David and all the Israelites were celebrating with all their might before God, with songs and with harps, lyres, timbrels, cymbals and trumpets.

• 1 Chronicles 13:8

The Levites were Jeshua, Binnui, Kadmiel, Sherebiah, Judah, and also Mattaniah, who, together with his associates, was in charge of the songs of thanksgiving.

• Nehemiah 12:8

“And now those young men mock me in song; I have become a byword among them.

• Job 30:9

Ten weeks ago, I started this quiz journey through the Bible, every other week.  It all pertains to poems found in each book of the Bible, at least those that have them.

The Old Testament had some poetry in every book.  Some might argue over Esther and Ruth.

The concept of this quiz will be simple.  I will quote between a fraction of one verse up to three verses, from what is formatted in the Bible as poetry.  The primary question is what book of the Bible did this verse or two come from.  I am foregoing the bonus, as all of these are written by Paul, and some are only quoted in other New Testament books.  Thus, which came first?

As to the difficulty, these books have little poetry in the first place.  Four of these books have no verses formatted as poetry in the NIV or CSB, but some experts claim that a verse here or there has poetic qualities.

The tenth question should be easy.

The verses are in alphabetical order and all from the New Testament, Ephesians through Philemon.

Since the primary answers are the Bible References, there will be no Bible Reference Section this week.

The Questions:

	Poetry	Book	Formatted as poetry (NIV, CSB)?
1	For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.
2	He appeared in the flesh,     was vindicated by the Spirit, was seen by angels,     was preached among the nations, was believed on in the world,     was taken up in glory.
3	He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.
4	I always thank my God as I remember you in my prayers, because I hear about your love for all his holy people and your faith in the Lord Jesus. I pray that your partnership with us in the faith may be effective in deepening your understanding of every good thing we share for the sake of Christ. Your love has given me great joy and encouragement, because you, brother, have refreshed the hearts of the Lord’s people.
5	If we died with him,     we will also live with him; if we endure,     we will also reign with him. If we disown him,     he will also disown us; if we are faithless,     he remains faithful,     for he cannot disown himself.
6	Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times and in every way. The Lord be with all of you.
7	“Wake up, sleeper,     rise from the dead,     and Christ will shine on you.”
8	Who, being in very nature God,     did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing     by taking the very nature of a servant,     being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man,     he humbled himself     by becoming obedient to death—         even death on a cross!
9	You are all children of the light and children of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness. So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be awake and sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, get drunk at night. But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet.
10	To make this a ten question quiz…   What is the shortest book among the books in this group, from Ephesians through Philemon?

As of yet, I have not checked every book in the Bible, but I have the Old Testament accounted for, and the first two thirds of the New Testament.  Some of the poetry that has been found was not formatted as poetry in either the NIV or the CSB.  Only in one or two occasions was it not formatted as such in both translations.  But in this quiz, nearly half of the books have nothing formatted as poetry, although some verses have poetic elements as described as follows.

But then again, what is biblical poetry?

Biblical poetry rarely rhymes, even in its original language.  While there are lines, meter is rarely considered.  But there are some things that are keys to look for, other than many translations format them differently.

Parallelism (grouped in two or three verses usually): lines saying the same thing, but using different words.  Or lines of contrast. Or lines building on a theme.

Other identifiers can be Figurative Language, Figurative Imagery, Repetition, Compression, and Emotional Expression.

Our present pastor preached a sermon some time ago about the transitions from prose to poetry.  He said that when that happens, you need to pay close attention.  God is trying to make a strong statement.  That is why I included the bonus about what the circumstances were when that poetry was inserted into the story.

Note that in one of these poems, Aaron remained silent when the poem was first uttered.  That may not be a great hint, but it points to the importance of the poem and the emotions involved.

Editor’s Note:  The Bible References in the answers below often use the letter “b” in that the first part of the verse gives away the person who said it.

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The Answers:

	Poetry	Book	who? And circumstances?
1	For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.	Titus 2:11-14	(Neither)
2	He appeared in the flesh,     was vindicated by the Spirit, was seen by angels,     was preached among the nations, was believed on in the world,     was taken up in glory.	1 Timothy 3:16b	Both
3	He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.	Colossians 1:17-18	CSB
4	I always thank my God as I remember you in my prayers, because I hear about your love for all his holy people and your faith in the Lord Jesus. I pray that your partnership with us in the faith may be effective in deepening your understanding of every good thing we share for the sake of Christ. Your love has given me great joy and encouragement, because you, brother, have refreshed the hearts of the Lord’s people.	Philemon 1:4-7	(Neither)
5	If we died with him,     we will also live with him; if we endure,     we will also reign with him. If we disown him,     he will also disown us; if we are faithless,     he remains faithful,     for he cannot disown himself.	2 Timothy 2 11b-13	Both
6	Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times and in every way. The Lord be with all of you.	2 Thessalonians 3:16	NIV, maybe
7	“Wake up, sleeper,     rise from the dead,     and Christ will shine on you.”	Ephesians 5:14b	Both
8	Who, being in very nature God,     did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing     by taking the very nature of a servant,     being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man,     he humbled himself     by becoming obedient to death—         even death on a cross!	Philippians 2:6-8	both
9	You are all children of the light and children of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness. So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be awake and sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, get drunk at night. But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet.	1 Thessalonians 5:5-8	(Neither)
10	To make this a ten question quiz…   What is the shortest book among the books in this group, from Ephesians through Philemon?	N/A	Philemon, one chapter with 25 verses.  Then comes 2 Timothy, three chapters and just one verse less than 2 Thessalonians.

Whether you did well on this quiz or, ummm, not so well, for the first video, here is Sovereign Grace Music singing Christ Our Wisdom.  It is written by Jon Althoff, Bob Kauflin, and Nathan Stiff.

Here is Matt Maher singing Lord, I Need You.

Here are the Asidors singing In His Time.

You make all things beautiful in Your Time, Lord.

If you like these Saturday morning Bible quizzes, but you think you missed a few, you can use this LINK. I have set up a page off the home page for links to these Saturday morning posts. I will continue to modify the page as I add more.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.