107 Fun Facts About New Testament

How many books make up the New Testament?

27: add the 39 books of the Protestant Old Testament and you get the familiar 66; Catholic Bibles count 46 books there, yet share the same 27 in the New.

In what language was the New Testament originally written?

Greek: Jesus and his first followers are believed to have spoken Aramaic, but the New Testament's books were written in Koine, the everyday Greek of the eastern Mediterranean.

Which Gospel do most scholars believe was written first?

Mark is placed first by most scholars ('Markan priority'): it is the shortest Gospel, and almost all of its material reappears, often word for word, in the two other Synoptic Gospels.

The Gospel of Luke and which other book are widely thought to be a two-volume work by the same author?

Acts of the Apostles opens by addressing the same Theophilus as Luke's Gospel; together the two volumes make up more than a quarter of the New Testament.

In John's Gospel, Jesus calls himself 'the bread of life', 'the true vine' and 'the good' what?

Shepherd: in John 10 the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep while the hired hand runs from the wolf; the Good Samaritan is a character in a parable, not a title Jesus claims.

Which archangel tells Mary she will bear a son, in the scene called the Annunciation?

Gabriel had first told the aged Zechariah of a son and struck him mute for doubting; Mary also asked 'How will this be?' and was simply given an answer.

Which relative of Mary, traditionally called her cousin, was the mother of John the Baptist?

Elizabeth is called simply Mary's 'relative' in modern versions of Luke; the familiar 'cousin' comes from older English Bibles such as the King James Version.

According to the first Gospel, King Herod ordered the killing of all boys in Bethlehem up to what age?

The first Gospel (2:16) says Herod killed every boy in Bethlehem 'two years old and under', the age he reckoned from when the Magi said the star had appeared.

Which ruler had John the Baptist beheaded after John condemned his marriage to Herodias?

Herod Antipas, a son of Herod the Great, had John killed to keep an oath sworn to Herodias's dancing daughter, in the Gospels' telling; Josephus says he feared John's sway over the people.

Jesus turned water into wine at a wedding in which town?

Cana in Galilee: when the wedding wine ran out, water in six stone jars became wine so good that the steward told the groom he had saved the best until last.

Which fishing village on the Sea of Galilee did Jesus make the base of his ministry?

Capernaum became 'his own town' after Jesus left Nazareth, yet he later cursed it for failing to repent, saying it would go down to Hades.

Which miracle of Jesus, apart from the resurrection, is the only one recorded in all four Gospels?

Feeding the 5,000 is told by every evangelist; in one account the fed crowd wants to make Jesus king by force, so he slips away alone to a mountain.

At the Transfiguration, Jesus is seen talking with which two Old Testament figures?

Moses and Elijah, often read as standing for the Law and the Prophets, appear with Jesus on the mountain in all three Synoptic accounts, witnessed by three disciples.

Zacchaeus, the tax collector of Jericho, climbed what to see Jesus over the crowd?

A sycamore tree, the sycamore-fig of Luke 19:4, gave the short tax collector his view; afterwards he promised half his goods to the poor and to repay anyone he had cheated.

Which friend did Jesus raise after four days in the tomb?

Lazarus had been dead so long that his sister Martha warned of the smell when Jesus ordered the stone moved; Jesus, who had wept on the way, then called him out still wrapped for burial.

In the parable of the Good Samaritan, which two people pass the wounded man first?

A priest and a Levite each see the man and pass by on the other side before the Samaritan stops; Jesus tells it in Luke 10 to answer 'Who is my neighbour?'

In the parable of the Prodigal Son, what job is the younger son reduced to before he returns home?

Tending pigs, unclean animals to a Jewish audience, is the low point: Luke 15 says he was so hungry he longed to eat the pods the pigs ate.

Jesus tells a Samaritan woman of her five husbands beside which well?

Jacob's Well, near Sychar: the woman is startled that a Jew would ask her for a drink, and after their talk she leaves her water jar behind and sends the townspeople out to meet him.

