70 Fun Facts About Books of the Bible

How many books are in the Old Testament of a typical Protestant Bible?

Catholic Bibles count 46 Old Testament books because they include deuterocanonical works such as Wisdom and Maccabees.

How many books does the New Testament contain in almost every Christian tradition?

The 27 break down as four Gospels, Acts, 21 letters and one apocalypse.

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

Trent met from 1545 to 1563 as the Church's answer to the Reformation, and its canon list still governs Catholic Bibles.

The first five books of the Bible are known collectively by which Greek-derived name?

In Judaism the same five books are the Torah, or the Five Books of Moses.

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

Its 440 Hebrew words are still more than three New Testament letters manage in Greek.

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

3 John runs to just 219 Greek words; 2 John has fewer verses but slightly more words.

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

It is a prison letter written to a leader in the church at Colossae, with Timothy named in the opening verse.

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

The letter never orders the master to free him outright, which is why it has been argued over by both abolitionists and their opponents.

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

Jewish tradition reads the absence as the point: God working through coincidence and human choices rather than open miracles.

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

It is read once in the evening and again the next morning, and the story explains how the festival began.

How many psalms are there in the Jewish and Western Christian Book of Psalms?

Eastern churches count several more, including Psalm 151, and the collection is arranged in five books echoing the Torah.

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

Each set of eight verses starts with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet, and it is also the longest chapter in the Bible.

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

In Hebrew it is just seventeen words, and it also happens to open the Ace of Base song Happy Nation.

Only one entry in the Psalter is attributed to Moses. Which is it?

Its header reads "A Prayer of Moses, the man of God"; most attributions in the Psalter are to David.

How many psalms carry the superscription "of David"?

Thirteen of those tie themselves to specific episodes in the king's life, though modern scholars do not treat the attributions as history.

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

It comes at the tomb of Lazarus in chapter 11; in the original Greek it is not actually the shortest verse.

Which three Gospels are known as the Synoptic Gospels?

The name comes from the Greek for "seeing together": the three share many stories in similar order and often identical wording.

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

Its earliest manuscripts end abruptly at 16:8, with the women fleeing the empty tomb in fear.

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

The name means "lover of God", and the same dedication reappears at the start of the author's second volume.

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

Tradition names the author as a doctor who travelled with Paul, though the text itself never names him.

Which is the only apocalyptic book in the New Testament canon?

Its author writes from the island of Patmos and opens with letters to the seven churches of Asia.

Which is the longest of the letters attributed to Paul?

It is also the sixth book of the New Testament and was probably written from Corinth in the mid-50s AD.

Which scribe took down Paul's letter to the Romans and slipped in his own greeting?

Paul was probably staying at the house of Gaius in Corinth when he dictated it.

How many New Testament books are traditionally attributed to Paul the Apostle?

Most scholars think Paul himself wrote seven of them, while the three Pastoral letters are widely regarded as written in his name by others.

Which three letters are grouped together as the Pastoral Epistles?

The label "pastoral" was popularised in 1703 because the letters advise church leaders on shepherding their flocks.

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

Modern scholarship treats the authorship as unknown; Apollos and Priscilla are among the guesses.

Which epistle insists that faith without works is dead?

It is traditionally credited to James the Just, the brother of Jesus, writing to "the twelve tribes scattered abroad".

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

Its author calls himself a servant of Jesus, and the letter also alludes to the Assumption of Moses.

Which letter is addressed to a companion Paul left on the island of Crete to organise the church there?

Eusebius later records that the recipient became the first bishop of Crete.

Which epistle was sent to a church in a small Phrygian city near Laodicea, about 100 miles from Ephesus?

The letter names Paul and Timothy as authors and greets fellow believers in Laodicea and Hierapolis too.

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

The name simply means "my messenger" in Hebrew and was not used as a personal name at the time.

Which book comes last in the Hebrew Bible, closing the Ketuvim or Writings?

It opens with a genealogy that starts at Adam and ends with the Edict of Cyrus, so the Tanakh closes on the return from exile.

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

Its Hebrew title, Bemidbar, means "in the desert", which better describes the wandering it records.

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

The Hebrew title, Devarim, means "words", after the speeches of Moses that fill it.

