68 Fun Facts About Books of the Bible

Which book is in the Catholic Old Testament but outside the Protestant canon?

1 Maccabees tells how Judas Maccabeus retook Jerusalem and rededicated the Temple, the event Hanukkah still celebrates.

Which New Testament letter contains the famous passage 'love is patient, love is kind'?

1 Corinthians sets this hymn to love inside Paul's rebuke of a church split by quarrels over status and spiritual gifts.

Which ecumenical council explicitly laid out the 73-book canon used by the Catholic Church?

Trent made the list binding dogma in 1546 to answer the Reformers, confirming the same books the Council of Florence had listed in 1442.

The books traditionally credited to Moses are known collectively by which Greek-derived name?

The Pentateuch means 'five scrolls' in Greek, and Judaism calls the same books the Torah, a word meaning 'instruction' rather than just 'law'.

Which single-chapter book of 21 verses is the shortest in the Hebrew Bible?

Obadiah is one long oracle against Edom, the nation descended from Esau, for gloating and looting while Jerusalem fell.

By word count, which is the shortest book in the entire Bible?

3 John is a private note thanking a man named Gaius for hosting travelling preachers, and it has fewer words than 2 John despite more verses.

Which of Paul's letters is his shortest, at only 335 words in Greek?

In Philemon, Paul offers to cover any debt himself, writing 'I, Paul, am writing this with my own hand. I will pay it back.'

Paul's shortest letter pleads for which slave to be received as a 'brother beloved'?

Paul never orders Onesimus freed outright, which is why both pro-slavery advocates and abolitionists cited the letter.

Which two books of the Hebrew Bible never explicitly mention God?

Esther and Song of Songs never name God in Hebrew, but the Greek version of Esther adds prayers that call on God openly.

The Book of Esther is read aloud twice from a handwritten scroll during which Jewish holiday?

At Purim readings, listeners use noisemakers called graggers to drown out every mention of the villain Haman's name.

In the Hebrew text, Psalms 146 to 150 each open and close with which word?

Hallelujah is Hebrew for 'praise Yah', a call to worship that many English Bibles translate as 'Praise the LORD' instead.

Which chapter of the Psalter, an acrostic of 176 verses, is the longest in the Bible?

Psalm 119 gives each of the 22 Hebrew letters its own eight-verse stanza, and almost every verse names God's law or one of its synonyms.

Which two-verse entry in the Psalter is the shortest chapter in the whole Bible?

Psalm 117 calls on every nation to praise God, and Paul quotes it in one of his letters to show that Gentiles too are called to praise God.

Which psalm is the only one in the Psalter attributed to Moses?

Psalm 90 is headed 'A Prayer of Moses, the man of God', and it sets a human lifespan at 'threescore years and ten'.

Psalm 3's heading has David fleeing which son?

Absalom led a revolt that drove David out of Jerusalem, and David climbed the Mount of Olives weeping, barefoot, with his head covered.

"Jesus wept", the shortest verse in the King James Bible, appears in which Gospel?

John sets it on the way to Lazarus's tomb, just before Jesus calls his dead friend out alive.

Which three Gospels are known as the Synoptic Gospels?

Matthew, Mark and Luke share so many stories, in similar order and wording, that scholars print them side by side in parallel columns.

Most scholars believe which Gospel was written first and used as a source by the others?

Mark ends abruptly in its oldest manuscripts, with the women fleeing the empty tomb in fear, and later scribes added longer endings.

Which Gospel opens with a preface addressed to a patron named Theophilus?

Luke addresses Theophilus, whose name means 'friend of God', yet nobody knows who he really was, or even whether he was one real person.

Which New Testament book continues a Gospel's story, forming a two-volume work by the same author?

Acts of the Apostles ends abruptly with Paul under house arrest in Rome, never saying how his trial turned out.

Which New Testament book gives the number of the beast as 666?

In Revelation, the author says he was on the island of Patmos 'because of the word of God' when a voice told him to write to seven churches.

Which is the longest of the letters attributed to Paul?

Romans helped spark Methodism: Wesley felt his heart 'strangely warmed' while hearing Luther's preface to the letter read aloud.

Which scribe who wrote down one of Paul's letters slipped in his own greeting?

Tertius adds 'I Tertius, who wrote this epistle, salute you'; Paul seems to have dictated, then added a closing greeting in his own hand as a sign it was genuine.

