175 Fun Facts About Christmas Bible

Which angel told Mary that she would conceive and bear a son?

Gabriel: Luke 1:26-31 says the angel Gabriel was sent to Nazareth and told Mary she would conceive and bear a son to be named Jesus.

In which town of Galilee was Mary living when the angel visited her?

Nazareth: the Old Testament never once mentions the town, and in John 1:46 one of Jesus's first followers asks, 'Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth?'

In the King James Luke 2:14, the angels sing of peace on earth and what 'toward men'?

Good will: the King James has 'on earth peace, good will toward men', but a single disputed Greek letter changes the sense, and many modern versions read 'peace among those whom he favours'.

In Luke, which Roman emperor ordered the census that sent Joseph to Bethlehem?

Augustus: Luke 2:1 says 'there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed'; Joseph went to Bethlehem as a descendant of David.

According to Luke, Jesus was born during a census taken while which man was governor of Syria?

Quirinius: Luke 2:2 ties the census to his time as governor of Syria, yet the census Quirinius is known to have held came in about AD 6, roughly a decade after Herod died, so the chronology is disputed.

In Luke, which group is told of Jesus's birth by an angel that night?

Shepherds: Luke 2:8 has them 'keeping watch over their flock by night'; they appear only in Luke, just as the Magi appear only in Matthew, so the two groups never meet in the Gospels.

Which Latin hymn of the Mass opens with the angels' words from Luke 2:14?

Gloria in excelsis Deo: it opens with the angels' 'Glory to God in the highest' from Luke 2:14; the Roman Rite leaves it out on the Sundays of Advent, so it comes back at Christmas.

What three gifts did the Magi bring to the infant Jesus?

Gold, frankincense and myrrh: Matthew 2:11 lists the three gifts; a traditional reading makes gold a king's tribute, frankincense worship of God, and myrrh an anointing for burial.

Which book's line 'the kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts' helped turn the Magi into kings?

Psalms: Psalm 72:10 promises that kings of Tarshish, Sheba and Seba will bring gifts; Matthew calls his visitors only Magi, but readers who joined the two passages turned them into the crowned kings of the Christmas crib.

Relics said to be the bones of the Magi are enshrined where?

Cologne Cathedral: Archbishop Rainald of Dassel brought the relics home in the twelfth century as spoils of Frederick Barbarossa's Italian campaign, and the gilded Shrine of the Three Kings was made to hold them.

In Matthew's account, in what kind of building did the Magi find the child with his mother?

A house: Matthew 2:11 says the Magi 'were come into the house' and saw the child with Mary; crib scenes that put them at the manger merge two separate episodes.

The Greek word magos comes from Old Persian and referred to the priestly caste of which religion?

Zoroastrianism: Greek magos, borrowed from Old Persian, named the priestly class of Zoroastrian Persia, and through Greek magike, 'the art of the Magi', the same word gave English 'magic'.

In Matthew, Herod ordered the killing of the boys around Bethlehem up to what age?

Two years and under: Matthew 2:16 says Herod set the age by 'the time which he had diligently enquired of the wise men', which suggests the star had first appeared up to two years earlier.

Matthew links Herod's killing of Bethlehem's boys to 'Rachel weeping for her children', a line from which prophet?

Jeremiah: Matthew 2:18 quotes Jeremiah 31:15, 'Rachel weeping for her children', and the verses that follow in Jeremiah turn to hope and restoration.

To which country did Joseph take the family to escape Herod?

Egypt: Matthew 2:13-15 has the angel tell Joseph to 'flee into Egypt', where the family stayed until Herod's death, fulfilling 'Out of Egypt have I called my son'.

The name Immanuel, which Matthew quotes from the prophets, means what?

God with us: Matthew 1:23 glosses the name himself, 'which being interpreted is, God with us', yet nobody in the New Testament ever calls the child Immanuel; two verses later Joseph names him Jesus.

Matthew's genealogy of Jesus is arranged in three sets of how many generations?

Fourteen is the gematria, or numerical value, of the name David in Hebrew letters.

Luke's genealogy works backwards from Jesus to which man?

Adam: Luke 3:38 closes the list with 'Adam, which was the son of God', and between David and Joseph it names almost entirely different ancestors from Matthew's version.

Besides Mary, which four women appear in Matthew's genealogy of Jesus?

Tamar, Rahab, Ruth and Bathsheba: Matthew names the first three but calls Bathsheba only 'her that had been the wife of Urias', a reminder that King David took her from a husband he then had killed.

In Matthew 13:55, what do the people of Jesus's home town call him?

The carpenter's son: in Matthew 13:55 the people of his home town ask 'Is not this the carpenter's son?', naming Joseph's trade; Mark 6:3 calls Jesus himself 'the carpenter'.

How does the angel deliver every message to Joseph in Matthew's Gospel?

In dreams: an angel appears to Joseph in a dream three times in Matthew, and each time he simply gets up and obeys; the Gospels record no word he ever speaks.

The name Jesus is a Greek form of which Old Testament name?

Joshua: Jesus renders the Hebrew Yeshua, a late form of Yehoshua (Joshua), from the root y-sh-ayin, 'to save', which is why the angel says the child 'shall save his people from their sins'.

