Test Your Knowledge of the Bible

Subject: Test Your Knowledge of the Bible
From: GUEST,Blandiver
Date: 04 Mar 13 - 10:10 AM

Thus said the Advert on Mudcat when I logged on earlier; usually it's some busty bird in a vest advertising adult dating (or whatever). What is this place coming to??

Subject: RE: Test Your Knowledge of the Bible
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 04 Mar 13 - 10:24 AM

Bit of a let down was it?

Subject: RE: Test Your Knowledge of the Bible
From: gnu
Date: 04 Mar 13 - 11:32 AM

Jesus hung out with whores.

Other than that, I dunno a whole lot about it.

Subject: RE: Test Your Knowledge of the Bible
From: Mrrzy
Date: 04 Mar 13 - 11:49 AM

in Kings, I think, they do a lot of dashing babies against stones...

I am also reminded of a Clancy Brothers song where they refer to something happening before something else did "or elviticus had committed deuteronomy."

Subject: RE: Test Your Knowledge of the Bible
From: GUEST,Blandiver
Date: 04 Mar 13 - 12:17 PM

I know about the Constipated Men anyway. I guess that's all you need to know on this forum - and that they left the best bits out, like The Gospel of Pseudo Matthew, which gives us The Cherry Tree Carol (Chapter XX). Check it out:

http://gnosis.org/library/psudomat.htm

Subject: RE: Test Your Knowledge of the Bible
From: GUEST,Blandiver
Date: 04 Mar 13 - 12:21 PM

PS - For a sure cure of constipation, there's the anal-sex in the Song of Solomon (5:4) which sounds like a lot of fun but messy I would imagine.

Subject: RE: Test Your Knowledge of the Bible
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 04 Mar 13 - 07:27 PM

In case anyone came here hoping to find an actual test of your religious knowledge, you might want to take this one:

How much do you know about religion? from the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.

It's a shortened version of a quiz that was given to "3,412 randomly sampled [American] adults" and then the results were tabulated.

Results are given here.

You might be surprised at which group of people had the highest score. Or not.

Subject: RE: Test Your Knowledge of the Bible
From: gnu
Date: 04 Mar 13 - 07:37 PM

So... about 66% knowledge was the high score(s) fer yer average respondant. Cool. But that it don't mean shit in the real world. Not a whit.

Subject: RE: Test Your Knowledge of the Bible
From: Rapparee
Date: 04 Mar 13 - 08:54 PM

Yeshua of Nazareth hung out with whores, tax collectors, shepherds, working folks and riff-raff of all sorts -- like me his (human?) daddy was a carpenter and apparently taught him the trade. Had a lot of parties, too, besides that one at Cana. Seems like a decent sort who's gotten worked over until he's no longer recognized for what he was.

Subject: RE: Test Your Knowledge of the Bible
From: Wesley S
Date: 04 Mar 13 - 09:59 PM

Y'all DO know the book was turned into a movie don't you? Color and everything.

Subject: RE: Test Your Knowledge of the Bible
From: Elmore
Date: 05 Mar 13 - 11:14 AM

I did okay on the quiz, for an agnostic.

Subject: RE: Test Your Knowledge of the Bible
From: Bill D
Date: 05 Mar 13 - 11:26 AM

I did great as an agnostic/atheist. In order to render an opinion about such things, one needs to be reasonably familiar with them.

But the question is: Which bible? I also have a bound copy of this one.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oahspe:_A_New_Bible

Subject: RE: Test Your Knowledge of the Bible
From: GUEST,Blandiver
Date: 05 Mar 13 - 11:27 AM

I didn't sit it. Next time it comes it I will, if only to see how I do as a Gnostic.

Subject: RE: Test Your Knowledge of the Bible
From: Mrrzy
Date: 05 Mar 13 - 12:51 PM

There used to be an occasional quiz in one of my puzzle magazine that gave a bunch of well-known phrases, and gave a binary choice: Shakespeare or the Bible? Amazing how often people are wrong on that... even those of us in that we-know-religion group!

