The Sabbath
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50 free The Sabbath trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
A weekly day of rest is one of the oldest ideas still shaping modern life. The Sabbath appears in the opening pages of the Bible, sits among the Ten Commandments, and went on to set the rhythm of the week for Jews and Christians alike, from family dinner tables to shop opening hours. This quiz covers the day from every side. There are questions on the Bible passages that set it apart, the arguments Jesus had about it, and the customs of the Jewish Shabbat: the candles, the bread and wine, the rules about work and the clever ways people live within them. Others follow the Christian move to Sunday and the rules, athletes and businesses that have kept a day of rest in the news. It is written for Bible study groups, Sunday school and youth leaders, religious school classes and anyone curious about why so much of the world still pauses once a week. The set opens with the best-known facts and ends with a few that will test keen readers, and every answer comes with a short explanation.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which American singer served his Jewish neighbours as a teenage Shabbos goy, doing tasks forbidden on the Sabbath?
Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley shares the role with Colin Powell, Mario Cuomo and Martin Scorsese, who all helped Jewish neighbours the same way. A Shabbos goy is a non-Jew who does jobs Jewish law bars on the day of rest.
Q 02Which American fast-food chain closes every restaurant on Sundays as a commitment to keeping a Christian Sabbath?
Chick-fil-A
Chick-fil-A has made rare exceptions. In December 2017 it opened on a Sunday to feed passengers stranded by a power outage at Atlanta's airport.
Q 03What does a Sabbath elevator do automatically so that observant Jewish riders never have to press a button?
Stops at every floor
Stops at every floor is the whole trick: the doors open on each level in turn, so nobody operates a switch. Some rabbinical scholars still object to these lifts on other grounds.
Q 04Which Scottish sprinter refused to run his Olympic 100 metres heat in 1924 because it fell on a Sunday Sabbath?
Eric Liddell
Eric Liddell switched to the 400 metres, held on a weekday, and won it. His stand also kept him out of the 4 x 400 metres relay, in which Britain finished third.
Q 05Which day of the week is named after the Sabbath in Spanish, Italian and most other Romance languages?
Saturday
Saturday in those languages descends from the Latin for 'day of the Sabbath', giving Spanish sábado and Italian sabato. English went a different way and kept the Roman god Saturn.
Q 06According to Jewish law, the appearance of what in the night sky signals that the Sabbath has ended?
Three stars
Three stars in the sky show that night has fully arrived. Because the day of rest begins a few minutes before sunset the evening before, it lasts a little longer than 24 hours.
Q 07Which food did the Israelites gather in a double portion on the sixth day so they could rest on the Sabbath?
Manna
Manna kept overnight normally bred worms and stank. The one exception was the extra share stored for the day of rest, which stayed fresh.
Q 08Which Roman emperor decreed in 321 that Sunday, rather than the Sabbath of the seventh day, would be a day of rest?
Constantine
Constantine issued his civil decree on 7 March 321. Christians had met for worship on the first day of the week long before, but afterwards many more kept Sunday alone.
Q 09Which bread is traditionally blessed in pairs of loaves at Jewish Sabbath meals?
Challah
Challah comes in twos to recall the double helping of food that fell in the desert before each day of rest. Nobody agrees on where its braided shape came from.
Q 10Under the Jewish principle of pikuach nefesh, which purpose overrides almost every Sabbath restriction?
Saving a life
Saving a life is not merely allowed but required. Jewish law obliges a person to break the day's rules when someone is in danger, barring only murder, idolatry and forbidden sexual acts.
Q 11Which book of the Bible first describes God resting on the seventh day and blessing it as holy?
Genesis
Genesis counts each day of creation as evening then morning, the pattern behind keeping the Sabbath from one sunset to the next.
Q 12In Deuteronomy, the Sabbath commandment tells Israel to remember being slaves in which land?
Egypt
Egypt takes the place of creation as the reason for the day. The Exodus version points to God's own rest, while Deuteronomy points to freedom from forced labour.
Q 13What were the disciples of Jesus doing on the Sabbath that led Pharisees to accuse them of breaking the law?
Picking grain
Picking grain looked like harvesting to the critics. Jesus replied that the Sabbath was made for man, and called himself Lord of the Sabbath.
Q 21Which ceremony, with wine, sweet spices and a braided candle, marks the end of the Jewish Sabbath?
