Strange Facts from the Bible

This article is not meant to be faith promoting or faith destroying. Rather, it is meant to be an entertaining look at some odd and little known facts from the Bible. Here they are in no particular order.

1. The Bible gets racial. Peppered throughout the Bible are passages that draw attention to race/ethnicity. Jeremiah 13:23 says, "Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots? Then you also you can do good who are accustomed to doing evil."

After Moses' first wife died he married a Cushite woman (Ethiopian) and this did not go over well with his Jewish community. Numbers 12:1 says, "Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had married."

Apparently people from the island of Crete had a bad reputation and the Bible records a rant against them, "Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons." (Titus 1:12).I am guessing in English our use of the word "Cretan" continues this ethnic slur.
Even Jesus seems to get racial. He says, in reference to a Gentile woman, in Mark 7:26 & 27 that "it is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs".

2. Giants are mentioned in the Bible. They are called by different names in the Bible: Nephilim, Rephaim, Emim, Zamzummin, Anakim or just giants. Most people are familiar with the story where David defeats one of these giants. In Deuteronomy 2 other nations like the Ammonites and Edomites are said to have disposed of these giants. It says in I Chronicles 20:8 that other giants from Gath (Goliath's home town) "fell by the hand of David and by the hand of his servants."

3. Straight Street. Acts 9: 10 & 11 says, "Now there was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias; and the Lord said to him in a vision, 'Ananias.' And he said, 'Here I am, Lord.' And the Lord said to him, 'Get up and go to the street called Straight, and inquire at the house of Judas for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying'." There is still a street called Straight in Damascus, Syria.

4. Eight kings of Israel/Judah were not supposed to enter into the "assembly of the LORD". All the Kings of Israel Judah from David to Uzziah were in violation of The Law. Deuteronomy 23:3 reads, "No Ammonite or Moabite shall enter the assembly of the LORD; none of their descendants, even to the tenth generation, shall ever enter the assembly of the LORD."

We know from the book of Ruth that Ruth was a Moabite and that she was the great grand mother of King David. So from David to Uzziah , including the builder of The Temple - Solomon, the kings of Israel/Judah were in violation of God's word. A king is by his very nature a part of the assembly of his people and their God.

5. Marijuana is mentioned in the Bible. Actually it's not; I was just checking to see if you were paying attention.

6. A book of the Bible is named after a pagan deity. Which book you may ask? That would be the book of Esther. The name "Esther" is a derived from the name "Ishtar" which was a fertility goddess in the Ancient Near East. The name of Esther's uncle is also derived from a pagan deity. "Mordecai" is derived from the Babylonian god "Marduk".

7. The Bible has no center. Or . . . it doesn't quite work that way. Sometimes in religious circles one hears of a center verse of the Bible which is usually a verse somewhere in Psalms. However, there are numerous problems with finding a definitive center to the Bible.
First, one must answer the question of "What is Bible". What books are included in one's canon of scripture will obviously affect its center. The various Christian sects have most of the same books in their canon but there are differences. Jews do not even count The New Testament so that would obviously change the center.

Next, after one decides which books are to be included, one must decide which text of that book is to be used. Certain manuscripts are shorter and longer than others, and no two texts are exactly the same.

After that, one must determine which arrangement of the Bible to use. Most Bibles today use the Greek arrangement of the Old Testament (Genesis - Malachi). However, The Old Testament used by Jews (including Jesus) has II Chronicles as the last book. The Greek arrangement is generally based on chronology; the Hebrew arrangement is based on genre of literature (The Law, The Writings, and The Prophets).

Lastly, one must decide how to chop up the verses (versification). None of the books of the Bible contained chapters or verses when they first came out. This was added much later in order to help people read, write, and quote from the Bible. Even modern English translations of the Bible have slightly different ways of versifying The Bible.