40 Surprising and Fun Bible Facts for Kids (with a FREE true/false printable game)

If you’re a Sunday School teacher or a mom hoping to instill a love of Bible learning in your children, I’ve got some goodies for you! This post is full of Bible facts for kids that will spark the imagination, encourage lots of good questions, and even inspire some Bible reading. After all, plenty of these Bible facts will be so surprising that kids will yell, “Prove it!”

I’ve tried to add some context to each fact so that you can turn many of them into mini lessons or teaching points.

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I love this infographic book full of fun Bible facts for kids. If your students or kids at home love what they learn from this blog post, they’ll really get a kick out of all the colorful images and mind-blowing info in this book. There’s no reason for the Bible to seem boring when it’s anything BUT that!

Bible Facts for Kids – Printable True/False Game

Here are some fun ways to play my true/false game.

Take a Stand – with Bible Facts for Kids and Teens

This game works for any age because strong reading skills aren’t required.

1. Print out your list of statements. Half are true, and the other half are false.
2. Make two signs on blank paper: true and false. Tape them to opposite corners or walls in your room. This will work like a game of this or that (also called would you rather).
3. Read a statement aloud. Have everyone move across the room to stand in the true or false area.
4. Announce whether the statement was true or false.
5. The group standing in the wrong area are all out together.
6. Your group will quickly dwindle to just one remaining person. He or she is the winner of that round, and you can play many more rounds to select multiple winners. Just be sure to have lots of prizes on hand!
7. If your last statement wipes out too many kids and leaves you without any winner, just have that last group playing continue on for another statement. You should eventually pick off enough individual players that one person remains.

Card Sorting with Bible Facts for Kids and Teens

This game works well for any group of kids who can work well in teams and read around the 4th grade level.

1. Put your kids in small groups of 2-4 students.
2. Let them sort the statements into two columns: true and false.
3. Whichever team gets the most statements in the correct column is the winner.
4. This one could be trickier to “judge” especially if you’ve got a large group. Announce whether each statement is true or false at the end. If they got it wrong, kids should remove it from the pair of columns and create an “incorrect” stack so that you can just quickly help them count the cards remaining.