Which of these letters do nearly all scholars accept as genuinely written by Paul?

Galatians is one of Paul's seven undisputed letters, and in it he tells how he opposed Peter to his face at Antioch.

Which three letters are grouped together as the Pastoral Epistles?

1 Timothy, 2 Timothy and Titus coach church leaders, and 2 Timothy is framed as Paul's farewell: 'I have fought the good fight.'

Which New Testament letter names no author, though traditionally credited to Paul?

Hebrews was long grouped with Paul's letters, yet as early as the 200s the scholar Origen wrote that only God knows who wrote it.

Which epistle insists that faith without works is dead?

James stresses works so strongly that Martin Luther, champion of faith alone, dismissed it as an 'epistle of straw'.

Which short New Testament letter backs up its warning against scoffers by quoting the Book of Enoch?

Jude also tells of the archangel Michael disputing with the devil over the body of Moses.

Paul's letter to which companion says he left him on Crete to organise the church there?

Titus gets a blunt briefing on his flock, as Paul quotes a Cretan prophet saying 'Cretans are always liars'.

Which epistle was sent to the church in a small Phrygian city near Laodicea?

Colossians tells its readers to swap letters with the church at Laodicea, and that 'letter from Laodicea' is generally thought lost.

In most Christian Bibles, which is the last book of the Old Testament, immediately before the New?

Malachi simply means 'my messenger' in Hebrew, and some scholars doubt it was ever the prophet's real name.

Which book comes last in most printed Hebrew Bibles, closing the Ketuvim or Writings?

Chronicles ends with Cyrus of Persia letting the exiles go home to rebuild the Temple, though old codices like Aleppo put it first.

Which book of the Torah takes its English name from two censuses of the Israelites?

Numbers counts the Israelites twice because the generation that refused to enter Canaan died in the wilderness before the second census.

The Greek name of the fifth book of the Torah literally means what?

Second law comes from a Greek mistranslation of a verse about a king's 'copy of this law', and the name stuck.

The Hebrew title of which book means "Names", after its opening words?

Exodus opens 'These are the names of the sons of Israel who went to Egypt', and its Greek title means 'going out'.

The Greek title of the first book of the Bible means what?

Origin: the Greek title comes from the Septuagint, while in Hebrew the book is Bereshit, 'In the beginning', after its first words.

Which book of the Bible is named for the priestly tribe whose laws and rituals it contains?

Leviticus holds the command 'love your neighbor as yourself', which Jesus later named the second greatest commandment.

Which book ends with the death of Moses on Mount Nebo?

Deuteronomy says God showed Moses the Promised Land from the mountain but barred him from entering, and no one knows where he is buried.

Which is the sixth book of the Old Testament, telling of the conquest of Canaan?

Joshua tells how Jericho's walls collapsed after the Israelites marched around the city, blew trumpets and shouted.

Which book covers the era between the conquest of Canaan and the first kings of Israel?

Judges is home to Samson, whose strength left him once Delilah had his hair cut while he slept.

Which book's heroine is a Moabite widow who becomes the great-grandmother of King David?

Ruth refuses to leave her mother-in-law Naomi, vowing 'Where you go I will go' and 'your God my God'.

In the Vulgate, the books commonly known as 1 and 2 Samuel are titled what?

The Vulgate followed the Septuagint in treating Samuel and Kings as a four-part Book of Kings, so its 3 and 4 Kings are our 1 and 2 Kings.

Which book largely takes the form of a first-person memoir about rebuilding Jerusalem's walls after the exile?

Nehemiah was cupbearer to the Persian king Artaxerxes, and when the king asked why he looked so sad, he won leave to go and rebuild.

Which prophetic book do scholars commonly split into Proto-, Deutero- and Trito- sections?

In Isaiah, chapters 40 to 55, the 'Book of Consolation', address exiles in Babylon, long after the 8th-century BCE prophet himself lived.

Which book of five poems mourns the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians?

Lamentations is read on Tisha B'Av, the fast mourning the Temples' destruction; tradition credits Jeremiah, though scholars doubt it.

The first six chapters of which prophetic book are court tales written mostly in Aramaic?

Daniel is grouped with the prophets in Christian Bibles, but the Hebrew Bible puts it among the Writings instead.

