First steps
Read the Bible
About 40 authors, 66 books, some 1,500 years – and one story running through it all: God loves us.
“For the word of God is living and active.”
- The Gospel of JohnWho is Jesus? The ideal place to start reading the Bible.
- The PsalmsPrayers for every situation in life.
- Bible appFree, with reading plans.
Can you trust the Bible? Four facts
- No ancient work is better preserved.
- More than 5,800 Greek manuscripts of the New Testament survive, plus thousands in other languages. Even Homer’s Iliad, one of the most widely read works of antiquity, has around 2,000.
- The text stayed the same for centuries.
- In 1947, scrolls were found by the Dead Sea that were about a thousand years older than the oldest manuscripts known until then. The Great Isaiah Scroll essentially matches the text handed down later.
- It stands in the middle of history.
- People and places in the Bible are attested outside it too – for example by the Pilate inscription from Caesarea or a seal impression of King Hezekiah from Jerusalem. The ancient historians Tacitus and Josephus mention Jesus.
- No book has reached more people.
- With an estimated five billion copies or more, the Bible is the most widely distributed book in the world.