An Evaluation of the 2022 Bible Quizzing Material

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

John 12: Palm Sunday

Now that we’re entering the second half of the book of John, John’s writing is going to shift. He’s going to go from the 3-4 years of the ministry of Jesus to the Passion Week of Jesus. He’s going to shift from touring Galilee, Samaria and Judea with Jesus to just staying in the city of Jerusalem. He’s going to shift from action-packed miracles to solely focus on teachings of Jesus. Things are going to slow down, become more local, and become more focused. Since John is slightly changing up his writing style, I am going to do the same. I’m not going to be as concerned with staying inside the chapter boundaries, the section boundaries, the paragraph boundaries or the verse boundaries. One blog post might have a couple chapters in it or it might have only a section or two in it. I might focus a long time on certain paragraphs, a short on some other paragraphs and some paragraphs I might completely ignore. Why? Since John’s writing is more central in time and location, as well as style (teachings), I don’t have to continually set the scene. For the remainder of John, the setting will remain the same, so the context will remain the same. I’m only going to pull out things that are debated, in which all sides need to be heard, or things that need a deeper explanation to fully understand. My hope is to reveal things to you that you’ve never thought about. If there’s nothing new to reveal, it will skipped over.

The first pericope (story) in John 12 stills has Jesus in Bethany. Now since we’re still in Bethany, it is important to set the scene because it’s debatable. Matthew and Mark also tell this story…or so most believe. The stories in Matthew 26:6-13, Mark 14:3-9 and John 12:1-8 have many commonalities. All take place at Bethany in the home of Simon the Leper. All have a woman breaking open an alabaster jar of perfume (pure nard) and using it on Jesus. All have someone object to the motion, and all have Jesus defending the woman. Yet there are differences. Matthew and Mark just say it’s a woman, while John names the woman as Mary, the sister of Martha and Lazarus. Matthew and Mark says that the woman uses an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, while John tells the reader it was a pint of pure nard. Matthew and Mark say the woman poured the perfume on the head of Jesus, while John recalls the nard going on the feet of Jesus. John also adds more detail, such as Mary wiping the feet of Jesus with her hair. Mark says everybody watching opposed, Matthew gets specific and says it was only the 12 disciples that opposed, John gets even more specific, calling out Judas Iscariot to the opposer. Yet the biggest difference would be that Matthew and Mark state this happens 2 days before the Passover, while John puts it 6 days before the Passover. What are we to do? Are we to admit that the Gospel writers mixed up their facts and made mistakes in their writing? Never! It just requires some shifting through.

Let’s look at how the scholars have dealt with it. Some scholars have tried to argue that the accounts of Matthew and Mark are the same, but the account of John is a different story. Their proof is Luke 7:36-50. In Luke 7:36-50, Luke also tells a story of a woman cleaning the feet of Jesus with her hair, then anointing it with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, followed by objections. Yet it would be ridiculous to try to say it is the same event as recorded in Matthew, Mark and John. If you thought Matthew, Mark and John disagreed, wait until you see the Luke story. While all stories take place in the home of a Simon, Luke’s story is in the home of Simon the Pharisee, not Simon the Leper (Simon is very common name back then). Simon the Pharisee’s house is in Galilee, while Simon the Leper’s house is in Bethany in Perea. Luke denotes the woman as a very serious sinner, while Matthew, Mark and John make no notation of that (although some have suggested that’s why Matthew and Mark kept her anonymous). Only Luke mentions cleaning with tears, and no one else does. Luke has the opposer being one person, a Pharisee. Definitely from Matthew and John, and possibly from Mark, no Pharisees are present. Matthew and John definitely, and Mark possibly, show the objectors to be supporters of Jesus, no opponents. Furthermore, the objection is different. Simon the Pharisee objects at a sinful woman touching a righteous man. Judas Iscariot, as well as the rest of the disciples, object that it was a waste of money. Lastly, the reaction of Jesus Luke has recorded is way different than the reaction Jesus gives in Matthew, Mark and John. In Matthew, Mark and John, Jesus calls for the disciples to serve Jesus over the poor. In Luke, Jesus says that the sinful woman was more hospitable to Jesus than the so-called righteous Pharisee. So most scholars would definitely agree Luke’s pericope is a totally different story that happened earlier. Yet some people would take it further to show this anointing by women happened more than once so they conclude it happened 3 times. The first time is recorded in Luke, when Jesus was in the early years of the Galilean ministry. The second time is recorded in John, while Jesus is in Bethany six days before the Passover. The third time is recorded in Matthew and Mark, 2 days before the Passover. I will admit, I was tempted to go along with this thinking. They did have a point showing the major differences meant they were different events. Yet I could help but notice that the similarities were too strong to call them different. All of them have the same setting, all of them have the woman using expensive perfume, all of them have the opposition of wasting money, and all of them have the same reaction from Jesus. So Matthew, Mark and John have to be telling the same story, just from different points of view.

