What Scripture says
“The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever” (Isaiah 40:8, ESV). Jesus said, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away” (Matthew 24:35), and that “this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations” (Matthew 24:14).
What the evidence says
History
Attempts to destroy it
| Event | Date | What happened |
|---|---|---|
| Antiochus IV Epiphanes | 167 BC | Ordered Torah scrolls torn and burned (1 Maccabees 1:56–57) |
| Diocletian’s persecution | AD 303 | Ordered Scriptures burned and churches destroyed |
| Medieval restrictions | 13th–16th centuries | Some church councils restricted Bible reading or vernacular translations |
| William Tyndale | 1536 | Strangled and burned for translating the Bible into English |
| Soviet Union, Communist China, North Korea | 20th–21st centuries | Bibles banned or restricted |
Eusebius, who lived through Diocletian’s persecution, described seeing “the inspired and sacred Scriptures committed to the fire in the midst of the market-places” (Ecclesiastical History 8.2). Christians who handed over Scriptures were called traditores, “those who handed over”, the origin of the word “traitor”.
Its spread
- The most printed book. Estimates of total copies printed range from about 5 to 7 billion. Exact numbers are impossible to verify, but no other book comes close.
- The first major printed book. Johannes Gutenberg’s Bible (c. 1455) was the first major book printed with movable type in Europe.
- The most translated book.
| Scripture available | Number of languages (August 2025) |
|---|---|
| Full Bible | 776 |
| New Testament | 1,798 |
| Portions | 1,433 |
Some Scripture is now available in over 4,000 of the world’s roughly 7,400 languages, including nearly 400 sign languages. About 544 languages were still waiting for translation work to begin.
Effects of translation
Bible translation has often been the first time a language was written down. Missionaries created alphabets for hundreds of languages, and translation shaped national languages, such as Luther’s German Bible (1534) and the King James Version (1611; see 4.9).
Context
Survival and spread don’t prove a book is true; other religious texts have also survived and spread. But the Bible’s survival through persecution, and its spread into most of the world’s languages, is a remarkable historical fact.
Where they meet
Despite bans and burnings, the Bible is the most printed and translated book in history, with the full Bible in over 700 languages.
What’s still open
The exact number of copies printed, which can only be estimated.
Bottom line
Despite bans and burnings, it’s the most printed and translated book in history, with the full Bible in over 700 languages. This is rated Settled.