50 Fun Facts About Bible Verses

Which two-word verse, the shortest in the King James Bible, comes as Christ nears Lazarus's tomb?

Jesus wept is John 11:35, and moments after it Christ has the stone rolled away and calls Lazarus out alive. He had first asked the mourners where the body had been laid.

Which phrase opens the verse Tim Tebow wrote on his eye black at the 2009 BCS title game?

For God so loved the world opens John 3:16, and Tebow's eye black made the citation the most popular search term online for more than 24 hours. Evangelists paint the same reference on stadium signs to catch the cameras.

Which word completes 'The Lord is my ___; I shall not want', the first line of funeral favourite Psalm 23?

Shepherd was David's own trade: the psalm's heading ascribes it to the king said to have tended flocks as a youth. It became a funeral fixture only in the 20th century, and films with funeral scenes often stage a graveside recital of it.

What does 1 Timothy 6:10, a verse people routinely shorten, actually call 'the root of all evil'?

The love of money, not money itself, is the culprit in the King James text, which adds that some who coveted it were 'pierced through with many sorrows'. Grammarian Daniel Wallace lists six possible translations of the Greek.

Which familiar saying is not scripture at all but a line popularised by Butler's 1663 mock-epic Hudibras?

Spare the rod, spoil the child first appears in Hudibras, whose satire of Puritans ran in three parts from 1663 to 1678. The Bible's nearest verse says only that whoever spares his rod hates his son.

Which Poor Richard's Almanack maxim is widely mistaken for scripture but appears nowhere in the Bible?

God helps those who help themselves was coined by Algernon Sidney, and Benjamin Franklin borrowed it for the 1736 almanac. The sentiment runs against Bible passages that stress reliance on God rather than self.

Which book's third chapter, 'To every thing there is a season', became Pete Seeger's 'Turn! Turn! Turn!'?

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 supplies every line of the song except the title and the last two, and the Byrds took it to number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in December 1965. Seeger said he wrote it in 1954.

In which Tarantino film does hitman Jules Winnfield recite a paraphrased 'Ezekiel 25:17' before shooting?

Pulp Fiction has Jules deliver the passage before he and Vincent kill Brett, the screenplay stretching a short verse about vengeance into a full speech. The 1994 film won the Palme d'Or at Cannes.

Which US agency's headquarters lobby bears 'And ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free'?

The CIA's Old Headquarters Building has John 8:32 engraved on a marble wall at the request of Allen Dulles, the former Director of Central Intelligence. The Langley complex is named for George H. W. Bush.

Which Senate candidate built an 1858 Springfield speech around 'A house divided against itself cannot stand'?

Abraham Lincoln was quoting Mark 3:25, where Jesus answers the charge that he casts out devils by the prince of devils. The campaign failed against Stephen Douglas but led to the famous debates between them.

Which Peanuts character recites 'Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings' in A Charlie Brown Christmas?

Linus drops his security blanket, asks for a spotlight and recites the King James account of the angel's announcement to explain what Christmas is all about. The special first aired on December 9, 1965.

Which command, the first divine words in the Bible, is spoken in Genesis before sun, moon or stars exist?

Let there be light comes in Genesis 1:3, while the sun and moon are not made until the fourth day, a puzzle that has occupied commentators for two millennia. In the Latin Vulgate it is the famous 'fiat lux'.

Which chapter, opening 'By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down', became a five-week UK number one for Boney M.?

Psalm 137 is the exiles' lament for Zion, and the song 'Rivers of Babylon' was first written and recorded by the Melodians in Jamaica in 1970 before Boney M. covered it. The lyric also borrows a line from Psalm 19.

Which animal 'shall dwell with the lamb' in the peaceable-kingdom prophecy where 'a little child shall lead them'?

The wolf gets the lamb in the King James text, while the lion is paired with the calf and the fatling in the same verse and eats straw like the ox in the next. The popular 'lion shall lie down with the lamb' is a conflation.

In which book do the Ten Commandments first appear, delivered at Mount Sinai amid thunder and fire?

Exodus 20 gives the commandments first, and the Torah repeats them in Deuteronomy 5 and again, in a markedly different 'ritual' form, in Exodus 34. Jewish and Christian traditions even number the ten differently.

Who answered God's question about Abel's whereabouts with 'I know not: Am I my brother's keeper?'

Cain was condemned to be a fugitive and a wanderer for killing his brother, yet God put a mark on him so that no one who came upon him would kill him. Genesis then has him build the first city.

Who said 'The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away' after raiders, fire and wind took his herds and children?

