Bible facts for kids

This page is about the Christian Bible. For the Hebrew one, see Hebrew Bible.

The Bible, also known as the Holy Bible, is a collection of religious texts. It is important to both Judaism and Christianity. The word "Bible" comes from the Greek word biblía, which means "books". This is because the Bible is actually many different books put together into one.

It contains laws, exciting stories, prayers, songs, and wise advice. Some parts of the Bible are also found in the Hebrew Bible, which is used by Jewish people. The Bible says about itself that it comes from God. For example, 2 Peter 1:21 says that people spoke from God, guided by the Holy Spirit. Isaiah 55:11 explains that God's word is powerful and always achieves what He intends. Hebrews 4:12 describes God's word as "alive and active," able to deeply affect our thoughts and feelings.

When we talk about the Bible, a "book" means a group of texts that belong together. People often believe these texts were written or gathered by the same person. The Bible has many kinds of books. Some are history, telling stories about the Jewish people, Jesus, or Jesus' followers. Others are collections of wise sayings. Some books share God's commands for His people. There are also songs of praise to God. Some books are prophecy, which means they contain messages from God given through special people called prophets.

Different Christian groups have slightly different ideas about which books should be in the Bible. Christian Bibles can have from 66 books (like in Protestant Bibles) to 81 books (like in the Ethiopian Orthodox Bible). The oldest complete Christian Bible we still have is the Codex Sinaiticus. It is a Greek manuscript from the 300s AD. The oldest complete Hebrew Bibles are from the Middle Ages.

How the Bible Was Written
Old Testament
New Testament
Views About the Bible
Some People in the Bible
Images for kids
See also

How the Bible Was Written

For a long time, Bible stories and messages were passed down by people telling them to each other. The Bible was written long ago in Aramaic, Hebrew, and Greek. Later, it was translated into Latin and many other languages. Today, you can find the Bible in English and hundreds of other languages.

The Old Testament's Journey

The books of the Old Testament (what Christians call the Hebrew Bible) were not all written at once. It took hundreds of years, about 1200 years in total. The process of gathering these books began around 400 BC.

The New Testament's Story

The books of the New Testament were first written in Greek. They started to be collected around 100 AD. This part of the Bible tells about events that happened between 4 BC and 70 AD. These events include the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. It also tells how his followers spread his message. The New Testament ends with a description of how the world will end when Jesus returns. Most of the New Testament writers were apostles of Jesus. These were people who said they had seen Jesus alive after his crucifixion.

Translations and Versions

A translation is when someone takes a text from one language and writes it in another. Most Bible texts were originally in Ancient Greek, Aramaic, or Hebrew.

Jerome was the first to translate the Bible into Latin in the 400s AD. This translation is known as the Vulgate. Later, Wufila translated the Bible into the Gothic language. In the early Middle Ages, people like Petrus Valdes and Jan Hus also made translations.

The New Testament was first translated into English in 1382 by John Wycliffe. His friends also translated the Old Testament. Wycliffe translated it from the Latin Vulgate Bible. He wanted ordinary people to be able to read the Bible for themselves. This translation was finished in 1382. It was written in Middle English, the language of his time. Wycliffe did not have permission from the Church to do this. But he was protected by John of Gaunt, a powerful man. After both Wycliffe and his protector died, the Church said Wycliffe was a heretic in 1415. They banned his writings and even ordered his remains to be dug up. The Church was against these translations because they challenged its authority. In church, only priests explained the Bible. If people could read it themselves, they might have different ideas.

The next important translation was made in 1525 by William Tyndale. He translated it into Early Modern English, which we can mostly understand today. Tyndale also did this without Church permission. His was the first Bible translation to be printed. Thousands of copies were made. Tyndale had no protector and faced serious trouble for his work. He fled to Europe, but agents eventually found him. Tyndale was severely punished for his translation work.

Another famous translation is the 1611 King James translation. It is often called the Authorized King James Version of the Bible.

Some Bible texts were written by historians to show what Ancient Israel was like. Other texts are poems about God and his actions. And some were used to create laws. Followers of Judaism and Christianity see the Bible as sacred. But they do not always agree on what should be included. What was considered part of the Bible changed over time. Different Christian groups include or leave out certain parts. There is not just one single version of the Bible. Its content and the order of its books can change.

Languages do not always match up perfectly. When a translation is made, the translator decides whether to translate word for word or to capture the meaning of the text. If they capture the meaning, they might choose different words in the new language. This is called paraphrasing.

Today, there are many versions of the Bible. Some are direct translations, and some are paraphrases. A paraphrased version is when people take a translation and put it into their own words. Since the Bible has been translated into modern languages, there can be different translations of the same texts. The Bible is the best-selling book of all time. Billions of copies have been sold. A complete version of the Bible exists in 471 languages. Parts of it have been translated into 2225 languages. Many Bibles can be found in the British Museum in London.

Old Testament

The Christian Bible has 66 books. The first 39 books make up the Old Testament. It is the first part of God's story of salvation. "Salvation" means God's long work of saving people from their sins. "Sin" is when people choose to live their own way instead of God's way. This part of the Bible tells how God began His great work of saving us.

