INTRODUCTION
If I understand correctly, every time the Bible quizzing coordinators meet during the quizzing year, not only do they converse about the current quizzing year's topics and issues, they also discuss next year's possible quizzing material. The final decision must take place at the final meeting, the meeting right before the Invitational Tournament begins, so next year's host conference can announce next year's quizzing material. Some years the selection process goes nicely and neatly, while other years the selection does not look so pretty. It would seem that the years that go well are the ones that select a single book to study, whereas the not-so-pretty years have a mish-mash of books and chapters. When the latter happens, I imagine the quizzing coordinators arguing and debating over what to quiz on and what not to quiz on, and the jumbled mess of quizzing passages is the result of an attempted compromise. Some hodgepodge quizzing materials have turned out well, while other hodgepodge quizzing materials have not (I'm looking at you, 2017).
The 2022 quizzing material was definitely one of those mixed bags of material, quizzing Job, Joshua, Nehemiah, Jonah and Zechariah (OK, yes, this was supposed to be the 2021 quizzing material until the COVID-19 pandemic cancelled the tournaments and abbreviated the quizzing season, which in turn required a shorter quizzing material, but since Job, Joshua, Nehemiah, Jonah and Zechariah actually became the 2022 quizzing material, it will be referred to as such). Now don't get me wrong; I felt excited once I heard quizzing would quiz on Job, Joshua, Nehemiah, Jonah and Zechariah. Job, Nehemiah and Zechariah had never been quizzed on before (at least, to my knowledge, in my 21 years of involvement), and Joshua and Jonah had not been touched since 2002. I did feel concern, however, on the cohesiveness of the quizzing material. As I thought and reflected on it more, I came to realize that my concern not only came from my past experience as a quizzer and quizzing staff, it also came from my scholarly mind.
Therefore, I would like to explore and evaluate the 2022 choice of quizzing material. Let me set some ground rules here. Let me be clear that I will not be rejecting books and/or suggesting new books in its place, meaning I will never say "They should have quizzed on [insert Bible book name here] instead!" That is for another place and another time. Clearly, Bible quizzing intended to do a "character study" for 2022. Therefore, here I will explore and evaluate the effectiveness of the passages selected from each of the 5 Bible books to study each of the 5 Bible characters. If I set a hypothetical/theoretical situation, this exploration and evaluation will be like if the Bible quizzing coordinators would have approached me and asked me for my scholarly opinion on what passages to exactly quiz on for this character study.
JOB
While I was excited to quiz on Job, I was also a bit surprised. Whenever I hear retellings of the book of Job, from sermons to videos, it usually only covers the first 2 chapters of the book of Job and the last chapter of Job. This is because these are the narrative chapters, and all the other chapters come in poetry. I know quizzing prefers narrative over any other type of writing style, so I did figure that any attempt to quiz on Job would have to come from a study of miscellaneous Bible characters, yet I still feared that Job would end up too short. The Bible quizzing coordinators did an amazing job expanding Job to make it quizzing worthy. The quizzing coordinators decided to quiz on the first 3 and the last 3 chapters of Job. Of course, this keep the narrative parts of Job 1, 2 and 42. That leaves chapters 3, 40 and 41, which are poetry chapters. For chapters 40 and 41, as poetry chapters, they are not too bad. Both Job 40 and 41 relay the grandness of God by portraying these mighty creatures that he has both created and controls. Job 40 is converses about behemoth, a large creature, exact identity unknown, and Job 41 discusses leviathan, a large sea creature, exact identity unknown. To communicate each creature's grandness, the Lord points out how strong each creature's body part is. You can almost imagine God pointing and labeling things for Job. By picturing this in your head, it makes it easier to remember the facts and details of these chapter, despite them being poetry chapters. That leaves Job 3. The English Standard Version (ESV) of the Bible titles