{"id":1311,"date":"2011-07-01T11:13:53","date_gmt":"2011-07-01T15:13:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/flunkingsainthood\/?p=1311"},"modified":"2011-06-28T18:15:00","modified_gmt":"2011-06-28T22:15:00","slug":"learn-your-abcs-big-bible-fun-with-acrostic-poetry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flunkingsainthood\/2011\/07\/learn-your-abcs-big-bible-fun-with-acrostic-poetry.html","title":{"rendered":"Learn Your ABCs: Big Bible Fun with Acrostic Poetry!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Remember when you were a kid and you had to make little \u201cpoems\u201d where the first letters spelled out a word, like your own name? Here\u2019s an example:<\/p>\n

T<\/strong>wible<\/a> is a<\/p>\n

W<\/strong>insome but<\/p>\n

I<\/strong>rritating<\/p>\n

B<\/strong>ible for<\/p>\n

L<\/strong>eft-Leaning<\/p>\n

E<\/strong>vangelicals and others.<\/p>\n

This is called an acrostic poem<\/a>. Throughout history, acrostics have been used for didactic purposes to teach certain principles and help people retain more of what they learned. They can impart religious doctrine (the Christian fish symbol, or icthus, <\/em>is an acrostic for the Greek of \u201cJesus Christ, Son of God, Savior\u201d) or offer encoded messages. (See this article on Snopes.com<\/a> for a hilarious example of what one family really<\/em> wanted to say on a deceased loved one\u2019s tombstone.) The acrostic form offered a mnemonic device for learning the order of the planets when I was a kid (but now we have to throw that whole acrostic out the window because poor Pluto has been downgraded and life will never be the same).<\/p>\n

Before I started the Twible project, I knew about certain famous acrostic poems, like the \u201cwoman of worth\u201d advice from Proverbs 31. But I\u2019m coming across far more acrostics than I ever realized were in the Bible, including nine different Psalms<\/a>. Much of the poetry of the Bible contains acrostic devices, as well as the first few chapters of the Book of Lamentations. Here\u2019s my version of Psalm 111:<\/p>\n

#Twible Ps 111: An acrostic poem. A: G\u2019s adorable. B: G\u2019s so Beautiful. C: He\u2019s a Cutie! And D: Delightful. You see where this is going. <\/strong><\/p>\n

But the most interesting acrostic story from the Psalms is of 145<\/a>, in which each verse is a different letter of the Hebrew alphabet. If you have an older translation, like the King James Version, you\u2019ll notice that there are only 21 verses in this Psalm instead of 22, the number of letters in the Hebrew alef-bet. That\u2019s because before the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered, the verse for Nun was always missing. And of course, people knew<\/em> it was missing because it would be like singing the whole alphabet song and skipping the letter N. After the DSS were found in 1947, the mystery was solved, and more recent versions like the NRSV have corrected this mistake. Here\u2019s the Twible version of the acrostic for Psalm 145:<\/p>\n

#Twible Ps 145: In this ABC poem, the verse for the letter N was missing until Super Grover from Sesame Street found the Dead Sea Scrolls.<\/p>\n

Thank you, Super Grover!<\/p>\n

P.S. Today\u2019s Twible post has been brought to you by the letter Nun.<\/p>\n

#Twible Ps 107:\u00a0 Book V begins. (I kind of forgot to tell you that the Psalms are divided into 5 books. Twibling is complicated, see.)<\/p>\n

#Twible Ps 108: G, remember when you used to go out into battle w\/ us? How come you don\u2019t do that anymore? Get down here w\/ yr badass self.<\/p>\n

#Twible Ps 109: Worst curses in Bible: May your penis be fruitless! May the bank foreclose! May you die young! Tell us how you really feel.<\/p>\n

#Twible Ps 110: G promises he will make footstools out of our enemies. We can even have them reupholstered to match our chosen d\u00e9cor.<\/p>\n

#Twible Ps 111: An acrostic poem. A: G\u2019s adorable. B: G\u2019s so Beautiful. C: He\u2019s a Cutie! And D: Delightful. You see where this is going. <\/strong><\/p>\n

#Twible Ps 112: G\u2019s followers bless others; they prosper, but they help the poor. The wicked just gnash thr teeth. What\u2019s the point of THAT?<\/p>\n

#Twible Ps 113: G\u2019ll raise up the poor & let them sit w\/ princes. He\u2019ll bless the infertile w\/ kids. He\u2019s just taking his sweet time is all.<\/p>\n

#Twible Ps 114: Exodus redux, w\/ \u2019tude: \u201cWhat\u2019s your issue, sea, that you run away from G? & you, river? You just can\u2019t take G, huh? HUH<\/em>?\u201d<\/p>\n

#Twible Ps 115: Those idols you love can\u2019t compare to G up there in the heavens, Israel, so just WALK AWAY. That\u2019s right. You can do it.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Remember when you were a kid and you had to make little \u201cpoems\u201d where the first letters spelled out a word, like your own name? Here\u2019s an example: Twible is a Winsome but Irritating Bible for Left-Leaning Evangelicals and others. This is called an acrostic poem. Throughout history, acrostics have been used for didactic purposes…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":226,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bible","category-twible"],"yoast_head":"\nLearn Your ABCs: Big Bible Fun with Acrostic Poetry! - Flunking Sainthood<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flunkingsainthood\/2011\/07\/learn-your-abcs-big-bible-fun-with-acrostic-poetry.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Learn Your ABCs: Big Bible Fun with Acrostic Poetry! - Flunking Sainthood\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Remember when you were a kid and you had to make little \u201cpoems\u201d where the first letters spelled out a word, like your own name? Here\u2019s an example: Twible is a Winsome but Irritating Bible for Left-Leaning Evangelicals and others. This is called an acrostic poem. Throughout history, acrostics have been used for didactic purposes…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flunkingsainthood\/2011\/07\/learn-your-abcs-big-bible-fun-with-acrostic-poetry.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Flunking Sainthood\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-07-01T15:13:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-06-28T22:15:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/flunkingsainthood\/files\/2011\/06\/super-grover.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jana Riess\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Learn Your ABCs: Big Bible Fun with Acrostic Poetry! - Flunking Sainthood","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flunkingsainthood\/2011\/07\/learn-your-abcs-big-bible-fun-with-acrostic-poetry.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Learn Your ABCs: Big Bible Fun with Acrostic Poetry! - Flunking Sainthood","og_description":"Remember when you were a kid and you had to make little \u201cpoems\u201d where the first letters spelled out a word, like your own name? Here\u2019s an example: Twible is a Winsome but Irritating Bible for Left-Leaning Evangelicals and others. This is called an acrostic poem. 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