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60 free Ten Commandments trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Ten Commandments trivia quiz covers the Decalogue from the mountain to the movie screen. The first half is scripture and history: where and how the commandments were given, the forty days, the tablets that were smashed and replaced, where the second set was kept, why the Hebrew name means "the ten words", how Jews, Catholics, Lutherans, Samaritans and Muslims count and read them differently, the ancient papyrus that preserves them, and the American courtroom battles over posting them in schools. The second half is Cecil B. DeMille's 1956 epic: Charlton Heston, Yul Brynner, Anne Baxter and Edward G. Robinson, the Broadway show that landed Brynner the part, the actress rejected for not filling out the costumes, the baby in the basket, the voice of God, the 360,000-gallon Red Sea, the Disney animators behind the pillar of fire, the budget, the Oscar and the annual Passover-and-Easter TV airing that has run since 1973. Easy questions suit Sunday-school graduates and anyone who has caught the film on television; the expert ones are for people who know their Septuagint from their Samaritan Pentateuch. Every answer was checked against the Wikipedia articles on the commandments and the film and their cited sources before publishing, and each question shows its citation once you have answered.
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Q 01According to the Hebrew Bible, to whom did God give the Ten Commandments?
Moses
Moses received the Ten Commandments from God on the mountain (Exodus 20); Exodus 32 says he smashed the first tablets and later climbed back up for a second pair.
Q 02On which mountain were the commandments revealed?
Sinai
Mount Sinai, also called Horeb in Deuteronomy, is where Exodus 19–20 places the revelation, amid thunder, lightning, smoke and a loud trumpet blast.
Q 03What were the Israelites worshipping when Moses came down and smashed the first tablets?
A golden calf
Exodus 32 says the Israelites, fearing Moses was gone, pressed Aaron to make a golden calf from their gold earrings; Moses smashed the tablets when he saw them dancing around it.
Q 04Where were the second set of tablets later placed?
The Ark of the Covenant
Deuteronomy 10:5 says Moses put the second tablets in the Ark of the Covenant, the gold-covered chest carried with the Israelites; 1 Kings 8:9 says only those two tablets were inside it.
Q 05What alternative name for the Ten Commandments comes from the Greek for "ten words"?
The Decalogue
The Decalogue takes its name from the Greek deka logoi, 'ten words', the phrase the Septuagint uses for the commandments; Clement of Alexandria was among the early writers who used dekalogos as a name.
Q 06How long was Moses on the mountain when he received the tablets?
Forty days and forty nights
Exodus 24:18 says Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights; the cloud had covered it for six days first, and he was called in on the seventh.
Q 07Besides Exodus 20, which book of the Bible contains a second full version of the commandments?
Deuteronomy
Deuteronomy 5 repeats the commandments in Moses's farewell speeches, with a different reason for the Sabbath: remembering slavery in Egypt rather than God's rest on the seventh day.
Q 08Which commandment does Ephesians 6:2 call the first one with a promise attached?
Honour thy father and mother
Ephesians 6:2–3 calls 'Honour thy father and mother' the first commandment with promise, quoting Exodus 20:12's pledge that your days may be long in the land.
Q 09On which day of the week is the Sabbath commandment observed in Judaism?
Saturday
Jewish Shabbat is the seventh day, Saturday, kept from Friday dusk to Saturday nightfall; most Christians moved their day of rest to Sunday, the day of the resurrection.
Q 10The Samaritan version has a tenth commandment about the sanctity of which mountain?
Mount Gerizim
The Samaritan Pentateuch adds a tenth commandment ordering an altar on Mount Gerizim, near Nablus; Samaritans treat 'I am the Lord your God' as a preface, so the usual list counts as nine.
Q 11The Nash Papyrus contains the commandments followed by the opening of which prayer?
The Shema
The Nash Papyrus, a 2nd-century BC fragment from Egypt, pairs the Decalogue with the opening of the Shema ('Hear, O Israel'); the Mishnah says Temple priests recited both each morning.
Q 12During which festival are the commandments read aloud in synagogue, besides the regular Torah cycle?
Shavuot
On Shavuot, which commemorates the giving of the Torah at Sinai, Exodus 19–20 is read aloud, so the commandments are heard three times a year counting the regular Exodus and Deuteronomy readings.
Q 13Which Church Father's Ten Commandments numbering, used by Catholics and Lutherans, splits coveting in two?
Augustine
Q 21According to Exodus 31:18, the tablets were uniquely written with what?
The finger of God
Exodus 31:18 says the two tablets of the testimony were 'written with the finger of God'; that phrase, repeated in Deuteronomy 9:10, and their terse style set them apart from every other law Moses delivered.
Q 22Which surah of the Quran describes Moses meeting God on the mountain and receiving the tablets?
