Getting your questions ready
Getting your questions ready
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40 free Easter Bible trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
The Easter story is the one part of the Bible that all four Gospels tell in full, and they do not tell it the same way. Matthew has a dream, an earthquake and bribed guards; Mark stops short at an empty tomb; Luke adds a second hearing before a second ruler; John gives the trial its longest scene and the garden its most famous meeting. These 40 questions run from Palm Sunday to Pentecost: the ride into Jerusalem, the upset tables in the temple, the upper room, the garden, the arrest and the hearings, the road to the cross, the empty tomb on Sunday morning, the appearances to the women and the Eleven, the ascension and the day the church began. It suits a church quiz night, a Sunday school class or a Holy Week Bible study, and it keeps asking what each Gospel alone records. Play on your phone with instant explanations, or print it and read it aloud.
30 of 40 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What 'separated and came to rest on each' of the believers at Pentecost, the event that ends the Easter season?
Tongues of fire
Tongues of fire came after 'a sound like the blowing of a violent wind' filled the house, and the believers began speaking in languages they had never learned.
Q 02How did Judas identify Jesus to the armed crowd in the garden, a signal he had arranged in advance?
With a kiss
With a kiss and the words 'Greetings, Rabbi!' Judas marked his man, and Luke has Jesus ask whether he would betray the Son of Man with that greeting.
Q 03What did Pilate do in front of the crowd to declare himself innocent of Jesus's death, in Matthew alone?
Washed his hands
He washed his hands, a Jewish rite from Deuteronomy for a town disowning an unsolved killing, so the Roman was borrowing his accusers' own ritual.
Q 04Which last words from the cross, a single Greek word in the original, does John record before Jesus bowed his head?
It is finished
'It is finished' is tetelestai in Greek, a word also stamped on paid-up bills, and John says Jesus spoke it after taking the drink and then 'gave up his spirit'.
Q 05Which Hebrew cry from Psalm 118, meaning 'save, we pray', did the crowds shout as Jesus rode into Jerusalem?
Hosanna
Hosanna had turned from a plea into a shout of jubilation, and the crowd added 'to the Son of David', a royal title the priests found alarming.
Q 06What flowed from Jesus's side when a soldier pierced it with a spear, a detail only John records?
Blood and water
Blood and water came out in 'a sudden flow', John says an eyewitness saw it, and later legend named the soldier Longinus and made him a saint.
Q 07How many people, roughly, were baptised after Peter's sermon on the day of Pentecost, according to Acts 2?
3,000
About 3,000 were 'added to their number that day', a crowd swelled by pilgrims in Jerusalem from 'every nation under heaven' for the festival.
Q 08At which village, reached as Jesus approached Jerusalem, did he send two disciples to fetch a tethered colt?
Bethphage
Bethphage appears in the Bible only in this scene, and Matthew alone has the disciples bring back both the mother donkey and her colt.
Q 09Which prophet wrote 'See, your king comes to you... riding on a donkey', the verse Matthew says the entry fulfilled?
Zechariah
Zechariah's verse promised a king 'righteous and victorious' whose rule would stretch 'from sea to sea', and Matthew quotes it as fulfilled that morning.
Q 10Whose tables did Jesus overturn in the temple courts in Holy Week, calling the place 'a den of robbers'?
The money changers
The money changers swapped pilgrims' Roman coins for the Tyrian shekels the temple tax required, and Jesus also tipped over the benches of the dove sellers.
Q 11Which tree did Jesus curse on the road from Bethany for bearing nothing but leaves, so that it withered?
A fig
A fig tree in leaf should carry early fruit, and Mark splits the story so the disciples find it withered 'from the roots' the next morning.
Q 12For what did Jesus say the woman who poured perfume on his head at Bethany had prepared him, in Matthew 26?
His burial
His burial was what the perfume prepared him for, and he promised that 'wherever this gospel is preached' her act would be told 'in memory of her'.
Q 13Which festival meal, prepared at 'a certain man's house', did Jesus eat with his disciples as the Last Supper?
Passover
Q 21How many times does Mark say the rooster would crow before Peter disowned Jesus three times, unlike the other Gospels?
Twice
Twice is Mark's count, and 'the rooster crowed the second time' as Peter broke down and wept, a detail the other three Gospels trim to one crow.