Which priest was struck mute for doubting the angel who announced his son's birth?

Zechariah: Luke 1:20 has Gabriel strike the priest Zechariah dumb for doubting; his speech returned only when he wrote 'His name is John' at the boy's circumcision.

John the Baptist's mother, described by Luke as a relative of Mary, was called what?

Elizabeth: Luke 1:5 names Zechariah's wife Elizabeth, 'of the daughters of Aaron', and in Luke 1:36 Gabriel calls her Mary's kinswoman, already expecting John.

John the Baptist's father served as a priest in which division of the priesthood?

Abijah: Luke 1:5 says Zechariah was 'of the course of Abia', the eighth of the 24 priestly divisions listed in 1 Chronicles 24; Elizabeth too was 'of the daughters of Aaron'.

Mary's song of praise in Luke 1 is known by which Latin name?

Magnificat: the name is the first word of the Latin text, 'Magnificat anima mea Dominum', 'My soul doth magnify the Lord'; the song closely follows that of Hannah, who also praised God for an unexpected son.

Which canticle did John the Baptist's father sing at his son's circumcision?

Benedictus: after regaining his speech at John's circumcision, Zechariah prophesied 'Blessed be the Lord God of Israel' (Luke 1:68-79), a canticle sung every morning at Lauds.

Which righteous man in Jerusalem was promised he would not die before seeing the Messiah?

Simeon: Luke 2:25-26 says the Holy Spirit promised the righteous Simeon he would not die before seeing 'the Lord's Christ'; he also told Mary a sword would pierce her soul.

Which Latin canticle sung at Compline begins, in English, 'Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace'?

Nunc dimittis: named from the Vulgate's opening words, 'Nunc dimittis servum tuum, Domine', it is what an old man in the Temple says on finally holding the infant Jesus, ready to die in peace.

Which elderly prophetess, a widow who never left the Temple, gave thanks on seeing the infant Jesus?

Anna: Luke 2:36-38 makes her a prophetess of the tribe of Asher, widowed after seven years of marriage, who fasted and prayed in the Temple night and day and then told everyone awaiting redemption about the child.

What offering, the Law's cheaper option for poor families, did Mary and Joseph bring to the Temple for Jesus?

A pair of birds: Luke 2:24 has them bring 'a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons', the offering the Law allowed a mother who could not afford a lamb, which marks the family as poor.

How many days after his birth was Jesus presented in the Temple in Jerusalem?

Leviticus required forty days of purification for the mother after the birth of a boy.

The Feast of the Presentation, forty days after Christmas on 2 February, is popularly known by what name?

Candlemas: the name comes from the candles blessed and carried in procession that day, echoing the words spoken over the infant in the Temple, 'a light to lighten the Gentiles'.

According to Luke 2:21, Jesus was circumcised and named on which day after his birth?

The eighth day: Luke 2:21 says 'when eight days were accomplished for the circumcising of the child, his name was called Jesus'; hence 1 January was long the Feast of the Circumcision.

Advent begins on the Sunday closest to the feast day of which apostle, 30 November?

Andrew: Advent Sunday is the Sunday nearest St Andrew's Day, 30 November, so it can fall anywhere from 27 November to 3 December and always leaves four Sundays before Christmas.

On which Sunday of Advent is the rose-coloured candle lit?

The third: the rose candle marks Gaudete Sunday, named from the Latin introit 'Rejoice', a lighter moment in a penitential season whose other candles are usually violet.

Which candle custom is credited to a Hamburg theologian in 1839?

The Advent wreath: Johann Wichern ringed an old cartwheel with candles at the Rauhes Haus, his home for poor children, and lit one more each day so they could count down to Christmas.

The seven 'O Antiphons' sung at Vespers from 17 to 23 December are paraphrased in which hymn?

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel: the hymn paraphrases the O Antiphons, and the first letters of their Latin titles, read backwards from the last, spell 'Ero cras', 'Tomorrow I will be there'.

In the Western church, 6 January commemorates the visit of the Magi under which feast name?

Epiphany: 6 January, the Epiphany, celebrates the 'manifestation' of Christ to the Gentiles in the Magi's visit; Eastern churches keep Christ's baptism the same day as Theophany.

How long before Christmas does the Feast of the Annunciation fall?

Nine months: the Annunciation, marking Christ's conception, is kept on 25 March, nine months to the day before 25 December; in England 25 March was New Year's Day until 1752.

Luke says Elizabeth was in which month of her pregnancy at the Annunciation?

The sixth: Luke 1:36 has Gabriel say of Elizabeth 'this is the sixth month with her', which is why John the Baptist's nativity is kept on 24 June, six months before Christmas.

The earliest record of Christmas being kept on 25 December is a Roman calendar known as what?

The Chronograph of 354: this almanac, made for a wealthy Roman Christian named Valentinus, notes 'Christ born in Bethlehem of Judea' on 25 December and elsewhere marks the same day as the birthday of the Unconquered Sun.

Some Eastern churches keep Christmas on 7 January because they follow which calendar?

Julian: churches such as the Russian and Serbian Orthodox keep the Julian calendar, which between 1900 and 2100 runs thirteen days behind the Gregorian, so their 25 December falls on the civil 7 January.

