the Bible – God’s Word
II. OTHER EVIDENCE
H. Universality
One would expect, that if God had a plan to speak to this world through a book like the Bible, and He had the power to bring that book into existence, that He would also ensure that this Bible would live on throughout human history. Furthermore, if Jesus is the Son of God, who came to speak the words of God, and who promised that His words would not pass away, one would expect that His words would not pass away! The Bible that we have today meets our expectation on both counts!
The Bible, above all other books, including all the other religious literature of the world’s religions, has attained a universal appeal and circulation like no other. No other book in human history has been translated, copied, printed or distributed throughout the world as much as the Bible. In fact, no other book on earth even comes close to the Bible in this regard.
As far as the circulation of the Bible goes, the Guinness World Records awards the Bible the title of Best-selling book ever!
“The best-selling book of all time is the Christian Bible. It is impossible to know exactly how many copies have been printed in the roughly 1500 years since its contents were standardized, but research conducted by the British and Foreign Bible Society in 2021 suggests that the total number probably lies between 5 and 7 billion copies. (see: https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/best-selling-book-of-non-fiction )
In Wikipedia, we read the following in regards to the influence of the Bible.
“With a literary tradition spanning two millennia, the Bible is one of the most influential works ever written. From practices of personal hygiene to philosophy and ethics, the Bible has directly and indirectly influenced politics and law, war and peace, sexual morals, marriage and family life, letters and learning, the arts, economics, social justice, medical care and more.[172]
The Bible is one of the world’s most published books, with estimated total sales of over five billion copies.[173] As such, the Bible has had a profound influence, especially in the Western world,[174][175] where the Gutenberg Bible was the first book printed in Europe using movable type.[176] It has contributed to the formation of Western law, art, literature, and education.[177]”
(see:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bible)
We learn from the Bible Society that the full Bible has been translated into over 700 languages to date.
“With an estimated 7,000-plus languages in the world there may be a little way to go, but the full Bible has now been translated into 700 of them. This means the Bible is now available in languages spoken by around 80 per cent of the world’s population, just over 5.7 billion people, and Bible Societies – with other organizations – are working to make to make these translations accessible to everyone who wants them.” (https://www.biblesociety.org.uk/latest/news/full-bible-translation-tops-700-languages-for-first-time/ )
The Gideons alone, founded in 1908 to place copies of the Bible in Hotels, reports on their website, “Today, we have taken more than 2 billion scriptures in more than 95 languages to 200 countries, territories, and possessions across the globe.” (https://www.gideons.org)
All of these numbers do not take into account the spread of the Word of God on the internet, radio, TV and gospel films. The truth is, the combined cumulative numbers of scriptures that have been distributed through the ages is beyond calculation. However, there is one fact that is undeniable: the Bible has been translated, copied, printed and distributed more than any book in human history proving it’s universal appeal and circulation.
Jesus predicted that the Gospel would be preached to all the nations before the end would come. Some two thousand years later when the Bible is being translated into every known tongue on the face of the earth and distributed in the billions of copies we are watching this prediction be fulfilled!
“And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world for a witness to all the nations, and then the end shall come.” (Matthew 24:14)