The Sermon on the Mount opens with which set of sayings?

The Beatitudes open the sermon by calling blessed those the world would pity, such as the poor in spirit, the mourners and the persecuted; Luke's shorter set of four is followed by four woes.

Nicodemus, who visited Jesus by night, was told a person must be what to see the kingdom of God?

'Born again', a phrase that can also mean 'born from above', is Jesus' answer in chapter 3 of the fourth Gospel; Nicodemus later helps Joseph of Arimathea bury Jesus.

Gethsemane, the garden below the Mount of Olives where Jesus was arrested, probably takes its name from words meaning what?

Oil press: the garden lay at the foot of the Mount of Olives, and Jesus went there so often with his disciples that Judas knew where to find him.

Which disciple cut off the ear of Malchus, the high priest's servant, during the arrest of Jesus?

Peter is named as the swordsman only in the fourth Gospel (18:10), which is also the only one to name the servant Malchus; Luke adds that Jesus healed the ear.

For how many pieces of silver did Judas Iscariot betray Jesus?

Thirty pieces of silver, the price the chief priests paid (26:15); the first Gospel adds that Judas threw the money back and the priests bought the potter's field with it.

Which prisoner did the crowd ask Pilate to release instead of Jesus?

Barabbas was held for an uprising; some early manuscripts of one Gospel give his full name as Jesus Barabbas, so Pilate's question becomes a choice between two men named Jesus.

Who was compelled by the Romans to carry the cross of Jesus?

Simon of Cyrene, a passer-by from what is now Libya, is forced to carry the cross in the first three Gospels; the fourth has Jesus carry it himself.

The crucifixion site Golgotha is translated in the Gospels as 'the place of' what?

'The place of a skull' is how the Gospels gloss Golgotha, from Aramaic gulgulta; the Latin calvaria, 'skull', gives the name Calvary.

Which woman is honoured as the 'Apostle to the Apostles' for first witnessing the resurrection?

Mary Magdalene is the first to see the risen Jesus in the fourth Gospel and is sent to tell the disciples, hence the title; the church later dropped the medieval conflation of her with the sinner of Luke 7.

Which of the two disciples who walk with the risen Jesus to Emmaus is named?

Cleopas is named in Luke 24:18; his companion is never named, and the pair recognise Jesus only when he breaks bread at supper.

Jesus' closing instruction in Matthew to 'make disciples of all nations' is known by what name?

The Great Commission: on a mountain in Galilee the risen Jesus sends the eleven to baptise and teach all nations, after earlier telling them to go only to 'the lost sheep of Israel'.

After Judas' death, the apostles chose his replacement by what method?

Casting lots: after praying for God to show which of the two he had chosen, the apostles drew lots and 'the lot fell on Matthias' rather than Joseph called Barsabbas.

The Holy Spirit descended on the apostles as tongues of fire on the day of which festival?

Pentecost: the apostles began speaking in so many languages that some onlookers said they were drunk, and were told it was only nine in the morning.

Who is traditionally regarded as the first Christian martyr, stoned to death in Acts 7?

Stephen, one of the men chosen in chapter 6 to oversee the daily distribution to widows, was stoned after his speech before the Sanhedrin; the young Saul approved of the killing.

Which couple in Acts 5 drop dead after lying about the price of land they sold?

Ananias and Sapphira kept back part of the price while claiming to give it all; each died on the spot when confronted, and great fear came on the church.

The Ethiopian official baptised by Philip was reading which book of Scripture in his chariot?

Isaiah: he was reading the passage 'like a sheep led to the slaughter' (Isaiah 53) when Philip joined the chariot and explained it as being about Jesus.

Saul of Tarsus was travelling to which city when a light struck him blind and he heard Jesus' voice?

Damascus: Saul had set out to arrest the city's Christians, but was led in blind and helpless, and within days he was baptised there himself.

According to Acts, what was Paul's trade?

Tentmaker: Acts says Paul lodged and worked with Aquila and Priscilla because they shared the trade, and his letters say he laboured night and day so as not to burden his converts.