Like I said, this takes further sifting, so let’s sift. First of all, let’s talk about John’s use of names. While Matthew and Mark say “woman,” John says “Mary.” While Mark says, “those present,” Matthew says, “the disciples” and John says, “Judas Iscariot.” What’s the deal? Remember, John likes to pick on people, not in a negative connotation, but in for story-telling purposes, like character development. By giving the people names, the story becomes more real to us. So John reveals the woman to be the Mary, the one we all know, the one who sat at the feet of Jesus and listened, the one whose brother was raised by Jesus. John also reveals the objector to be Judas Iscariot. Now I’m saying that Matthew and Mark were wrong by assigning the objections to a large group of people. They easily agrees with one another. I believe that the grumbling about Mary’s actions started among the 12 disciples, as they all indignantly objected to one another. The other people observing, most likely supporters of Jesus, heard the Twelve Disciples grumble, so they followed suit. Finally, Judas Iscariot gets the balls to stand up to Jesus say what’s on everybody’s minds. If everyone was thinking this, and Judas Iscariot was the only one brave enough to say it aloud, you almost want to give kudos to Judas. Yet John uses this moment to reveal Judas is not the stereotype of a good disciple of a righteous man. John reveals Judas to be guilty of embezzlement. Like I said, character development. Also, it could simply be John’s use of details. That would also explain John saying a “pint of pure nard” instead of saying “an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume.” Pure nard was a very expensive perfume, shipped all the way from India. To get even a pint, or a half leader, a person would have to pay 300 denarii, which took about 300 days of work to save up for. This perfume was so expensive, it was put in the finest and most expensive of jars, like an alabaster jar. Simply because John does not mention it doesn’t mean it was not so.

As for where the perfume went, or how Mary anointed Jesus, I don’t think that really matters. If we were to get fussy and care about it, I would compromise and say it went both on his head andhis feet, but still, I think the grander point of this story in John 12:1-8 is all the foreshadowing going on. First and foremost, the whole event is foreshadowing the death of Jesus. Pure nard was a perfume using in burying the dead. Mary anoints Jesus likes He is a dead body. Jesus outright states that soon the disciples will not have Jesus. The ever-present danger Jesus is in becomes more obvious to Jesus, to His disciples and to everyone around him, including Mary. It’s like they all know when Jesus goes into Jerusalem, He’s not coming out alive. On that, the second foreshadowing the reader sees is Judas Isacriot’s role in the death of Jesus. It will be his own greed for money that will lead him to betray Jesus and hand Him over to death.

So that leaves us only to deal with the time frame. Matthew and Mark says it is two days before the Passover, while John says it is six days before the Passover. Well, location could be taken into account. As stated before, it seems like once Jesus enters Jerusalem, he isn’t leaving. In Matthew and Mark’s context, it would seem like Jesus would leave Jerusalem for a day to go visit the village of Bethany during that final week. Yet my ultimate conclusion is going to come from the writing style of John. Once again, I call you to remember the book of John is not a synoptic Gospel, but a supplementary Gospel. Therefore, of all the Gospel writers, John is the least concerned about the proper chronological order. His transition-of-time words have been vague throughout this entire book. If this book were to be written topically, which is most likely was, it would make the most sense to put together the two stories with the same main characters together. In John 12:1-8, Mary, Martha and Lazarus are all present, the same Mary, Martha and Lazarus in John 11. So I do believe Matthew and Mark, who would at least be slightly more concerned about time frame, do have the right time frame. As for Jesus leaving Jerusalem during Passion Week, I say it’s possible. After Jesus cleared the temple shortly after the Triumphal Entry, the Jewish leaders wanted to arrest and put Jesus on trial right there. Jesus probably had to leave the city for a day until things cooled down because it was not his time.

