Who wrote this book anyway? It’s "God’s Word," sure – but how did it get on paper? That’s the perfect place to start. Over a period of roughly 1,500 years, across three continents, dozens of authors kept "journals" – some in Hebrew and Aramaic (mainly the Old Testament) and some in Greek (the New Testament). This collection includes everything from legal documents and poetry to raw history and prophecy. Eventually, the work of about 40 different authors was compiled into the single volume we know today. It was, to put it mildly, a lengthy project.

One major issue: Literacy Back then, only a few "nerds" could actually read and write. If you weren't one of them, you had to hire a professional scribe. If you wanted to own a "book," you’d pay that scribe to copy one for you by hand, constantly risking human error and typos along the way.

Bible-tech: Not a book like we know it! Ancient IT went through some major upgrades. The oldest medium – like the Ten Commandments – were literally carved in stone. Accounting data was often pressed into soft clay and baked; if the data wasn't needed anymore, the clay was simply recycled.

Bible scribes were a bit more savvy. They used ink on Papyrus (reeds from the Nile), Parchment (durable sheep or goat skin), or Vellum (high-end calfskin). These sheets were cut to about 30cm high, stitched together into strips up to 8m long, and rolled into scrolls. To keep them safe, they were carefully stored in massive clay jars.

But it’s all Greek to me! From around 200BCE the Greek language became the official in the known world. Without Google translate, what do you do? 70 Jewish Bible-nerds translated the Hebrew and Aramaic texts into Greek. (This Greek translation of the Old Testament is now known as the Septuagint - “the work of the 70”, or LXX for short.) The New Testament was originally written in Greek.

Distribution: No internet? How did the Apostle Paul get his letter to the Galatians? He didn't hit "send", and could’nt share it on their social media group; he sent a courier to physically carry the parchment scroll. It wasn't heavy, but it was incredibly valuable. Once it arrived at a small house church, they had to find someone who could actually read it aloud to the group.

If that church wanted to know what the prophet Isaiah wrote, they couldn't just do a search on Google or AI. They’d have to send a messenger on a multi-day trek to Jerusalem to hunt down a copy of an 8-meter scroll. If the owner wouldn't part with it, they’d pay a scribe to copy it right there. That could take weeks for such a huge work! Only then would it be carried back, read aloud, and eventually shared with other churches in the same way.

The Miracle! It’s a miracle of Ancient IT that these 8-meter scrolls survived at all, let alone traveled across continents on foot. Today, we’ve traded clay jars for cloud storage and goat-skin for glass screens. We have more access to "The Word" than any generation in human history – it’s sitting in our pockets, on our nightstands, and in our browsers. But…, having the "data" isn’t the same as running the "app." 

On a personal level: Why did God go to such extreme lengths, across 1,500 years and dozens of authors, just to get these specific words into your hands today? 

There’s more… If it’s all the same "Word," why does your bookshelf have a King James, a NIV, and a Message?That leads us to another question: Why are there so many translations, and which one is actually "the" Bible?