Job lost oxen, asses, sheep and ten children in a single day of arriving messengers, and still 'sinned not, nor charged God foolishly'. His restoration at the end of the book doubles his livestock.

Which petition follows 'Thy kingdom come' in the Lord's Prayer as Matthew records it in the Sermon on the Mount?

Thy will be done, 'as it is in heaven', is the third petition; the request for daily bread follows, and Matthew's wording of the whole prayer sits inside the Sermon on the Mount's teaching on praying in secret.

Which letter Paul wrote in custody holds 'I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me'?

Philippians 4:13 was written by a prisoner thanking a church for a gift, which is why its boast sits right after 'I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content'. Philippi lay in Macedonia.

Which prophet told King David 'Thou art the man' after a parable about a rich man seizing a poor man's one lamb?

Nathan's trap closed when David condemned the rich man of the story, unaware he was judging his own taking of Bathsheba from Uriah. The prophet later helped secure the throne for Solomon.

Which prophet volunteered 'Here am I; send me' after a seraph touched his lips with a live coal from the altar?

Isaiah's commission in chapter 6 follows a vision of the Lord enthroned among six-winged seraphim crying 'Holy, holy, holy', the coal purging the sin of a man of 'unclean lips'. The scene is dated to the year King Uzziah died.

Which disciple was rebuked with 'Get thee behind me, Satan' only verses after being named the rock of the church?

Peter had just objected to Jesus predicting his own death, and the reply in Matthew 16:23 calls him 'an offence unto me'. Verses 18 and 19 had made him the rock and handed him the keys of the kingdom of heaven.

Jesus's cry from the cross, 'My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?', quotes the opening of which chapter?

Psalm 22 opens with the words Matthew and Mark put in Jesus's mouth, kept in Aramaic as 'Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani' in Matthew and 'Eloi, Eloi' in Mark. The same poem speaks of pierced hands and feet and of lots cast for clothing.

'Thy word is a lamp unto my feet' sits in which chapter, the longest in the Bible at 176 verses?

Psalm 119 is an acrostic: its 176 verses run in 22 stanzas, one for each letter of the Hebrew alphabet, with every line of a stanza beginning with that letter. The lamp line is verse 105.

In which town's synagogue did Jesus quote 'Physician, heal thyself' before the crowd tried to throw him off a hill?

Nazareth was where Jesus had been brought up, and its congregation, told 'no prophet is accepted in his own country', led him to the brow of the hill to cast him down headlong. Luke says he simply passed through them.

Which coin did Jesus call for before answering 'Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's'?

A denarius with the head of Tiberius is the coin usually assumed, since the Greek calls it a dēnarion, and Jesus asked whose image it bore before answering. Pharisees and Herodians had posed the question to trap him.

Of what was the woman accused when Jesus said 'He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone'?

Adultery 'in the very act' was the charge, and the law of Moses prescribed stoning; the accusers drifted away one by one, eldest first. The whole passage is missing from the oldest Greek manuscripts of John.

At whose feast did a hand write 'Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin' on the wall, words Daniel read as the kingdom's doom?

Belshazzar was killed that very night and Darius the Mede received the kingdom; the feast had been drunk from gold vessels looted from the Jerusalem temple. Rembrandt painted the instant the hand appears.

To whom did Ruth vow 'Whither thou goest, I will go; thy people shall be my people' on the road from Moab?

Naomi was Ruth's widowed mother-in-law, heading home to Bethlehem after losing her husband and both sons; her other daughter-in-law Orpah kissed her and turned back. Ruth's loyalty makes her great-grandmother of David.

Which boy, sleeping where the ark was kept, answered a night-time call with 'Speak; for thy servant heareth'?

Samuel had run to the old priest Eli three times, thinking it was he who called, before Eli realised the Lord was speaking and told the boy how to reply. He grew up to anoint Israel's first two kings.

Who heard 'Be strong and of a good courage' on taking command after Moses died, with the Jordan still to cross?

Joshua, son of Nun, heard the charge from God three times in the book's first chapter, with the promise 'the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest'. He had been one of the two spies who believed the land could be taken.

Which letter to a church Paul never founded declares 'The wages of sin is death' and calls eternal life a gift?

Romans is the longest of the thirteen Pauline epistles, written most probably while Paul was staying in the house of Gaius, before he had ever reached the city. Its sixth chapter contrasts slavery to sin with slavery to righteousness.

Which anonymous epistle defines faith as 'the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen'?

Hebrews never names its writer; tradition handed it to Paul, but modern scholarship mostly rejects that and leaves the author unknown. Chapter 11 goes on to parade Old Testament heroes as examples of that faith.