The Roman centurion Cornelius, often called the first Gentile convert, was stationed in which city?

Caesarea, the Roman provincial capital on the coast, is where the centurion of the Italian Cohort lived; the apostle came from Joppa after his vision of a sheet of animals.

Lydia, baptised at Philippi when Paul first preached in Europe, was a dealer in what?

Purple cloth: Lydia came from Thyatira, and once she and her household were baptised she urged Paul's party to stay at her house, where the Philippi believers later gathered.

In which city were the followers of Jesus first called Christians?

Antioch in Syria, where Barnabas and Saul taught for a year; the city became a chief centre of early Christianity and the base for Paul's missionary journeys.

What did the Council of Jerusalem in Acts 15 decide about Gentile converts?

They need not be circumcised: James the Just gave the ruling, asking Gentile converts only to abstain from food offered to idols, blood, strangled meat and sexual immorality.

Paul's sermon on the Areopagus in Athens took as its starting point an altar dedicated to what?

An unknown god: Paul said he had found an altar inscribed 'To an unknown god' and proclaimed that god to them; the converts Dionysius the Areopagite and Damaris followed.

Eutychus died after doing what during one of Paul's sermons in Troas?

Dozing off and falling from a window: as Paul talked past midnight in a lamp-lit upper room, Eutychus sank into sleep in the window and fell three storeys; Paul embraced him and he lived.

Paul and Silas had their prison chains loosed at Philippi by what event?

An earthquake at midnight shook the prison's foundations, opening the doors and loosening every chain; the jailer, about to kill himself, was instead baptised with his household that night.

Which New Testament book is the shortest by word count?

3 John, a note of barely 200 words in the original, thanks a man named Gaius for hosting travelling preachers and rebukes a church leader who turned them away.

Which New Testament letter names no author but was long counted as Paul's?

Hebrews never names its writer, yet the church long counted it as Paul's fourteenth letter; Origen, in the third century, concluded that who wrote it 'in truth, God knows'.

On which island was John when he received the visions recorded in the Book of Revelation?

Patmos, a small Aegean island the Romans used for exiles; tradition says John was banished there under the emperor Domitian, and its cave and monastery are now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The seven churches addressed at the start of Revelation were all located in what is now which country?

Turkey: all seven stood in the Roman province of Asia; Laodicea's church is the one told it is 'lukewarm', neither hot nor cold, and about to be spat out.

The Four Horsemen of Revelation ride horses of which colours?

White, red, black and pale: the white horse's rider carries a bow, the red takes peace from the earth, the black holds scales, and the pale horse's rider is named Death.

Many scholars read Revelation's 666 and its manuscript variant 616 as number codes for which Roman emperor's name?

Nero: in gematria, where letters double as numbers, his name and title add up to 666; drop one n, as the Latin spelling does, and the total is 616.

In the title 'New Testament', the word 'testament' carries its older sense of what?

Covenant: the title echoes the 'new covenant' promised in Jeremiah and named by Jesus over the cup at the Last Supper; Latin Bibles rendered the word testamentum, and English kept it.

Which bishop's Easter letter of 367 set out exactly the books of today's New Testament?

Athanasius of Alexandria, in his 39th Festal Letter of 367, listed exactly the books of the modern New Testament and called them 'canonized'; the Synod of Hippo in 393 approved the same list.

Paul's 'love is patient, love is kind' passage, a favourite reading at weddings, comes from which of his letters?

1 Corinthians 13 was written for a quarrelling church, not a couple: it sits inside Paul's argument about spiritual gifts, insisting that the most dazzling gift is worth nothing without love.

In the Latin West before the Vulgate, the Gospels were arranged in which order?

Matthew, John, Luke, Mark, the so-called Western order, puts the two apostles before the two companions of apostles; it appears in Codex Bezae and most Old Latin Gospel manuscripts.

What does the word 'catholic' mean in the name of the New Testament's Catholic Epistles?