the chapter "Job Laments His Birth," and the title fits, for Job does exactly that in this chapter. This chapter also serves as a prologue of sorts, for it introduces the reader for the objections of Job's three friends. Despite it being a prologue in nature, it does not need to be attached to Job 4-26 to make sense. It works as a standalone chapter. Now Job 3 does not share the same simple breakdown as Job 40 & 41. Whereas Job 40 & 41 have the main topic of the their respective creature, and the verses break down into subtopics of each creature's body parts, in Job 3, Job goes off in every direction lamenting his birth. Thus, by nature, Job 3 is the hardest chapter to study in the Job quizzing material. Still, I think it was a good choice. It makes the quizzing material on Job nice and balanced, with 3 chapters on each end, instead of lopsided with 2 chapters one end and 3 chapters on another. It also has the important Job of demonstrating how Job can lament about his suffering without sinning with his lips (Job 2:10) or charging God with wrong (Job 1:22). Again, Job 3 does not need Job 4-26 to make sense, yet it insinuates how the dialogue will go between Job and Job's friends without actually reading it. Speaking of textual markers, going back to latter half of the Job quizzing material, Job 40 is most definitely the right place to pick up, as evident in textual markers. Without going too Bible nerdy, most scholar agree Yahweh's final dialogue break up into 2 sections. Each section begins with the Lord calling out to Job from the whirlwind, "Dress for action like a man; I will question you, and you make it known to me." This section marker appears right at the beginning of Job 40, marking the second part of God's argument with Job. The quizzing material respects the boundary markers! In conclusion, the coordinators made an awesome choice with the Job quizzing material. It's balanced. It respects the textual boundary markers, ending where it should and picking up at the start of a brand new section. Besides, all religions attempt to answer the question of suffering in the world, and Bible quizzing should point out the Christian answer to church youth groups. Overall, I will flat out say it right now that the book of Job had the best representation of the 2022 quizzing material. If Job is revisited in the distant future, quizzing should pick these 6 chapters again.
In conclusion, Job 1-3 & 40-42 make the perfect quizzing material for quizzing on Job.
JOSHUA
As mentioned above, Bible quizzing did quiz on Joshua back in 2002. After 20 years had passed, it was definitely overdue for reconsideration. Quizzing on Joshua in 2022, however, looked differently than quizzing on Joshua in 2022. For Quizzing 2002, quizzing on Joshua meant quizzing on Joshua 1-6 and 21:43-24:33. For Quizzing 2022, quizzing on Joshua mean quizzing on Joshua 1:1-10:15 omitting 5:1-9. Therefore it seems fitting to compare and contrast the two selections.
Now before I go into comparing and contrasting, let me acknowledge the difficulty for Mennonites to quiz on Joshua. If I were to summarize the book of Joshua in one word, it would be "conquering." If I were to summarize the book of Joshua in two words, those two words would be "conquering" and "dividing." You may have heard of Philip II of Macedonia's (father of Alexander the Great) "divide and conquer." Joshua believed in the opposite "conquer and divide." Granted, these two are not complete opposites, as they come from different contexts. Philip II of Macedonia's "divide and conquer" means that when people are kept divided into smaller groups, they are easier to conquer. Joshua's "conquer and divide" meant that the nation of Israel had to conquer united in order to win over the Canaanites, but once they won the war, the Promised Land could be divided among the tribes. Anyway, this makes the book of Joshua problematic to Mennonites, who traditionally take an anti-war stance, anywhere from pure pacifism to non-violent resistance. No wonder it took 20 whole years for Joshua to get some reconsideration! I imagine with the 2002 material, the quizzing coordinators decided to as much as they could with Joshua without including any war battles. The only reason they kept in the battle at Jericho is because of how famous it is due to the city's big walls. I also imagine that the quizzing coordinators (especially since 3/4 of them are new) were a little bit more open to considering more of the Joshua narrative.