Al-A'raf
Surah Al-A'raf (7:142–145) tells how Moses kept a forty-night appointment with God, asked to see Him, watched the mountain crumble, and was given tablets inscribed with guidance on all things.
Q 23Which English Bible established the phrase "ten commandments", later followed by the King James Version?
Geneva
Augustine of Hippo's numbering merges the bans on other gods and on images into one commandment and splits coveting into two; the Reformed and Orthodox traditions follow Philo and Josephus in keeping images separate.
Q 14In which 1980 case did the Supreme Court strike down Kentucky's classroom commandments law?
Stone v. Graham
Stone v. Graham (1980) held that Kentucky's statute requiring the Ten Commandments on every classroom wall had no secular legislative purpose and so failed the Lemon test.
Q 15Which state's governor signed a 2024 law mandating the commandments in every public school classroom?
Louisiana
A federal judge called it "unconstitutional on its face"; Texas and Arkansas passed similar laws in 2025.
Q 16Which organisation placed thousands of Ten Commandments displays in US courthouses in the 1950s?
Fraternal Order of Eagles
The Fraternal Order of Eagles' youth-guidance programme gave out Ten Commandments plaques and granite monuments to courthouses and parks across the US from the 1950s; its Austin monument was upheld in Van Orden v. Perry (2005).
Q 17Scholars have compared the structure of the commandments to the treaties of which ancient empire?
The Hittites
George Mendenhall in 1954 likened the Sinai covenant to the treaties of the Hittites, whose suzerainty pacts open by recalling the great king's favours before listing the vassal's duties, as Exodus 20 opens with 'who brought you out of Egypt'.
Q 18Jewish tradition counts how many commandments in the Torah in total?
613
Jewish tradition counts 613 mitzvot in the Torah, 248 positive and 365 negative, a tally the Talmud (Makkot 23b) credits to Rabbi Simlai; Philo treated the Ten as headings for the rest.
Q 19Dekalog, a ten-part television series built around the commandments, came from which country?
Poland
Krzysztof Kieślowski's Dekalog (1989) was made in Poland for Polish television; its ten hour-long films all unfold in one Warsaw housing estate, each loosely tied to a commandment.
Q 20In Matthew 19, after listing five of the commandments, Jesus adds which further command?
Love thy neighbour as thyself
In Matthew 19:18–19 Jesus lists five commandments and then adds 'Love thy neighbour as thyself' from Leviticus 19:18; Paul likewise sums up the second-tablet commands with it in Romans 13:9.
The Geneva Bible of 1560 rendered Exodus 34:28 as the 'tenne commandements', wording the Bishops' Bible and the 1611 King James Version kept; Tyndale and Coverdale had written 'ten verses'.
Q 24In one rabbinic pairing, "I am the Lord thy God" matches which second-tablet commandment?
Thou shalt not murder
The Mekhilta pairs the two tablets line by line: 'I am the Lord thy God' with 'Thou shalt not murder', since a murderer destroys the image of God; idolatry pairs with adultery, and misusing God's name with theft.
Q 25Which scholar argued that "thou shalt not steal" originally meant "thou shalt not kidnap"?
Albrecht Alt
Albrecht Alt argued in his essay on the Decalogue's theft ban that the eighth commandment originally forbade stealing a free person, i.e. kidnapping; the Talmud (Sanhedrin 86a) likewise reads it as a ban on stealing people.
Q 26Who produced, directed and narrated the 1956 film The Ten Commandments?
Cecil B. DeMille
Cecil B. DeMille produced and directed the film and speaks its on-screen prologue and narration; it was his fourth biblical picture and the last film he directed before his death in 1959.
Q 27Who plays Moses in the 1956 film?
Charlton Heston
Charlton Heston plays Moses, three years after leading the director's circus epic The Greatest Show on Earth (1952); he went on to win the Best Actor Oscar for Ben-Hur (1959).
Q 28Who plays Rameses, the Pharaoh who says "So let it be written, so let it be done"?
Yul Brynner
Yul Brynner plays Rameses II, the Pharaoh whose decrees end 'So let it be written, so let it be done'; the National Board of Review named him Best Actor of 1956 partly for this role.
Q 29Who plays the scheming princess Nefretiri?
Anne Baxter
Anne Baxter, a Best Supporting Actress Oscar winner for The Razor's Edge (1946), plays Nefretiri; the director cast her after screening her 1954 film Carnival Story.
Q 30Which blacklisted actor did the director rehire to play the treacherous overseer Dathan?
Edward G. Robinson
Edward G. Robinson, greylisted after the HUAC hearings, plays Dathan; in his memoir All My Yesterdays he wrote that the director 'returned me to films' and 'restored my self-respect'.