Universal: Eusebius was already using the label in the fourth century, probably because most of these letters address the church at large rather than one named congregation.

Which emperor commissioned Eusebius in 331 to produce fifty Bibles for Constantinople?

Constantine I: Eusebius records in his Life of Constantine that the emperor ordered fifty copies of the scriptures on fine parchment for the churches of his new capital, Constantinople.

Roughly how many handwritten copies in its original language preserve all or part of the New Testament?

About 5,800 are catalogued, from papyrus scraps to complete Bibles; because every one was copied by hand, no two agree exactly, so editors compare them to recover the earliest wording.

Whose Bible placed James, Jude and Revelation last, reflecting his doubts about them?

Martin Luther, in his 1522 German New Testament, put those books at the end, unnumbered in the table of contents, and called James 'an epistle of straw' in his preface.

The Gospels never count the Magi, so the tradition of three wise men rests on the number of what?

Gifts they brought, gold, frankincense and myrrh, are why the West settled on three visitors. Syriac Christians have often pictured twelve of them instead.

The shortest verse in the King James Bible, from the story of Lazarus, says that Jesus did what?

Wept completes the two-word verse 'Jesus wept'. Seeing the dead man's sisters and friends in tears left him deeply moved, shortly before he called their brother out of the grave.

In the King James Bible, the First Epistle to Timothy calls what 'the root of all evil'?

The love of money, not money itself, is what the verse condemns, though it is often misquoted. Many modern translations soften it further to 'a root of all kinds of evil'.

Which English word for a natural ability is traced to a sum of silver in one of Jesus' parables?

Talent was a weight of silver worth about 6,000 denarii, so even the servant given just one held a fortune. Its sense of an ability to be put to good use dates from the 1400s.

On which island was Paul shipwrecked as a prisoner bound for Rome and attacked by a viper?

Malta, called Melita in the King James Bible, sheltered the castaways for three months. When the viper did Paul no harm, the islanders changed their minds and said he was a god.

What did Pontius Pilate do before the crowd to show he took no blame for the death of Jesus?

Washed his hands is how one Gospel alone describes the moment, and the scene gave English the phrase 'to wash one's hands of' a matter.

Jesus said a rich man reaching heaven is harder than which animal passing through a needle's eye?

A camel squeezing through a needle is the image in three of the Gospels, and the absurdity is the point. The Babylonian Talmud uses the same saying with an elephant.

To which country did the holy family flee with the infant Jesus after an angel's warning in a dream?

Egypt lay outside the reach of Judea's king, yet an easy coastal road linked the two. The family stayed until the king died, then settled in Galilee.

By what prearranged signal did Judas point out Jesus to the armed crowd sent to arrest him?

A kiss was the sign Judas had agreed with the arresting party beforehand. 'Whomsoever I shall kiss, that same is he,' he told them, 'hold him fast.'

In the parable that closes the Sermon on the Mount, the foolish man builds his house on what?

Sand gave way when the rain, floods and winds came, and 'great was the fall' of the house. The wise builder, who chose rock, stands for people who act on what they hear.

Where did Mary lay the newborn Jesus in Luke's Gospel because there was no room at the inn?

In a manger, the trough that livestock fed from, wrapped in swaddling clothes. The word comes from the Old French mangier, 'to eat'.

When Jesus was baptised in the River Jordan, the Holy Spirit came down in the form of which bird?

Dove is the form named in the baptism accounts, and Luke's stresses that it was a 'bodily shape'. A voice from heaven then called Jesus 'my beloved Son'.

Which apostle, called 'the Twin', would not believe Jesus had risen until he saw the wounds?

Thomas had missed the first appearance to the other apostles and demanded to see and feel the wounds for himself. English still calls a stubborn sceptic a 'doubting Thomas'.

After Jesus had fasted in the desert, what did the devil first dare him to turn into bread?

Stones were the first of the three temptations. Jesus, hungry after forty days without food, answered with scripture: man does not live on bread alone.