For the first 4 chapters of Joshua, the quizzing material remains the same between 2002 and 2022. The first divergence happens right at chapter 5. Quizzing 2022 decided to omit Joshua 5:1-9, despite quizzing 2002 quizzing on it. In Joshua 5:1-9, the Lord reveals to Joshua that, during the chaos of wandering the desert wilderness, the people of Israel forgot to keep the covenant sign of circumcision! The nation of Israel stops right there to circumcise all the males, and then once everybody heals, they continue on with their plan. For some reason, quizzing 2022 decided to omit this passage, I don't know why. I quizzed on it in my rookie season when I was 13 years old and 7th grader, and I turned out just fine (don't answer that). Everybody who quizzed on Joshua in 2002 read about circumcision, and nobody was traumatized by it (not to my knowledge at least). When quizzing on Genesis 1-30 in both 2009 and 2018, both quizzing materials included Genesis 17, in which God establishes circumcision as part of the covenant. When quizzing on Exodus in 2004 and 2014, both material continued all 3 appearances of circumcision in the book of Exodus. When quizzing on Luke in 2006, two verses talk about circumcision: the circumcision of John the Baptist and the circumcision of Jesus. Jesus talks about circumcision in John 7:22&23, which was quizzed on in 2012. When quizzing on Acts 10-28 in 2008 and Acts 6-28 in 2016, circumcision comes up in 6 different verses (and once more in Acts 7:8), and it actually becomes an important debate in the first century church. All these times circumcision came up without any issue, and all of a sudden, they decided to cut it out (pun intended) of the quizzing material. Seriously, my best guess why it was left was as part of the Safe Church Initiative in order to eliminate sexual abuse in the church, but it's hard to imagine a talk about circumcision would lead to sexual abuse. I will admit that as a quiz coach of a quiz team consisting of 4/5 teenage girls, if one of the ladies did ask, "What is circumcision?" I may feel a bit awkward or embarrassed to talk about it. I may cop out with the easy "Go ask you parents," but I believe it would be age-appropriate and comfortable to say, "The male reproductive organ has extra skin on the front, and circumcision was surgery to remove it." That simple explanation feel safe, comfortable, age-appropriate and definitely not leading to sexual abuse. Besides, omitting Joshua 5:1-9 leaves out an important note about the theology of Joshua. Whether Mennonite or another Christian denomination, an overarching theme of Joshua is the correlation between obedience and blessing. Obedience leads to blessing; disobedience results in curses. The people of Israel cannot consider themselves an obedient people if they will not participate in circumcision, an important sign of the covenant between Yahweh and Israel. By all males of all ages receiving circumcision, the men of Israel communicate to the Lord how series they are on obeying him and how serious they are about seeking his blessing. In turn, Joshua 5:1-9 communicates to the reader about the importance of going to great lengths to obey the Lord, especially if seeking blessing. While the re-institution of the Passover in Joshua 5:10-12 does communicate this a little bit, the re-institution of circumcision in Joshua 5:1-9 communicates that a lot.
The rest of chapter 5 and chapter 6 continue as normal. Once Joshua 6 concludes, the 2022 quizzing material takes a break, bu the 2002 quizzing material continues onto Joshua 7-10:15 Now, from a Mennonite perspective, I understand why Joshua 8 and 10 were left out of quizzing 2022. Both chapters discuss a war battle, and it's easy to consider those chapters glorifying violence. I don't get, however, omitting chapters 7 and 9. Joshua 7 talks about Achan's sin preventing victory against Ai, so Achan's sin needed to dealt with harshly. Joshua 9 tells how the Gibeonites deceive Israel into covenant instead of annihilation. These chapters have nothing to do with war. My best guess for Joshua 7 and 9's omission from the 2022 quizzing material is because annihilation of a a whole family in Joshua 7 and the possible slavery of a people in Joshua 9 (if you interpret "cutters of wood and drawers of water" as a form of slavery). The omission of chapter 9 could also be due to it feeling awkward to drop out chapter 8 and leave chapter 9, especially when chapter 9 draws back on the context of chapter 8 a couple times. Again, omitting Joshua 7&8 do a disservice to the theme of Joshua. Israel is disobedient to the Lord's commands due to Achan's sin, so they are cursed with defeat to Ai in Joshua 7:1-5. In their desire to pursue obedience and blessing, the Israelites discover and deal with the sin of Achan in Joshua 7:6-26. Now, finally, the people of Israel can be blessed with victory over Ai, as seen in Joshua 8. By omitting Joshua 7&8, the book of Joshua has less emphasis on its theology. Even Joshua 9 drives home this message even more. While their deceiving is frowned upon, one has to praise Gibeon for recognizing that if they want blessing and not curses, they too must obey the Lord and his people Israel. The Gibeonites go through great lengths to secure this obedience and blessing, and that greatly contrasts to the 5 Amorite kings in Joshua 10. Quizzing 2022 did a disservice to Joshua by omitting Joshua 7-9, and I'm glad quizzing redeemed itself in 2022 by putting Joshua 7-9 back into the quizzing material.
