Bible – which traces back 3,400 years – is still global best-seller

At least 32.6 million complete Bible editions were distributed last year following the “covid pandemic-related slump in Bible distribution in the previous year”, an increase of 5.5% in 2021 compared to 2020.

Around 20% of all distributed Bibles were downloaded from the internet

The report confirms distribution of digital editions “is playing an increasingly important role, especially in crisis regions” such as Mozambique.

The Bible Society says they provided a digital Bible edition to 51,000 people.

However, dstribution containing only the New Testament was down, going from 5.7m to 5.1 m in 2021.

Horst Scheurenbrand, head of World Bible Aid at the German Bible Society said: “Apart from Europe, more full Bibles were distributed on every continent than in the previous year. This is a good sign after the decline the year before”.

For thousands of years, the prophet Moses was regarded as the sole author of the first five Biblical books, known as the Pentateuch. Early Biblical stories were passed down orally and only written down later by various authors.

Most Biblical scholars believe Genesis was the first book written down. This would have happened around 1450 BC to 1400 BC, about 3,400 years ago.