Bibles stopping bullets

"In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one."--Ephesians 6:16

Whether or not you take this Bible passage literally, the book itself has saved lives by shielding believers from bullets fired in war, during crimes, or by accident.

May 2009 Rodeo del Medio, Argentina Protestant minister Mauricio Zanes Condori, 38, was trying to talk 2 thieves out of robbing his church when one of them shot at his chest with a handgun from a distance of 2M. The psalm book he held to his chest slowed down and deflected the bullet, which left him with only a scratch.

April 2008 Hambden, Ohio, U.S.A. A deer slug fired by a 17-year-old hunter penetrated the outside and several interior walls of a house before lodging in a Bible on a closet shelf, sparing the members of the family who were all home at the time.

August 2007 Rustamiyah, Iraq U.S. soldier Pfc. Brendon Schweigart, 22, was helping retrieve a tank in Iraq when he was hit by a sniper's bullet. The bullet ended up lodged in the Bible (2nd image) he received in boot camp and was carrying in his shirt pocket.

November 2006 Orange Park, Florida, U.S.A. A 54-year-old man was ambushed with a rifle while taking out his trash. One bullet clipped his cap, and a second was stopped by 2 New Testament Bibles he was carrying in his shirt pocket to give to friends. He was left with only a red mark and some pain in his chest.

November 2001 North Fort Myers, Florida A woman intent on shooting and killing her sons to spite her mother-in-law was thwarted in the case of her 16-year-old, Kenneth Wallace, whose leather-covered Bible stopped almost all of the shotgun's blast.

January 1920 New York, New York, U.S.A. During a quarrel, Frances Cierco was stabbed in her apartment. During his escape, the assailant shot the building's janitor at point-blank range, but the bullet struck a prayer book in his coat pocket and dropped, spent, into the pocket of his vest.

1918 Germany American soldier W.R. Wilson's Bible spared his life from a German sharpshooter's bullet, leaving him with only a flesh wound to his chest. Upon release from the hospital, he intended to donate the Bible to the National Archives.

1916 France The Bible used by New Zealand Corporal William Henry Pimm saved his life during World War I (though he died of combat wounds 2 days later). "The story goes that he was praying with his bible before battle. From what we can understand, he was closing it as the stray bullet went in," says his great-great-grandnephew. The family heirloom (1st image) is being auctioned on-line for more than $100,000.

June 1863 Port Hudson, Louisiana, U.S.A. Arkansas soldier Julius Glover Elmore was one of 6,700 Confederate troops defending Port Hudson during the Civil War. When he was felled by a Federal bullet, he was believed killed, but he regained consciousness and the miniball was found lodged in the Bible he carried.

April 1862 Shiloh, Tennessee, U.S.A. Confederate soldier Sam Houston, Jr., carried a Bible into the Battle of Shiloh during the American Civil War. A bullet entered the book, which was in the breast pocket of his coat and is now in the Sam Houston Memorial Museum in Texas, and stopped at the 70th Psalm.

With more people carrying a gadget than the "Good Book" these days, there are stories of bullets being stopped by a laptop and a Blackberry, though the report of an iPod saving a life has been discredited. And while the Mythbusters disproved the likelihood of a 400-page book stopping a bullet, the dozens of reports to the contrary suggest that this is more than an urban legend.