Now I left out Joshua 10 because even quizzing 2022 did not put the whole chapter into the quizzing material, I want to talk more in-depth about its selection of verses. Of course the material had to include the first 15 verses of the 10th chapter because that has the famous story of the sun standing still, but that's where they leave the 10th chapter. I will say that to some extend I understand the omission of Joshua 10:29-43. Sometimes quizzing material needs to be omitted because it is too hard to ask questions from or it's expecting too much for the quizzers to learn. Joshua 10:29-43 definitely falls under both categories. Joshua 10:29-43 is very repetitive, with very little to nothing distinguishing one verse from another. This indistinguishable repetition would make question writing a nightmare and learning impossible. Now for Joshua 10:16-28 I don't understand the omission. Joshua 10:16-28 is narrative, and I would even say a continuation of the same episode as Joshua 10:1-15. My best guess to the omission of Joshua 10:16-28 is that the passage comes off as a little brutal, especially in the Mennonite mindset. The 5 kings of the Amorites retreat from Israel and go into hiding. Joshua leads Israel into pursing the 5 Amorite kings. Israel traps them and then hangs them. Like I said, this sounds brutal, especially according to Mennonite standards. As brutal as the passage sounds, it contributes to the overall theme of the book of Joshua. Israel stands in the favor of the Lord due to their obedience, so the Lord blesses them with victory. The 5 Amorite kings stand in opposition to God and his people Israel, so God curses them with defeat. This theology is driven home even more when Joshua says to the chiefs of the men of war in Joshua 10:25, "Do not be afraid or dismayed; be strong and courageous." These words point back to the commissioning words given to Joshua in the first chapter of the book. The reason Joshua can be strong and courageous is due to his obedience to God's commands in his life, for they will always result in blessing. Likewise, Joshua can tell his chiefs the same thing because he knows that they too will reap blessing if they still obedient, and that alone gives reason to be strong and courageous. By omitting Joshua 10:16-28, quizzers miss out on how Yahweh consistently blesses Israel out of their obedience. Furthermore, while they repetition in Joshua 10:29-43 makes it a nightmare to learn and almost impossible to write question, the repetition communicates the message that Israel's victory is easily guaranteed as long as they remain obedient to the faith. Therefore, I would ultimately conclude that all of Joshua 10 should have been part of the quizzing material. While I applaud quizzing 2022 over quizzing 2002 for at least including some of Joshua 10, quizzing 2022 should have included Joshua 10 in its entirety.