Subject: RE: Test Your Knowledge of the Bible
From: Don Firth
Date: 05 Mar 13 - 06:03 PM

I got fourteen out of fifteen. The question I missed was a bit esoteric. What preacher led the "Great Reawakening?" I think I missed that one, but they don't really let you know.

But then, my knowledge of the Bible per se is pretty good. In the U. of Washington English Literature department, I took a course in "The Bible AS Literature." Read and analysed as poems, short stories, folk tales, and such. NO religious descussion allowed in the class. The Bible as literature.

Most interesting course! We read things in whole chunks, not verse by verse, and I wound up being a real pain in the butt to Bible-thumpers who took verses out of context and tried to interpret them to prove a point. I was able to say, "Hold it! That's not what that means!" and quote it in context. After a few attempts, they usually consigned me to the Nether Regions and went on to more promising targets.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: Test Your Knowledge of the Bible
From: GUEST,Peter
Date: 05 Mar 13 - 06:21 PM

Not too bad, I managed to guess the two about the US Supreme Court but I had never heard of "The First Great Awakening" and didn't know if Transubstantiation was still Roman doctrine or not.

Subject: RE: Test Your Knowledge of the Bible
From: Joe Offer
Date: 06 Mar 13 - 02:23 AM

We read the Jonathan Edwards sermon "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" in high school, so I knew about the Great Awakening.
I got 15 out of 15, but then I was a Theology major.
Bill D, you said you did well, but HOW well? I'd be surprised if you didn't tie me.
-Joe-

Subject: RE: Test Your Knowledge of the Bible
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 06 Mar 13 - 03:44 AM

MRrrzy:
There used to be an occasional quiz in one of my puzzle magazine that gave a bunch of well-known phrases, and gave a binary choice: Shakespeare or the Bible? Amazing how often people are wrong on that... even those of us in that we-know-religion group!

Might some of the correct answers be "Both"
The King James Version, well known in the UK, and from which a lot of the well known phrases come, was a collaberation in translation & making the prose sing. It is quite possible that Shakespeare was a contributor to the final mix.
Often suggested as evidence in Psalm 46 in which (in the KJV)the 46th word is "shake". This may not seem much evidence, but counting back from the end of the same psalm the 46th word is "Spear".
Stangely the online version: http://classic.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+46&version=KJV makes it the 47th word (counting back).

Subject: RE: Test Your Knowledge of the Bible
From: GUEST,CS
Date: 06 Mar 13 - 03:56 AM

The test purports to be about 'religious' knowledge, but I'm not sure where knowledge regarding 'rulings of the US supreme court' concerning what US teachers can and can't do, come into that. You could have studied in detail all the major religious works ever written and get those two questions wrong.

Subject: RE: Test Your Knowledge of the Bible
From: GUEST,999
Date: 06 Mar 13 - 05:49 AM

If they were gonna use Jonathan Edwards' name they shoulda called it the Frontier Revivals. The Great Awakening to me was surviving Gary's 1967 New Year's party which ended on February 14, 1968. I think.

Subject: RE: Test Your Knowledge of the Bible
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 06 Mar 13 - 08:05 AM

I know there was some guy named "Enos" who makes frequent appearances in crossword puzzles.

Subject: RE: Test Your Knowledge of the Bible
From: Penny S.
Date: 06 Mar 13 - 08:07 AM

I got 97%! Missed on US teachers being allowed to read the Bible in schools, and only got Jonathan Edwards (Christian triple jumper in the UK) by reading the comments page first.

Penny

Subject: RE: Test Your Knowledge of the Bible
From: jacqui.c
Date: 06 Mar 13 - 08:22 AM

I got 15 right - had to guess at Jonathan Edwards though. I'm a recovering Methodist.

Subject: RE: Test Your Knowledge of the Bible
From: GUEST,999
Date: 06 Mar 13 - 09:45 AM

As long as no one thinks you're dancing . . .

Subject: RE: Test Your Knowledge of the Bible
From: Airymouse
Date: 06 Mar 13 - 08:42 PM

The Pew Center needs to learn something about both English and religion:
"Catholic" is an adjective, not a noun, so it can't be a religion. Even "Catholicism" is not a religion, it's a sect of Christianity.

