Wednesday, January 21, 2015

The Juvenile Bible (1804)

Wow. Just came across this blog post. This is amazing. A book for kids that summarises the entire bible in verse; alphabetically! One line of poetry per chapter in the bible, for the entire bible. You can read it all on Google books. Here is the gospel of Mark to give you a taste:
  1. A gospel Mark writes: Christ's baptised
  2. Declares he's sabbath's Lord
  3. Heals wither'd hand, doth devils command
  4. The sower sows the word

  5. Brings dead to life; casts legion out
  6. Five loaves five thousand feed
  7. He makes the ear that's deaf to hear
  8. Sev'n loaves their wants exceed

  9. Casteth a deaf-dumb spirit out
  10. Check's Zebedee's sons desire
  11. Casts changers out who sold and bought
  12. The vineyard let to hire

  13. Downfall of temple, and the world
  14. By Judas he is sold
  15. He's thrice deny'd and crucify'd
  16. Then rises as foretold
You'll note that everything is presented in four line verses, with each verse within a book beginning with the next letter of the alphabet. The author cheats a bit when books don't have multiples of four chapter chunks by simply extending the final chapter or two out to the end of the verse, using as many lines as needed. Thus Philemon, II John, III John and Jude, despite only having one chapter each, all have a four line verse.

And it includes the 10 commandments too:



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