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

Twelve 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.  I thank you for your patience, but I have enjoyed this journey.

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 question is what book of the Bible did this verse or two come from.  This quiz is different in that four books have no poetry: 2 Peter 2 John, 3 John, and Jude.  Actually some scholars consider 2 John to be a poem in itself, from beginning to end.  With two of the other books having only one small portion of poetry, the other three books will have more than one poem in the questions.  Hint: Two of these books are longer than the other books and each will have three poems in the questions.

As a bonus for you scholars out there, what Old Testament book is being quoted, if any?

The verses are in alphabetical order and all from the New Testament, Hebrews through Revelation.

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

The Questions:

	Poetry	Book	What the poetry quotes in part
1	“All people are like grass,     and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, 25     but the word of the Lord endures forever.”
2	“God opposes the proud     but shows favor to the humble.”
3	I am writing to you, dear children,     because your sins have been forgiven on account of his name. I am writing to you, fathers,     because you know him who is from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men,     because you have overcome the evil one. I write to you, dear children,     because you know the Father. I write to you, fathers,     because you know him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men,     because you are strong,     and the word of God lives in you,     and you have overcome the evil one.
4	“Look, he is coming with the clouds,”     and “every eye will see him, even those who pierced him”;     and all peoples on earth “will mourn because of him.” So shall it be! Amen.
5	“See, I lay a stone in Zion,     a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him     will never be put to shame.”
6	“To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb     be praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever!”
7	“What is mankind that you are mindful of them,     a son of man that you care for him? You made them a little lower than the angels;     you crowned them with glory and honor     and put everything under their feet.”
8	“You are a priest forever,     in the order of Melchizedek.”
9	“You are worthy, our Lord and God,     to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things,     and by your will they were created     and have their being.”
10	“Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever;     a scepter of justice will be the scepter of your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness;     therefore God, your God, has set you above your companions     by anointing you with the oil of joy.”

So, if we eliminate the poetry that is not formatted as poetry, we have less than 20% of the books in the Bible without poetry.  But nearly all the books have elements of biblical poetry in them.

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	What the poetry quotes in part
1	“All people are like grass,     and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, 25     but the word of the Lord endures forever.”	1 Peter 1:23-25	Quotes Isaiah 40:6-8
2	“God opposes the proud     but shows favor to the humble.”	James 4:6b	Quotes Proverbs 3:34
3	I am writing to you, dear children,     because your sins have been forgiven on account of his name. I am writing to you, fathers,     because you know him who is from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men,     because you have overcome the evil one. I write to you, dear children,     because you know the Father. I write to you, fathers,     because you know him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men,     because you are strong,     and the word of God lives in you,     and you have overcome the evil one.	1 John 2:12-14	Quotes other words in this letter
4	“Look, he is coming with the clouds,”     and “every eye will see him, even those who pierced him”;     and all peoples on earth “will mourn because of him.” So shall it be! Amen.	Revelation 1:7	Quotes Zechariah 12:10
5	“See, I lay a stone in Zion,     a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him     will never be put to shame.”	1 Peter 2:6b	Quotes Isaiah 28:16
6	“To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb     be praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever!”	Revelation 5:13b	Quotes 1 Chronicles 29:11
7	“What is mankind that you are mindful of them,     a son of man that you care for him? You made them a little lower than the angels;     you crowned them with glory and honor     and put everything under their feet.”	Hebrews 1:6b-8a	Quotes Psalm 8:4
8	“You are a priest forever,     in the order of Melchizedek.”	Hebrews 5:6b	Quotes Psalm 110:4
9	“You are worthy, our Lord and God,     to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things,     and by your will they were created     and have their being.”	Revelation 4:11	Quotes Acts 14:15 and other verses in Revelation
10	“Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever;     a scepter of justice will be the scepter of your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness;     therefore God, your God, has set you above your companions     by anointing you with the oil of joy.”	Hebrews 1:8b-9	Quotes Psalm 45:6

Whether you did well on this quiz or, ummm, not so well, for the first video, here is Sounds like Reign singing Worthy is the Lamb.  When I first saw one of their videos, she was singing to an infant.

Here is CeCe Winans singing Worthy.

Here is Anne Wilson with Brandon Lake singing Holy Hallelujah.

Let us all worship the King of kings.

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.