While quizzing 2022 drops off the conversation at this point, quizzing 2002 re-enters the discussion, for it included Joshua 21:43-24:33. For those of you not familiar with Joshua 21:43-24:33, let me give a quick summary. Joshua 21:43-45 reminds the audience that Yahweh ultimately gave victory to Israel and gave the Promised Land to Israel. In Joshua 22, Joshua dismisses the tribe of Reuben, the tribe of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh, so they can claim the land east of the Jordan, as Moses promised them. In return, the Reubenites, Gadites and half-tribe build an altar of witness, not to create a rival religion, but to serve as reminder that they are family with the rest of Israel and must be treated as such. In Joshua 23&24, the book of Joshua concludes very similar to how it was opened. Joshua commissions the future leaders, renews the covenant between the Lord and Israel, and then dies. I honestly don't know Joshua 21:43-24:33 was omitted from the 2022 quizzing material, and I don't have a guess why From a quizzing perspective, it would have helped if quizzing 2022. Technically "Reubenites" and "Gadites" were key words in the 2022 quizzing material, despite the two tribes regularly appearing throughout the material. If quizzing 2022 would have included Joshua 21:43-24:33, they would no longer be keywords because they appear in Joshua 22. Also, Joshua 22 mentions the sin of Achin, which would have been a nice callback to Joshua 7. From a theological perspective, it would have helped quizzing 2022 to include this closing that quizzing 2002 included. The reason Israelites are ready to engage in war against the Reubenites, Gadites and half-tribe of Manasseh is because they fear the altar the Reubenites, Gadites and half-tribe of Manasseh built is to start a new religion, which is sin, which is disobedience, which will bring upon them curses. In Joshua's commissioning of new leaders in Joshua 23, Joshua reminds the leaders that the Lord's blessing is dependent on Israel's obedience. Therefore, he encourages them to encourage obedience, so Israel may reap blessing. When Joshua renews the covenant between the Lord and Israel in Joshua 24, Joshua gets the opportunity to remind the people of Israel what he reminded the leaders of Israel in Joshua 23: obedience results in blessing and disobedience results in cursing. Again, Joshua 22-24 emphasizes this dichotomy of obedience and disobedience and the dualism of blessing and curse, and without it, it's easy to miss out on it. I do admit that Joshua 21:43-45 was really needing for quizzing 2002, but that's the only part I would be wiling to omit. I applaud quizzing 2002 for recognizing the importance of this quizzing material, and I wishing quizzing 2022 would have seen the significance of keeping it in the quizzing material.
In conclusion, Joshua 1-10 & 22-24 would have made the perfect quizzing material for Joshua.
NEHEMIAH
Like Job, Nehemiah was also uncharted territory. Nehemiah had never been quizzed on before (at least in my 21 years of involvement), so this was the quizzing coordinators' first attempt at dissecting Nehemiah down to quizzing-worthy material. Quizzing determined that quizzing on the life of Nehemiah would mean quizzing on Nehemiah 1-6, which 2 omissions within those boundaries. For quizzing on Nehemiah, I will break into two parts: the omissions and the missed opportunities.
Let's start with the omissions of the material. Reading through Nehemiah, the first omission is Nehemiah 3, and it's fair omission. This chapter lists all the tribes, clans, families and people involved in rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem. While important to original audience of the book of Nehemiah, quizzers would see chapter 3 as headache-inducing lists to memorize, so quizzing made the right decision to omit it. The more head-scratching omission is the omission of Nehemiah 6:17-19. I have no idea why the last 3 verses of the 6th chapter got omitted? Maybe it was just too much genealogy/lists. Perhaps quizzing thought that Nehemiah 6:16 was a nice conclusion to the story of Nehemiah, and Nehemiah 6:17-19 was an unnecessary epilogue. Whatever the reason, I personally feel like the genealogy/lists are not too hard, and the epilogue displays the opposition Nehemiah and the Jews continues to face, which makes it necessary, so I believe they should have kept that chapter intact for quizzing.
Now I will move onto the missed opportunity, which may look like I'm cheating at my own rules. See, I think quizzing should have added Ezra chapters 1, 3 to 7 and 9. I know I said at the beginning that I would not I will not be rejecting books and/or suggesting new books in its place, hence why this looks like it's cheating, but it's not really cheating. In the original Hebrew text, Ezra and Nehemiah are a single unified book, called Ezra-Nehemiah. In a way, by quizzing on Nehemiah, quizzing has jumped in at the midway point of the book. There's more important reasons to include Ezra into Nehemiah, though. Ezra 5:1 reads "Now the prophets, Haggai and Zechariah the son of Iddo, prophesied to the Jews who were in Judah and Jerusalem, in the name of the God of Israel who was over them." Yes, that's the same Zechariah from the other book quizzed on this year! On the surface level, quizzing on Ezra 5 would have given context to the book of Zechariah, but it goes deeper into that. In Zechariah 2:4b, Zechariah prophecies, "Jerusalem shall be inhabited as villages without walls, because of the multitude of people and livestock in it. Putting together Zechariah prophesying in Ezra 5:1 with Zechariah's actual prophecy in Zechariah 2:4b with Nehemiah building the walls of Jerusalem in Nehemiah 4-6, it should lead to some head-scratching pondering. If Zechariah is filled with the Holy Spirit, prophesying a Jerusalem without any walls, then why is Nehemiah building walls? This question is further compounded by a missed opportunity within the book of Nehemiah itself.
