Bible Searches for Dummies

Bible Concordance

If it seems that our research staffers here at the Antisocial Network seem to put most of their energy into the Demand Media (now "Leaf Group") websites – eHow and, increasingly, the "niche sites" into which they're shoveling their content like a farmer loading a manure spreader – it's sort of true. For one, many content farms have gone out of business and the other remaining farms are difficult to search. So eHow it is; no problem because it's such a target-rich environment.

One problem many eHowians encountered was a difficulty in interpreting the "titles" they chose, particularly when the subject was itself already unfamiliar. Today's DotD candidate, already a two-time winner, is one Khalidah Tunkara. Not only does she know little or nothing about cars and appliances, she also seems to have only a passing knowledge of "How to Find Bible Verses," now moved back to Synonym.com.

Faced with the question "How do you find a Bible verse?" we think most people would assume that the questioner would be wondering "How do I find I Corinthians 2:13?" In other words, how do I interpret that string of letters and numbers to reach the words, "This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words." [NIV] We'd explain that the name of the Book comes first (and in this case, the "I" means the first book of that name), followed by notation for a specific passage in the form chapter:verse. We might give some examples and perhaps a link to the list of books of the Bible in order (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Deuteronomy...)

Another interpretation might be "How do I find a Bible verse that references _____?" -- to search for a specific word or phrase, In that case, we'd send the seeker to a Concordance, either within the pages of the Book itself or online.

Tunkara's solution? Not what we'd expected:

"Visit a Bible research site such as BibleGateway.com."

...which, we guess, is a similar to sending someone to the Concordance. Her answer, however, is not a way to find a Bible verse – it's a way to find a specific word in the Bible. And we think that's not what the OQ wanted. Given Demand Media's minimum word count, Khalidah could easily have included directions on how to decode a reference like II Corinthians ("Two Corinthians" in the Trump family Bible) and zero in on a verse. One would think that an "accomplished freelancer" would get it -- but Tunkara didn't, and that's why she's collecting her third Dumbass of the Day citation.

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