Books of the Bible in a Verse

I have to admit, I am pretty pumped up about this post.  Over the past few years I have been working on a project--summarizing each book of the Bible in a verse.  73 books...73 verses.  This exercise is not meant to give a "right answer" as this is an impossible task (especially when considering academic scriptural studies which should account for authorship, redaction of the final text, key ideas being portrayed in more than one verse, etc.)  What it does do is to attempt to use one verse as a lens to better understand the entire book that is represented.  Indeed, some books of the Bible contain several important verses and sections that indicate the sacred author's main objective or theme.  Nevertheless, this has proved to be a fruitful exercise for me in learning about the Bible, and I hope it does for you.  One last note, check out Scott Hahn's "You Can Understand the Bible" for a great and readable introduction to each book of the Bible (eventually I hope to put together something like this of my own).  A PDF file can be found here: (https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B3RNRg82qb4YOEMtSFFma2FVWHc) but here they are:

Genesis—“I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”  (3:15)

Exodus—“Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring forth my people, the sons of Israel, out of Egypt.”  (3:10)

Leviticus—“For I am the LORD your God; consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy.”  (11:44a)

Numbers—“These are the commandments and the ordinances which the LORD commanded by Moses to the people of Israel in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho.”  (36:13)

Deuteronomy—“I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse; therefore choose life, that you and your descendants may live.”  (30:19)

Joshua—“So Joshua took the whole land, according to all that the LORD had spoken to Moses; and Joshua gave it for an inheritance to Israel according to their tribal allotments.  And the land had rest from war.”  (11:23)

Judges—“In those days there was no king in Israel; every man did what was right in his own eyes.”  (21:25)

Ruth—“And the women of the neighborhood gave him [Ruth and Boaz’ son] a name, saying, ‘A son has been born to Naomi.’  They named him Obed; he was the father of Jesse, the father of David.”  (4:17)

1 Samuel—“But the people refused to listen to the voice of Samuel; and they said, ‘No!  but we will have a king over us…” (8:19)

2 Samuel—“When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come forth from your body, and I will establish his kingdom.”  (7:12)

1 Kings—“And when all Israel saw that the king did not hearken to them, the people answered the king, ‘What portion have we in David? We have no inheritance in the son of Jesse.  To your tents, O Israel!  Look now to your own house, David.’  So Israel departed to their tents.”  (12:16)

2 Kings—“And the rest of the people who were left in the city and the deserters who had deserted to the king of Babylon, together with the rest of the multitude, Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried into exile.”  (25:11)

1 Chronicles—“When your days are fulfilled to go to be with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, one of your own sons, and I will establish his kingdom.”  (17:11)

2 Chronicles—“When Solomon had ended his prayer, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the LORD filled the temple.”  (7:1)

Ezra—“Then rose up the heads of the fathers’ houses of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and the Levites, every one whose spirit God had stirred to go up to rebuild the house of the LORD which is in Jerusalem…”  (1:5)

Nehemiah—“So the wall was finished on the twenty-fifth day of the month Elul, in fifty-two days.”  (6:15)

Tobit—“Prayer is good when accompanied by fasting, almsgiving, and righteousness.  A little with righteousness is better than much with wrongdoing.  It is better to give alms than to treasure up gold.”  (12:8)

Judith—“Do not try to bind the purposes of the Lord our God; for God is not like man, to be threatened, nor like a human being, to be won over by pleading.”  (8:16)

Esther—“For if you [Esther] keep silence at such a time as this, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another quarter, but you and your father’s house will perish.  And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”  (4:14)

Job—“After the LORD had spoken these words to Job, the LORD said to Eliphaz the Temanite: ‘My wrath is kindled against you and against your two friends; for you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has.”  (42:14)

Psalms—“Praise the LORD!  Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty firmament!”  (150:1)

Proverbs—“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.”  (9:10)

Ecclesiastes—“Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities!  All is vanity.”  (1:2)

Wisdom of Solomon—“…for even if one is perfect among the sons of men, yet without the wisdom that comes from you he will be regarded as nothing.”  (9:6)

Song of Songs—“…love is strong as death…”  (8:6c)

Sirach—“[The student of the law] will serve among great men and appear before rulers; he will travel through the lands of foreign nations, for he tests the good and the evil among men.”  (39:4)

Isaiah—“He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth.”  (53:7)

Jeremiah—“Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah…”  (31:31)