In Sweden, girls crowned with candles lead processions on 13 December, the feast of which saint?

Lucy: under the old calendar her feast once fell on the longest night of the year, so it grew into a festival of light, with Sweden's white-gowned Lucia carrying candles through the midwinter dark.

Which saint is credited with staging the first nativity scene, at Greccio in 1223?

Francis of Assisi: at Greccio in 1223 he had a manger filled with hay and live animals brought in on Christmas night, wanting, he said, to see the infant's hardships with his own bodily eyes.

Which two animals, absent from the Gospel birth stories, stand at the crib because of a verse in Isaiah?

Ox and donkey: Isaiah 1:3 says 'The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib'; neither Gospel birth story mentions either animal, but later writers applied the verse to the manger and artists followed.

Which Mexican Christmas tradition runs for nine nights, from 16 to 24 December?

Las Posadas: the name is Spanish for 'the inns'; each evening from 16 to 24 December a procession re-enacts Mary and Joseph's search for somewhere to stay in Bethlehem.

A Christingle is a lit candle set into which fruit?

An orange: when the custom began in Germany in 1747 it was only a candle tied with a red ribbon, handed to each child; the orange, usually said to stand for the world, was added later.

26 December is the feast of which saint, the first Christian martyr?

Stephen: Acts 7 has him stoned to death outside Jerusalem while a young man named Saul, the future apostle Paul, minded the killers' cloaks.

Which old English name was given to the Feast of the Holy Innocents on 28 December?

Childermas: the day mourning Bethlehem's murdered boys was once reckoned the unluckiest of the year in England, when nobody who could avoid it would start a job or get married.

What does the Irish name Nollaig na mBan, for 6 January, mean?

Women's Christmas: Nollaig na mBan, 'Christmas of the women', marks 6 January in Ireland, traditionally a day off for women after the Christmas work; the day is also called Little Christmas.

Which Roman emperor originally commissioned the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem?

Constantine: he ordered the basilica built over the cave venerated as Christ's birthplace soon after his mother Helena visited Bethlehem; the church standing there now is largely a sixth-century rebuilding.

Herod the Great's family came from which region south of Jerusalem?

Idumea: its people, the Old Testament's Edomites, took up Judaism after John Hyrcanus conquered them; Herod's father Antipater was an Idumean, and a rival for the throne scorned Herod as a mere 'half Jew'.

In Luke 1:15, the angel says John the Baptist must never drink what?

Wine or strong drink: Gabriel tells Zechariah the child 'shall drink neither wine nor strong drink; and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost' (Luke 1:15).

Which Christmas service did the popes traditionally celebrate at the crib chapel of Santa Maria Maggiore?

Midnight Mass: the first of Christmas Day's three papal Masses was said by night in the basilica's oratory of the crib, a chapel treated as Rome's own Bethlehem and modelled on the night services pilgrims saw in the Holy Land.

The Puritan colony that banned Christmas celebrations in 1659 was governed from which town?

Boston: in 1659 the Massachusetts Bay General Court made keeping Christmas a finable offence; the ban went in the 1680s under pressure from England, yet shops and schools there stayed open on 25 December well into the 1800s.

Saint Nicholas, whose secret gift-giving lies behind Santa Claus, was bishop of which city?

Myra: Nicholas was bishop of Myra in Lycia, in modern Turkey, in the early fourth century; his best-known legend has him dropping gold through a window on three nights to pay three sisters' dowries.

Read as Hebrew words, the name Bethlehem literally means what?

House of bread: read as Hebrew, Beit Lehem joins 'house' and 'bread', while the Arabic Bayt Lahm reads as 'house of meat'; some scholars think both reinterpret an older name honouring the god Lahmu.

What title do the Magi use for the newborn child when they reach Jerusalem?

King of the Jews: Matthew 2:2 has the Magi ask 'Where is he that is born King of the Jews?', the title that so troubled Herod 'and all Jerusalem with him'.

Luke 2:7 describes Jesus as Mary's what?

Firstborn son: Luke 2:7 reads 'And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes', the word prototokos prompting long debate about whether Jesus had siblings.

Which astronomer linked the Star of Bethlehem to a triple meeting of Jupiter and Saturn in 7 BC?

Johannes Kepler: after a new star flared up near Jupiter, Saturn and Mars in 1604, he calculated that Jupiter and Saturn had met three times in 7 BC and tied the Magi's star to that.

Which Old Testament seer prophesied 'there shall come a Star out of Jacob'?

Balaam: hired by Moab's king to curse Israel, he blessed it instead, and Origen later argued that the Magi knew his prophecy of a star and so understood the one they saw.

In Matthew, the Magi say they saw the star where?

In the east: Matthew 2:2 has the Magi say 'we have seen his star in the east', a phrase modern versions render 'at its rising'.

After visiting Jesus, why did the Magi return home by another route?

A dream warned them off Herod: Matthew 2:12 says the Magi, 'being warned of God in a dream that they should not return to Herod', went home another way, and 2:16 has Herod 'exceeding wroth' at being outwitted.

