A Bible No Living Person Can Read

(taken from "Strange Facts About the Bible" by Webb Garrison)

John Eliot is famous as the translator who issued a Bible no living person can read. Working with tribesmen who spoke a Massachusetts dialect of the Algonquian Indian tongue, he published a New Testament for them in 1661. Several natives, among who Cockenoe the interpreter was most important, assisted in the work.

Approximately fifty copies of Eliot's Bible have been preserved, but no one can read it because the tribesmen who spoke the language it employs have become extinct. A few words have been identified by scholars, however. Eliot rendered the phrase "kneeling down to him" (Mark 1:40) by a thirty-four letter word;
Wutteppesittukgussunnoowehtunkquoh.

Though that word didn't survive, at least one of Eliot's is still in use. For the title "duke" that appears in Gen. 36:40-43, he substituted the native title "mugwump". Used as a slogan in several famous political campaigns, it is still included in the English dictionary as a label for a chieftain or person of importance.

In 1966 one copy of his Bible sold at auction for $43,000 - more money than the missionary-translator made in his entire life.

Yes, Jesus Love Me

(Taken from "The Cyber Hymnal"at www.hymntime.com)

In 1891, when Har­u­tune S. Je­nan­yan, took his wife and lit­tle daugh­ter on a per­i­lous and dan­ger­ous mis­sion­a­ry jour­ney from Tar­sus, Asia Mi­nor, the ci­ty of St. Paul, to Si­vas in Ar­men­ia, they tra­velled on horse-back through rob­ber-in­fest­ed coun­try for four­teen days. Two of the lead­ing rob­ber chiefs on that ter­ri­to­ry were Chol­lo, whose “name cast ter­ror on ev­ery side” since he had suc­cess­ful­ly evad­ed pur­su­ing Gov­ern­ment forc­es for ma­ny months, and Ka­ra Ag­ha, a fa­mous Koor­ish chief, whose name caused even the fear­some Chol­lo to trem­ble. Har­u­tune took his small par­ty di­rect­ly in­to the heart of Ka­ra Ag­ha’s coun­try, tell­ing those he met en­route that he was go­ing to be Ag­ha’s guest in his own vill­age. When they reached the bri­gand’s head-quar­ters, the mis­sion­a­ry asked that they be re­ceived as guests for the night. The sur­prised rob­ber chief gave them ac­com­mo­da­tions, en­ter­tain­ing Har­u­tune in his own spa­cious tent while his wife, Hel­ene, and their lit­tle daugh­ter, Grace were cared for in ano­ther tent by the wo­men of the vill­age. The next morn­ing, be­fore tak­ing their leave, the mis­sion­ary asked for per­miss­ion to read a por­tion of the Ho­ly Script­ure, and then of­fered a pray­er. See­ing that the chief was some­what af­fect­ed, he then said, “Do you wish to have the lit­tle child sing for you?” The chief re­plied, “Oh yes; can she?” Then lit­tle Grace, on­ly three-and-a-half years old, came for­ward and stood be­fore the tall old man and sang two songs she had re­cent­ly learned in the Sun­day School in Tar­sus, sing­ing them in the na­tive tongue, “Je­sus loves me, this I know” and “I want to be an an­gel”. The chief was so deep­ly touched, that he sent his own son, Bek­keer Ag­ha, mount­ed on a hand­some Ar­a­bi­an steed, to lead the small mis­sion­a­ry par­ty through the rest of his ter­ri­to­ry.

SPECIAL HAVENS FOR INVOLUNTARY KILLERS

(taken from "Strange Facts About the Bible" by Webb Garrison

For practical purposes, Jewish Law under the Old Testament established the earliest forerunner of today's practice of refusing to grant extradition papers for a wanted man. This law provided a "city of refuge" for a person who committed involuntary manslaughter (distinguished from willful murder)could flee and be safe from the relatives of his victim.

Six such cities were established - three on each side of the Jordon River. Anyone who had accidentally spilled another's blood would be safe from any kind of retaliation. Upon the death of the local high priest all fugitives is that city were free to return to their homes. This system incorporated many of the principles that govern our most advanced sets of legal procedures aimed at securing justice in cases of accidental homicide.

Earliest Humane Society

(taken from "Strange Facts About the Bible" by Web Garrison)

In 1866 Henry Bergh, inspired by earlier work in England and Scotland, founded the world's largest humane society. But at least 3,000 years before that, every Hebrew community had an informal society for prevention of cruelty to animals.
Moses's Law required every man to lead a stray ox or ass back to its owner - even if the owner was a personal enemy (Exodus 23:4). No matter who the animal belonged to, a person who found a donkey unable to get on its feet because of his load was required to give the beast a hand (Exodus 23:5). And in New Testament times even sever laws prohibiting all kind so of work on the Sabbath were relaxed on behalf of mercy to animals. If a beast were in trouble on the Sabbath, a person was permitted and even encouraged to help rescue the animal (Luke 14:5). At first literally and then in a figurative sense, "an ox is in the ditch" came to indicate an emergency grave enough to warrant violation of customary restrictions of work.

BE STRONG

BE STRONG
by Maltrie Davenport Babcock (1858-1902)

Be Strong!
We are not here to play, to dream, to drift;
We have hard work to do, and loads to lift;
Shun not the struggle - face it; tis God's gift.

Be Strong!
Say not, "The days are evil. Who's to blame?"
And fold the hands and acquiesce - oh shame!
Stand up, speak out, and bravely, in God's name.

Be Strong!
It matters not how deep entrenched the wrong,
How hard the battle goes, the day how long;
Faint not - fight on! To-morrow comes the song.

An Agnostic Inspires The Most Popular Biblical Novel of All Times

(taken from "Strange Facts about the Bible" by Webb Garrison)

One evening in September 1870, two men riding across Indiana on a train struck up a conversation. Soon they began to argue about the inspiration of the Bible. Robert Ingersoll, an internationally known agnostic was challenging General Lew Wallace.
General Wallace, a civil war veteran, was unable to cope with Robert Ingersoll. He felt frustrated and defeated when they finally parted company.
As a result, General Wallace went home determined to write a novel that would serve as a powerful argument for the divinity of Christ. He finished it when he was serving as Governor of the territory of New Mexico and called it "Ben Hur, a tale of the Christ". It became one of the most popular books of modern times by presenting the message of the New Testament within a framework of vigorous action and believable characters. Robert Ingersoll didn't live long enough to read the book that his arguments had inspired.

"His Eye Is On The Sparrow"

Early in the spring of 1905, Dr. Martin and his wife were visiting some friends in Elmira New York. The friends, a Mr. and Mrs. Dolittle were wonderful people but led very handicapped lives. Mrs. Doolittle had been bedridden for 20 years and her husband, Mr. Doolittle had to push himself in a wheel chair back and forth from his place of business. Despite their afflictions, they were happy and brought inspiration and comfort to all who knew them. During this visit, Dr. Martin asked them what was the secret of their optimistic outlook on life. Mrs. Doolittle's reply was simple: "His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me". The beauty of this simple expression of boundless faith was the inspiration for this comforting hymn.
The great Ethel Waters thought so much of the hymn that she titled her autobiography after it.