Subject: RE: Test Your Knowledge of the Bible
From: Elmore
Date: 06 Mar 13 - 09:25 PM

Catholic is a noun.catholic is an adjective. I'm a recovering Catholic.

Subject: RE: Test Your Knowledge of the Bible
From: Bill D
Date: 06 Mar 13 - 09:36 PM

Joe.. as another recovering Methodist, I also got them all. I still read 'at' the bible in various situations. (I have even looked at some of the parts that were carefully left out of the bible.)

I have attended services in black Southern Baptist churches, High Episcopalian, Catholic mass (only twice), as well as Methodist and Unitarian. I studied comparative religion in school, and traveled and sang hymns with a car load of Presbyterians. I have also debated with a Jain who thought she was a Buddhist.. *grin*

I am familiar, as noted, with Ohaspe... and with The Urantia Book and the Upanishads and Bhagavad Gita.

Religion is important as part of the fabric of our history, no matter what final opinion one come to about it.... so I try to stay 'relatively' informed.

Subject: RE: Test Your Knowledge of the Bible
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 07 Mar 13 - 03:45 AM

A guy dies and goes to heaven where St, Peter shows him around. They come to a big, blank wall, and the guy asks, "What's with the wall?

"Ssshhhh," Peter replies," Those are the Catholics on the other side; they think that they're the only ones up here!"

Subject: RE: Test Your Knowledge of the Bible
From: Elmore
Date: 07 Mar 13 - 09:03 AM

Gosh, Nigel. You mean they're not the only ones up there?

Subject: RE: Test Your Knowledge of the Bible
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 07 Mar 13 - 02:03 PM

I'm one who resolutely flip-flops between being an agnostic and
an atheist. I regard agnosticism as the more intellectually defensible/respectable of the two, but in mood swings I relapse into a forthright declaration of atheism. Organizationally, I have been Unitarian for many years.

I have to admit that I was unsure on Jonathan Edwards, but I picked him for the role. Whether this was a guess or a vague recollection of something I read at some point, I can't tell you.

The other question in the 15 which made me pause was the majority
religion in Indonesia. I decided Muslim was the best guess, but a guess it was.

Out of the 15-item sample test, I scored 15, two of which were
a little shaky. I wish I'd had the opportunity to take the full survey.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: Test Your Knowledge of the Bible
From: Stringsinger
Date: 07 Mar 13 - 02:49 PM

The King James bible was written to appease the warring religions of the time in England.

The Bible has been misquoted and used as a pretext for every backward policy decision in the US such as slavery, war, and dissing the poor.

Constantine had a lot to do with the Council of Nicea which fabricated many
stories about Apostles who never wrote any of the chapters in the Bible; they were all dead by the time these chapters were written.

Scribes were basically illiterate in copying for the earlier additions of the Bible.

Then came the agendas and the made up stuff (mostly all of it is made up).

Bart Ehrmann is the man you need to read to learn about the history of the Bible.
Here's the real story on the Bible

Subject: RE: Test Your Knowledge of the Bible
From: Stringsinger
Date: 07 Mar 13 - 02:51 PM

Oh and Jesus was never mentioned in "The Dead Sea Scrolls".

Subject: RE: Test Your Knowledge of the Bible
From: GUEST,Stim
Date: 07 Mar 13 - 04:32 PM

I got all the questions right, but they are relatively easy questions (except,apparently, the one about the First Great Awakening), and not really much about religion.

Some good questions to ask would have been about stuff like the different beliefs that groups have about predestination and the Trinity(like, is Jesus God, and what is the Holy Ghost, anyway?), whether the Bible is the inerrant word of God, and the ways that Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism differ on the idea of God...

Also, because this is the internet, it would have been great to be able to "like" the different questions...;-)

Subject: RE: Test Your Knowledge of the Bible
From: GUEST,999
Date: 07 Mar 13 - 04:37 PM

'Oh and Jesus was never mentioned in "The Dead Sea Scrolls".'

