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November 2nd, 2007

Heaps

heaps

In the third month they began to lay the foundation of the heaps, and finished them in the seventh month.

This verse, 2 Chronicles 31:7, is the 30638th most popular verse in the Bible out of the 31101 verses that make up the Bible. This is according to TopVerses.com, a site that ranks all of the verses in the Bible in order of the number of times they appear on the internet.

I am hoping that by posting about 2 Chronicles 31:7 it might be possible to push it up the rankings a bit. To my mind it is quite an informative verse, telling us as it does:

Of course it is not a verse without controversy. The preceding verse (slightly more popular - ranked 28320) seems to suggest that cattle and sheep were included in the heaps. Whether they were alive or dead we don’t know.

Top verses is a very interesting site - and thanks to Inspire for alerting me to it. As well as the top verses it includes the top 10 books, the top ten chapters, the top verses in each book and the top verses containing particular words.

The failing, of course, is that one could be led to believe that the verses most often published on the internet are therefore the most important verses. My own view is that the most important themes in the Bible come not from picking individual ’soundbite’ verses out of context, but by looking at the overall message of entire books. Surely that is how it was intended to be read.

Feel free to post your own devotional thoughts on 2 Chronicles 31:7. It would be great if we could bump it up to the top 5. This would perplex a lot of people, which I’m all in favour of.



This is a single Cartoon Blog entry, posted by Dave on Friday, November 2nd, 2007 at 1:11 pm.

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17 Responses to “Heaps”


  1. Phill says:

    I bet you will have “heaps” of comments on this one. (I’ll get me coat…)

    Hmmm, in in verse 6 it says that they lay the tithe of cattle and sheep “by” heaps. So there presumably must have been heaps there prior to them building some more heaps.

    And in verse 8, we see: “When Hezekiah and the princes came and saw the heaps, they blessed Yahweh, and his people Israel.” So, the building of heaps is something to be rejoiced over.

    Actually this might be quite a good sermon idea - how not to take scripture completely out of context!

    November 2nd, 2007 at 3:47 pm
  2. Dave says:

    Thanks Phill.

    The example was indeed to do with the way that we find so often try to find principles and doctines in parts of the Bible that might not be trying to teach us principles and doctrines.

    November 2nd, 2007 at 4:01 pm
  3. Aaron Orear says:

    Your liberal, post-critical approach to the scriptural witness regarding heaps reveals a deep division between you and I over matters of heap theology. Your heaps are a challenge to the wider church, as you have abandoned the historic tradition of the apostles regarding heaping and have chosen to heap apart. I have no choice but to break communion with you over this, and heaps of other differences.

    November 2nd, 2007 at 4:13 pm
  4. Rob says:

    What is the distinction between heaps and piles? In 31:6 and Exodus 8 they piled (not heaped) their tithes into heaps, but in 2 Kings 10 the heads of the princes were put into piles. These issues need to be resolved urgently before a heaps/piles schism occurs!

    November 2nd, 2007 at 4:30 pm
  5. Dave says:

    Aaron: on the contrary. I have built up my theology of heaps over a period of some 4 months. The heaps should not be a challenge to the wider church as they can just go around them, being wide and everything.

    Rob: It is my contention that a heap is bigger and more unruly (less ruly, if you will) than a pile. A pile of paper suggests some papers stacked on top of each other in a sensible manner, whereas a heap of paper suggests something resembling my office.

    November 2nd, 2007 at 4:56 pm
  6. Rachel says:

    The difference between heaps and piles is that you can get cream for piles, although it doesn’t seem to work on the ironing pile in our house.

    Our house suffers from severe heaps and piles (of clobber and paper respectively) which seem to accumulate without anyone admitting to making them. This is an illustration of the second law of thermodynamics which is that everything increases to disorder. I could just claim it is a natural phenomenon and give up trying to get rid of them, but we would rapidly have little space left in which to live.

    November 2nd, 2007 at 5:16 pm
  7. Aaron Orear says:

    My uncle had piles once, but the doctor gave him something for it. Can heaps be similarly cured?

    November 2nd, 2007 at 5:27 pm
  8. Cosmo says:

    Stepping around the heaps for a moment, I’m curious as to what is the least used Bible verse online? Surely this is more of a priority to promote.

    Has anyone visited Topverses and clicked through the 6,000+ pages to find out?

    (I got as far as page four and got bored I’m afraid)

    November 3rd, 2007 at 1:22 am
  9. Paul says:

    31:7 is my birthday. And I look forward to heaps more!