Which short epistle warns of 'many antichrists' and states twice in a single chapter that 'God is love'?

1 John 4 says 'God is love' at verses 8 and 16, while the letter's antichrists are teachers who deny that Jesus Christ came in the flesh. Tradition credits it to the same John as the Gospel.

Which book credited to Solomon warns 'Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall'?

Proverbs 16:18 is the source of the clipped 'pride comes before a fall', and the book's own heading calls it 'the proverbs of Solomon the son of David'. Chapters 30 and 31 are credited to Agur and King Lemuel instead.

Which book of Moses first says 'Love thy neighbour as thyself', later Jesus's second great commandment?

Leviticus 19:18 sets the command among laws on grudges and revenge, and Jesus paired it with loving God as the two commandments on which 'hang all the law and the prophets'. The book is better known for its laws on sacrifice and diet.

Which twice-daily Jewish prayer takes its name from the Hebrew 'hear' and opens 'Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God'?

The Shema's first verse is Deuteronomy 6:4, which Judaism treats as the essence of its monotheism, and reciting it morning and evening counts as a mitzvah. Its words go inside the tefillin and the mezuzah.

Which word completes 'Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his ___'?

Friends is the word in John 15:13, spoken at the Last Supper, and thousands of war memorials carry 'no greater love' from it in tribute to the fallen. The next verse adds 'Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you'.

What name, used by English writers since 1604, is given to Matthew 7:12's 'do ye even so to them' teaching?

The Golden Rule got its name from Anglican theologians, with the earliest known use in 1604, though the maxim is far older and Luke 6:31 gives a shorter form. Matthew adds 'this is the law and the prophets'.

Which word completes the King James Beatitude 'Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the ___'?

Earth here echoes Psalm 37:11, 'the meek shall inherit the earth', which Matthew's Jesus lifts almost word for word; it is the third of eight Beatitudes in Matthew 5 and the only one promising something this worldly.

Which seasoning did Jesus liken his followers to, fit only to be trodden underfoot once it has lost its savour?

Salt is the image in Matthew 5:13, straight after the Beatitudes, where savourless salt is 'good for nothing, but to be cast out'. Mint, anise and cummin are the herbs the Pharisees tithe so carefully in Matthew 23.

What does Jesus say sits in the hypocrite's own eye while he notices a mote in his brother's, in Matthew 7?

A beam, a whole roof timber, against a mote, a speck of sawdust, is the joke behind 'Judge not, that ye be not judged'; the hypocrite is told to cast out the beam first. Modern versions make it a plank and a speck.

Which word completes 'Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they ___'?

Spin is the verb, and the next verse insists that 'even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these', the lesson being not to fret about raiment. The fowls of the air, which sow not, make the same point just before.

Faith as a grain of which seed, Jesus said, could tell a mountain 'Remove hence to yonder place' and be obeyed?

Mustard seed faith, Jesus told the disciples in Matthew 17:20, would mean 'nothing shall be impossible unto you', after they had failed to cure an epileptic boy. Elsewhere he calls it the least of all seeds.

Which Aramaic-derived word for wealth completes Jesus's warning 'Ye cannot serve God and ___' in Matthew 6?

Mammon came into English through the Latin Vulgate from Greek mamōnas, itself borrowed from the Aramaic māmōnā, 'wealth, profit'; the verse begins 'No man can serve two masters'. Milton made Mammon a fallen angel in Paradise Lost.

Which animal did Jesus say could pass through the eye of a needle more easily than a rich man enters God's kingdom?

A camel is the beast in Matthew 19:24, and the line so staggered the disciples that they asked 'Who then can be saved?'. Mark and Luke carry the same saying almost word for word.

Where did Jesus tell disciples who kept falling asleep 'The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak'?

Gethsemane, a place at the foot of the Mount of Olives, is where Jesus prayed three times while the disciples slept, asking 'could ye not watch with me one hour?' Judas arrived with the arresting party as he finished.

Near which city did Saul hear 'Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?' and lose his sight for three days?

Damascus was where Saul had been heading with letters authorising arrests of Christians, and he was led into the city blind, neither eating nor drinking until Ananias restored his sight. The convert became the apostle Paul.

Which prophet wrote 'For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord' in a letter to exiles in Babylon?

Jeremiah 29:11 was sent from Jerusalem to deportees told to build houses, plant gardens and settle in for seventy years before any return. Ezekiel and Daniel were also among those exiles.

Who went out to meet Jesus and heard 'I am the resurrection, and the life' before he reached her brother's tomb?

Martha had gone out to meet him with the reproach 'Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died', and answered his question with a confession that he was the Christ. Her sister Mary stayed in the house.