Someone said he was?

Subject: RE: Test Your Knowledge of the Bible
From: GUEST,Stim
Date: 07 Mar 13 - 05:18 PM

Or that he should have been?

Subject: RE: Test Your Knowledge of the Bible
From: Don Firth
Date: 07 Mar 13 - 08:38 PM

I think one of the big problems in simply reading the Bible is that some nitwit had to go and number all the verses. Now, chapter headings are okay, but all the verse numbers and footnote numbers (concordance) and such that look like they've been fired at every page with a shotgun has people reading it in choppy and disconnected chunks.

What the world needs is a good, modern translation of the Bible (there are, but the fundy churches hate them). And LEAVE OUT THE BLOODY VERSE NUMBERS!!

If you read the poetry, like, say, the Song of Solomon, like poetry and the straight narratives like reading a story, a whole bunch of interesting stuff can leap out at you.

"Oh! THAT's what that means!"

This business of quoting disconnected verses, or putting together selected verses from different parts of the Bible in an effort to prove a point that those who wrote them didn't intend is where the Bible-thumpers stumble way far into left field.

Actually, parts of it are a pretty good read. The whole battle between Moses and Pharaoh and the Exodus are quite an epic adventure. Samson takes on a horde of Philistines in battle single-handed and whups their tails for them; and then there's the seduction scene with Delilah. Jesus says some pretty cool things about the abuses of organize religion in his time, which might very well be quite relevant today.

For those of a non-religious bent, you could always read it as fantasy. I mean, after all, how many people believe there are such creatures as Hobbits, or dragons like Smaug, or elves, or believe in the evil magic of Sauron's lost Ring? This kid Harry Potter is learning to be a wizard? And where the hell is Hogwarts?

Fear not. It won't turn you into a religious fanatic, and if some religious fanatics read it that way, they might learn a whole lot they didn't know before—and become less fanatical.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: Test Your Knowledge of the Bible
From: GUEST,999
Date: 07 Mar 13 - 09:28 PM

I always pictured Ezekiel as the village doper. He's dropped a few hits of 'shrooms or taken a few tokes of whatever and there he goes to wake folks up and tell them about the wheel. Imagine the conversation with the village folks.

"Hey, Zeke, what it is?"
"Man, I just saw this really cool wheel in the air. All sparkly and shiny."
(aside in a whisper) "He's been into the mushrooms again. Don't lend him your chariot. (aloud) So, uh, Zeke, was it real high up or more at eye level?"

Subject: RE: Test Your Knowledge of the Bible
From: ollaimh
Date: 07 Mar 13 - 11:26 PM

there are two prominent characters in the dead sea scrolls, the liar and the teacher of righteousnes. some think jesus was the liar and john the baptist the teacher of righteousness, some think paul/saul was the liar and james the brother of jesus was the teacher of righteousness.

what is clear is that the jesus and the doctrines found in the leters and acts is from a different sect than that in the synoptic gospels.the glosses that try to make them agree were not very successful. john's gospel is influenced by other things again. in the beginning was the word is a cvery hindu/buddhist idea, not very jewish.

speaking of the dead sea scrolls, man now believe that revelation was written by a survivor of the essene community, who still rails and rants against the soft christians. the themes are musch like the community rule and war scroll themes.

so test your knowledge, who remembers the name of he guy who sacrificed his daughter to yaweh in thanks for winning a battle, centuries after abraham and issac.

who built the temple of the male prostitutes on the temple mount opposite to the temple of yaweh?

who sent bears to kill fourty two children(putting the fear of god into douglas adams and inspiring the hikct-hikers guide to the galaxy)

Subject: RE: Test Your Knowledge of the Bible
From: GUEST,Guest from Sanity
Date: 08 Mar 13 - 01:45 AM

Stim: "Some good questions to ask would have been about stuff like the different beliefs that groups have about predestination...."

When asked once, if I believed in predestination, and free will, answered, "Do we have a choice?"

..and that was that!

