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50 free Bethlehem trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Bethlehem is a small West Bank town that carries an enormous story, and this quiz covers both the town and the story. It starts with the name, which means house of bread in Hebrew and house of meat in Arabic, and the Bronze Age letter that may be its first mention. Then the Bible: Rachel's tomb on the road in, Ruth gleaning in the barley fields, the shepherd boy David anointed by Samuel, Micah's prophecy, and the two very different Nativity accounts of Matthew and Luke, with their star, Magi, manger, shepherds and massacre. The Church of the Nativity gets a long look: Constantine and Helena, Justinian's rebuild, the Persians who spared it for a mosaic, Caliph Umar's promise, a Crusader coronation on Christmas Day, the Door of Humility, the fourteen-pointed star whose theft helped start the Crimean War, the Status Quo, the 2002 siege and its 2012 UNESCO listing. Then Jerome and the Vulgate, the Milk Grotto, three Christmases on three dates, olive wood and mother-of-pearl, Herod's tomb at Herodium, Rachel's Tomb behind the wall, Banksy's Walled Off Hotel and the Pennsylvania namesake that calls itself Christmas City. Easy questions suit anyone who has sung the carol; the expert tier reaches the Amarna letters, al-Hakim and the Ottoman census of 1596. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on Bethlehem, its churches and the Nativity, and the supporting sentence is attached to each question.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Bethlehem lies about ten kilometres south of which city?
Jerusalem
It is the capital of the Bethlehem Governorate in the West Bank.
Q 02In Hebrew, the name Bethlehem is traditionally understood to mean what?
House of bread
The Arabic Bayt Lahm is read as 'house of meat', and the oldest Canaanite sense may be 'temple of the god Lakhmu'.
Q 03A possible first mention of Bethlehem, as Bit-Lahmi, appears in which 14th-century BC Egyptian archive?
The Amarna letters
An Egyptian-appointed governor wrote to Pharaoh asking for help retaking the town from Apiru mercenaries.
Q 04According to the Hebrew Bible, which matriarch died and was buried on the road to Bethlehem?
Rachel
Her tomb, also revered by Muslims as the Bilal bin Rabah mosque, is now enclosed by the West Bank barrier.
Q 05Which Israelite king was born in Bethlehem, the youngest of Jesse's eight sons?
David
The prophet Samuel anointed him there while he was still a shepherd boy.
Q 06In the Book of Ruth, whom does the Moabite Ruth marry in Bethlehem?
Boaz
Their son Obed became grandfather to a famous king of Israel.
Q 07Which prophet's book was read as foretelling the Messiah's birth in Bethlehem?
Micah
Both Gospel nativity accounts place the birth of Jesus there in the reign of Herod the Great.
Q 08Which two Gospels contain accounts of the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem?
Matthew and Luke
One has the census, the manger and the shepherds; the other has the wise men, the star and Herod's plot.
Q 09Which Gospel alone tells of the Magi following a star to Bethlehem?
Matthew
It never says how many they were; the traditional number comes from their gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.
Q 10Kepler suggested in 1614 the Star of Bethlehem was a series of 7 BC conjunctions between which two planets?
Jupiter and Saturn
Other candidates proposed over the years include Halley's Comet in 12 BC and a nova recorded by Chinese astronomers around 5 BC.
Q 11The bones of the Magi are traditionally said to rest in a shrine in which cathedral?
Cologne
Western tradition names them Melchior, Caspar and Balthazar; Syriac tradition often counts twelve.
Q 12In the Massacre of the Innocents, Herod ordered the killing of all boys in Bethlehem up to what age?
Two years old
The Feast of the Holy Innocents, or Childermas, is kept on 28 December; most scholars doubt the event's historicity.
Q 13Which Roman emperor destroyed Bethlehem and made the Nativity grotto a shrine to Adonis?
Hadrian
He did it after crushing the Bar Kokhba revolt of 132–136; Constantine later rebuilt the town.
Q 21The 1847 theft of the Grotto's silver star by Greek monks is cited as a factor in which war?
The Crimean War
Rival Catholic and Orthodox claims over the holy places gave France and Russia a pretext for confrontation.
Q 22What is the 1852 arrangement governing the rival churches' rights in the Church of the Nativity called?
The Status Quo
The Franciscans, Greeks and Armenians share the basilica under its terms.
Q 23In 2012 the Church of the Nativity became the first site inscribed by UNESCO under which state party?
Palestine
It went straight onto the List of World Heritage in Danger because of a leaking roof, and came off it in 2019.
Q 14Which emperor commissioned the Church of the Nativity around 327, after his mother's Holy Land pilgrimage?
Constantine the Great
His mother Helena visited the ruins of Bethlehem in 326–328; the first basilica was dedicated on 31 May 339.
Q 15After the Constantinian church was destroyed in the Samaritan revolts, which Byzantine emperor rebuilt it?
Justinian I
The present basilica is essentially his, with five aisles of Corinthian columns.
Q 16Legend says the invading Persians spared the Church of the Nativity in 614 because of what?
A mosaic of the Magi in Persian dress
The Persian army under Khosrau II swept through the region but left the basilica standing.
Q 17Which caliph promised after the 637 conquest that the Church of the Nativity would remain Christian?
Umar ibn al-Khattab
The Old City's only mosque, facing the basilica, is named after him.
Q 18Who was crowned in Bethlehem on Christmas Day 1100?
Baldwin I of Jerusalem
The Crusaders had taken the town in 1099 and replaced its Greek Orthodox clergy with Catholic ones.
Q 19What is the 'Door of Humility' at the Church of the Nativity?
A tiny entrance you must stoop through
The main entrance was walled up to stop people riding horses and cattle into the church.
Q 20How many points does the silver star marking Jesus's birthplace in the Nativity Grotto have?
Fourteen
Its Latin inscription reads 'Here Jesus Christ was born to the Virgin Mary' and is dated 1717.
Q 24What happened at the Church of the Nativity in April 2002 during the Second Intifada?
A month-long siege by Israeli forces
About 50 armed Palestinians wanted by the IDF barricaded themselves inside.
Q 25The Nativity Grotto is described as the oldest site in Christianity that has been what?
Used without a break for worship
The basilica above it is the oldest major church in the Holy Land.
Q 26Which scholar spent thirty years beside the Church of the Nativity translating the Bible into Latin?
Jerome
The Roman aristocrat Paula funded his stay; his Vulgate remained the dominant Latin Bible until the Reformation.
Q 27Bethlehem's Milk Grotto takes its name from a legend that what turned the rock white?
A drop from the nursing Virgin Mary
Its chalky powder is still sought by couples hoping for children.
Q 28On how many different dates is Christmas celebrated in Bethlehem each year?
Three
Catholics and Protestants keep 25 December, the Greek, Coptic and Syrian Orthodox 6 January, and the Armenians 19 January.
Q 29What is the name of the central plaza in front of the Church of the Nativity?
Manger Square
The Old City's eight quarters are laid out around it.
Q 30Bethlehem's traditional religious handicrafts are made chiefly from olive wood and what?
Mother-of-pearl
The souvenir trade lives off the pilgrim traffic.