Christmas Bible Trivia
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175 free Christmas Bible trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
61 free Christmas Bible trivia questions with answers. This is Christmas Bible trivia for people who want the story as scripture actually tells it: the angel in Nazareth, the census, the shepherds in the fields, the Magi who arrive at a house rather than a stable, and Herod's fury. It also covers what the church did with the story afterwards: Advent and its rose candle, the O Antiphons, Epiphany, Candlemas, Midnight Mass, and Christmas customs from Mexico's Las Posadas to Ireland's Women's Christmas. Sixty-one questions run from easy (which angel visited Mary?) to genuinely difficult (which priestly division did John the Baptist's father belong to?). Roughly a third are Sunday-school easy, a third medium, and the rest are meant to trouble a seminary graduate. Use it for a church quiz night, a youth group, a family Christmas dinner, or a religious round in a general trivia night. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the nativity narratives, the individual figures, and the feasts of the season, and each question carries the sentence that supports it.
30 of 175 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which angel told Mary that she would conceive and bear a son?
Gabriel
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.
Q 02In which town of Galilee was Mary living when the angel visited her?
Nazareth
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?'
Q 03In the King James Luke 2:14, the angels sing of peace on earth and what 'toward men'?
Good will
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'.
Q 04In Luke, which Roman emperor ordered the census that sent Joseph to Bethlehem?
Augustus
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.
Q 05According to Luke, Jesus was born during a census taken while which man was governor of Syria?
Quirinius
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.
Q 06In Luke, which group is told of Jesus's birth by an angel that night?
Shepherds
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.
Q 07Which Latin hymn of the Mass opens with the angels' words from Luke 2:14?
Gloria in excelsis Deo
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.
Q 08What three gifts did the Magi bring to the infant Jesus?
Gold, frankincense and myrrh
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.
Q 09Which book's line 'the kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts' helped turn the Magi into kings?
Psalms
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.
Q 10Relics said to be the bones of the Magi are enshrined where?
Cologne Cathedral
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.
Q 11In Matthew's account, in what kind of building did the Magi find the child with his mother?
A house
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.
Q 12The Greek word magos comes from Old Persian and referred to the priestly caste of which religion?
Zoroastrianism
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'.
Q 13In Matthew, Herod ordered the killing of the boys around Bethlehem up to what age?
Two years and under
Q 21How does the angel deliver every message to Joseph in Matthew's Gospel?
In dreams
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.
Q 22The name Jesus is a Greek form of which Old Testament name?
Joshua
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'.
Q 23Which priest was struck mute for doubting the angel who announced his son's birth?
Zechariah
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.
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.
Q 14Matthew links Herod's killing of Bethlehem's boys to 'Rachel weeping for her children', a line from which prophet?
Jeremiah
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.
Q 15To which country did Joseph take the family to escape Herod?
Egypt
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'.
Q 16The name Immanuel, which Matthew quotes from the prophets, means what?
God with us
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.
Q 17Matthew's genealogy of Jesus is arranged in three sets of how many generations?
Fourteen
Fourteen is the gematria, or numerical value, of the name David in Hebrew letters.
Q 18Luke's genealogy works backwards from Jesus to which man?
Adam
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.
Q 19Besides Mary, which four women appear in Matthew's genealogy of Jesus?
Tamar, Rahab, Ruth and Bathsheba
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.
Q 20In Matthew 13:55, what do the people of Jesus's home town call him?
The carpenter's son
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'.
Q 24John the Baptist's mother, described by Luke as a relative of Mary, was called what?
Elizabeth
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.
Q 25John the Baptist's father served as a priest in which division of the priesthood?
Abijah
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'.
Q 26Mary's song of praise in Luke 1 is known by which Latin name?
Magnificat
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.
Q 27Which canticle did John the Baptist's father sing at his son's circumcision?
Benedictus
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.
Q 28Which righteous man in Jerusalem was promised he would not die before seeing the Messiah?
Simeon
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.
Q 29Which Latin canticle sung at Compline begins, in English, 'Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace'?
Nunc dimittis
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.
Q 30Which elderly prophetess, a widow who never left the Temple, gave thanks on seeing the infant Jesus?
Anna
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.