The Bible

The Bible is the body of sacred texts of Judaism and Christianity, consisting of the Old Testament, which makes up the whole of the Hebrew Bible and a large portion of the Christian Bible, and the smaller New Testament, which is canonical only to Christians. It has played a central role in the history and culture of the Western world, as it was the earliest book printed from movable type—the famed Gutenberg Bible of 1455—and it has served as a source of inspiration for countless works of art, music, and literature. The King James Bible of 1611, generally accepted as the standard English translation from its creation to the early twentieth century, consists of 66 books, 1,189 chapters, over 31,000 verses, and over 788,000 words. The Bible is widely considered the best selling book of all time, and over 100 million Bibles are sold or given away each year. It has been completely translated into more than 500 languages and partially translated into nearly 1,300.