Without looking at a Bible or elsewhere, starting from – NOW!
How many books in the Bible can you list off with their title starting with a vowel?
OK – let’s say you have 4 minutes… … stop!
How many did you get?
OK now there is a handicap:
If you are Jewish, add three to your score.
If you are Roman Catholic, (or Anglican) subtract one.
Eastern Orthodox, subtract three.
Ethiopian Orthodox, subtract four.
Your maximum score now can be eleven.
What is your score?
snake – up to and including 3
sheep – 4, 5, or 6
donkey – 7, 8, or 9
lion – 10, or 11
[Hope I’ve got all this right 😉 ]
Don’t put a list of the answers in the comments
I may explain some of the obscurer points… in time…
Eh?
Sorry, Lorraine – can you be slightly more specific than “Eh?”
Hmm, do Jews have *** and *** in their Bibles? (I know, it all depends…)
Since ayin and aleph are actually consonants, I can’t think of any Old- pardon, Tanak books that start with a vowel..
Still, I hope you had a blessed Feast of the Reformation.
Ein’ feste Burg ist under Gott! (sorry, ich kann nicht anders..)
[From the webmaster: this comment has been amended. *** indicates a New Testament Book’s name starting with a vowel – As I said in the post, I don’t, yet, want to give any hints for people having a go for the first time]
Yes, a good go, Mark. Donkey level! There’s one particularly tricky one…
Kevin, should I have put “their names in English Bibles”? I was taking that for granted – for all I know there are some languages where every book begins with a vowel – so let’s just stay with English in this particular case. And, no, I wasn’t counting New Testament books for Jews – hence the handicap scoring system.
I’ve got up to 8, think I’m missing a prophet or two, not bad though… right?
Am wondering whether the four Johns count as vowel-starters ‘cos our J could be an ancient I … And then I prefer to call the last book of the Bible *** …[:)]
[From the webmaster: this comment has been amended. *** is part of the trick of getting the top score. ps. “J”s do not count as vowels 🙂 ]
Donkey!
I went to Catholic school for 10 years but honestly, the only part of the bible we studied were the Gospels. We did a little Genesis and +++ in k-6, but after that nothing in Old testament. IN high school we did Gospels and parts of Revelations.
[From the webmaster: this comment has been amended. +++ indicates a book’s name starting with a vowel – As I said in the post, I don’t, yet, want to give any hints for people having a go for the first time]
Do the Deutero-Canonical books count?
If so, I am feeling very smug… a score of 10.
If not. I got 9.
Now you are getting the point of the handicap that I designed, Moyra 🙂 So either way, your final score is 9. You score donkey.
Uh, snake slithers away in shame…
10, I think. And that’s not counting “One Samuel”, “One Kings” etc.
Andrei & JP, I love it! That means Isaiah is not in as “The prophet Isaiah”, but Romans is! I will clearly need to change the handicap system to make it even more complex 😉
Joel – I’m getting confused now. You mean there are protestants who don’t have Ezra in the Bible? I’m working on a post on the canon – looks like I’ll have to change it 🙂
I only got 5. I am a Protestant Christian but I counted Ezra/Esdras anyway.
Well it all depends upon how you name the books surely?
e.g. Romans or Epistle to the Romans etc
Opps, that’s what I get for not looking. But at least it proves I followed the rules of the quiz.
My mind is mush right now, maybe I was thinking of Esdras – that one is apocryphal, right?
But, (after a quick look) it doesn’t seem to show up in the lectionary readings, so what might that mean for it’s place in the canon? <- Does that redeem my gaffe?
In my theology, Joel, all gaffes are redeemed 🙂 And if you follow my rules of handicap and include Esdras, you must subtract at least 3 from your total 😉 [ps. but you can also get an extra point by including 2 Esdras along with 1 Esdras]
None of them do. All the books in the Old Testament start with “the.” The Book of Genesis, the book of Exodus, etc. Then there are some in the New Testament that start with numbers.
Sheep
OK – here’s a couple of hints to get top marks: Apocalypse; and for the larger canon: Ecclesiasticus
Now I see that I missed two in the OT. I used the Protestant canon 39 + 27 = 66 books.
That is what we call it in Spanish, but you said English and my NJB calls it the Revelation of John!
Wow, David – now you’ve really got me thinking – I quickly glanced through a few, but not all of the English-language Bibles on my shelf, and so far they all call it “Revelation”. Can anyone help: is there any English-language translation that calls Revelation “Apocalypse”?
Well, I went ecumenical on All Saints’ Day and got 13 by including Enoch, Ecclesiasticus, Additions to Esther and Daniel, and “Iudith” (the medieval spelling preferred by Peter Carrell), but then the (Alexandrian) Jews said it was ‘Sirach’ (and they disallowed Qoheleth), but then the Douai Catholics said I could have ‘Osee’, while the Karaite Jews insisted it was ‘Yeshayahu’ and ‘Yehezkel’ while ‘Ezra’ wasn’t a book, which makes me a …camel (AKA horse designed by a committee).
Im using RSV-CE…. Although the Book of Revelation here is written as Revelation to John, it’s also written here as (The Apocalypse)
You may call it cheating, but I just searched for “Apocalypse” in all English translations at BibleGateway.com and came up with just two references, and only in one of their many translations:
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation+1:1&version=WYC
and 1 Corinthians 14:26 also from the Wycliffe New Testament.
10 out of 11 (including the Apocryphal ones — I missed the one Joel got, above). Not bad for a Presbyterian (handicap-less and everything!) 🙂 Fun quiz, thanks for this.
Ah, forgot Esther…but did include 2 Esdras (Nehemiah). Now notice Haggai can be called Aggeus!
Aggeus! Well I didn’t count that one 🙂
Never heard about Aggeus (Thanks, Helen, for the hint)- wondered which language(s??) to use for the Quiz.
English of course. And the Hebrew Bible? Hebrew or English too?
Giving up- was never good with numbers…;-)
As a Lutheran from Germany I did the quiz in English, taking off one and ended up donkey.
😀