Frederick Barbarossa carried off the supposed relics of the Magi after conquering which Italian city in 1162?

Milan: legend says Bishop Eustorgius brought the relics from Constantinople by ox-cart to Milan, where they lay in the basilica of Sant'Eustorgio until Barbarossa handed them to his chancellor in 1164.

Herod the Great died in which city, the site of his winter palaces?

Jericho: fearing no one would mourn him, the dying Herod had leading Jews shut in Jericho's hippodrome to be killed at his death; his sister Salome set them free instead.

Which clifftop fortress beside the Dead Sea did Herod the Great fit out with palaces as a refuge?

Masada: Herod fortified the rock between 37 and 31 BC as a bolt-hole in case his own subjects rose against him; a century later Jewish rebels made their last stand there against the legions.

In Matthew, what reason did Herod give the Magi for wanting to know where the child was?

To worship him: in Matthew 2:8 Herod asks the Magi to bring him word 'that I may come and worship him also'; five verses later an angel warns that he means 'to destroy' the child.

Which son of Herod was ruling Judea when Joseph brought his family home, so that they settled in Galilee instead?

Archelaus: Matthew 2:22 says Joseph was afraid to live under Archelaus; within ten years his subjects' complaints had him deposed by the emperor and banished to Gaul.

Matthew 2:15 applies God's words 'have I called my son' to the child Jesus, quoting which prophet?

Hosea: in Hosea 11:1 the 'son' is the nation of Israel, which God says he loved as a child and brought out of slavery; Matthew reapplies the line to the infant Jesus.

Tradition names the Magi Caspar, Melchior and which third wise man?

Balthazar: Matthew neither names nor counts the Magi; the names Caspar, Melchior and Balthazar entered Western tradition centuries later, and the number three was probably inferred from the three gifts.

In the Catholic Douay-Rheims Bible, which words open the angel's greeting to Mary in Luke 1:28?

Hail, full of grace: the Douay-Rheims follows the Vulgate's 'Ave gratia plena', words that became the opening of the Hail Mary prayer; the King James has 'Hail, thou that art highly favoured'.

Where did Mary go 'with haste' after the Annunciation?

The hill country of Judah: Luke 1:39 says Mary 'went into the hill country with haste, into a city of Juda', to visit the elderly kinswoman the angel had just told her was also with child.

What happened when John the Baptist's mother heard Mary's greeting at the Visitation?

The babe leaped in her womb: Luke 1:41-44 says the unborn child leaped 'for joy' at Mary's voice, and his mother, filled with the Holy Ghost, cried out 'Blessed art thou among women'.

By which older name does Genesis also call Bethlehem?

Ephrath: Genesis 35:19 says Rachel was buried 'in the way to Ephrath, which is Bethlehem', and the old name lingered, for 1 Samuel 17:12 calls David's father Jesse 'that Ephrathite'.

Bethlehem lies roughly how far south of Jerusalem?

10 km (6 miles): Bethlehem lies in the Judean hills about 10 km south of Jerusalem, near enough that Matthew's Magi are sent on from Herod's court straight to the child.

A clay seal naming Bethlehem, found in Jerusalem in 2012, was stamped in which script?

Ancient Hebrew: the seal impression from the City of David dig bears three lines of ancient Hebrew script naming Bethlehem and the king, and probably sealed a tax shipment sent to Jerusalem.

In which Old Testament book does the angel Gabriel appear to explain visions to a prophet?

Daniel: Gabriel interprets the ram-and-goat vision in Daniel 8 and returns in Daniel 9 with the 'seventy weeks', a cryptic timetable that readers have been trying to decode ever since.

Which Greek word does Matthew use for Joseph's trade?

tektōn: used of Joseph in Matthew 13:55 and of Jesus in Mark 6:3, the word meant a craftsman or builder in general, so the usual English rendering narrows a trade that may have included building work.

Which Byzantine emperor rebuilt the Church of the Nativity after a sixth-century fire?

Justinian: he rebuilt the church after it burned, probably during a Samaritan revolt, adding a porch, and his sixth-century basilica is in essentials the building pilgrims still enter today.

In 2012 the Church of the Nativity became the first World Heritage Site listed under which state?

Palestine: UNESCO had admitted Palestine as a member only months earlier; the church went straight onto the endangered list because of water leaks and stayed there until 2019.

Frankincense is which product of the Boswellia tree?

Hardened resin: harvesters cut into the trunks of Boswellia trees, and the milky sap that oozes out hardens in the air into lumps of resin, which they scrape off by hand.

The word 'myrrh' comes from an ancient Semitic root with which meaning?

Bitter: 'myrrh' goes back to a Semitic root meaning 'bitter', as in Arabic murr; the sharp-tasting gum was even mixed into wine, and Mark 15:23 has such wine offered to Jesus at the crucifixion.

Isaiah's prophecy that a young woman would bear a son named Immanuel was spoken to which king of Judah?

Ahaz: with Jerusalem threatened by the kings of Israel and Syria, Ahaz refused to ask God for a sign, so Isaiah gave one anyway: both kings would be gone before the child Immanuel grew up.

Which early translation of the Jewish scriptures rendered the word 'almah' as 'parthenos' (virgin)?

