The Bible verse that almost has it all

By Nita Wilkinson

Here’s a bit of Bible trivia you probably didn’t learn in Sunday school. There is a verse in the King James Version of the Bible that contains every letter of the English alphabet—except one.

Ezra 7:21.

Go ahead. Look it up. I’ll wait.

The verse reads:

“And I, even I Artaxerxes the king, do make a decree to all the treasurers which are beyond the river, that whatsoever Ezra the priest, the scribe of the law of the God of heaven, shall require of you, it be done speedily.”

A, B, C, D…you can find them all tucked in there somewhere. Except J.

Which seems a little funny for the Bible. No J for Jesus. No J for Jerusalem. No J for joy—and you know I noticed that one.

Technically, this makes Ezra 7:21 a near-pangram. A pangram is a sentence containing every letter of an alphabet. You probably know the classic example: “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.”

And apparently the biblical languages wanted in on the fun, too. A couple of verses in the Hebrew Bible come remarkably close to using every letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Deuteronomy 4:34 and Zephaniah 3:8 are often mentioned as examples—with, as always, some scholarly debate. Because is it even Bible scholarship if everyone agrees?

The Greek New Testament gets in on the action as well. Matthew 5:30 and Revelation 2:10 are among verses cited as coming close to containing all 24 letters of the Greek alphabet.

Does any of this reveal a great theological truth? Probably not.

But I love little discoveries like this because they remind me that the Bible is a book we can spend a lifetime exploring. There are enormous truths about God, grace, redemption and eternity, and then there are tiny treasures hiding in plain sight, waiting for someone curious enough to notice them.

Sometimes Bible study is serious work involving history, culture, ancient languages and theology. And sometimes it is sitting at the table counting letters in Ezra 7:21. Both sound like a pretty good afternoon to me.

Although I still think it could have used a J.

Preferably for joy. ■