    November 3rd, 2007 at 3:32 am
  10. Mark Bennet says:

    The lowest I could find in about quarter of an hour astonished me:

    31095 - Ps136.22
    31096 - Ps136.21
    31097 - Ps136.14
    31098 - Ezekiel 19.6

    “He went up and down among the lions; he became a young lion, and he learned to catch the prey; he devoured men.”

    This seems to have far too much interest and intrinsic quotability to be so low down the list.

    I also found the rather maverick 1 Chron 25.23 at 37059 (of 31101), 1 Chron 25.28 at 37058 and 2 Chron 4.15 at 37057. (I think there is a typo, and these should be 30759 etc)

    Also mystified that 1 Corinthians 6.9 is at the top of verses from 1 Corinthians

    “Or don’t you know that the unrighteous will not inherit the Kingdom of God? Don’t be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor male prostitutes, nor homosexuals,”

    The list of top Galatians verses is more heartening, but I would like more information on the methodology.

    November 3rd, 2007 at 8:00 am
  11. Tom says:

    The last verse is:

    1 Chronicles 25:23
    For the sixteenth to Hananiah, his sons and his brothers, twelve:

    Although it seems like a heap of clicking is required to get there, a shortcut is available.

    TopVerses lists 6221 pages. The url for the first was http://topverses.com/topv/main.php?&pg=1. All you need to do is change this to http://topverses.com/topv/main.php?&pg=6221 or whatever other page # you want to view.

    If its true that the last shall be first then the Orthodox literalists have piles of heaps of work ahead of them.

    November 3rd, 2007 at 2:38 pm
  12. Dave says:

    Good work Tom.

    I note that the least popular verse but two is 2 Chronicles 4:15 (one that Mark also discovered, above).

    one sea, and the twelve oxen under it

    Now there’s another verse that deserves a bit more popularity.

    November 3rd, 2007 at 2:44 pm
  13. sally says:

    Having spent the day in the garden, my own (compost)heap is almost a mountain. I guess in about
    seven months’ time, I will turn it over. In a year from now it will be ready to spread back on the garden.
    Are there other bible verses that give recycling tips?

    November 3rd, 2007 at 5:51 pm
  14. Chris Gilmore says:

    The one thing that pisses me off about the Great & Good Dr Rowan Williams more than any other is his continual references to ‘Moderate Muslims’ (as opposed to the immoderate ones who blow themselves and others up). Now, I am at one with him in preferring the former, but would he really like to be classed as a ‘Moderate Christian’? Somehow, I think not. Moreover, I suspect that he (being a learned man who knows his Bible) would quote Revelations 3, 14-22 if anyone made such an accusation sgainst him.
    So exactly what is a ‘Moderate Muslim’ in Dr Williams’s book? I suspect he means, in essence, a non-believing, and non- (or only visibly) practising Muslim. If so, good! For Dr Williams is (by all accounts) a Christian, and as such he believes (I presume) that the beliefs of the Virtuous Pagans are vain things, which must, in due course of time, go the way of all vain things. Oops, sorry! Forgot to mention a semantic point. To a Christian theologian (such as Dr Williams) the world is divided into two camps: Christendom (where Christianity rules) and Heathenesse (where it doesn’t). As for the distinction between Heathens and Pagans, this is semantic only: ‘Heathen’ is a pejorative word, with implications of brutality and savagery; ‘Pagan’ is much less pejorative, and implies only a certain lack of sophistication, such as may be expected of someone who lives in the country and clings to primitive beliefs.
    So, Moderate Muslims are Pagan (good - or at least, goodish), while seriously devout Muslims prepared to kill and/or die for the Faith (Islamists, as the Torygraph likes to call them) are Heathen, and thus bad.
    And as for Dr Williams? What would he die or kill for? Presumably not an eternity spent deflowering a corps of 72 self-repairing virgins; but what?

    November 3rd, 2007 at 7:08 pm
  15. Simon Boswell says:

    Great idea Dave - I have blogged on this very subject this morning. Lets hope that this verse starts to climb the rankings - at least somewhere into the mid 20’s, perhaps?

    November 5th, 2007 at 2:01 pm
  16. Martin Eyles says:

    Quite a few unpopular verses from Psalm 136, two being unpopular enough to appear on the penultimate page of the overall list.

    Surprising too, given that this Psalm is the basis of what seems to be quite popular song. In fact, a short google reveals that there is at least one site that talks about it.

    Disclaimer - I only took a brief look at that last page, so I hope that it doesn’t contain anything terrible but won’t guarantee that.

    November 6th, 2007 at 1:42 am
  17. Anthony says:

    Jesus hept.

    November 7th, 2007 at 1:12 pm