Bible Facts for Kids and Teens

1. The Bible is 66 books all bound together into one literary masterpiece. It has over 40 different authors, all inspired by God.
2. The top 3 highlighted books of all time on Kindle are 1) The Bible 2) Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson, and 3) The Hunger Games. Business Insider has lots more information about this fact!
3. There are 21 dreams recorded in the Bible. God can talk to us many ways, including our dreams. This post has a really cool infographic about dreams in the Bible.
4. The first Bibles did not have verses. That’s why it’s dangerous to cherry-pick random versus and ignore context. It was never meant to be read that way.
5. The oldest man in the Bible was 969 years old when he died, and his name was Methuselah. There’s lots of possible (complicated) explanations for this here for any grownups who are interested in explanations beyond the simplest: God can do anything!
6. The major religions are all rooted in the teachings of the Old Testament, particularly the Pentateuch: Islam, Judaism and Christianity all use this part of our Bible.
7. The Bible talks more about money and possessions than it does love or faith! That’s because God knows that the love of money is the root of all evil. (1 Timothy 6:10)
8. The Bible isn’t written in chronological order. It jumps all over the place! Instead, it’s grouped by categories: the law, the prophets, poetry, etc.
9. Two men in the Bible never died, they were Enoch (Gen 5:21–24) and Elijah (2 Kings 2).
10. The word “Trinity” is never mentioned in the Bible. For a long time, theologians argued about the relationship between God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, before most accepted the idea that all three were one. If you’d like help explaining the Trinity to children or teens, I’ve got a post about that!
11. Goliath stood 9.5 feet tall and was the tallest man in the Bible.
12. The Bible was written by authors of many different backgrounds. Some of the writers were considered royalty like David, but others were just ordinary fisherman. God used all kinds of people to share His word, and He still does today.
13. The word “Christian” only appears 3 times in the Bible: a couple of times in Acts and again in 1 Peter.
14. “Mahershalalhashbaz” is the longest word in the Bible. It’s the name of Isaiah’s second son, and we don’t know much about him.
15. As of 2019, the full Bible has been translated into just over 700 languages. That’s pretty amazing! However, with over 7000 languages in the world today, there’s a lot more translating to do.
16. The word Bible actually means scrolls, which is what the Bible was originally written on.
17. There is a talking donkey in the Bible – see Numbers 22.
18. There are also demon-possessed pigs – see Matthew 8.
19. Jonah was in the belly of the whale for the same length of time that Jesus was in the tomb – three days! In English class, we’d call this “foreshadowing.”
20. Cats are the only domestic animals NOT mentioned in the Bible. That’s because cats are the worst (hehe). Lions get lots of mentions, though!
21. The shortest verse in the Bible contains only 2 words. It’s “Jesus wept,” and I like the reminder that Jesus was both fully God and fully human. He felt things deeply just like many of us do.
22. The longest verse in the Bible contains 90 words. It’s Esther 8:9, and it goes like this: “The king’s scribes were summoned at that time, in the third month, which is the month of Sivan, on the twenty-third day. And an edict was written, according to all that Mordecai commanded concerning the Jews, to the satraps and the governors and the officials of the provinces from India to Ethiopia, 127 provinces, to each province in its own script and to each people in its own language, and also to the Jews in their script and their language.” (ESV)
23. Speaking of Esther, did you know it’s the only book in the Bible that never mentions God’s name? All other books in scripture mention God. However, God’s love for Esther is implied all throughout the story.
24. The serpent isn’t just mentioned in Adam and Eve’s story. All throughout the Bible, serpents are used to represent evil and chaos. In fact, John the Baptist called the Pharisees and Saducees a “brood of vipers.”
25. The Bible was written in Aramaic, Hebrew, and Greek. The New Testament was written in Greek, the Old Testament mostly in Hebrew, and just a few chapters in Aramaic, which was the language of the more common Jewish people. Hebrew was mostly the language of scholars and religious leaders.
26. The Old Testament—were not all written at the same time. It took hundreds of years (about 1200 years). There’s lots of arguing about the exact order, but almost all scholars believe that Job is the oldest book.
27. The Bible ranks number 1 in book sales.
28. There are a total of 365 verses that tell us to “fear not.” That’s pretty nifty, since there are 365 days in a year.
29. Pontius Pilate was a Roman Governor of Judea who ordered Jesus’s crucifixion. He washed his hands before the crowd, claiming that he did not personally want Jesus dead but was giving the people what they wanted. He “washed his hands” of the responsibility.
30. There are a total of 185 songs in the Bible. This website has a fun infographic about them.
31. The authors of the Bible span three continents: Asia, Africa, and Europe!
32. We don’t know that there were 3 wise men to visit the baby Jesus, despite what all the Nativity sets might suggest. We only know that there were 3 gifts given: gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
33. “Amen” isn’t just a nice way to end a prayer – it’s also the last word in the Bible.
34. Did you know that God commanded Noah to bring 7 pairs of every “clean” animal on the ark? The Bible version doesn’t quite match the popular pictures we see on nursery walls and doctors offices. Clean animals were the ones acceptable to sacrifice to God.
35. Bibles are the most stolen book, because they are often found in hotel rooms.
36. Jesus was baptised by his cousin, John the Baptist. When Mary greeted John’s mother, Elizabeth, John lept in her womb and the Bible says she was filled with the Holy Spirit. See Luke 1:41.
37. There are no actual descriptions of Jesus in the Bible. We don’t know what he looked like, but it’s safe to say he probably had dark hair, dark skin, and dark eyes.
38. The Old Testament is divided into four categories: the law, history, prophets and poetry.
39. Bible scholars say the number 7 is the number of completion.
40. Moses’ big sister Miriam, followed him along the banks of the Nile River while he floated the river in a basket. She wanted to make sure he was safe. Miriam later became a prophet.