Say the word Bible and some people immediately think Gideons. Since 1899 the Gideons have been distributing free Bibles and New Testaments to hotels, prisons, soldiers, and schoolchildren. (Thanks to the fuss about “separation of church and sate,” public schools no longer allow the Gideons to distribute to children.) John Nicholson, Samuel Hill, and W. J. Knight organized the group of Christian business- and professional men, naming themselves “Gideons” after the Israelite leader Gideon, who led a small band of Israelites to victory over the Midianites (Judg. 6–8).
The small jug that is the Gideon logo is based on the accounts in Judges 7 of the clever device Gideon used to startle the Midianites. He and his men created a ruckus by breaking empty jars, and the Midianites fled in panic.
