118 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.

Which list puts the Protestant Old Testament's four sections in order, the first matching the Jewish Torah?

Law, History, Poetry, Prophets is the order Christian Bibles use, so the prophetic books come last. The Hebrew Bible sorts the same texts into three sections instead of four.

Which list puts the New Testament's four kinds of book in order, the first telling the life of Jesus?

Gospels, Acts, Letters, Revelation is the running order: four accounts of Jesus, one history of the early church, 21 letters and a single book of prophecy.

Which book, opening with a genealogy that runs from Abraham to Jesus, stands first in the New Testament?

The Gospel of Matthew opens with a family tree tying Jesus to both Abraham and King David, which makes it a natural bridge from the Old Testament that comes before it.

Which list gives the first three audiences of Paul's New Testament letters in Bible order, all of them churches?

Romans, Corinthians, Galatians is the order, with Corinth receiving two letters. Paul's nine letters to churches come first in the collection, then his four to individuals.

Which letter, the tenth book of the New Testament, comes directly after Galatians?

Ephesians follows Galatians, yet may not have been meant for one city at all. The words 'in Ephesus' are missing from the earliest manuscripts, so many scholars read it as a circular letter.

Which New Testament letter, sent to a church in Macedonia that Paul visited with Silas, comes just before Colossians?

Philippians, eleventh in the New Testament, is at heart a thank-you note. Paul wrote it while in custody, after the church at Philippi had sent him gifts.

Which letter of Paul, one of the earliest surviving Christian texts, comes directly after Colossians?

1 Thessalonians follows Colossians even though it is usually dated to around 49 to 51 AD, earlier than most books printed ahead of it. Paul's letters are not arranged by date.

Which list gives the final three books of the Bible in order, two of them just one chapter long?

3 John, Jude, Revelation close the Bible: two one-chapter letters, then 22 chapters of visions. Jude's writer introduces himself as a servant of Jesus Christ and a brother of James.

Which New Testament letter, addressed to persecuted believers across Asia Minor, comes directly after James?

1 Peter follows James and signs off with greetings from 'Babylon', a name many readers take as a veiled reference to Rome.

Which New Testament letter, the fourth of the seven general epistles, comes directly after 2 Peter?

1 John follows 2 Peter but barely looks like a letter. It has no opening greeting and no sign-off, unlike the epistles printed around it.

Which prophet's book, begun in the reign of King Josiah, comes straight after Isaiah in the Old Testament?

Jeremiah follows Isaiah and survives in two editions. The ancient Greek version is about one eighth shorter than the Hebrew and arranges its material differently.

Protestant Old Testaments contain how many books, matching the contents of the Hebrew Bible?

39 books make up the Protestant Old Testament. Catholic Bibles count 46, because they keep seven further books that reached the church through the ancient Greek tradition.

Which prophet's book, famous for a vision of a valley of dry bones, comes directly before Daniel in the Old Testament?

Ezekiel precedes Daniel and opens with one of the Bible's strangest scenes: God arriving on a chariot-throne drawn by four creatures, each with four faces and four wings.

Christian Old Testaments order their books after which ancient translation, begun in Egypt in the third century BC?

The Septuagint set the pattern by grouping books according to type. Protestant reformers went back to the Hebrew list of books but kept the Greek running order.

Which three-chapter book about a devastating locust plague comes second among the Minor Prophets in Protestant Bibles?

Joel stands second, and its best-known passage resurfaces in the New Testament. Peter quotes its promise of God's spirit poured out on all people in his Pentecost sermon.

In Protestant Bibles, which two books, one fourteen chapters long, meet where the Major and Minor Prophets join?

Daniel and Hosea sit either side of that join. Jewish Bibles place Daniel in a different section altogether and count the Twelve as a single book.

In Protestant Bibles, the Book of Nehemiah sits between which two books, both set under Persian rule?

Ezra and Esther flank Nehemiah. The first of them was long copied together with Nehemiah as one book, and the pair were only split in printed Hebrew Bibles in the early 16th century.

Which list gives the sixth, seventh and eighth of the twelve Minor Prophets as ordered in Protestant Bibles?

Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk is the sequence in Jewish, Protestant and Catholic Bibles alike. Eastern Orthodox Bibles shuffle the Twelve to follow an older Greek arrangement.

Which Old Testament book, featuring eight visions seen in a single night, comes directly after Haggai?

Zechariah follows Haggai, and the two prophets were contemporaries. Its final six chapters are thought to have been written much later than the visions of the first eight.

In the Hebrew Bible, Joshua, Judges and the royal histories that follow them belong to which group?

The Former Prophets is the Jewish name for narrative books that Christian Bibles shelve as history. In Hebrew Bibles each of the two royal histories is a single book, not a pair.

Which chapter of the Psalter, attributed to David and often read at funerals, opens by calling the Lord a shepherd?

Psalm 23 is one of the most memorised passages in the Bible. Several of its King James phrases, such as the cup that 'runneth over', have become popular sayings in their own right.

Which 1965 number-one hit by the Byrds takes almost all of its words from Ecclesiastes chapter 3?

Turn! Turn! Turn! was written by Pete Seeger, who added only the title phrase and the final two lines to the biblical text.

Which everyday phrase comes from Job 19:20 in the King James Version, part of Job's bitter reply to his friends?

Skin of my teeth is all the speaker says he has escaped with. The phrase now describes any close call, and the older Geneva Bible had already used almost the same words.

Proverbs 6:6 tells the 'sluggard' to go and learn wisdom from which hard-working creature?

The ant earns the praise because she stores up food in summer with no overseer or ruler to make her do it.

In Job chapter 38, God at last breaks a long silence by speaking out of what?

A whirlwind carries the reply, and it is no gentle one. God answers with question after question, asking early on where Job was when the foundations of the earth were laid.