For the most part, I agree with the quizzing coordinators' decision to stop at Nehemiah 6 (although they could have kept all the chapter included, as mentioned above). Chapters 7, 11 &12 are solely lists of genealogy, and chapters 8, 9 & 10 have a long list of genealogy contained somewhere within the chapter. I imagine quizzing didn't want to have spotty quizzing material, so to avoid spotty material, Nehemiah 7-12 needs to be omitted. The book of Nehemiah, however, has 13 chapters. Nehemiah 13, the final chapter of the book, is narrative just like Nehemiah 1-2 & 4-6, so Nehemiah 13 could have been just as easily quizzed on as Nehemiah 1-2 & 4-6. More importantly, Nehemiah 13 should have been quizzed on for theological reasons. The English Standard Version (ESV) calls this chapter "Nehemiah's Final Reforms," but I would slightly rename it to "Nehemiah's Final Reforms?" That question mark does make all the difference. Throughout the book of Ezra-Nehemiah, Zerubbabel, Ezra and Nehemiah work together to bring reforms to post-exile Judah. Zerubbabel made sure a rebuilt temple could worship Yahweh as commanded, Ezra made sure the Jewish people followed the Law and Nehemiah made sure the city of Jerusalem had walls again. Nehemiah 13 reveals that the temple has been neglected once again, the Jewish people are working on the Sabbath & intermarrying again, and the Jews are also living and working outside the walls of Jerusalem. Everything that Zerubbabel, Ezra and Nehemiah have reformed has fallen apart, and the post-exile people are living like pre-exile people! Nehemiah's closing words of "Remember me, O my God, for good" could be best paraphrased as "Well, God, I tried!" This falling back into old patterns reveals a deeper need, which is need to get rid of the old, sinful heart and to replace it with a new heart, which can only be done by the Messiah, which further emphasizes the need for a Messiah. Thus, for A.D. people living in the church age, the book of Nehemiah ends with invitation to accept Jesus Christ as the Messiah, for all other attempts to reform your life will lead to backsliding into old, sinful patterns. What a powerful message that the quizzers need to hear, especially those who have not made a decision to follow Jesus. Quizzing would have had an awesome opportunity to extend an invitation to the gospel, if they would have only kept in Nehemiah 13.
Ultimately, I would want to say that the best quizzing material on Nehemiah is not just Nehemiah itself, but Ezra-Nehemiah, which would consist of Ezra 1, 3-7, 9 & Nehemiah 1-2, 4-6, 13. Still, I imagine some of you are still irked believe you still think I broke my own rules, so I will settle with saying that the better quizzing material for Nehemiah is Nehemiah 1-2, 4-6 & 13.
JONAH
Not much to say on Jonah because quizzing quizzed on the book of Jonah in its entirety. I guess the temptation would be to remove Jonah 2 because the second chapter of Jonah is poetry instead of narrative, but Jonah does such a good job poetically depicting his position that this poetry pretty much functions like narrative. Just like Joshua, Jonah had not been quizzed on since 2002, so it was well overdue. It's actually quite ironic that Joshua and Jonah always get quizzed on at the same time. If Joshua is the most problematic for Mennonites to quiz on, then Jonah is one of the least problematic for Mennonites to quiz on, for the book of Jonah teaches to love your enemies, just like Jesus did in Matthew 5:43-48. Jonah does indeed give a nice balance to Jonah, at least in terms of that theology. It was nice this year to not only teach Christian teen Christian theology but to also teach Mennonite youth Mennonite theology. Don't be a stranger, Jonah. Don't feel like you only need to come around every 20 years. Jonah is definitely worth reconsider at least after 10 years.
In conclusion, the book of Jonah, in its entirety, makes the perfect quizzing material.