In the first three Gospels, the Last Supper is the ritual meal of which Jewish festival?

Passover is the setting in the three Synoptic accounts, where the disciples ask Jesus where to prepare the meal. The bread and wine he shared became the Christian Eucharist.

Crowds waved branches and spread cloaks on the road as Jesus entered Jerusalem riding which animal?

A donkey carried him into the city, and Christians remember the day as Palm Sunday. One Gospel adds a colt walking beside its mother.

Which plant's tiny seed did Jesus compare to God's kingdom, as it grows big enough to shelter birds?

Mustard of the kind Jesus meant can reach about nine feet from a proverbially small seed. Jesus used the same seed as a measure of faith.

Which sister of Lazarus complained that she had to serve alone while Mary sat listening to Jesus?

Martha was 'cumbered about much serving' and asked Jesus to send her sister to help. He answered that Mary had chosen 'that good part'.

In Revelation, God declares 'I am' which pair of letters, 'the beginning and the ending'?

Alpha and Omega are the first and last letters of their alphabet. Early Christians painted the pair in the Roman catacombs, and early Christian art hung the letters from the arms of the cross.

Which place name, found once in the New Testament, is where Revelation's kings gather for battle?

Armageddon is usually read as 'Mount Megiddo', from the Hebrew. The word has since come to stand for any end-of-the-world scenario.

Which letter of Paul holds the 'love is patient, love is kind' passage so often read at weddings?

First Corinthians 13 ends by ranking love above faith and hope. The Church of England calls the chapter the most popular reading at its weddings.

Which letter of Paul lists the 'fruit of the Spirit', including joy, peace, patience and kindness?

Galatians names nine qualities in all, ending with self-control. Catholic tradition, following the Latin Vulgate, counts twelve.

Which of Paul's letters, his longest, is placed first among the epistles in the New Testament?

Romans was probably taken down by a scribe called Tertius, who adds a greeting of his own near the end. Paul's letters run roughly from longest to shortest.

What phrase did Paul use for the unnamed affliction he begged God three times to take away?

A thorn in the flesh is all Paul ever calls it, never saying what it was. The answer he reports receiving was 'My grace is sufficient for thee'.

After the Last Supper, Jesus called himself 'the true' what, pruned by his Father to bear fruit?

Vine is one of seven 'I am' titles Jesus takes in the fourth Gospel. His followers are the branches, he adds, and a branch cut off from him simply withers.

Paul's letter to Titus quotes a poet who called the people of which island 'always liars'?

Crete was the poet's own home, which is the catch. A Cretan, Epimenides, saying that all Cretans lie became a classic puzzle of logic.

Silversmiths in Ephesus rioted against Paul to defend which goddess, whose shrines they made and sold?

Artemis had a temple in the city that ranked among the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The mob filled the theatre chanting 'Great is Artemis of the Ephesians'.

After Paul healed a lame man at Lystra, the crowd took him for which god as the chief speaker?

Hermes, Mercurius in the King James Bible, went to Paul, while his fellow missionary was hailed as Zeus. A local priest even arrived with oxen and garlands to sacrifice to them.

Which Cypriot nicknamed 'son of encouragement' vouched for the newly converted Saul to the apostles?

Barnabas got the nickname from the apostles around the time he sold his land and gave away the proceeds. He later sailed with Paul on his first missionary journey.

Which Jewish group, rivals of the Pharisees, denied that the dead would ever be raised?

Sadducees also denied angels and spirits. Paul exploited the split at his hearing by announcing he was a Pharisee on trial for his hope that the dead rise.

Which high priest, son-in-law of Annas, presided over the council's trial of Jesus?

Caiaphas kept the office for eighteen years, a long run that suggests he worked well with the Roman governors. A bone box carved with the name was found in Jerusalem in 1990.

Which wealthy council member asked Pilate for the body of Jesus and laid it in his own new tomb?

Joseph of Arimathea is called a secret disciple in one Gospel. Medieval legends later tied him to Britain and the Holy Grail.