To prepare the way, God once sent a great flood that covered the whole world. Only Noah and his family were saved. Then God chose a new people for Himself, the ancient Hebrews. God promised the Hebrews that they would help bring His salvation to the whole world.

The first five books of the Old Testament mostly tell how God chose the ancient Hebrews. They also explain the laws God gave them. After these, twelve books tell the history of the Hebrews. The next five books are poetry and wisdom. One of these, the "Psalms," is a book of songs. It shows how God wants to be worshiped.

The last seventeen books of the Old Testament were written by Hebrew prophets. These books talk about God's disappointment with the ancient Hebrews. They also share His promise to bring them back into friendship with Him. The prophets also spoke about a big surprise God was planning. He would send His own Son, the Messiah (the "Anointed One"), to save people from their sins. You can read about this Messiah in the New Testament.

In the Old Testament, the Tanakh was mostly written in Hebrew. A few parts were written in Aramaic. This part of the Bible is considered holy by both Jewish people and Christians.

There are also some books from the Old Testament's time called Deuterocanonical by Churches that accept them. Other Churches call them Apocrypha and do not include them in their Bible.

New Testament

The second part of the Bible is called the New Testament. The main part of this book is the story of the life of Jesus Christ. The four different versions of this story in the New Testament are called the Gospels. After the Gospels, there is also the story of what happened to the Church after Jesus's death and resurrection. Part of this is told through letters written by early Christian leaders, especially Saint Paul.

The final book of the Bible tells about a vision that St. John, one of Jesus's followers, had. In this vision, John saw what would happen at the end of the world. This included judgment for evil and happiness for people who had followed Jesus. One of the most famous verses in the Bible is John 3:16: "For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish [die] but have eternal life." ^NIV

Views About the Bible

People have different ideas about the Bible. Christians believe it is God's Word to people. Jewish people believe that only the Old Testament is from God. Protestants and Catholics believe that both the Old and New Testaments are God's Word. Catholics also believe that the books called Apocrypha or Deuterocanonical are part of the Bible. Sometimes different Christian groups disagree on exactly what the Bible means.

According to Islam, the Injil (which is believed to be the original gospel given to Jesus) should be followed. But Muslims believe it has been changed over time. The Qur'an is believed to be the successor.

Atheists do not believe that gods exist. So, for them, the Bible is just an ancient book.

Deists believe in God, but they think the Bible was written by people. Because of this, they do not see it as a very important book.

Some People in the Bible

Entre Galilée et l'Église : la Bible., Une mise au point. Étude. Joël COL. ISBN: 978-2-9520299-0-2, AutoEdition Méguila, 2003.

Images for kids

The Holy Bible.
The Gutenberg Bible, the first printed Bible (mid-15th century)
Hebrew Bible from 1300. Genesis.
Hebrew-Samaritan script
Saint Paul Writing His Epistles, c. 1619 painting by Valentin de Boulogne
The Rylands fragment P52 verso is the oldest existing fragment of New Testament papyrus. It contains phrases from the Book of John.
Creation of Light, by Gustave Doré.
A Torah scroll recovered from Glockengasse Synagogue in Cologne.
Samaritan Inscription containing portion of the Bible in nine lines of Hebrew text, currently housed in the British Museum
Hebrew text of Psalm 1:1–2
The Isaiah scroll, which is a part of the Dead Sea Scrolls, contains almost the whole Book of Isaiah. It dates from the 2nd century BCE.
Fragment of a Septuagint: A column of uncial book from 1 Esdras in the Codex Vaticanus c. 325–350 CE, the basis of Sir Lancelot Charles Lee Brenton's Greek edition and English translation.
A page from the Gutenberg Bible
St. Jerome in His Study, by Marinus van Reymerswaele, 1541. Jerome produced a 4th-century Latin edition of the Bible, known as the Vulgate, that became the Catholic Church's official translation.
Salomé, by Henri Regnault (1870).
Title page from the first Welsh translation of the Bible, 1588. William Morgan (1545–1604)
An early German translation by Martin Luther. His translation of the text into the vernacular was highly influential.
The Tel Dan Stele, Israel Museum. Highlighted in white: the sequence B Y T D W D.
Jean Astruc, often called the "father of biblical criticism", at Centre hospitalier universitaire de Toulouse [fr]
Old Bible from a Greek monastery
Imperial Bible, or Vienna Coronation Gospels from Wien (Austria), c 1500.
The Kennicott Bible, 1476
A Baroque Bible
The Bible used by Abraham Lincoln for his oath of office during his first inauguration in 1861
American Civil War Era Illustrated Bible
A miniature Bible
1866 Victorian Bible
Shelves of the Bizzell Bible Collection at Bizzell Memorial Library
Detail of Leonardo da Vinci's Annunciation (c. 1472–1475) shows the Virgin Mary reading the Bible.
Bible from 1150, from Scriptorium de Chartres, Christ with angels
Blanche of Castile and Louis IX of France Bible, 13th century
Maciejowski Bible, Leaf 37, the 3rd image, Abner (in the centre in green) sends Michal back to David.
Jephthah's daughter laments – Maciejowski Bible (France, ca. 1250)
An Armenian Bible, 17th century, illuminated by Malnazar
Fleeing Sodom and Gomorrah, Foster Bible, 19th century
Jonah being swallowed by the fish, Kennicott Bible, 1476