The Bible in Verse
We just spent the last 30 minutes playing a little game with the “search inside this book” Amazon feature of The Bible in Verse by Alvy Ford.
This book has a simple 4 line poem for each and every chapter of the Bible. I first heard about it from Arnold Pent, author of Ten P’s in a Pod.
Can you guess which book of the Bible the stanza below is describing? Extra points if you can specify the chapter.
Time is ordained for all things on earth:
Time to take life, and time to give birth;
Time to embrace and a time to release;
Time to make war and a time to make peace.
I’ve been looking at this book with longing eyes for many months, but even used copies are never cheap. Was the sample above too easy? Try this one:
Hophni and Phineas die in the fight.
Ark of God taken by Philistine might.
Eli succumbs at the news of the ark.
Ichabod named as the glory departs.
So here’s the game: go to the search inside this book link, and hit “surprise me.” Quickly scroll down a bit so nobody will the header of the page, and try to guess from which Bible book the chapters are taken. Do it again. Again. Isn’t this fun???
Too easy? Read a stanza aloud and let the children guess without the benefit of the context from the surrounding stanzas. If guessing the book is too easy, try guessing the chapter.
Here’s an easy one to end with:
In the beginning, God says let there be:
Dry land and firmament, sunlight and sea,
Livestock and herbage to cover the land;
Then, in the image of God, He makes man.
How did you do? Do you have a new book on your wish list now?
If you're new here, please take a moment to introduce yourself! If you enjoyed this post, feel free to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
You loved it, right? Here's more like it:
Did you enjoy this post? Subscribe so you'll never miss a new post!
Filed under: Bible
Good idea!
A sidenote: I was reading your Bible script from the Geneva Bible at the top of your page, and realized how closely our English language does resemble its ancestor, the German tongue. You’d never really notice it in the modern English we use today, but with the Old style English, the German roots really do stand out.
http://www.amazon.com/Bible-Verse-birds-eye-Scripture-obverved/dp/0963527207
They have them for less than $11.00. Is that too high?
marci,
I find it painful to pay more than $5 or $6 for a book, including shipping - though I might make myself do it for this one. Just not yet.
Mrs. Mecomber,
I have always been struck with both the German-ness and Latin-ness of our language. It amazes me that 2 languages that are so dissimilar could blend to form a single tongue. No wonder foreigners find our language difficult!
Did you know that it was Christian missionaries who helped form the languages of Europe? The Barbarian tribes of Germania and Scandinavia had no written form of their language. The Christians who spread the gospel to these people made alphabets and put their language into print, so they could have the Bible in print.
So like it or not, “post-Christian” Europe owes much more to Christianity than they think! (The Romance languages– Spanish, French, Italian– derive their roots from Latin, which derives its roots from Greek… which derives its own roots from Phonecia… which was formed at about the same time Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt and the Hebrew language was written down the the first time). Phoenician and Hebrew are very similar. The history of language is amazing!!
Abe’s books has it for about $2 if you want to go look: http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?&isbn=0847412857&nsa=1
sallie,
You tempted me beyond what I could bear. I bit the bait and bought the book.
Great! Glad to help ya save a few bucks. I hate spending money on things. I just bought an old websters dictionary off ebay for 99 cents… It will receive much usage in our household!
God bless!
I have to add my good book deal here…
I bought a new Children’s Illustrated Bible on ebay for $8.99 (that included shipping)…it’s over $20 new. I was so excited!
Anyway…that book looks really neat…may have to go to Abe’s, too!
Hugs,
Carmen
Hi Kim,
I just heard that the Geneva Bible (and the KJV of 1611) include the extra books in the Old Testament - is that true? Is it possible to specify which Geneva bible page you get when you order?
milehimama,
Older editions of the Geneva Bible did include the apocrypha. I think the 1599 was the first to exclude those books.
When you order from Vision Forum, you can’t request a page, but you will never receive an apocryphal page.
If you order from us directly, you will soon be able to choose from a list; in fact I could provide a list now if you email a request. We simply don’t have the system in place yet to let people order off of a list from our site.
We’ve been tinkering with a complete redesign for our Geneva Bible Pages site for a long time, but I don’t know when it will be ready.
Actually, I was asking because I was interested in one of those pages - specifically the one with Sirach chapter 6 on it.
It has a verse that I want to send to a friend as encouragement:
“A faithful friend is a sturdy shelter:
He that has found one has found treasure.
There is nothing so precious as a faithful friend, and no scales can measure his excellence…”
Sorry, in older books that section is called Ecclesiasticus.