According to Proverbs 27:17, which metal sharpens itself, just as one person sharpens another?

Iron sharpens iron, the verse says, as a man sharpens his friend. The same chapter holds that a friend's wounds can be trusted more than an enemy's kisses.

In the King James Version, Psalm 19 opens by saying that what 'declare the glory of God'?

The heavens speak first in Psalm 19, which then turns from the sky to praise God's law. Haydn based a movement of his oratorio The Creation on the psalm.

Which idiom is traced to Ecclesiastes 10:1, a verse warning that a little folly can outweigh wisdom and honour?

A fly in the ointment has meant a small defect that spoils something valuable for about four centuries. The verse pictures dead flies making a perfumer's oil stink.

In the Song of Solomon, the speaker calls herself the lily of the valleys and 'the rose of' which place?

Sharon is a coastal plain, and nobody is sure which of its flowers was meant. Scholars have proposed a crocus and a tulip, and older translations just said 'flower of the field'.

In the King James Version, Proverbs 31 says a virtuous woman's price is far above what?

Rubies set the price in the King James wording. The poem that follows is an alphabetical acrostic, with each line starting on a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet.

In Protestant Bibles, which book opens with King Cyrus sending the exiles home, directly after 2 Chronicles?

Ezra follows 2 Chronicles, and it is one of the few biblical books written in two languages. Most of it is in Hebrew, but several chapters are in Aramaic.

In Protestant Bibles, the short Book of Lamentations sits between the books of which two prophets?

Jeremiah and Ezekiel surround Lamentations, which Christian Bibles place right after the prophet long thought to have written it. Jewish Bibles file it among the Writings instead.

Which book, telling how David ruled as king from Jerusalem, is the tenth of the Old Testament?

2 Samuel was originally the second half of a single book. The first Greek translation divided it in two, and Latin and later Jewish Bibles copied the split.

In Protestant Bibles, the Song of Solomon sits between which two books, closing the poetry section?

Ecclesiastes and Isaiah are its neighbours. The book between them goes by three names: Song of Solomon, Song of Songs and, from the Latin, Canticle of Canticles.

Which book, covering the prophet Elisha and the fall of Jerusalem, is the twelfth of the Old Testament?

2 Kings closes a story that began some 400 years earlier with the death of David. Its last scene is the exiled King Jehoiachin being released from prison in Babylon.

Which three-chapter book, focused on the coming 'day of the Lord', sits between Habakkuk and Haggai?

Zephaniah is the ninth of the Twelve. Its opening lists humans, animals, birds and fish in the reverse of the creation story's order, picturing creation being undone.

In Protestant Bibles, the nine-chapter Book of Amos sits between which two shorter Minor Prophets?

Joel and Obadiah are its neighbours. Amos himself was the first prophet to use the phrase 'the Day of the Lord', a theme later prophets kept returning to.

In Protestant Bibles, Jonah's tale of the great fish sits between the books of which two Minor Prophets?

Obadiah and Micah stand either side of Jonah. In Jewish practice Jonah is read aloud on the afternoon of Yom Kippur, as a reminder of God's readiness to forgive those who repent.

In Catholic Bibles, which book credited to a son of King David comes directly after the Song of Songs?

Wisdom of Solomon comes next, although it was composed in Greek by a Jewish author in Alexandria, many centuries after the king's own time.

In Catholic Bibles, which book named after a prophet's faithful scribe comes directly after Lamentations?

Baruch sits there because its namesake served the prophet whom tradition credits with Lamentations. Protestant and Jewish Bibles leave the book out of their Old Testament.

In Christian Bibles, which book, itself divided into five smaller books, comes directly after Job?

Psalms follows Job and has more chapters than any other book in the Bible, 150. Each of its five sections ends with a short hymn of praise called a doxology.

Which of the five books of Moses is the longest, with exactly fifty chapters?

Genesis runs to fifty chapters, ten more than Exodus. Its story ends with Jacob's family settled in Egypt, which sets the scene for the book that follows.

Which list gives the second, third, fourth and fifth books of the Bible in order, completing the Torah?

Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy carry the story from slavery in Egypt to the edge of the promised land, with the giving of the law at Mount Sinai in between.

1 Chronicles opens with nine chapters of family lists, starting from which biblical figure?

Adam is the very first word of the book. The opening chapters then cover everything from the first man to Israel's first kings almost entirely through lists of names.

Which list puts three books about Israel before its kings in Bible order, the last just four chapters long?

Joshua, Judges, Ruth is the Christian order. Jewish Bibles keep Ruth far from the other two, in the final section known as the Writings.

Which book, opening with the childless Hannah praying for a son, comes directly after Ruth in Christian Bibles?

1 Samuel follows Ruth and is named for the prophet who anoints Israel's first king, Saul, and later his replacement, David.

In Protestant Bibles, which book set in the Persian court at Susa is the last history book, just before Job?

Esther closes the history books with the story of a Jewish woman, born Hadassah, who becomes queen of Persia and foils a plot to wipe out her people.

In Christian Bibles, Proverbs, with sayings copied out by King Hezekiah's officials, sits between which two books?

Psalms and Ecclesiastes are its neighbours. Proverbs itself is less one book than a collection of collections, crediting Solomon, unnamed wise teachers and a sage called Agur.

Which book, opening with the aged King David and Solomon's rise to the throne, is the eleventh of the Old Testament?

1 Kings begins with a succession struggle: David's son Adonijah claims the throne before Solomon is hurriedly anointed. In the Hebrew Bible it forms one book with its sequel.

The Book of Numbers is known in Hebrew as Bemidbar, a title with which meaning?

In the wilderness suits the story better than the English title: the book follows Israel from Mount Sinai to the plains of Moab, on the brink of crossing the Jordan.