ZECHARIAH
When I heard Zechariah made it as part of the quizzing material, I had the same feelings as Job. While I was excited to quiz on Job, I was also a bit surprised. Minor prophets are rarely touched in the church. While there is probably a plethora of reasons why, I imagine that it's in part due to the prophets using Hebrew poetry to communicate their prophetic message. Similarly, I would have said in the past that quizzing on Zechariah would be the same horror trying to quiz on the Zechariah, trying to remember the Hebrew poetry. I also the other reason churches tend to avoid the minor prophets is because they struggle to find relevancy to the prophets' messages, which seem to address a specific ancient audience, who have a specific history, geography and culture, in order to address a specific history occasion. Similarly, in the past, I would have said quizzing would have the same problem trying to make it relevant to the quizzers, which in turn would make it harder for them to learn. Quizzing proved all these assumptions wrong in 2022. The book of Zechariah actually turns out to have more narrative structure than poetic structure. The sections with poetic structure, chapters 9 to 11, were omitted from the quizzing material. While the narrative sections did not necessarily tell a story, Zechariah fills them with very depictive imagery, which the quizzer can imagine in his or her head. Personally, I encouraged my quizzers who did have artistic talents to draw these visions to help them learn and study. My only regret towards this material was the omission of Zechariah 9-11. Again, I understand quizzing omitted this section because of the difficulty to remember poetry over narrative, but Zechariah 9-11 contains a lot of prophecies about the first coming of the Messiah, including Zechariah 9:9, which prophesies the Christ riding on a donkey. Now don't get me wrong, prophecies about the first coming of Jesus does happen outside of the omitted material. Indeed, some of my quizzers remember Jesus quoting Zechariah 13:7 in Mark 14:27. The prophecies in Zechariah 12-14, however, prophesy over the second coming of Jesus. Something tells one of the quizzing coordinators (or more) really felt like the last days were coming soon, so the quizzers had to be prepared. Whether Jesus returns now, soon or later, which he definitely will return, Zechariah has prepared the quizzers, for they see how the Lord has fulfilled his promises in the past, so surely God will fulfill his promises in the future.
In conclusion, Zechariah 1-8 & 12-14 makes the perfect quizzing material.
CONCLUSION
When I first heard the announcement of the then-2021 now-2022 quizzing material of Job, Joshua, Nehemiah, Jonah and Zechariah, I was super excited and could not wait to quiz on it. After actually quizzing on Job, Joshua, Nehemiah, Jonah and Zechariah, my feelings have not changed. Despite some difficulties in learning and studying, I'm glad quizzing choose these books. Even though I think quizzing could have chosen a better selection for a majority of these books, I'm still glad they chose these books. To summarize, if I had to rank the five books in order of best selection to worse selection, it would be: Jonah, Job, Zechariah, Nehemiah, Joshua. If I am allowed to use my "cheat" of including Ezra, swap around Nehemiah and Joshua, but if not, keep it the same order. I do want to make one more nitpick here. If quizzing on those 5 books, it should have gone in this order: Job, Joshua, Jonah, Nehemiah and Zechariah. Not only is this in alphabetical order (well, at least by just the first letter), it also goes in chronological order of when the stories took place. Chronological order would have helped the quizzers learned the material better. Finally, since the quizzing conferences typically break the season down into 8 weeks of quizmeets, let me propose what the 8-week quizzing schedule would look like with my suggested chapters for each of the books, which will also go in the order I just nitpicked. Before I go, though, let me reiterate how excited I was to quiz on these 5 books. I was super excited, so excited that I hope these books get considered again in the mid-2030s (I think that books should have a 10-year cool down period before reconsideration).
WEEK 1: Job 1-3 & 40-42
WEEK 2: Joshua 1-4
WEEK 3: Joshua 5-7
WEEK 4: Joshua 8-10
WEEK 5: Joshua 22-24, Jonah 1-4
WEEK 6: Nehemiah 1-2, 4-6 & 13
WEEK 7: Zechariah 1-8
WEEK 8: Zechariah 12-14
