At 66 chapters, Isaiah is the longest prophet, followed by Jeremiah with 52, and Ezekiel with 48, right?Wrong. In Hebrew word count, Jeremiah clocks in at almost 30,000 words, followed by Ezekiel's ~26,000 and Isaiah's ~23,000. Isaiah is the shortest major prophet.
At 28 chapters, Matthew and Acts are the longest book of the New Testament, followed by Luke with 24, right?
Wrong. Luke is longest with ~16,800 Greek words, followed by Acts at ~15,800 and Matthew with ~15,600.
12 comments:
Ok, but to be sure, doesn't it matter how big the words are, how many letters\characters there are? :-)
I added up the inches the paragraphs took up in my old Bible, and figured out Sacred Scriptures were reduced between 10-13% when the deut. canon. books were removed. Hmmm. Say I was terminally ill with one chance at life-saving surgery. Would I choose a surgeon to operate on my heart or brain who had 100% of the knowledge, or 87% of the knowledge?
Thanks Dr Bergsma! That was fun!
This is all in Greek. Its not accounting for Babel. If they really want to be accurate than they need to take the sums of all the languages word counts, add them together, and then divide by the number of languages that the bible has been written in throughout history. Otherwise its just looking at one ancient text. But figuring out this number becomes complicated because you also have other factors: misspellings, thousands of different English versions alone... Basically you would have to spend weeks on end investigating every bible version ever made, and doing research. And there's no garentee that the research found would even be accurate. In fact, in light of the divisions that have occurred since Babel, it would likely not be since there are languages that we haven't even heard of here in the states.
I heard the Bible was the Word of God. Not the words of God.
You heard wrong son. The bible is both the word of God and the words of God. You cant have a bible without having multiple words in it. If Jesus had spoken one word, he never would have been able to communicate with us.
How can we tell which words in the Bible are the inspired words of God, and which ones are just the human ones, or are they all inspired by God?
Check out these inspired words of God!
In Genesis 1-3 a tree of life is thought of as a physical tree in the seen world. But by Revelation the tree of life refers to Christ, who is a spiritual being in the unseen world.
In Genesis 1-3 a lamb is assumed to be made, and is thought of as a physical wooly animal in the seen world. But by Revelation a lamb refers to Christ, who is a spiritual being in the unseen world.
In Genesis 1-3 a seed is thought of as the kernel of DNA produced in the fruit of its parent plant, which is a physical thing in the seen world. But by Revelation a seed refers to the Word of God, or truth, which is an unseen presence in the spiritual world.
In Genesis 1-3 water is part of the seen physical creation and is obedient to the voice of God. But by Revelation water represents a spiritual presence in the unseen world.
Bread of life in the beginning of Genesis would have referred to the kind of bread that sustains our physical bodies, it is physical food in our seen, created world. There is no bread noted in Genesis 1-3, however, seed (that is ground into flour) and water and plants that gave oil were present. But by Revelation the bread of life refers to Jesus Christ, a spiritual being in the unseen world.
Likewise, there were no temples in Genesis 1-3, however there were created in those first three chapters mountains and rocks and stones; physical things in the seen world that are used to make temples. But by the end of Revelation His believers become the temples of His Holy Spirit, and Heaven has God as its temple: He lives in us and we live in Him –spiritual beings in the unseen realm.
And the list goes on. For instance, check out light and lamp, rock and stones. Check out sword, and thistles and thorns. Check out serpent. Also check out relationships, such as bride and husband and son/daughter, priest and king. Check out prostitute.
There is a notable pattern in the Bible where God takes what He makes and, over time, changes the meaning of its name from representing something physical in the seen, created world, to representing something spiritual in the unseen realm. He makes those changes in order to teach us about the invisible spiritual realm. If He had not set that pattern in the writings of the Bible we would not understand spiritual matters, or be able to ‘see’ Him (perceive and understand Him) at all –His existence could only be perceived through general revelation.
He first spoke creation into existence, then took the names of that which He made and transposed new meanings onto those names to reflect spiritual ‘things’ and beings. Therefore if God did not speak creation into existence -that is to say, if He created the universe through random mutations and survival of the fittest competitions- then the entire Bible is false. Furthermore, the movement of the language into and during the transpositions seems to occur due to specific verbs.