Q 22How long did Jesus ask Peter, James and John to 'keep watch' with him in the garden, only to find them sleeping?
One hour
One hour was all he asked, and three times he came back to find them asleep, 'exhausted from sorrow' as Luke puts it.
Q 23Where did Jesus tell Pilate his kingdom was from, adding that otherwise 'my servants would fight' to prevent his arrest?
Not of this world
Passover commemorates the exodus from Egypt, and the Synoptics set the supper on its first evening while John dates the crucifixion to the afternoon the lambs were killed.
Q 14How many demons does Mark 16 say Jesus had driven out of Mary Magdalene, the first to see him risen?
Seven
Seven demons are also mentioned by Luke 8, where Mary Magdalene is among the women funding Jesus's travels 'out of their own means'.
Q 15Where did Jesus and the disciples go after singing a hymn at the end of the Last Supper, per Matthew 26?
Mount of Olives
The Mount of Olives faces the temple across the Kidron Valley, and the hymn was probably the Hallel psalms that close the festival meal.
Q 16What did Jesus ask his Father to 'take from me' in Gethsemane, adding 'yet not as I will, but as you will'?
This cup
'This cup' echoes the prophets' cup of God's wrath, and Luke adds that a visitor from heaven strengthened him as he prayed.
Q 17Which Aramaic word for 'father' does Mark alone record Jesus using as he prayed in Gethsemane?
Abba
Abba is the intimate family word, and Paul later writes that the Spirit lets believers cry 'Abba, Father' too, in Romans and Galatians.
Q 18How many legions of angels did Jesus say his Father could send him at the arrest, in Matthew 26?
Twelve
'More than twelve legions' would top 60,000 at Roman strength, and Jesus said he would not call them so that 'the Scriptures' could be fulfilled.
Q 19How did a young man following Jesus escape the arresting party in Mark 14, once they seized his linen garment?
Naked
Naked, 'leaving his garment behind', he fled, and since no other Gospel has the episode many readers since antiquity have guessed he was Mark himself.
Q 20What did the high priest do when Jesus said he would be seen 'sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One'?
Tore his clothes
He tore his clothes and cried 'He has spoken blasphemy!', although Leviticus forbids the high priest to tear his garments.
'Not of this world' is how Jesus described his kingdom, and John alone stages this private exchange inside the palace the priests refused to enter.
Q 24Which Aramaic name does John give the 'Stone Pavement' where Pilate sat on the judge's seat to sentence Jesus?
Gabbatha
Gabbatha is one of several Aramaic place-names John glosses for Greek readers, and a Roman pavement under Jerusalem's Sisters of Zion convent has long been claimed as it.
Q 25What did Pilate's soldiers twist together and set on Jesus's head while mocking him with a scarlet robe and a staff?
A crown of thorns
A crown of thorns parodied the radiate crowns on Roman coins, and the soldiers knelt and hailed him before spitting on him and striking him with the staff.
Q 26Which title, abbreviated INRI on crucifixes, did Pilate's notice above the cross give Jesus of Nazareth?
King of the Jews
King of the Jews was written in Aramaic, Latin and Greek, and when the chief priests asked for a rewrite Pilate answered 'What I have written, I have written'.
Q 27Which prophet did bystanders think Jesus was calling when he cried 'Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani' from the cross?
Elijah
Elijah was expected to return before the Messiah, and the cry is actually the opening line of Psalm 22 in Aramaic.
Q 28What was soaked into a sponge and lifted to Jesus's lips on a hyssop stalk after he said 'I am thirsty'?
Wine vinegar
Wine vinegar was the cheap sour wine Roman soldiers drank, and the hyssop recalls the plant used to mark doorposts at the exodus from Egypt.
Q 29Which name does the apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus give the penitent thief crucified beside Jesus?
Dismas
Dismas is the Good Thief of Catholic tradition, commemorated on 25 March, while the same text calls the mocking thief Gestas.
Q 30Who does Matthew say rolled back the stone from the tomb and sat on it, with a face 'like lightning'?
An angel of the Lord
An angel of the Lord arrived with an earthquake, and the guards 'shook and became like dead men' while the women were told not to be afraid.