The Septuagint: the Greek Septuagint translated Isaiah 7:14's almah, 'young woman', as parthenos, 'virgin', and Matthew 1:23 quotes that Greek reading as a prophecy of the Virgin birth.

Herod the Great built a harbour using hydraulic cement at which city?

Caesarea Maritima: Herod built the city and its artificial harbour, Sebastos, between about 22 and 10 BC, sinking huge blocks of hydraulic concrete made with volcanic ash shipped from Italy.

Luke's genealogy runs through which son of David, where Matthew's has Solomon?

Nathan: Luke 3:31 runs the line through David's son Nathan instead of the royal line of Solomon; early Christian writers such as Julius Africanus tried to reconcile the two lists through levirate marriage.

What is the Italian word for a nativity scene?

Presepio: the grand Neapolitan presepio shows not ancient Bethlehem but the everyday life of eighteenth-century Naples, with street vendors and fortune tellers set beside the holy family.

Which Frankish king did Pope Leo III crown emperor on Christmas Day in the year 800?

Charlemagne: Leo III crowned him at Mass in St Peter's; his biographer Einhard claimed Charlemagne would never have set foot in the church that day had he known what the pope intended.

December 25 was the traditional date of which astronomical event in the Roman Empire?

The winter solstice: Roman writers such as Pliny put the winter solstice on 25 December by the Julian calendar, and the Chronograph of 354 lists that day as the birthday of Sol Invictus.

Luke dates the start of John the Baptist's preaching to the fifteenth year of which Roman emperor?

Tiberius: Luke 3:1 opens with 'the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar', about AD 28-29, a rare fixed date that scholars use to anchor the chronology of Jesus's ministry.

The monk Dionysius Exiguus devised AD dating in 525 while compiling tables to calculate which feast?

Easter: Dionysius was extending the tables used to find Easter and numbered their years from Christ's incarnation, refusing to keep counting from the reign of Diocletian, a persecutor of Christians.

Handel's Messiah was first performed in April 1742 in which city?

Dublin: demand for the premiere was so great that gentlemen were asked to come without swords and ladies without hoops in their skirts, so that more people could be squeezed into the hall.

Which American clergyman wrote the words of 'O Little Town of Bethlehem' after visiting the Holy Land?

Phillips Brooks: the Philadelphia rector visited Bethlehem in 1865 and wrote the carol three years later for his own church, where his organist Lewis Redner set it to the tune Americans still sing.

'Hark! the Herald Angels Sing' is usually sung to a melody by which composer?

Felix Mendelssohn: the tune comes from Mendelssohn's 1840 cantata for the 400th anniversary of printing; he thought it would never suit sacred words, but William Cummings fitted it to the carol after his death.

Who wrote the words of 'Hark! the Herald Angels Sing' in 1739?

Charles Wesley: his 1739 hymn began 'Hark how all the welkin rings'; George Whitefield later rewrote the opening into the line sung today, so the title words are not Wesley's own.

Isaac Watts wrote which carol in 1719 as a paraphrase of Psalm 98?

Joy to the World: Watts published it in The Psalms of David Imitated as a paraphrase of the end of Psalm 98, a song about God coming to rule the earth, and never intended it for Christmas.

'Silent Night' was first performed in 1818 in Oberndorf, near which Austrian city?

Salzburg: Oberndorf lies on the Salzach just north of Salzburg; its old St Nicholas church was pulled down after repeated floods, and a memorial chapel now marks where the carol was first sung.

Which instrument accompanied the first performance of 'Silent Night' in 1818?

A guitar: on Christmas Eve 1818 Joseph Mohr asked Franz Xaver Gruber to set his two-year-old poem to music with a guitar accompaniment, and the two men sang it in church that same night, with Mohr playing.

'Away in a Manger' was long wrongly attributed to which religious reformer?

Martin Luther: it spread in the 1880s as 'Luther's Cradle Hymn', supposedly written by Martin Luther for his children, but it is now thought to be wholly American, with no link to him.

'The First Nowell' is a traditional carol from which part of England?

Cornwall: the carol is counted Cornish because the collectors who first printed it, in the 1820s and 1830s, gathered their carols in the far west of England, where its tune was written down.

'Minuit, chrétiens' is sung in English as what?

O Holy Night: Placide Cappeau, a wine merchant, wrote the French poem at his parish priest's request; Adolphe Adam set it to music, and John Sullivan Dwight later made the English version.

The real 'Good King Wenceslas' was a tenth-century duke of which land?

Bohemia: Wenceslaus was a duke of Bohemia, murdered, tradition says, by his own brother and soon venerated as a saint; the title of king was given to him only after his death.

Besides the Magi's visit, the Western feast of 6 January also recalls Jesus's baptism and which miracle?

The wedding at Cana: the feast marks three moments when Christ was revealed, to the Magi, at his baptism in the Jordan and at Cana, where he turned water into wine in his first miracle.

Which Gospel opens with the words 'In the beginning was the Word'?

John: John's Gospel opens 'In the beginning was the Word' and, like Mark, has no nativity story at all, saying only that 'the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us'.

Which son of Boaz became the father of Jesse and grandfather of King David?

