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Archive for December, 2015

The Bible on Twitter in 2015

Thursday, December 31st, 2015

Here’s a quick look at the 40 million Bible verses shared on Twitter in 2015.

Through the Year

As with last year, in 2015 we see the prevalence of through-the-Bible-in-a-year plans that feature certain verses on particular days. Also note the cluster in Leviticus and Deuteronomy after the U.S. Supreme Court ruling on same-sex marriage.

This graph emphasizes that many people tweet Bible reading plans.

Most-Popular Verses

Rank Verse Tweets Text
1. Phil 4:13 262,150 I can do all things through him who strengthens me.
2. John 3:16 206,480 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
3. Jer 29:11 127,355 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.
4. Rom 8:18 115,719 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.
5. Rom 8:28 115,588 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
6. Prov 3:5 110,216 Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.
7. 1Pet 5:7 98,974 Casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.
8. Rom 5:8 97,841 But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
9. 2Tim 1:7 88,924 For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.
10. Ps 56:3 86,998 When I am afraid, I put my trust in you.

You can also download a text file (411 KB) with the complete list of verses and how many times they were tweeted in 2015.

Top Verse Sharers

Here are the top non-spam (as far as I can tell) accounts and how many Bible verse tweets they tweeted this year (including retweets):

  1. JohnPiper (109,589 tweets)
  2. Franklin_Graham (94,341 tweets)
  3. DangeRussWilson (83,176 tweets)
  4. JosephPrince (76,031 tweets)
  5. siwon407 (31,141 tweets)
  6. DaveRamsey (29,690 tweets)
  7. TimTebow (29,212 tweets)
  8. mainedcm (28,687 tweets)
  9. JoyceMeyer (25,381 tweets)
  10. BishopJakes (24,243 tweets)
  11. jamesmacdonald (23,753 tweets)
  12. camerondallas (22,499 tweets)
  13. JordanElizabeth (21,735 tweets)
  14. AllyBrooke (21,108 tweets)
  15. Kevinwoo91 (19,735 tweets)
  16. ToriKelly (19,716 tweets)
  17. ihopkc (16,920 tweets)
  18. revraycollins (16,211 tweets)
  19. InTouchMin (15,888 tweets)
  20. ToddAdkins (13,825 tweets)

Most-Retweeted Tweets

Here are the year’s most-retweeted tweets with Bible verses in them. Here you’ll find tweets from various pop stars, Vine personality Cameron Dallas, someone named Cory Machado (I’m unclear why he has a million followers), a fan account for boxer Manny Pacquiao (not the boxer himself), and Tim Tebow. I don’t understand Korean pop star’s Siwon Choi’s tweet at all.

Bible Spam

Around 20 million of the 40 million verses shared on Twitter this year, as far as I can tell, came from Bible spam accounts–accounts that do nothing but tweet Bible verses all day (hundreds of times a day in some cases). I removed the most-prolific accounts from the above data, but undoubtedly it still contains tweets from many Bible spammers.