Amos R. Wells’s Know Your Bible (1927) is a fascinating little book because it isn’t a commentary or a devotional.
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| Know Your Bible |
it’s essentially a massive quiz. Wells compiled 1,500 questions designed to test whether readers truly know the Bible, not in terms of obscure genealogies or dates, but in its broad outlines, characters, events, and memorable passages.
To challenge readers to measure their actual knowledge of the Bible. Wells believed most people thought they knew Scripture, but his questions revealed gaps.
The questions are straightforward, not theological.
They focus on narrative, characters, and famous verses rather than doctrinal debates.Wells admits readers may feel “disgusted” at first—either with themselves or with him—because the questions expose ignorance.
But he insists the exercise is valuable for anyone who wants to be “at home in all parts of it.”
Covers all 66 books of the Bible, emphasizing significant events and uplifting passages rather than minutiae.to help readers recognize biblical references in literature, absorb its ideals, and form a deeper acquaintance with its people and stories.
PREPARE FOR A SHOCK.
Everybody who uses this book is going to be per—fect—ly dee— lighted with it. But not at first. Oh, no; not at first. |. At first, most of the people who use this book are going to be dis` gusted with themselves or with the author or both. They are going to find out how much—or how little—they know about the Bible. - They are likely to discover that it is “how little" rather than “how much."
And they are going to blame it on me. They are going to say,
“What fool questions! I could answer any sensible set of questions about the Bible, but these—pah!" Ours is an age of alibis. - All I can say is that if any one can get up a set of fifteen hundred . questions on the Bible, covering all parts of it, and include a larger . number of easy questions than I have included, I'd like to see him do it. Pd just like to see him do it. ;
I’ve tried to ask fifteen hundred questions which any one ought to be able to answer if he really knows his Bible; if he is acquainted . —not with the minutiz of the Bible, but with its broad general out"lines. These questions do not call for a knowledge of genealogical tables, but of the chief Bible characters. They do not call for the details of Jewish history, and not a single date is asked for in all _ the fifteen hundred queries; but they do insist upon a knowledge of the Bible’s most significant and interesting events, from cover to ` cover.
The questions are not theological—perhaps some would find . them easier if they were, for then they could air their theories; but _ they call for an acquaintance with the most beautiful and uplifting . sentences and passages in all the sixty-six books of the Bible, the _ inspired wisdom on which all theology is based—or ought to be. — Said one on whom I tried these questions, and who failed lamentably, “What's the use of such questions, anyway?" No use, unless there is use in knowing the Bible, being at home in all parts of it, forming an acquaintance with Bible persons and happenings, becoming able to recognize Bible references in literature, and gradually absorbing the lofty Bible ideals.