Obed: it was the neighbour women of Bethlehem, not his parents, who chose the name Obed; Matthew 1:5 then lists 'Obed begat Jesse' in the family tree of Jesus.

The 'X' in 'Xmas' comes from which Greek letter?

Chi: X is the Greek letter chi, the first letter of Christos, and scribes were already shortening Christmas with it in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle around 1100, so 'Xmas' is old church shorthand, not a modern slight.

In Luke 1:29, how did Mary first react to the angel's greeting?

She was troubled: Luke 1:29 says she 'was troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be', puzzling over the greeting before she had heard any message.

The Greek word kataluma, translated 'inn' in Luke 2:7, may more accurately mean what?

Guest room: kataluma is the word Luke 22:11 uses for the 'guest chamber' of the Last Supper, whereas Luke 10:34 calls the Good Samaritan's inn a pandocheion, so many scholars read 2:7 as a full guest room.

Which Moabite widow gleaned in the barley fields of Bethlehem and married the landowner Boaz?

Ruth: she had left Moab to follow her widowed mother-in-law home to Bethlehem; the son she bore Boaz became the grandfather of King David.

In Genesis 35, Rachel died giving birth to which son near Bethlehem?

Benjamin: Genesis 35:16-19 says Rachel, dying in hard labour, named the boy Ben-oni, usually read as 'son of my sorrow', but Jacob renamed him Benjamin; she was buried by the roadside.

The word 'Advent' comes from the Latin adventus, meaning what?

Coming or arrival: Latin adventus means 'coming' or 'arrival', translating the Greek parousia used in the New Testament for Christ's coming; the season looks to both his birth and his return.

Bing Crosby and David Bowie built their 1977 television duet around which carol?

The Little Drummer Boy: Bowie said he hated the song, so the show's writers quickly composed a counter-melody, 'Peace on Earth', for him to sing against Crosby's drummer boy.

Which composer wrote the Christmas Oratorio, a cycle of six cantatas?

Bach: he wrote the six parts for six separate services between Christmas Day 1734 and 6 January, recycling much of the music from secular cantatas, one of them a birthday piece for a Saxon prince.

'In the Bleak Midwinter' began as a poem by which English poet?

Christina Rossetti: she published it in an American magazine in 1872 simply as 'A Christmas Carol'; Gustav Holst set it for The English Hymnal in 1906, twelve years after her death.

In Dickens's A Christmas Carol, which carol does a young singer begin at Scrooge's keyhole?

God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen: the caroller gets out only the opening words before Scrooge seizes a ruler and the singer flees in terror; the antiquarian William Sandys had printed the old carol in his 1833 collection, ten years earlier.

England's Puritan Parliament banned Christmas festivities in the 1640s; the feast returned with the Restoration of which king?

Charles II: Parliament ordered shops to stay open on 25 December, which led to riots in Canterbury and other towns in 1647; the bans were swept away when Charles II took the throne in 1660.

Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, was named on Christmas Eve 1741 by a bishop of which church?

Moravian: the Moravian bishop Count Zinzendorf held a Christmas Eve service in the one log cabin the settlers all shared, and its humble setting on that night moved him to name the place Bethlehem.

To which man does Luke address both his Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles?

Theophilus: Luke 1:3 calls him 'most excellent Theophilus', a form of address Acts uses for Roman governors, so some take him for a high-ranking official; his name can be read as 'friend of God'.

Which Old Testament prophet's book does Matthew cite for the ruler who 'shall come' out of Bethlehem?

Micah: Matthew 2:5-6 has the chief priests answer Herod with Micah 5:2, 'out of thee shall come a Governor, that shall rule my people Israel', placing the Messiah's birth in Bethlehem.

In Isaiah 9:6, the child whose 'government shall be upon his shoulder' is given which title?

Prince of Peace: Isaiah 9:6 ends its list of the child's names, 'Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father', with 'The Prince of Peace', a verse Handel set in Messiah.

What was the boy Jesus doing when found in the Temple?

Questioning the teachers: Luke 2:46-49 finds him sitting among the teachers, 'both hearing them, and asking them questions', and telling his anxious mother that he must be 'about my Father's business'.

For which feast had the Holy Family travelled to Jerusalem when the boy Jesus stayed behind in the Temple?

Passover: Luke 2:41-44 says the family went up for Passover every year; when Jesus was twelve his parents travelled a full day towards home before missing him, thinking he was among their kinsfolk.

On learning Mary was pregnant, what did Joseph intend to do before an angel intervened?

Divorce her quietly: Matthew 1:19 says Joseph, 'not willing to make her a publick example, was minded to put her away privily', until an angel told him not to fear taking Mary as his wife.

In the Bible's picture of newborn care, what was rubbed on a baby before it was wrapped in swaddling cloths?

Salt: Ezekiel 16:4 pictures the nation as an abandoned baby, 'not salted at all, nor swaddled at all', which shows that a newborn was normally washed, rubbed with salt and then wrapped.

On Christmas Eve 1968, Apollo 8's crew orbiting the Moon read aloud from which book of the Bible?

Genesis supplied the crew's text: Bill Anders, Jim Lovell and Frank Borman took turns reading the first ten verses of the creation story during their ninth lunar orbit.