Havdalah
Havdalah means 'separation', dividing the holy day from the working week. Its candle has several wicks, and the spices are handed around so that everyone can smell the fragrance.
Q 22Which ritual enclosure, often marked by poles and wire, lets observant Jews carry objects outdoors on the Sabbath?
Eruv
Eruv boundaries let people carry house keys, medication and even babies, all otherwise forbidden outdoors. In modern cities, utility poles and their wires often serve as the symbolic doorframes.
Q 23Which slow-simmered stew of meat, potatoes, beans and barley is cooked overnight for the Jewish Sabbath lunch?
Cholent
Q 14Which part of a man's body did Jesus heal in a synagogue on the Sabbath while Pharisees watched for a charge?
His hand
His hand was withered, and Jesus restored it after arguing that doing good is lawful on the Sabbath. The Pharisees left to plot against him with the Herodians, their natural enemies.
Q 15Most Christians worship on Sunday rather than the seventh-day Sabbath to mark which event in the life of Jesus?
The Resurrection
The Resurrection falls on the first day of the week in the Gospels. The women who meant to prepare the body had first kept the Sabbath rest, then returned to the tomb.
Q 16Which Protestant church, founded in Battle Creek, Michigan in 1863, keeps the Sabbath from sundown on Friday?
Seventh-day Adventists
Seventh-day Adventists took up the practice under the influence of the older Seventh Day Baptists, who had kept the day since the mid-17th century.
Q 17In the Sabbath greeting 'Shabbat shalom', what does the Hebrew word shalom mean in English?
Peace
Peace is the core meaning, though shalom also covers well-being and wholeness. The same word doubles as both hello and goodbye.
Q 18What colourful name do Americans give to statutes that restrict Sunday shopping to protect the Christian Sabbath?
Blue laws
Blue laws carry a name whose origin remains a mystery, though one theory links it to 'blue-nosed', a jibe at strict Puritans. Texas barred Sunday sales of pots and pans until 1985.
Q 19In which Coen brothers comedy does Walter Sobchak refuse to go bowling on the Jewish Sabbath?
The Big Lebowski
The Big Lebowski casts John Goodman as Walter, a Vietnam veteran who describes himself as shomer Shabbos, a term for someone who strictly keeps the day.
Q 20Which blessing, whose Hebrew name means 'sanctification', is recited over wine to open the Jewish Sabbath meal?
Kiddush
Kiddush may be said over grape juice instead. Once the person reciting it has drunk, the rest is passed around the table or poured into small cups for everyone else.
Cholent exists because cooking is forbidden on the day itself. Families once carried their pots to the town baker's oven, which always stayed hot, and left them there overnight.
Q 24The 39 categories of work forbidden on the Jewish Sabbath derive from tasks needed to build which structure?
The Tabernacle
The Tabernacle, or Mishkan, was Israel's sanctuary in the wilderness. Every category of forbidden work traces to a task used in setting it up and maintaining it, down to preparing its showbread.
Q 25Which Persian-appointed governor of Judah locked the city gates of Jerusalem to stop merchants trading on the Sabbath?
Nehemiah
Nehemiah had the gates guarded for the whole day. He then threatened force against the traders who spent the night camped outside the walls.
Q 26Which biblical observance, held after seven cycles of sabbatical years, sent everyone back to their own property?
Jubilee
Jubilee also released indentured servants and forgave some debts. The rabbis disputed whether it fell in the 49th year or in the one that followed.
Q 27Which solemn Jewish fast day does the Torah itself describe as a Sabbath of complete rest?
Yom Kippur
Yom Kippur carries the Hebrew label shabbat shabbaton in the Torah, and work is prohibited on it just as on the weekly day of rest.
Q 28The Hebrew word Shabbat, source of the English word Sabbath, comes from a verb with which basic meaning?
To cease
To cease is the root sense, so the noun names a time of stopping. Ancient Greek borrowed the idea as a verb of its own, sabbatizo.
Q 29Which member of a Jewish household traditionally lights the candles that welcome the Sabbath?
The woman of the house
The woman of the house usually lights them, though every Jew must either light candles or make sure they are lit on their behalf. Most homes light at least two.
Q 30In which hometown synagogue did Jesus stand to read on the Sabbath before the crowd tried to throw him off a hill?
Nazareth
Nazareth has no cliff face, some scholars object, though tradition points to nearby Mount Precipice. In Luke's account Jesus simply slips away from the mob.