The pericope ends with the chief priests planning to kill Jesus, and Lazarus as well, because Jesus raising Lazarus is bringing so many people to believe in Jesus. I’m not going to talk about in-depth any further because that was already done for last chapter. But I will point out that it further foreshadows the fate of Jesus: Jesus is not coming out of Passover week alive.

By the time the reader gets to John 12:12, the reader hits the story familiar with Palm Sunday: The Triumphal Entry. Notice while all 3 Synoptic Gospels go into detail on the preparations for the Entry into Jerusalem, but John does not. Once again, Johns knows and expects his readers to have already read the Synoptic Gospels. They know how the disciples prepared, and John has nothing new to add, so he skips over the preparation details. I will mention that it seems like the only preparations the disciples made were the donkey ride for Jesus. It was the greater crowd of followers that did the rest. What did they do? They pull off palm branches and palm leaves to put on the ground and to wave. The Synoptic Gospel writers even add some people put their cloaks on the ground. Then they begin shouting and cheering when Jesus enters. I’ve written down what they are saying below from all 4 Gospel accounts.-

-Hosanna!
-Hosanna to the Son of David!
-Hosanna in the Highest!
-Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!
-Blessed is the king of Israel!
-Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!
-Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!

If you want any further proof that the Twelve Disciples didn’t orchestrate this, John 12:16 tells the reader that Twelve Disciples saw what was going on and had no idea why this was happening. So what’s so important about this? In this second half of the Gospel of John, John’s going to start to portray Jesus as the Son of God by aligning the Son of God portrait with the portrait of Jesus according the Synoptic Gospels. The Synoptic Gospel that John will agree with in John 12 is the Gospel according to Matthew. Both Matthew and John see Old Testament Prophecy being fulfilled. The explicit one both Matthew and John mention is Zechariah 9:9, in which Zechariah sees the Messiah riding into Jerusalem on a donkey. Riding on a donkey has a lot of symbolism within itself. In Bible times, a king would either ride into a city on a horse or on a donkey. If the king rode on a horse, it meant he was going in an act of aggression, such as declaring war or taking control as the conquering king. If the king came riding on a donkey, it meant he came in peace, like making a peace treaty or an alliance of some sorts. Jesus did not come to Jerusalem to start a violent revolt to overthrow the Romans, but to peacefully proclaim and establish the kingdom of God on earth. The implicit Scripture being fulfilled is Psalm 118:25,26. Most Bibles have footnotes that connect the crowd’s shouting to the verse. Both Matthew and John have noted this, but they did not write it down. Perhaps they both assumed it was common knowledge to their Jewish reader. Indeed, this Psalm is believed to a Messianic Psalm. Thus, the crowd shouted it when Jesus entered Jerusalem because they believed this man was their messiah.

What do these people do after they give Jesus His parade? They go out and spread the news that Jesus has come to Jerusalem. What’s their tagline? It’s the Jesus who raised Lazarus from the dead! So the people of Jerusalem come out to see this Jesus, hoping to see a miracle. Their faith seems a little shallow, but it’s working. How can a reader know it’s working? Well, for starters, it’s frustrating the Pharisees. So a crowd has assembled large enough to annoy the Pharisees. But on top of that, look at whose attention they get.

