Vol. 11 No.4 –December, 2013

Ten Times the Size of the Bible

Bryan Matthew Dockens

 Representative Dave Camp, Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee recently stated, “This report confirms that the code is ten times the size of the Bible with none of the good news”, with reference to the United States Tax Code.

The King James Version Bible contains 593,493 words in the Old Testament, plus 181,253 in the New Testament, for a total of 774,746 words in Scripture.  This figure is easier to pin down than that of Title 26 of the United States Code.  Some calculate it as four million words, while others 5.6 million, and so on.  Legislation leaves the amount in a constant state of increase.  Even conservative estimates put the income tax laws of this nation at five times the length of Scripture.

Such an onerous burden as ever expanding taxation brings to mind the warning God gave Israel about life under any reign other than His own (1st Samuel 8).  Of the king demanded by the people, Samuel foretold: “he will take” (1st Samuel 8:11), “he will take” (1st Samuel 8:13), “he will take” (1st Samuel 8:14), “he will take” (1st Samuel 8:15), “he will take” (1st Samuel 8:16), “he will take” (1st Samuel 8:17).  No wonder “the people groan” (Proverbs 29:2).

Unlike the laws enacted by Congress, “the law of Jehovah is perfect” (Psalm 19:7).  Whereas this nation’s general legislature requires four to five million words, or more, to communicate only the income tax code, not even all the laws the people of the United States are subject to, just the tax laws relative to income, the Almighty, in stark contrast, requires merely three quarters of a million words to articulate His whole will for all of mankind.  Contained within those 774,746 words, more than two thirds belong to a covenant that is now “obsolete” (Hebrews 8:13), the Lord having “wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us” (Colossians 2:14), whittling the most directly relevant text to a simple 181,253 words.

That’s just a few hundred pages – briefer, by far, than the average paperback novel. Yet, within this brevity are “all the words of this life” (Acts 5:20), “words by which you and all your household will be saved” (Acts 11:14), “inspiration” to make a man “complete” (2nd Timothy 3:16-17).  It is amazing how effectively the Holy Spirit communicates (1st Peter 1:21)!