New Testament Trivia
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7correct to beat the crowd
This New Testament quiz has 107 free questions with answers and covers all 27 books, not just the famous scenes. You will find the nativity and the Magi, the parables and miracles of Jesus, the passion week from Gethsemane to Golgotha, the resurrection appearances, Pentecost and the early church in Acts, Paul's conversion, journeys and letters, and the seven churches, horsemen and numbers of Revelation. Questions start with basics anyone who has sat through Sunday school will know and build to details for people who have read the whole text: who fell asleep during Paul's sermon, which book is the shortest, what a tetrarch was, and which apostle was chosen by lot. It works for youth group, Bible study, a church quiz night or a family game, and there is nothing here that requires a particular denomination. Every answer has been checked against the text and standard reference sources, and each question shows an explanation and its citation once you have answered.
30 of 107 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01How many books make up the New Testament?
27
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.
Q 02In what language was the New Testament originally written?
Greek
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.
Q 03Which Gospel do most scholars believe was written first?
Mark
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.
Q 04The Gospel of Luke and which other book are widely thought to be a two-volume work by the same author?
Acts of the Apostles
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.
Q 05In John's Gospel, Jesus calls himself 'the bread of life', 'the true vine' and 'the good' what?
Shepherd
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.
Q 06Which archangel tells Mary she will bear a son, in the scene called the Annunciation?
Gabriel
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.
Q 07Which relative of Mary, traditionally called her cousin, was the mother of John the Baptist?
Elizabeth
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.
Q 08According to the first Gospel, King Herod ordered the killing of all boys in Bethlehem up to what age?
Two years
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.
Q 09Which ruler had John the Baptist beheaded after John condemned his marriage to Herodias?
Herod Antipas
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.
Q 10Jesus turned water into wine at a wedding in which town?
Cana
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.
Q 11Which fishing village on the Sea of Galilee did Jesus make the base of his ministry?
Capernaum
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.
Q 12Which miracle of Jesus, apart from the resurrection, is the only one recorded in all four Gospels?
Feeding the 5,000
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.
Q 13At the Transfiguration, Jesus is seen talking with which two Old Testament figures?
Moses and Elijah
Q 21Gethsemane, the garden below the Mount of Olives where Jesus was arrested, probably takes its name from words meaning what?
Oil press
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.
Q 22Which disciple cut off the ear of Malchus, the high priest's servant, during the arrest of Jesus?
Peter
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.
Q 23For how many pieces of silver did Judas Iscariot betray Jesus?
Thirty
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.
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.
Q 14Zacchaeus, the tax collector of Jericho, climbed what to see Jesus over the crowd?
A sycamore tree
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.
Q 15Which friend did Jesus raise after four days in the tomb?
Lazarus
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.
Q 16In the parable of the Good Samaritan, which two people pass the wounded man first?
A priest and a Levite
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?'
Q 17In the parable of the Prodigal Son, what job is the younger son reduced to before he returns home?
Tending pigs
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.
Q 18Jesus tells a Samaritan woman of her five husbands beside which well?
Jacob's 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.
Q 19The Sermon on the Mount opens with which set of sayings?
The Beatitudes
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.
Q 20Nicodemus, who visited Jesus by night, was told a person must be what to see the kingdom of God?
Born again
'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.
Q 24Which prisoner did the crowd ask Pilate to release instead of Jesus?
Barabbas
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.
Q 25Who was compelled by the Romans to carry the cross of Jesus?
Simon of Cyrene
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.
Q 26The crucifixion site Golgotha is translated in the Gospels as 'the place of' what?
A skull
'The place of a skull' is how the Gospels gloss Golgotha, from Aramaic gulgulta; the Latin calvaria, 'skull', gives the name Calvary.
Q 27Which woman is honoured as the 'Apostle to the Apostles' for first witnessing the resurrection?
Mary Magdalene
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.
Q 28Which of the two disciples who walk with the risen Jesus to Emmaus is named?
Cleopas
Cleopas is named in Luke 24:18; his companion is never named, and the pair recognise Jesus only when he breaks bread at supper.
Q 29Jesus' closing instruction in Matthew to 'make disciples of all nations' is known by what name?
The Great Commission
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'.
Q 30After Judas' death, the apostles chose his replacement by what method?
Casting lots
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.