Like the infant Jesus, which Old Testament baby survived a ruler's order to kill Hebrew boys?

Moses was hidden by his mother and then set afloat in an ark of bulrushes after Pharaoh ordered every newborn Hebrew son thrown into the river.

Before following Jesus, the apostle Matthew, traditional author of the first Gospel, did which job?

Tax collector is how Matthew 9:9 introduces him, seated at the customs post in Capernaum; the Gospel under his name is the only one to mention the Magi.

In Colossians, Paul calls Luke, author of the fullest nativity story, 'the beloved' what?

Physician is Luke's trade in Colossians 4:14, which is why he became a patron saint of doctors, and of artists too.

What does Luke 2 say Mary did with all the things said about her newborn son?

Pondered them in her heart is Luke's phrase, and he returns to it when the boy Jesus is found in the Temple: his mother 'kept all these sayings in her heart'.

According to Luke, why did Joseph travel to Bethlehem to register rather than staying in Galilee?

He was of David's line: Luke says Joseph belonged to 'the house and lineage of David', and Bethlehem, which the Gospel calls the city of David, was that king's home town.

In the nativity stories, an angel greets both Mary and Joseph with which two-word reassurance?

Fear not runs through the birth stories: an angel says it to Mary, to Joseph in his dream, to the father of John the Baptist and to the watchers in the fields.

The church feast marking the naming and circumcision of the infant Jesus falls on which holiday?

New Year's Day closes the octave of Christmas; in the Roman calendar the date was called the Circumcision of the Lord until 1960 and is now the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God.

In Matthew's Gospel, what reason does the angel give Joseph for naming Mary's child Jesus?

He will save his people 'from their sins', the angel explains, and the name fits: Jesus comes from a Hebrew name meaning 'Yahweh is salvation'.

The title Christ, from the Greek christos, translates the Hebrew word Messiah and means what?

Anointed one recalls the rite of kingship in ancient Israel, where rulers were anointed with oil; the angel's message outside Bethlehem calls the newborn 'Christ the Lord'.

Complete the angel's message from Luke 2: 'I bring you good tidings of great' what?

Joy 'which shall be to all people', the angel goes on, and moments later a multitude of the heavenly host appears, praising God.

When Mary asked how she could bear a child, who did the angel say would come upon her?

The Holy Spirit, 'the Holy Ghost' in older Bibles, would come upon her, the angel said, a line echoed in the Apostles' Creed: 'conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary'.

In Luke's account of the angel's visit, Mary is told her holy child will be called by which title?

Son of God is the title the angel gives in Luke 1:35; a few verses earlier the same messenger calls the child 'the Son of the Highest', heir to the throne of David.

How does Mary describe herself when she accepts the angel's message in Luke 1?

The handmaid of the Lord, or 'servant' in modern versions; her next words, 'be it unto me according to thy word', are repeated in the Angelus prayer.

Complete the angel's assurance to Mary in Luke 1: 'For with God nothing shall be' what?

Impossible, the angel says, pointing to Mary's elderly relative, long called barren and by then well into a pregnancy of her own.

A Gospel reading for Christmas Day declares that 'the Word was made' what, 'and dwelt among us'?

Flesh is the blunt word the fourth Gospel's prologue chooses, and its Latin form gave the church the term Incarnation for what Christmas celebrates.

Matthew's Gospel opens with a family tree of Jesus that begins with which patriarch?

Abraham heads the list, and Matthew's very first verse calls Jesus 'the son of David, the son of Abraham', tying him to Israel's founding father and its greatest king.

Matthew traces the royal line of Jesus from David through which son, his successor on the throne?

Solomon carries Matthew's line on through the kings of Judah, while Luke follows a different, little-known son of David, one reason the two family trees differ.

Unable to speak, how did John the Baptist's father tell relatives the baby's name?

He wrote on a tablet, 'His name is John', and at once his speech returned, astonishing neighbours who had expected the boy to be named after his father.

The English word 'gospel' comes from the Old English godspel, translating a Greek term meaning what?

Good news renders the Greek euangelion, which the Latin Bible kept as evangelium, the root of the English word evangelist.

In the Temple, an old man warned Mary that what would 'pierce through' her own soul?

A sword, he said, and Christian art took the image literally: Mary as Our Lady of Sorrows is often shown with one or seven swords piercing her heart.

In a prophecy Handel set to music in Messiah, the people who walked in darkness have seen what?

A great light, sung as a bass solo in Messiah, leads straight into the chorus 'For unto us a Child is born', taken from the same chapter.

What duty was the father of John the Baptist performing in the Temple when an angel appeared?

Burning incense had fallen to him by lot, and the angel appeared at the right side of the altar while a crowd prayed outside.

The angel said John the Baptist would come 'in the spirit and power of' which Old Testament prophet?

Elijah, spelled Elias in older Bibles, was expected to return before the day of the Lord, so the promise marked John out as a forerunner.

In the Temple song sung over the infant Jesus, the child is called 'a light to lighten' whom?

The Gentiles, the non-Jewish nations, share the line with Israel: the same verse calls the child 'the glory of thy people Israel'.

