Not only is the Bible a great book, it’s also a great big book. There’s a reason why the Bible is so enormous. It’s actually 66 smaller books all bundled up together into one big book. When you carry around your Bible, you’re actually holding a mini-library in your hands! And each and every one of those 66 books contains God-breathed words from our Creator!

The Bible is also a looooong book – and it took a looooong time to write it. From the moment the very first words of book #1 were written until the very last words of book #66 were written, 1,500 years went by. For one guy to write all 66 books himself, he would have to somehow live for a thousand years and then manage to live for 500 more! Obviously, it’s impossible that just one human being wrote the entire thing.

It actually took a whole team of people writing in different places and in different times to complete all the books in our Bibles. Our 66 Bible books were written by around 40 different people. You might have heard of some of their names: Moses, David, Luke, and Paul are a few. But the words these men wrote down weren’t simply their own thoughts and ideas. Instead, 2 Peter 1:21 tells us that the writers of the Bible “spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.”

We can actually say that each of the 66 books of our God-breathed Bibles were written by two authors. For example, the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy were written by Moses and God’s Holy Spirit. The thirteen epistles (letters) of Paul? They were authored by Paul and the Holy Spirit. And all those songs in the book of Psalms, their lyrics were written by King David and, you guessed it – the Holy Spirit!

As the authors of each of the 66 books of the Bible wrote down their words, their thoughts and ideas were guided by God’s Holy Spirit. Like the wind can blow a sailboat across the sea, God’s Holy Spirit guided the hearts and hands of these men to write down the exact words he wanted them to write. So even though our Bibles were written by imperfect men, through the power of the Holy Spirit, we can be sure that we are reading the perfect words of God!

2 Pet. 1:21, 21; Acts 1:16; 2 Tim. 3:16; 1 Pet. 1:10, 11