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Welcome to the first installment of PBTB, \u201cPete\u2019s Bible Trivia Bonanza.\u201d For no other reason than just because.<\/p>\n
And with that, prepare to have your life changed.<\/p>\n
Did you know the longest book of the Old Testament is Jeremiah?<\/strong><\/p>\n Yes indeed\u2014if you\u2019re counting words (not verses or chapters), namely Hebrew words. Jeremiah has 33,002 words, with Genesis coming a close second with 32,046.<\/p>\n If you had guessed Psalms you would have opened yourself up for public shaming for not being a \u201cserious Bible student.\u201d Though having the most number of chapters (150), Psalms is third\u00a0with 30,147. Isaiah, though 66 chapters long, is a distant\u00a0sixth\u00a0(25,608).<\/p>\n The medieval Jewish scribes (Masoretes) who copied the biblical manuscripts were kind enough to give us a total verse count at the very end for each book of the Old Testament (called masorah finalis<\/em>). According to these ancient scribes, Psalms is way out in front (2,527), with Genesis in second place (1,533) and Jeremiah third (1,364)\u2014not that it\u2019s a competition. But true length is really judged by the number of words, so Jeremiah (which also happens to be one of the more non-uplifting\u00a0books of the Old Testament) is our winner.<\/p>\n Now that we\u2019re all caught up in the excitement . . .<\/p>\n Did you know the shortest book of the Old Testament is Obadiah?<\/strong><\/p>\n This little guy has 440 words and a mere 21 verses.<\/p>\n And Pete, how about the longest and shortest New Testament books?<\/strong><\/p>\n Here again we go by word count in the original language (Greek), and Luke<\/strong> is the winner with 19,482 with his second volume, the book of\u00a0Acts,<\/strong>\u00a0following close behind with\u00a018,450. That total (37,932) is more than all of Paul\u2019s letters combined (32,408)\u2014and I even counted the disputed letters (letters he probably didn\u2019t write).<\/p>\n Moral of the story: if you want to read a Gospel, read Mark (11,304). (FYI, John comes in at 15,635 and Matthew at a lumpy 18,346.)<\/p>\n The three shortest books<\/strong> of the New Testament are Philemon<\/strong> (335), 2 John<\/strong> (245), and 3 John<\/strong> (219). Something to think about if you want to brag in church about \u201creading a whole book of the Bible this morning.\u201d<\/p>\n The next installment of PBTB will be\u2014if this is even possible\u2014more exciting than this one. (For the time being, look for PBTB every week or so.)<\/p>\n [My source for word count statistics is Overview Bible<\/a><\/span>, which lays it all out for you. I got the Old Testament verse counts from either the masorah finalis<\/em>.]<\/span><\/p>\n This blog was first posted in October 2016.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n ***If you want to read books of mine that contain no trivia whatsoever<\/span>, here are some: How the Bible Actually Works<\/a> (HarperOne, 2019), The Bible Tells Me So<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>(HarperOne, 2014), \u00a0Inspiration and Incarnation<\/a><\/span>\u00a0(Baker 2005\/2015),\u00a0The Sin of Certainty<\/a>\u00a0(HarperOne, 2016), and The Evolution of Adam<\/a>\u00a0(Baker, 2012).***<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n