By JUDY KILGORE
Religion Editor

I have always been a “word” person—take’em apart, put ‘em back together, study and learn. Games with words have always held a peculiar fascination for me. And I think anyone in my family would agree that I am the family Scrabble champ. So, when I headed for graduate school back in the ‘70s, I guess it was no surprise that I quickly became an English major. I was in heaven...especially when I took advanced grammar, aka “linguistics.” (Take ‘em apart, put ‘em back together.) My big term paper was on dialects and slang and was entitled, “The Idiom and the Oddity...Variations in American Speech.” Pretty cute, huh? (I got an A.)

Yesterday, when I was going through the mail and wading through all the church bulletins, I came across the Bible Brain Teaser below. What fun! I made copies and started working on it. Even better, I made copies for everybody and challenged them to try and figure it out. All day Monday when anyone passed in the hall, the question was “How many have you got?” Toward the end of the day, we even sat down with a Bible, trying to figure out the really elusive ones.
Well, we worked all day, but all we could come up with was 21. I’m going to give up and call the Fayetteville Christian Church and see what that one last book of the Bible is...we just couldn't get it. Our thanks to the Fayetteville Christian Caller, the newsletter of the Fayetteville Christian Church, for totally boggling our collective brains.

The following paragraph has 22 books of the Bible hidden in it. Some may appear as part of the end of one word and the beginning of another. See how many you can find. (Example: “Mark” appears within the third word.)

It is remarkable that the names of one-third of the books of the Bible can be hidden in one short paragraph. It was an interesting job to hide them, and finding them will not be a fluke or an accident. Truthfully, the search for facts will be a revelation for numbers of our readers. As you search from answer to answer, however, don't get yourself in a jam, especially since we want this to be a most enjoyable experience for you. Just keep looking and thinking so you won't want to slam at the walls in frustration if you don't find them all right away. Yes, there will be some that are really easy to spot, and if one misjudges a name or two, he can always call on St. Jude for help. I will readily admit it takes a minister to find one of them, and there will be lamentations and gnashing of teeth when it is found. Some people think the composition of one's genes is a factor in how well one does in this exercise. One little lady said she brews a cup of tea so she can concentrate better, and another chose a cup of coffee and a johnny cake to sustain her as she worked. So let's see how you compete. Relax now as you work, for there really are twenty-two names of books of the Bible in this paragraph.

I’ll give you the answers next week. Good luck!

Back to the Top of the PageBack to the Religion Home Page