Lamentations—“Let us test and examine our ways, and return to the LORD!”  (3:40)

Baruch—“For they went forth from you on foot, led away by their enemies; but God will bring them back to you, carried in glory, as on a royal throne.”  (4:6)

Ezekiel—“And I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land; then you shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken, and I have done it, says the Lord.”  (37:14)

Daniel—“I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him.”  (7:13)

Hosea—“When the LORD first spoke through Hosea, the LORD said to Hosea, ‘Go, take to yourself a wife of harlotry and have children of harlotry, for the land commits great harlotry by forsaking the LORD.’”  (1:2)

Joel—“Blow the trumpet in Zion; sound the alarm on my holy mountain!  Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the LORD is coming, it is near…”  (2:1)

Amos—“The LORD roars from Zion, and utters his voice from Jerusalem; the pastures of the shepherds mourn, and the top of Carmel withers.”  (1:2)

Obadiah—“For the violence done to your brother Jacob, shame shall cover you, and you shall be cut off for ever.”  (10)

Jonah— “And the LORD appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah; and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.”  (1:17)

Micah—“He has showed you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”  (6:8)

Nahum—“Behold, on the mountains the feet of him who brings good tidings, who proclaims peace!  Keep your feasts, O Judah, fulfill your vows, for never again shall the wicked come against you, he is utterly cut off.”  (1:15)

Habakkuk—“For still the vision awaits its time; it hastens to the end — it will not lie.  If it seem slow, wait for it; it will surely come, it will not delay.”  (2:3)

Zephaniah—“Seek the LORD, all you humble of the land, who do his commands; seek righteousness, seek humility; perhaps you may be hidden on the day of the wrath of the LORD.”  (2:3)

Haggai—“Go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house, that I may take pleasure in it and that I may appear in my glory, says the LORD.”  (1:8)

Zechariah—“Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!  Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem!  Lo, your king comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on an ass, on a colt the foal of an ass.”  (9:9)

Malachi—“Behold, I send my messenger to prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the LORD of hosts.”  (3:1)

1 Maccabees—“Then Mattathias cried out in the city with a loud voice, saying: ‘Let every one who is zealous for the law and supports the covenant come out with me!’”  (2:27)

2 Maccabees— But Judas, who was also called Maccabeus, and his companions secretly entered the villages and summoned their kinsmen and enlisted those who had continued in the Jewish faith…”  (8:1)

Matthew—“Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfill them.”  (5:17)

Mark—“And when the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that he thus breathed his last, he said, ‘Truly this man was the Son of God!’”  (15:39)

Luke—“For the Son of man came to seek and to save the lost.”  (19:10)

John—“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only-begotten Son from the Father.”  (1:14)

Acts—“And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.”  (2:4)

Romans—“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  (6:23)

1 Corinthians—“For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.”  (2:2)

2 Corinthians—“But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.”  (11:3)

Galatians—“For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is of any avail, but faith working through love.”  (5:6)

Ephesians—“For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God.”  (2:8)

Philippians—“And being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross.”  (2:8)

Colossians—“He is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation…”  (1:15)

1 Thessalonians—“…that he may establish your hearts unblamable in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.”  (3:13)

2 Thessalonians—“Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our assembling to meet him…”  (2:1a)

1 Timothy—“If you put these instructions before the brethren, you will be a good minister of Christ Jesus, nourished on the words of the faith and of the good doctrine which you have followed.”  (4:6)

2 Timothy—“As for you, always be steady, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.”  (4:5)

Titus—“But as for you, teach what befits sound doctrine.”  (2:1)

Philemon—“I appeal to you [Philemon] for my child, Onesimus, whose father I have become in my imprisonment.”  (10)

Hebrews—“But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry which is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises.”  (8:6)

James—“For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so faith apart from works is dead.”  (2:26)

1 Peter—“But rejoice in so far as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.”  (4:13)

2 Peter—“You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, beware lest you be carried away with the error of lawless men and lose your own stability.”  (3:17)

1 John—“Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”  (4:11)

2 John—“And now I beg you, lady, not as though I were writing you a new commandment, but the one we have had from the beginning, that we love one another.”  (5)

3 John—“Beloved, do not imitate evil but imitate good.  He who does good is of God; he who does evil has not seen God.”  (11)

Jude—“Beloved, being very eager to write to you of our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.”  (3)

Revelation—“Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready…”  (19:7)