One of my favorite Bible tales that never seems to make it into Bible Stories for Dear Little Children is the story of the kidnapping of the Ark of the Covenant in I Samuel. I recommend a read of the KJV very highly.
The hyperbole there that is most noticeable is I Samuel 6:19:
And he smote the men of Bethshemesh, because they had looked into the ark of the LORD, even he smote of the people fifty thousand and threescore and ten men: and the people lamented, because the LORD had smitten many of the people with a great slaughter.
How long would it have taken 50,070 men to look into an ark? How many villages had 50,070 men to smite back in Samuel's time? That number is there
to make a better story.
"The Christian church, in its attitude toward science, shows the mind of a more or less enlightened man of the Thirteenth Century. It no longer believes that the earth is flat, but it is still convinced that prayer can cure after medicine fails." H L Mencken
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