GfS

Subject: RE: Test Your Knowledge of the Bible
From: Joe Offer
Date: 08 Mar 13 - 02:24 AM

Well, Stringsinger, I have my doubts about your Bart Ehrman link. Most of what he speaks of, has been common knowledge among "mainline" scripture scholars since the middle of the 19th century. Ehrman just puts a sensationalistic "spin" on it to sell books.

If you define religion, any religion, solely in fundamentalist terms, it's easy to refute it. But a good number of religious people, really aren't that stupid. They don't buy fundamentalism, either.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: Test Your Knowledge of the Bible
From: GUEST,Blandiver
Date: 08 Mar 13 - 04:07 AM

It would be really nice to have a discussion of the literary, historical & folkloric significances of The Bible without bringing religion into it.

Subject: RE: Test Your Knowledge of the Bible
From: Don Firth
Date: 09 Mar 13 - 07:00 PM

Ah, so, Blandiver! That's pretty much what "The Bible as Literature" course, taught by Prof. Paul Trueblood, that I took at the U. of Washington way back when, was all about.

Prof. Trueblood was very scrupulous about keeping the class on the literary, historical, and folkloric aspects of the Bible and quelling the attempts of a couple of hard-charging students from turning it into a religious discussion.

Excellent course well taught, I thought.

Interestingly enough, some years later, a couple of fundamentalist churches in the area tried to sue the U. of W. for "teaching religion" at a state university in violation of the First Amendment. Due to the scrupulousness of Prof. Trueblood, and later, Prof. David C. Fowler (who also taught a course in "The Popular Ballad" which I also took), the two churches didn't get to first base. It was established that the course was "The Bible as Literature," and that ended that bit of nonsense.

As far as the two fundy churches were concerned, I think their big problem was that the students were having an opportunity to read for themselves what the Bible really said, not having it spoon-fed to them bite by bite by some pastor with an agenda.

In later arguments I had with fundy Bible-thumpers who were trying to "save my soul" (including one pastor!), the thing that made them the maddest was that I knew more about the Bible than they did! Got kinda funny sometimes.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: Test Your Knowledge of the Bible
From: Joe Offer
Date: 09 Mar 13 - 08:36 PM

I think it's important to realize that the books of the Bible were written without the baggage of being "Bible." They were the best efforts of the writers to tell the story as they understood it. As time went on, they were generally accepted as descriptive of what people believed, and then were accepted into the "canon" of Scripture.
The books of the Bible weren't written with intention of being authoritative - they just were, what they were.


-Joe-

Subject: RE: Test Your Knowledge of the Bible
From: Joe Offer
Date: 10 Mar 13 - 04:24 AM

The books of Genesis and Exodus, and many (or most) other books of the Bible including the Gospels, were written in the language of legend. I don't think the writers intended the stories to be understood as "factual" - and I don't think people even attempted to claim them as fact until fairly recent times. These books were written to convey a message of the relationship between humankind and God, not to report factual or scientific information.

If you tried to relate the relationship between me and my wife in "factual" terms, it would be pretty boring- and it wouldn't do justice to how wonderful that relationship is. We met in 1995 and got married in 2002, and we're still married. If you want to understand the impact of that relationship, you have to go into legend. My wife was married to Peter, and I didn't like him, and her life was a mess and I wasn't interested in her after Peter died. Then she married St. Jim, and Jim was an absolutely wonderful man who worshiped his wife and made her whole again. Jim and I were best friends. Three weeks before he died, he asked me to watch over his widow and her son. If anything romantic happened, he thought that would be wonderful. Within a month after he died, we were engaged - and we were married with St. Jim's blessing a year later. And we're still happily married after eleven years.

Now, that's our story, and I've told it a hundred times. No, it's not exactly, factually true. I left out the parts about how hard it was for us to get used to living together, and how angry we got at each other sometimes. Still, it conveys the essence of our relationship far better than a precisely factual account could. Tonight, we had a lovely evening at the symphony together and I am remembering how wonderful it is to have lived with this woman for eleven years. Am I lying if I leave out the difficult parts?


