Locusts! Prophecies! Redemption! Apocalypse! Your Favorite Book of the Bible, Please

Cafe Society
1

I like Isaiah best.

“The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, have seen a great light.”

“And like a hunted gazelle, or sheep with none to gather them, every man will turn to his own people, and every man will flee to his own land.”

The words are simple but not simplistic. The rythm is excellent. Everything about Isaiah is dignified.

While the words are sure-footed and evocative, Isaiah is not easy:

“The LORD has a sword; it is sated with blood, it is gorged with fat, with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams…Their land shall be soaked with blood, and their soil made rich with fat. For the LORD has a day of vengeance, a year of recompense for the cause of Zion.”

Isaiah also has children handling snakes and women being blamed for loose morals. Challenging; beautiful nonetheless.

Also, Isaiah’s quotability quotient is very high. Since my literary obsession is “the interconnectedness of all things,” the fact that references to Isaiah’s language get made continually is good. It is of course cited explicity and implicity in the New Testament. It also rescues annually those do-it-yourself versions of Handel’s Messiah with a bit a grandeur:

“And the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, the everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.”

So what book speaks most to you? Please post examples of a few verses that you really like. Here is a link to a Bible site–site chosen because of its multiple translations and search engine to help find particular passages.

(Note that this is a malice-free post–those who wish to argue that treating “the Bible as literature” is a dismissal of religion are invited to take it to GD. Let’s work under the assumption that believers and non-believers alike can appreciate Biblical language.)

2

Can’t belive I’m responding to this. Okay, so I’m not a big Bible reader. In fact, my one attempt to read the whole thing fell apart 'round about the whole “begat” sequence. But I think this is a pretty good thread idea, so I thought I’d give it a bump.

But in high school I was a member of Job’s Daughters. As such, I was thoroughly exposed to the workings of the book of Job. Not so much reading the actual book, but certainly learning the story itself.

I like the idea that one who is faithful will be rewarded in the end. Though I’m not religious like that, I can apply it to other areas. That those who are loyal and believe in something will be rewarded for that.

Oh, and for the citation portion, I’ll throw out the only actual verse that is directly instructed to us in Job’s Daughters. It’s the 42nd chapter, 15th verse, which roughly reads “…and in all the land were no women found so fair as the daughters of Job…”

I feel pretty… oh, so pretty… :smiley:

3

Ecclesiastes

I can’t pretend to understand it all, but I find it moving and comforting.

Job is good too.

4

Psalms is right up there, but I like Proverbs too. Both have wonderful poetic qualities, great imagery, and much wisdom and comfort.

John is my favorite Gospel. It just seems more powerful in its narrative than the other three.

5

I’m torn. Until recently, my favorite, hands- down, was James. Short, simple, concrete advice on how to make the world better while not being a jerk.

But I got stuck in an extremely legalistic church, then had to deal with the trauma of eventually leaving the church of my childhood for a more liberal one, with all the associated guilt and anxiety and strained family conversations, and I found that Romans, with its emphasis on freedom from legalism, was incredibly comforting and moving.

Then again, John is a good story.

6

Ecclesiastes was my favorite book for a long time, but I reread it recently, and realized that it wasn’t that great as a whole. It’s still a good book for some of its passages, but it’s not well-connected.

7

The Book of Hebrews, for its message. I love how it describes Christ as both the sacrifice and the priest who sacrifices.

–Hebrews 2:14-18
Revelation and the Psalms for their poetry.

8

Isaiah’s my favorite too, because it’s so poetic. (Also, the fact that a lot of the Messiah libretto comes from Isaiah is a big point in its favor. :D) As for the New Testament – I don’t know, I sorta like Luke…

Oh, and as far as Humble Servant’s last comment goes – we had a Bible as Lit course at my (Catholic) high school, or to be more specific, two of them, one on the Old Testament and one on the New. They weren’t called that, but that’s what they were, although the OT course was more literary. (The NT one had a more historical focus.) Best religion course I took, IMO.

9

Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians (1Cor.). It’s a laff riot!

Take Paul’s advice on hairstyles (11:14) “Does not the very nature of things teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a disgrace to him?”

On DNA (15:39) “All flesh is not the same: Men have one kind of flesh, animals have another, birds another and fish another.”

On the urgent need to end slavery (7:21) “Were you a slave when you were called? Don’t let it trouble you – although if you gain your freedom, do so.”

On churchmen filing lawsuits (6:7) “The very fact that you have lawsuits among you means you have been completely defeated already. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated?”

There’s the ever popular 1Cor 14:34 “Women should remain silent in the churches. They are not allowed to speak, but must be in submission, as the Law says.”

And the one where Paul gives the whole game away, (15:14) “If Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.”

Well, okay then. (All quotes NIV.)

10

I have problems picking one book. I have a lot of favorite passages though, and, IMHO, the very best is Romans 8:37-39. It’s going to be in my funeral service as the NT reading.

11

Have any of you seen Apocamon? It’s the book of Revelations as if it were a Pokemon cartoon.