Which 1611 translation gives the nativity story 'sore afraid' and 'no room for them in the inn'?

The King James Bible was the work of 47 scholars, all but one of them clergymen of the Church of England, working in committees.

Which scholar translated the Bible into Latin while living by Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity?

Jerome finished his Latin Bible, later called the Vulgate, in a Bethlehem monastery paid for by Paula, a wealthy Roman aristocrat.

Mary's name is a form of which Hebrew name, borne by the prophetess who sang at the Red Sea?

Miriam, the Hebrew Miryam, became Mariam in Greek and Maria in Latin; the first Miriam led Israel's women in song and dance with a timbrel.

Which New Testament book pictures a dragon waiting to devour a newborn destined to rule all nations?

Revelation 12 has a woman clothed with the sun give birth as a red dragon waits; in Catholic tradition she is widely identified with the Virgin Mary.

Which prophet travelled to Bethlehem to anoint Jesse's youngest son, a shepherd boy, as king?

Samuel was shown seven older brothers first and turned each one down, then anointed David, the youngest, who had been out keeping the sheep.

After a long search, among whom did Mary and Joseph find the boy Jesus sitting in the Temple?

The teachers were astonished at his understanding and answers, Luke says; the boy had been listening to them and asking questions of his own.

Which short description does Matthew's Gospel give of the character of Joseph, husband of Mary?

A just man, 'righteous' in modern versions; the angel who then appears addresses him by his royal ancestry: 'Joseph, thou son of David'.

Which prophet's book closes the Christian Old Testament, directly before Matthew's nativity story?

Malachi ends by promising that a prophet will be sent before the day of the Lord, a hope the Gospels attach to John the Baptist.

Luke says the widow Anna, who met the infant Jesus in the Temple, served God night and day how?

Fasting and praying, Luke says, without ever leaving the Temple; he adds that she had been widowed after only seven years of marriage.

Like John the Baptist, which judge of Israel had his birth and lifelong vow announced by an angel?

Samson was to be a Nazirite from the womb, his hair never cut; the angel's rules for John in Luke 1 follow the same pattern.

Mary's song of praise in Luke 1 closely echoes the prayer of which Old Testament mother at Shiloh?

Hannah had begged for a child and vowed to give him to God's service; her prayer, like Mary's, rejoices that the hungry are fed and the mighty brought low.

Matthew's family tree of Jesus pivots on King David and on which national disaster?

The exile to Babylon is Matthew's second hinge: he counts equal sets of generations before David, between David and the deportation, and after it.

Luke says John the Baptist's mother came from 'the daughters of' which first high priest of Israel?

Aaron's line supplied Israel's priests, so John the Baptist was of priestly descent on both sides: his father served in the Temple too.

Paul's line that God sent his Son 'made of a woman, made under the law' comes from which letter?

Galatians 4:4 says this happened 'when the fulness of the time was come', and gives the purpose: 'to redeem them that were under the law'.

Matthew quotes a prophecy of Rachel weeping for her children, heard as a voice in which town?

Ramah, 'Rama' in older Bibles, lay about five miles north of Jerusalem, and captives taken from the fallen city were assembled there before being led away.

Complete the angel's news from Luke 2: 'unto you is born this day in the city of David' what?

A Saviour 'which is Christ the Lord', the angel says; 'city of David' here means Bethlehem, though in the Old Testament the same title belongs to the stronghold of Zion in Jerusalem.

Luke's childhood story ends with the young Jesus increasing in favour with God and man, and in what?

Wisdom and stature are Luke's last words on the childhood: when Jesus next appears, at his baptism, he is about thirty.

In the rosary, the Annunciation, Visitation and Nativity belong to which set of mysteries?

Joyful is the name for the five scenes drawn from Luke's opening chapters; the set ends with the Presentation and the Finding in the Temple.

Which book of the Law set the offering Mary made in the Temple after the birth of Jesus?

Leviticus 12 asks a new mother for a lamb but allows a cheaper offering for those who cannot afford one, the option Luke records.

On hearing Mary's greeting, which title did her elderly relative give her, in Luke 1?

The mother of my Lord, she cried 'with a loud voice', adding words of blessing that Catholics still repeat in prayer.

Luke says John the Baptist grew strong in spirit as a child and lived where until his ministry?

In the wilderness, 'the deserts' in older Bibles, is where the Gospels later find him preaching in camel's hair and living on locusts and wild honey.

What reason did the father of John the Baptist give for doubting the angel's promise of a son?

His old age, and his wife's too: 'I am an old man, and my wife well stricken in years' was the reply that cost him his voice until the child was named.

Complete the angel's promise to Mary about her son: 'of his kingdom there shall be' what?

No end: the phrase passed into the Nicene Creed, which says of Christ, 'whose kingdom shall have no end'.

A prophecy the Gospels apply to John the Baptist urges hearers to 'prepare ye' what?

The way of the Lord, 'make his paths straight': Matthew quotes the line of John the Baptist, and the musical Godspell gives it to him as a song.

Which Peanuts character recites the angel's nativity message on stage in A Charlie Brown Christmas?

Linus Van Pelt asks for a spotlight, drops his security blanket and recites the passage, then says: 'That's what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.'