The Bible is unique in so many ways. Yesterday I wrote about how unique it is with regard to its continuity. Today I am going to consider how unique it is in its circulation.
Many books these days manage to have a circulation in the millions. It may surprise you though that the number of Bibles sold is in the billions.
To quote from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_books
From the: List of best-selling single-volume books
More than 1 billion copies (only one book in this category – the Bible)
Book – Bible Koine Greek τὰ Βιβλία -hebrew " התנ"ך "
Author(s) – various (at least 39)
Original language - Hebrew, Koine Greek, Aramaic, Latin
First published - 300 BC- 95 AD
Approximate sales - 2.5 billion to more than 6 billion
“No other book has known the anything approaching this constant circulation” (The Cambridge History of the Bible).
Back in 1976 Geisler and Nix (Together with William Nix, Norman Geisler wrote General Introduction to the Bible, which is still considered to be a textbook for evangelical scholars.) reported that the Bible had been translated into more than 1,100 languages and dialects. 90% of the world’s population at the time. Ten years earlier it was reported that the Bible societies were distributing 87 million copies per year with a cumulative distribution of two billion.
The Bible has now been published in, at least in part, into over 2,000 languages. Bible societies are translating the scriptures into over 462 additional languages that as yet do not have any of the Bible in their native tongue. In 2000 the combined distribution of scriptures by Bible societies exceeded 633 million.
There are other organisations that distribute the Bible such as the Gideons who distribute around 56 million copies or portions of scripture annually. The Word of God is also now spread over the internet, TV, radio and film.
In reality the combined numbers of the amount of scripture distributed over the centuries is beyond calculation. Though these figures do not prove that the Bible is true, or the Word of God, it does show The Bible is certainly unique. Because the Bible has been translated, copied, printed and distributed more that any other book in human history you would think that if a person were sincerely seeking truth, he or she would give serious consideration this book that has drawn so much attention!