![]() ![]() They laid a new foundation, but when the other nations raised a fuss, the Jews quit construction and focused on building their own houses. It’s a powerful story, which is why I was surprised to learn it is the 5th least popular book of the Bible.Īfter 70 years in captivity, the Jews were sent back home to rebuild the temple of God in Jerusalem. Onesimus somehow meets Paul, becomes a Christian, and helps Paul with his ministry.īut when Paul learns Onesimus’ story, Paul sends him back to Philemon with a letter urging the former slave owner to accept Onesimus-not as a slave, but as a brother. Onesimus runs away (and presumably harms Philemon in the process). Here’s the back story. A Christian leader named Philemon owns a non-Christian slave named Onesimus. It’s a shame more people aren’t reading this letter: it shines a rather convicting light on relationship conflict between believers. Philemon is the only Pauline epistle on this list. God also promises to restore all things, too. But there’s more to this book than the end of the world. The prophet Zephaniah starts his message with a bang: God says He will “remove everything from the face of the earth” (Zep 1:2). No surprise that it’s the 7th least popular book of the Bible, right? As a kid, I remembered it as that other “Z book” (the one that isn’t Zechariah). This might just be the hardest book of the Bible to remember. Jude describes the threat, and then encourages the church to contend earnestly for the faith. Unbelievers have crept into the church, spreading false teaching about Jesus and the grace of God (Jud 3–4). Jude (whose brother wrote the book of James) wanted to write about salvation, but there’s something more pressing to deal with. This punchy, one-chapter letter comes right before the book of Revelation in your Bible. The epistle of Jude is the 8th least popular book of the Bible. Oh, and He’s got a lot more in mind for the world, including judging the nations, restoring Jerusalem, and pouring out the Holy Spirit on people. So Joel explains that the day of the Lord is upon Judah: God is judging His people. The bugs have wiped out all Judah’s crops. The prophet Joel spends a good amount of his time talking about a recent plague of locusts. Joel is the 9th least popular book of the Bible. OK, now we’re into the more obscure territory. When the fish spits Jonah up, Jonah goes to Nineveh, but his heart still isn’t in the right place. God tells Jonah to go to Nineveh, Jonah takes a boat ride in the opposite direction, and ends up in the belly of a great fish. But it turns out Jonah is the 10th least popular book of the Bible. We’ve all heard the story of Jonah before. Surprise, right? I thought this one would get a lot more attention. Infographic first, and a little commentary afterward. Jonathan and the team have been super helpful to me. Without their data on popular books and verses, I wouldn’t have these kinds of posts. (For the purposes of this post, “least popular” = “least-read book of the Bible on ”.)īefore I get into that, I think deserves a huge shoutout. You’ve seen the 10 most popular books of the Bible, now let’s look at the 10 least popular books of the Bible. I recently wrote about why Obadiah is the least popular book of the Bible, but you guys deserve more than that.
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