12

Check out Song of Songs aka Song of Soloman. Lots of stuff like this:

Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth-- for your love is more delightful than wine. Pleasing is the fragrance of your perfumes; your name is like perfume poured out. No wonder the maidens love you! Take me away with you–let us hurry! Let the king bring me into his chambers. We rejoice and delight in you; we will praise your love more than wine. How right they are to adore you!

13

I haven’t read too many books of the Bible. Okay, I’ve only read Genesis and Ecclesiastes, and the second only because I was verifying a quote in Hubert Selby’s Last Exit to Brooklyn.

But since this is an open thread, I’m going to say my favorite is Ecclesiastes. It’s good reading for anybody who has been ego-tripping a little too much.

How can you not love a book that opens with these words (NIV):

This is of course the “he who increases knowledge, increases sorrow” book. I like it for its dogmatic everything is meaningless stance. The whole book overall I wouldn’t recommend as a life philosophy. The “be content with your own toil” could easily be construed as “never try”. That would be a terrible mistake to make.

There are some other interesting quotes. Take this one:

And my personal favorite:

And as far as the “time to be born and a time to die”, all I could think of was the Byrds and hippies.

That’s my uninformed opinion. (I’ll get to the rest of the books eventually. Honest!) I’d like to see a reverse of this thread, “Which book of the Bible is your least favorite?”

I also just realized my favorite book fits my sig line quite nicely.

14

I’m going to put in a vote for the book of Esther here - the world’s first melodrama, complete with spunky heroine and eminently hissable villain. Also, if you read the “Additions to the Book of Esther” in the Apocrypha, you realise that this book got the attention of a proper editor - said “Additions” being mostly junk that slows the story down, and was therefore cut.

Best New Testament book? The Acts of the Apostles - lots of incident there, full of good stuff.

Most meaningful to me in a spiritual sense? Umm… that wasn’t the question, was it?

15

It’s hard to pick one, but I really like Job, I think it’s funny. Poor Job has all these questions, and gets various inadequate answers from the people he talks to, and when God finally shows up to talk to him, instead of getting answers God gets sarcastic on him, goes on for a page or so about how mighty he is, and leaves without giving him an answer.

I also like the early ones, Genesis and Exodus, interesting mythology there. I even enjoy Leviticus, I love the whacky rules and how they are worded. I also recall really enjoying parts of the first book of Kings. Oh yeah, and the Song of Solomon…for an atheist/agnostic, I sure love the Bible.

16

My favorite Bible book is John. My favorite verse is John 8:58. My favorite translation of it is NIV: “Before Abraham was born, I AM.”

17

I mangled the first passage I quoted from Isaiah–here is the correct quotation:

scout–I think is is absolutely charming that your group found the one sunny bit in Job and adopted it as your own. Really neat–of course Job’s first set of daughters were all crushed when a house fell on them and their deaths were one of the chief sources of his agony. Badtz is right about Job too–it gets taught in philosophy classes as a dialog (think Plato) with 4-5 voices debating the problem of why bad things happen to good people. It is too good to reduce to “the patience of Job” which is all some people seem to know about it.

SpoilerVirgin and Mofo like another of my favorites, Ecclesiastes. One of the verses quoted is the source of “eat, drink and be merry,” and another is often rendered “vanity of vanities, all is vanity,” both using the King James translation. These show a bit of the tremendous influence of that translation. Nothing wrong with the other versions either, though; they just sound better to my ear that has heard the traditional translations.

DaveW: Here’s a bit of a Psalm I like:

Now FisherQueen, gallows fodder, Baker and Grumpy are all made of sterner stuff they me because they like Paul. I’m spoiled: I want poetry, parables and epic; Paul is so serious. This probably just means that I need to read him again.

Katisha! My favorite NT book is also Luke. I feel like I know you (not in the biblical sense, of course ;)).

bnorton (is your user name related to T.S. Eliot’s burnt norton)? How YOU doin’? (I’m trying to make my threads more exciting with gratuitous flirting–hope you don’t mind.) I searched for all instances of “breasts” in the Song of Solomon:

Like I said, I’m trying to jazz up my threads :smiley:

Steve: I heard just yesterday that Esther is the only OT book not represented in the Dead Sea Scrolls, and that it is also the only book that does not contain the word “God.” It is a really good story. I can also really relate to the story of King David. He screwed up about as badly as possible (which is the part I can relate to)–sending a man to die to be able to take his wife–but was really sorry, and got a second chance.

Thanks for your replies, everyone. I’ve enjoyed them a lot.

18

The Gospel of Matthew. It just seems to be the most down-to-Earth of the Gospels. I’ve always been especially fond, for some reason, of the story of the Good Thief crucified beside Jesus. Unfortunately, I can’t seem to search up the reference at the moment…

19

Esther & Ruth definitely when I was little.

Now, Song of Solomon and Psalms are gaining on them.

20

Ruth, because it’s a nice little story about ordinary people.

I also like to imagine Daniel taking place in corporate America instead of the Chaldean Empire. A CEO calls a meeting of his top financial analysts to a meeting and says “I had a terrific brainstorm last night, and I want you guys to run the numbers on it. The catch is, I’m not going to tell you what it was. I mainly want to see if any of you are any good or are just riding on BS.” Kind of when they’re down-sizing and they call you in to “interview for your job” all over again, to decide who should get the ax.