-Joe-

Subject: RE: Test Your Knowledge of the Bible
From: Don Firth
Date: 10 Mar 13 - 04:04 PM

I've had a number of really good discussions with a Lutheran pastor. Among other things, he said that much of what's in the Bible is in a particular narrative style, a way in which stories of this kind are told.

For example, he said, ALL important figures in the world's many religions entered the world in a miraculous way, and they left the world in an equally miraculous way. Being born of a virgin is one of those miraculous ways, as is ascending to heaven in the body, witnessed by disciples.

As pastor Pond said, "When reading what Jesus taught, what do the gynecological or obstetric details of Jesus' birth really matter? What DOES matter is what He said. Endlessly wrangling over peripheral things having to do with the narrative style of the period divert attention from what's important and obscure what Jesus was all about.   His message gets lost. Not good!"

I have to agree with him.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: Test Your Knowledge of the Bible
From: GUEST,pete from seven stars link
Date: 10 Mar 13 - 05:42 PM

dont forget that the bible story is including verifiable historical data-eg dates,chronogeanologies,historical figures,geographical locations.i would be interested to know from you scholars of comparative religion whether the other holy books compare with that.
i also think that the idea of all "fundamentalists" picking bits out of context is exagerated.obviously some do but others delve deeper and some are academics.

Subject: RE: Test Your Knowledge of the Bible
From: Don Firth
Date: 10 Mar 13 - 06:01 PM

Yes, pete, most of them do.

In the Bible, things like the numerous concordances are an afterthought, and scribes and translators have been adding to and subtracting from the Bible since they first began compiling the scrolls and manuscipts (often arbitrarily including some and excluding others for reasons best known to themselves) in the first place.

The Bible is an anthology, and like all anthologies, what gets included and what is left out depends on the editors. In this case, a whole string of bishops, a pope or two, and a whole army of clerics.

The Bible did not spring into existence spontaneously. Nor was it handed to us by the Angel Gabriel. It (dare I use the word?) evolved over a number of centuries.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: Test Your Knowledge of the Bible
From: GUEST,999
Date: 10 Mar 13 - 06:59 PM

When one considers the number of books that could have been included, the editors certainly moved a few things around. The collected manuscripts that make up the Nag Hammadi is an example.

Subject: RE: Test Your Knowledge of the Bible
From: mayomick
Date: 11 Mar 13 - 07:57 AM

What Uncle Dave O wrote about mood swings reminds me of something Brendan Behan said about him being a convinced atheist during the day , but a good Catholic by night.
Mrrzzy , that bit about "or elviticus had committed deuteronomy" wasn't a song . It was Tom Clancy reading from James Joyce's Finnegan's Wake .

All the guff coming from English-speaking Catholics about God transmitting some essential truth to his people through the poetry of the bible makes little sense when you consider that He has only allowed the book to be available to English readers through the Protestant Wycliffe's translations made at the end of the fourteenth century .I know people will say that the lord is supposed to work in mysterious ways , but surely He isn't supposed to be an outright hypocrite . Catholics see the Pope as God's representative on earth , but it was one of these reps that ordered Wycliffe's bones be dug up, crushed and thrown into the river for his heresy of translating the bible from Latin . Wycliffe's follower John Hus was burned at the stake in 1415, with copies of the translated bible used as kindling for the fire . Where's the poetry in that?

(alright, I got a low score)

Subject: RE: Test Your Knowledge of the Bible
From: GUEST,pete from seven stars link
Date: 11 Mar 13 - 02:45 PM

well don.seems you have nothing to say to my suggestion that the verifiable historical persons and locations and dates,and the chronogeanologies lift the bible above folklore.if other scriptures lack these [eg mormon]they might with greater validity be consigned to invention.

your answer consisted of assertion and generalization.how about a specific.liberal scholarship assigned at least some ,if not all to the post exilic [i am open to correction if mistaken].
however comparison of ancient hittite treaties with mosaic covenant agree with the suzereign/vassel treaty current to moses day.
the arrangement of the isrealite camp also would be familiar to moses from his stay in egypt.