The Greatest Book Ever Written

¹In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ²He was in the beginning with God. ³All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. ⁴In him was life, and the life was the light of men. ⁵The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. – John 1:1-5 

Do you like to read a good book? I do, but finding one can be a challenge. Solomon said in his day, “. . . Of making many books there is no end . . .” (Ecclesiastes 12:12). How about the Bible?

The Bible ahs been read by more people in more languages than any other book in human history. The entire Bible has been translated into 400 different languages, and portions of it into nearly 2,500 languages.

The British Foreign Bible Society once reported that it had to publish 32,876 copies of the Bible every day in order to meet the demand. That’s more than one copy every three seconds, day and night. Every year Gideon’s International places and distributes more than 56 million copies of Scripture worldwide. That’s more than one million copies of God’s Word every week.

That’s not all. The Bible’s influence on other books has been incalculable. More books have been written about the Bible than any other subject, and more authors quote the Bible than any other source. Bernard Ramm says, “From the Apostolic Fathers dating from A.D. 95 to modern times there is one great literary river inspire by the Bible – Bible dictionaries, Bible encyclopedias, Bible lexicons, Bible atlases, and Bible geographies. These may be taken as a starter. Then at random we may mention the vast bibliographies around theology, religious education, hymnology, missions, the biblical languages, church history, religious biography, devotional works, commentaries, philosophy of religion, evidences, apologetics, and on and on.”

Professor M. Montiero Williams spent forty-two years studying Eastern religious books. Comparing them with the Bible, he said, “Pile them, if you will, on the left side of your study table; but place your own Holy Bible on the right side – all by itself, all alone – and with a wide gap between them. For there is a gulf between it and the so-called sacred books of the East, which severs the one from the other utterly, hopelessly, and forever . . . a veritable gulf which cannot be bridged over by any science or religious thought.”

The Bible is preeminent among all the books ever published in the history of the world, religious or otherwise. There is nothing that even comes close. The greatest book ever written is waiting for you – maybe back home. You’ll never find a book better, or one more deserving of a careful reading, than the Bible. – James MacDonald

Prayer: Father, Your Word truly is the best Book ever written. Forgive me for not taking enough time to give it the time it deserves. Help me to desire to read Your Word above all other books, knowing that it is how You choose to speak to me. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Journal: What books am I currently reading? Do I give my Bible the same priority and time?