The same week Jesus is in Jerusalem, there are also Greeks in Jerusalem. Most likely these Greeks are Greek proselytes (Greeks converted to Judaism), who are in Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover and worship in Jerusalem, but they could also be Greek philosophers learning about different cultures. Some of these Greeks have heard about Jesus. These Greeks ask Philip if they get see Jesus. Philip asks Andrew, and Philip and Andrew ask Jesus. Let’s pause right there. First of all, notice how popular Jesus is getting. Word is getting around fast about Him. The resurrection miracle really helped, too. It’s nowhere near as many followers as Jesus had around the miraculous feeding, but it’s got to be the second highest spike. Also, we see Jesus getting famous on a bigger scale. While it’s possible these Greeks are from Decapolis, a region east of the Sea of Galilee and northeast of the Jordan River, if these Greeks actually came from Greece, the name of Jesus is getting around fast. People all over the world want to marvel at him. But it’s even bigger than popularity or fame. The Greeks wanting to see Jesus is a sign to Jesus that His ministry is about to explode…in a good way. No longer is it just the Jews looking for the Messiah, but now the world will seek a Christ. But Jesus knows that there’s an important in between step: His death on the cross. Jesus uses the analogy of a kernel of wheat that “dies” and is placed in the ground to produce many more seeds. (Quick note: This is not an error in the Bible, nor does it mean the Bible is not inerrant. This is called the “Phenomenon of Appearance.” A seed looks like it’s not living, and when someone puts it in the ground, it almost looks like it’s being buried. We in the 21st century know it’s not true, but it sure looks like it.) In the same way, Jesus must die in order that many more believers will believe in Him.

In John 12:27,28, Jesus seems to go into a little soliloquy of sorts. When he realizes His time is near, his heart is troubled thinking about taking on the sin of the world, as well as taking upon the pain and suffering of the cross. He states it is very tempting to ask the Father to remove the responsibility, but He stays on task and instead asks the Father to glorify the name of God. A voice from heaven reassures Jesus that the name of God has been gloried and it will be continued to be glorified. Jesus makes clear that this voice from heaven wasn’t to reassure him, but to reassure the disciples and the greater crowd of followers. Yet check out the reaction of the people in Jerusalem. The believers know it’s the voice of God the Father from heaven, but they are the only ones who can make the connection. The non-believers and rationalists try to rationalize it with a natural occurrence, like thunder. The skeptics, those who are 50/50 or those who think Jesus is merely a rabbi or a prophet, try to compromise it by using something indirect, like an angel. Either way, we still see division among the Jews. But the amazing part is that even some of the Jewish leaders, who are unbiased towards Jesus, realize and admit Jesus has to be the Messiah. Yet most of the Jews, especially Pharisees, Sadducees, chief priests and Sanhedrin will not come to believe in Jesus as the Messiah. How is this possible?

John continues to go back to the Old Testament prophecy in John 12 to show Jesus is Messiah and God. The two remaining quoted passages are both from the prophet Isaiah. The first is from Isaiah 53:1. Isaiah 53 is most famous for its Suffering Servant passage, describing the Messiah’s death and how it will bring about salvation. John sees it even before we get to the events of Good Friday. John believes that the opener to the chapter is stating that despite the Christ revealing Himself to the people as the Messiah, they will not believe in his message. If you’re thinking that’s pushing it, John gives another passage from Isaiah that’s a little more specific and a little more close. The passage is Isaiah 6:10, and it is quoted numerous times in the New Testament. If Isaiah 53:1 is saying the Jews would not listen to God’s Message, then Isaiah 6:10 is saying the Jews could not listen to God’s Message. Both seem to be true in John 12. John concludes both passages are saying the same thing because Isaiah saw the glory of Jesus, so Isaiah spoke about Him. Wait a minute, I thought Isaiah saw God, not Jesus. Bingo. This is another way John is telling us Jesus is God. Isaiah recognized Jesus is God, the Jews failed to recognize Jesus as God, so now the reader has to choose to decide if Jesus is God or not.

So in closing John 12, Jesus turns to plea to the crowd to listen to Him and follow Him. Jesus knows His time on earth is running short, so he wants to get as many last minute converts as possible until He leaves up totally to the disciples. He is also well aware this is the last chance for many people, for they won’t convert, even after his death and resurrection. Jesus is no longer playing games. He’s not playing games with Pharisees and Sanhedrin, like dodging trick questions or hide-and-seek. Jesus has to get His Father’s business done. With Christ’s final message comes a stern warning: accept the light now or forever walk in darkness. Jesus puts a strong sense of urgency on the gospel. My prayer is we also carry that same urgency.