Which book's central figure is a righteous man from the land of Uz who loses everything?

Job's three friends insist he must have sinned to deserve it, yet at the end God says they were wrong and Job was right.

Which book opens with the cry 'Vanity of vanities' and is known in Hebrew as Kohelet?

Ecclesiastes 3, 'To every thing there is a season', supplied nearly all the lyrics of a Byrds hit that reached number one in 1965.

Which book of love poetry, one of the five megillot, is traditionally read at Passover?

Song of Songs faced doubts about its place in scripture until Rabbi Akiva declared that among the holy Writings it is the Holy of Holies.

Which minor prophet's book foretells that a ruler of Israel would come from little Bethlehem?

In Micah, the Bethlehem prophecy is what the chief priests quote to King Herod when he asks where the Messiah will be born.

What does 'major' actually refer to in the term 'major prophets'?

Their length: Augustine called the twelve shorter books 'minor' for their brevity, next to four far longer prophetic books.

Which prophet was told to marry the unfaithful Gomer as a picture of God and Israel?

Hosea gave his children message names too, calling a daughter Lo-Ruhamah, 'not loved', and a son Lo-Ammi, 'not my people'.

Which prophet, a shepherd from Tekoa in Judah, carried out his mission in the northern kingdom?

Amos gave Martin Luther King Jr. a line he echoed in his 'I Have a Dream' speech: 'let justice roll on like a river'.

Which prophet tried to run away when God sent him to preach to Nineveh?

Jonah warns Nineveh, the city repents and God spares it, and the prophet grows so angry that he asks God to take his life.

Which book of the Twelve has as its principal theme the destruction of the Assyrian city of Nineveh?

Nahum celebrates the coming fall of Nineveh, and the Assyrian capital was sacked by the Medes and Babylonians in 612 BC.

Which two-chapter prophetic book urges the returned exiles to get on with rebuilding the Temple?

Haggai says the harvests failed because the people built themselves paneled houses while God's house still lay in ruins.

Which prophetic book's first two chapters are a dialogue between the prophet and God?

Habakkuk 2:4, 'the righteous will live by his faithfulness', was later quoted by Paul and became a watchword for Martin Luther.

In which deuterocanonical book does the angel Raphael, travelling in disguise, help cure a blind father?

In Tobit, the son brings home a bride, Sarah, whose seven previous husbands had each been killed by the demon Asmodeus.

In which deuterocanonical book does the heroine enter the camp of the Assyrian general Holofernes?

Judith waits until Holofernes lies drunk after a banquet, then takes the sword from above his bed and beheads him.

The Book of Sirach, a wisdom book found in Catholic Bibles, is also known by which Latin name?

Ecclesiasticus means 'church book', a name it earned by being read so often in early church gatherings.

Who created the modern chapter divisions of the Bible around 1205?

Stephen Langton lectured in Paris, and as Archbishop of Canterbury he later helped broker Magna Carta between the king and the rebel barons.

Which printer's 1551 Greek New Testament introduced the verse divisions found in almost all modern Bibles?

Robert Estienne had clashed with the Sorbonne's theologians over his Bible editions, and he fled Paris for Protestant Geneva.

Into which section did Martin Luther move Tobit, Judith and Sirach in his 1534 Bible?

The Apocrypha sat under Luther's heading calling them books 'not held equal to the Scriptures, but useful and good to read'.

Which religious group accepts only the Torah as inspired scripture and no other part of the Bible?

The Samaritans still climb their holy Mount Gerizim at Passover, and their Torah is written in its own ancient script.

Whose Easter letter of 367 listed exactly the 27 books that became the New Testament?

Athanasius was driven from Alexandria at least five times by Roman emperors, yet he kept returning to lead its church.

Which Christian leader, around 140, was the first to propose a uniquely Christian canon?

Marcion of Sinope threw out the whole Old Testament, and when the church in Rome expelled him in 144, it handed back his large donation.

Whom did Constantine commission in 331 to produce fifty Bibles for the Church of Constantinople?

Eusebius was told to have the copies written on prepared parchment, in a portable form, by skilled professional scribes.

What term, meaning 'worthy of reading', do Eastern Orthodox churches use for the deuterocanonical books?

Anagignoskomena include the Prayer of Manasseh, which many Orthodox churches accept but the Catholic Church treats as non-canonical.