It is true. And not only are its words inspired by the breath of God, so was the compilation into the 73 book Bible inspired by God, or else that pattern of the transposition of semantics would not have played out as it has (an Inspired Breath that played out over the 2500 years or so the writings of the Bible were written, and into the more than 40 writers of the various books of the Bible, and through at least the three human languages in which Sacred Scriptures were originally composed –Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic. And then through the Magisterium who compiled those Scriptures into our Holy Bible). The Bible is, indeed, one book with one author –the Word of God.
“But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us” (2 Cor. 4:7).
How great is our God?
Beautifully stated Susan. Filtered, on the topic at hand, and...well surprisingly I learned more from reading this than I did at last weeks Sunday homily where the priest dedicated an entire homily to stewardship. "We need stewardship...." "Christ wants us to be good stewards of his creation." Stewardship is the most liberal topic any priest can mention. As soon as I hear stewardship, walls go up. Kind of like how you respond in one of your emotional moments... Well this was one of mine. You do not speak about stewardship around me and expect me to take you seriously. "In order to follow Gods ways we must be good stewards. We must love." There is no substance. There was nothing on marterdom or the saints, or really anything related to the gospel.
...Its not that the priest didnt mean well...Im sure he did. In fact he stated while up there that he was convinced that the reason Catholics were leaving the church was because they were simply drifting away. That was all. No reason whatsoever. they just lost interest and were drifting away...sorry but I just cant do these good catholic behavior things like the rest of you. Your supposed to support your parish priest and listen to him have your coffee and donuts and enjoy your day of rest. Instead no. I spent my entire car ride home grumbling about stewardship. Maybe if it was a one time homily, but week after week of the lecturing about stewardship? These people are leaving the church because they have no idea what the gospel itself is about. It was of course the parable of the tenants, something that I was actually looking forward to because my heart goes out to the morning workers of last weeks gospel. The gospel somewhat inspires laxity in me so I wanted a good homily on why I should not be an afternoon worker. The notion of penance and salvation of souls for morning workers is great...But in heaven you get paid 10 fold for that. In the parable they got the same. So yes this is why I was grumbling. I feel like an overworked morning horse with no explanation for why the prancing ponies of mid afternoon are coming off the shift so gallant and gleaming.
Hi Christopher,
Just give me Jesus, right?
It must be a difficult dance that priests have to do with their homilies, to make them culturally relevant so the listeners can apply the message if applicable, and yet not be too worldly and unscriptural in the content.
I freaked out when I reverted to Catholicism last October, after a 35 year absence, when I found out my priest was going to focus on being a good steward of what God gives us. I immediately thought the message would focus on us doing good things as a way of getting into heaven, and miss the whole part about having a personal relationship with Jesus. After all, many Protestants refer to Catholicism as the religion without the relationship.
But it hasn’t been like that at all. He has been open to peoples’ desires to express their gifting (as a way of being good stewards of what God has given them), which opened the door for me to begin gardening at the church. Having grown up on a farm I love God’s creation, and feel nowhere closer to God than when I am tending a garden, which is exactly the work that God gave Adam and Eve to do –to be good stewards of His garden. And whenever I am in God’s presence I perceive His love, and in response I become more loving of others -everyone wins.
But just think, if you don’t like the homily, you still have Him and can talk to Him and be with Him any time you want. He will never leave you nor forsake you. It doesn’t get better than that!
I apparently wrote the above while you were posting the additional thought. I don't know your habits, but when I'm in a situation like you described, I have an earnest conversation with God, and ask my question as clearly as I can make it, sometimes I can only draw a picture because I can't seem to find the words. I ask Him to help me understand His words, and He does. Sometimes right away, and sometimes over time. But I know, now, that He is always there and listening to me, and tending me like He would like us to tend each other and His creation. He loves you beyond reason. Always.
Thanks. Wow ya you responded really quick. Almost as if you got an email alert letting you know someone posted. I'll try that next time. Thanks for your blessing.
Of course then again, 15 minutes after 5pm here in Southern California is what we southerners like to consider the "crash time" The time to relax and enjoy the day. I can see how its possible that our posts crossed. Perhaps you live in Cali as well? Either way I cant help but wonder: If that priest had preached on the gospel instead of stewardship this last Sunday, would I actually be sitting here looking out over the mountains enjoying this gentle breeze? Far be it from me. I would be out and about gathering vegetables and attending the fields.
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