What was torn in two from top to bottom at the moment Jesus died on the cross?

The Temple curtain is usually taken to be the one screening the Holy of Holies, a room only the high priest entered, once a year. Three Gospels record the tear.

What title did Pilate have written on the sign above the cross, shortened to INRI in Christian art?

King of the Jews was posted in three languages as the charge against him. When the chief priests objected, Pilate answered, 'What I have written I have written.'

Jesus promised the repentant criminal crucified beside him, 'Today shalt thou be with me in' where?

Paradise is promised only in Luke's account of the crucifixion. Later tradition gave the man a name, Dismas, which may come from a word meaning 'dying'.

From which hill just east of Jerusalem does the book of Acts say Jesus ascended into heaven?

Mount of Olives is where Acts sets the scene, 'a sabbath day's journey' from the city. Two men in white then tell the disciples he will return the same way.

What did the chief priests buy with the silver Judas returned, as a burial place for strangers?

A potter's field is still the English name for a paupers' graveyard. The priests judged the silver to be blood money, and the plot became known as the Field of Blood.

Driving traders from the Temple, Jesus said they had turned a house of prayer into a den of what?

Thieves is the King James wording; many newer Bibles say robbers. In one account he makes a whip of cords and overturns the money changers' tables.

Asked about paying Roman taxes, Jesus pointed to a denarius bearing whose image and inscription?

Caesar's, his questioners admitted, and he replied: 'Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's.' The piece is usually thought to be a denarius of Tiberius.

What did a poor widow put in the Temple treasury that Jesus said outweighed rich men's offerings?

Two small coins, mites in the King James Bible, were worth only minutes of a day's wage but were all she had. The story gave English the phrase 'the widow's mite'.

What was Jesus doing in the stern of the boat when a storm threatened to swamp his disciples?

Sleeping on a cushion, he was woken by disciples asking, 'Teacher, don't you care if we drown?' He rebuked the wind, and the sea went calm.

A woman at Bethany poured costly perfume over Jesus from a jar made of which material?

Alabaster held pure nard that onlookers complained could have been sold for more than a year's wages. Jesus replied that she had prepared his body for burial.

Which name, applied to Jesus in the nativity story from a prophet's words, means 'God with us'?

Immanuel appears only once in the Gospels, in a quotation from the Hebrew scriptures. In the original prophecy the child was a sign for King Ahaz of Judah.

In Revelation's vision of the New Jerusalem, each of the twelve gates is made from a single what?

Pearl gates are the source of the popular 'pearly gates' of heaven. The same verse paves the city's street with gold as clear as glass.

What name did the possessed man of the Gerasenes give Jesus, explaining 'for we are many'?

Legion was also the name of the Roman army's largest unit. The spirits begged to enter a nearby herd, about two thousand animals, which rushed down a steep bank and drowned.

Which synagogue ruler's twelve-year-old daughter did Jesus raise with the words 'Talitha koum'?

Jairus watched the mourners laugh at Jesus moments before the girl stood up. 'Talitha koum' is Aramaic for 'Little girl, get up', one of the few phrases recorded in the language Jesus spoke.

Which of the seven churches in Revelation is rebuked as 'lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot'?

Laodicea is warned it will be spat out, and 'Laodicean' became an English word for the half-hearted, in faith or in politics.

Which priest, father of John the Baptist, was struck mute for doubting an angel's promise of a son?

Zechariah got his voice back only after writing 'His name is John' on a tablet at the boy's naming. His song of praise that follows is known as the Benedictus.

Which scholar revised the Latin Gospels for Pope Damasus, starting the Bible known as the Vulgate?

Jerome took the commission in 382, and his Latin was affirmed as the Catholic Church's official Bible at the Council of Trent more than a thousand years later.

Which translator, later strangled and burned at the stake, produced the first printed New Testament in English?

William Tyndale had it printed abroad in 1526, and thousands of copies were smuggled into England. Only three of them are known to survive.