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

Its Greek title instead describes the departure from Egypt that the book narrates.

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

The Hebrew title, Bereshit, comes from its first words, "In the beginning".

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

It is largely God's instructions to Aaron and his sons on offerings and life around the Tabernacle.

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

Its final four chapters also hold the Song of Moses and the Blessing of Moses.

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

It opens what scholars call the Deuteronomistic history, running from the conquest to the Babylonian exile.

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

It is the seventh book of the Bible and contains the Song of Deborah, one of the oldest poems in scripture.

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

Her son Obed is the father of Jesse, and Jesse is the father of David.

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?

Its author was a high official at the Persian court in Susa, and the book was once joined to Ezra as a single work.

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

Chapters 40 to 55 are so consoling that Christians nicknamed the book "the Fifth Gospel".

Which book is a collection of poetic laments for the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BCE?

Its Hebrew name is Eikhah, "how", from its first word, and tradition credits it to Jeremiah.

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

The switch back to Hebrew for the apocalyptic visions of chapters 7 to 12 is one of the book's oddest features.

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

His three friends Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar spend most of the book insisting he must have deserved it.

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

Some modern translations render the key word as "meaningless" to avoid the everyday sense of vanity.

Which biblical poem, one of the five megillot, is also called the Canticle of Canticles?

The megillot are the five short scrolls of the Ketuvim that are read aloud at Jewish festivals.

In the Hebrew Bible, the twelve minor prophets are counted as how many books?

The scroll called "The Twelve" closes the Nevi'im; Christian Bibles split it into twelve separate books.

The term "major prophets" groups four books together. What does "major" actually refer to?

The grouping does not exist in the Hebrew Bible, where the same four books are split between the Latter Prophets and the Writings.

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

The book is the first of the Twelve in most Hebrew Bibles and the first text to cast that relationship as a marriage.

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

He is also called a "dresser of sycamore trees", though the writing suggests an educated man rather than a poor farmer.

Which prophet's book tells how he was sent to Nineveh but tried to run away from the mission?

The actual prophecy against the city is delivered almost in passing; the book is really about the reluctant prophet.

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

Nineveh fell to the Medes and Babylonians in 612 BC, and the book is usually dated close to that event.

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

The prophet blames a recent drought on the people's failure to rebuild.

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

The line "the righteous shall live by his faith" in chapter 2 was later central to Paul and to Luther.

In which deuterocanonical book does the angel Raphael guide young Tobias to recover ten silver talents?

Along the way Tobias marries Sarah, whose previous bridegrooms had all been killed by the demon Asmodeus.

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

She promises him information on Israel and, once trusted, beheads him in his tent.

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

It was written in Hebrew by Ben Sira and translated into Greek by his grandson around 117 BCE.

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

Langton was Archbishop of Canterbury and a key figure in the Magna Carta negotiations ten years later.

Which Parisian printer first numbered Bible verses, in his 1551 Greek New Testament?

His Hebrew Bible followed in 1553, and the numbering spread to every printed Bible since.

Into which section did Martin Luther move Tobit, Judith, Sirach and four other Old Testament books?

He called them books 'not considered equal to the Holy Scriptures, but useful and good to read'; Lutheran and Anglican lectionaries still read from them.

How many books does the Jewish Tanakh contain, as traditionally counted?

They are split into the five books of the Torah, the eight of the Nevi'im and the eleven of the Ketuvim; Protestant Bibles divide the same material into 39.

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

The Sadducees probably held the same view; the Samaritan Pentateuch is written in its own alphabet and differs from the Masoretic Text in places.

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

The Patriarch of Alexandria used the phrase 'being canonized' of them, though Origen may already have known the same 27 a century earlier.

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

His list held ten Pauline epistles and an edited Luke; later branded a heretic, he still shaped how Christians sorted texts into accepted and rejected.

How many books make up the Nevi'im, the Prophets section of the Hebrew Bible?

The twelve minor prophets count as a single book, which is how the section stays so short.

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

Some speculate the order helped fix the canon lists; Athanasius recorded Alexandrian scribes preparing Bibles for Constans around 340.

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

Catholics say deuterocanon, 'second canon', while Protestants call the same books the biblical apocrypha, 'hidden things'.