This is post number II of Are You Smarter than Your Teacher?

In the first post I explained what is behind the title and covered the first two categories of the game I included in a lesson on Psalm 119.

The next category is Language.

How many Letters are in the Hebrew Alephbeth? You may notice that I used Alephbeth instead of Alphabet. Just being a little playful as the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet is Aleph.

There are 22 letters in the Hebrew alephbeth.

What kind of Math question did I ask for Psalm 119?

It is an interesting category for a Psalm, but since I like Math it was a fun one.

Some may know the number of verses off the top of their head, but if not there is an easy way to calculate the number.

We learned in the Literature question that Psalm 119 is an alphabetic acrostic and that there are eight verses for each letter.

We also know from the Language question that there are 22 letters in the Hebrew alephbeth. Therefore a little multiplication give us the answer.

22 x 8 = 176

Psalm 119 has 176 verses.

Psalm 119 is the longest chapter in the Bible and takes about 15 minutes to read out loud.

Knowing this was beneficial for George Wishart in the 1600’s in Scotland. Wishart had been sentenced to die by hanging. Custom allowed a Psalm to be sung before an execution and Wishart requested Psalm 119. His expected pardon arrived near the end of singing the Psalm and his life was spared. It was a good thing that he did not choose Psalm 117.

In the next post we will cover the Speech and Music questions.

Steven

Are You Smarter than Your Teacher? – A study of Psalm 119 in five parts

Here are links to the five parts:

Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV and Part V