Saturday, February 23, 2008

I was almost kinda hoping not to get tagged with this one...

It says "no cheating," but when I first saw the book meme going around, I was tempted to preemptively cheat by moving an interesting book into range, just in case. But I didn't do it, so I guess now that I've been tagged I'll play fair.

1. Pick up the nearest book of 123 pages or more. No cheating!
2. Find page 123
3. Find the first 5 sentences
4. Post the next 3 sentences
5. Tag 5 people

Here it is:

Make four gold rings for the table and fasten them to the four corners, where the four legs are. The rings are to be close to the rim to hold the poles used in carrying the table. Make the poles of acacia wood, overlay them with gold and carry the table with them.


Have you guessed what book it is?

It's the NIV Study Bible. Like a typical atheist blogger, I have a drawer full of scriptures handy as a reference while blogging. As a cultural Mormon I normally prefer to quote the King James, but this one happened to be on top. And I don't have any other books closer because I don't read for pleasure at my computer desk -- I do it in a comfy chair or in bed.

So there you have it, folks!!

I don't feel like tagging anyone today. If you like this meme, consider yourself tagged!!! :D

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

Like a typical atheist blogger, I have a drawer full of scriptures handy as a reference while blogging.

I usually go to the Bible Gateway web site, unless I need to refer to the RSV (which has strict copyright limitations and is not available online, AFAIK). I'm not sure if we have a KJV on hand anymore. We have lots of NIVs, a couple of RSVs, at least one NASB, several The Messages and probably some others I can't recall right now.

Anonymous said...

Oh yeah! We've even got two copies of the Tanakh, published by the Jewish Publication Society. That's a great one for comparing Old Testament passages.

Friar Zero said...

Personally, I always use the skeptics annotated bible.

Anyway, I took you up on your offer and considered myself tagged. Check out my submission here.

miller said...

Damn, I don't own a single copy of the Bible, though I do have book of excerpts from sacred scriptures around the world. I guess that hurts my credibility as an atheist blogger!

My nearest book was about magnetospheric ULF waves, which is about as technical as it sounds. I wouldn't dare pull out a random passage from there.

Anonymous said...

"Burning witches is a feature of Western civilization that has, with occasional political exceptions, declined since the sixteenth century. In the last judicial execution of witches in England, a woman and her nine-year-old daughter were hanged. Their crime was raising a rain storm by taking their stockings off."

- Carl Sagan's "The Demon-Haunted World"

C. L. Hanson said...

Hey Chaplain!!!

The Tanakh? That's cool, I'm not so familiar with that one.

Hey Friar Zero!!!

I like the Skeptic's Annotated Bible too -- it's a great quick way to find certain passages that religious people don't go out of their way to highlight. But even though there's a Skeptic's Annotated Book of Mormon too, I still find that my own knowledge plus the indexes in my old scriptures from seminary still help me find a lot of familiar passages more quickly then looking online.

Hey Miller!!!

Come on, that'd be fun to have three highly technical sentences taken completely out of context. ;^)

Hey Atheist Okie!!!

That's a good one!!! :D

Anonymous said...

Oh. I thought you were reading Sandra Lee's latest publication... I was going to say that the gold rings match well with my burgundy napkins.

C. L. Hanson said...

Hey Kelly!!!

lol, you find the darndest things in the Bible, don't you? ;^)

Aerin said...

I tagged myself chanson ;)

C. L. Hanson said...

Hey Aerin!!!

Yeah, I saw your post -- good choice!!! It's true this makes an interesting sociology experiment. :D

King Aardvark said...

I tagged myself too. I shouldn't have bothered.

Anonymous said...

By coincidence, here's from page 123 of the book that was nearest to me.

....flying spirits, with 12 wings like those of angels, who pull the chariot of the sun, carrying the dew and the heat, when the LORD gives the command to descend to earth, with the sun's rays. And the men carried me away to the east of heaven. And they showed me the gates through which the sun goes out according to the appointed seasons and according to the cycle of the months, for the entire year, and according to the shortening of the duration of the days (and of the nights).

From THE OLD TESTAMENT PSEUDEPIGRAPHA vol. 1, Book of 2 Enoch.

C. L. Hanson said...

Hey King Aardvark!!!

Interesting choice... ;^)

Hey John!!!

Even more obscure scriptures! Why am I not surprised? ;^)

Anonymous said...

I recognized the passage, but was confused because it was no translation I'm familiar with. :)

C. L. Hanson said...

Hey xJane!!!

Not bad. If I'd seen this out of context, I'm not sure I would have guessed off the top of my head that it was from the Bible.

Anonymous said...

"Even the smallest rooms, which occupy the lower floors, boast king-size beds and are twice the size of most Japanese hotel rooms. Bathrooms have mini-TVs and separate shower and tub areas. Don't miss a stroll through the garden."

Frommer's Japan

C. L. Hanson said...

Hey Anonymous!!!

That's a fun one!!! This meme is generating a fascinating variety of chunks of text all over blogspace. :D