used from the Old Testament in theNew Testament. Ninety-two of the 314 refer to Christ.
11. A total of 136 different Old Testament characters are refered toin the New Testament.
12. Thirty out of thirty-nine Old Testament books are represented in the New Testament. (See number nine above.) 13. Luke refered to the Old Testament four times from three different books: Exodus, Leviticus, Isaiah.
14. The disciples refered to the Old Testament as the Scriptures (Luke 24:32).
15. Peter quoted from seven Old Testament books: Genesis, Leviticus, Deuteronomy, Psalms, Proverbs, Isaiah, Joel.
16. Peter refered to all of Paul’s writing as Scriptures: 2 Peter 3:16. Paul wrote fourteen of the twenty-seven New Testament books. (The word “scriptures” means “holy writ.”)
17. The New Testament directly quotes twenty-three Old Testament books: Psalms -78x (most), Isaiah-57x, Deuteronomy-47x, Exodus-31x, Genesis-26x, Leviticus-23x, Jeremiah-9x, Hosea-6x, Zechariah-6x, Proverbs-5x, Malachi-5x, Habbakkuk-4x, Micah-3x, Joel 2x, Amos-2x, Daniel-2x 1 Kings - 2x 2 Samuel-1x 1 Chronicles-1x, Joshua-1x, Ezekiel-1x, Haggai-1x, Job-1x
18. The top ten characters refered to in the New Testament fromthe Old Testament: Moses -101x, Abraham-94x, David-67x, Elijah-41x, Isaiah-26x, Jacob-26x, Isaac-24x, Adam-18x, Judah-16x, Joseph-14x
19. The writers of the Old Testament books include (but are notlimited to): Moses, Joshua, Samuel, Ezra, Nehemiah, David, Sons of Korah, Asaph, Heman, Ethan, Solomon, Haggai, Zechariah, Hezekiah, Agur, Lemuel, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Malachi and other unknown authors.
20. The writers of the New Testament books include: Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Paul, Peter, James and Jude.
21. The occupations of these authors is very diverse and include asoldier, an Egyptian prince, a priest, a king, rich farmer, poorfarmer, scribe, prophets, prime minister’s cupbearer, taxcollector, evangelist, physician, wealthy fisherman, poorfisherman, carpenter, tentmaker and others of unknownoccupations.
22. Some of the authors like Moses and Paul were very educatedmen, others like Peter and John were considered unlearned andignorant (Acts 4:13), yet the Lord used them to write seven New Testament books.
23. God is in no way mentioned in the book of Esther or the Songof Solomon but His presence and works are seen throughout.
24. The Canon of Scripture (66 books) was completed in 95 AD whenJohn finished writing the “Revelation.” These books were the only ones accepted by the first century church leaders as inspired by God. Other spurious (false or counterfeit) works were not accepted by the early church. The Roman Catholic Church attempted to add to the Bible the Apocrypha Books (such as Tobias, Judith, Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, Baruch 1and 2 Machabees) in the 1500’s. These books were re- jected as spurious and though they were added between the Oldand New Testaments of the King James Bible for their “literary and historical value,” the outcry of believers and lovers of the Bible was so loud they were soon deleted so as not to be mistaken asscripture. These books still appear in Roman Catholic Bibles (Douay-Rheims version) but few others. These protestors were right to cry out against them. (Deuteronomy 4:2; Deuteronomy 12:32