100 Fun Facts About Thanksgiving Bible

Which psalm's Hebrew title, 'Mizmor l'Todah', traditionally marks it as a song for the thanksgiving offering?

Psalm 100 gave its name to a hymn tune still sung today: Old Hundredth is so called because it carried the psalm's English paraphrase, 'All People That on Earth Do Dwell'.

Complete the King James line: 'Serve the LORD with ______: come before his presence with singing'?

Gladness: Psalm 2 tells the kings of the earth to 'serve the LORD with fear', but in this psalm the same service comes with singing.

Psalm 136 ends each of its 26 verses by saying that what 'endureth for ever'?

His mercy 'endureth for ever' after every line as the psalm moves from creation to the Exodus, so even 'him that smote Egypt in their firstborn' is answered with it.

Psalm 92's heading assigns it to which day?

The sabbath day: the heading reads 'A Psalm or Song for the sabbath day', and synagogues sing it on Friday evening in the service that welcomes the Sabbath.

Which word completes Psalm 103:2, 'Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his ______'?

Benefits: the psalm goes straight on to list them, from forgiveness and healing to a mouth filled with good things, so that 'thy youth is renewed like the eagle's'.

Only one of the ten lepers Jesus healed came back to give thanks, and he was what?

A Samaritan, an outsider to Jesus's Jewish hearers, which sharpens the question he asks: 'Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine?'

Which Gospel is the only one to record the story of the ten lepers?

Luke alone tells it: Matthew and Mark each record Jesus healing a single leper, but only Luke has the ten, nine of whom never come back.

In John's Gospel, who supplies the loaves and fish for the feeding of the multitude?

A boy: Andrew points him out but asks 'what are they among so many?', and after Jesus gives thanks the whole crowd eats its fill.

In the feeding miracle told in all four Gospels, how many loaves does Jesus bless?

Five loaves and two fish fed about five thousand men, and the scraps alone filled twelve baskets, more food than the disciples had started with.

Which visitors to the newborn Jesus 'returned, glorifying and praising God'?

The shepherds went back to their fields praising God in the open, while the wise men, warned in a dream to avoid Herod, slipped home by another road.

Jesus prayed 'Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me' just before which miracle?

Raising Lazarus from the tomb: Jesus adds that he prayed aloud for the bystanders' sake, 'that they may believe that thou hast sent me', and then calls the dead man out.

In one of Jesus's parables, which character prays 'God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are'?

The Pharisee prays this in the parable of the Pharisee and the publican; the tax collector standing far off asks only for mercy, and Jesus says he, not the Pharisee, went home justified.

Which elderly prophetess 'gave thanks likewise unto the Lord' when the infant Jesus was presented?

Anna, a widow of about eighty-four who 'departed not from the temple', gave thanks and then spoke of the child to all who looked for redemption in Jerusalem.

Which of Paul's letters says 'In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus'?

1 Thessalonians went to a church Paul had been hurried away from by night after a riot, so 'in every thing' was no easy line; it follows 'Rejoice evermore' and 'Pray without ceasing'.

'Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication...' opens a verse in which New Testament letter?

It is Philippians 4:6, and the reward follows in the next verse: 'the peace of God, which passeth all understanding'.

Psalm 105 retells Israel's history, including which man 'sold for a servant' and held in fetters?

Joseph: the psalm says he was laid in iron until the king sent and freed him, then made him lord of his house and ruler of all he owned.

Which word completes Romans 1:21, where the unthankful 'became vain in their ______'?

Imaginations: Paul's charge is that they knew God but 'glorified him not as God, neither were thankful', and the result was that 'their foolish heart was darkened'.

Which letter says every creature of God is good 'if it be received with thanksgiving'?

It is 1 Timothy 4:4, answering teachers who forbade marriage and certain foods: every creature of God is good and 'nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving'.

'Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift' ends an appeal for a collection in which New Testament letter?

2 Corinthians: the same chapter holds the fundraiser's favourite line, 'God loveth a cheerful giver', because Paul wants the money given 'not grudgingly, or of necessity'.

Jonah gave thanks from inside the great fish after fleeing God's order to preach in which city?

Nineveh: Jonah sailed the other way and was thrown overboard, and he prayed 'with the voice of thanksgiving' while still inside the fish, before it had put him ashore.

Daniel kept kneeling three times a day to pray and give thanks, in defiance of which king's decree?

Darius had been talked into a month-long ban on praying to anyone but himself; he then worked until sunset to save Daniel and spent a sleepless night hoping the lions would spare him.

Hannah's Old Testament song of thanksgiving celebrates the birth of which son she had promised to God?

Samuel: Hannah says she chose the name 'because I have asked him of the LORD', and once he was weaned she took him to the sanctuary at Shiloh and left him there to serve.

Mary's song of praise, the Magnificat, is spoken when she visits which relative?

Elisabeth was pregnant with John the Baptist, who leapt in her womb at Mary's greeting. The Latin name comes from its first word, 'magnifies'.

Moses and the Israelites sang 'he hath triumphed gloriously' straight after which event?

Crossing the Red Sea: the song celebrates Pharaoh's chariots drowned behind them, and Miriam then took a timbrel and led the women in the same refrain.

'Then sang Deborah and Barak' opens a victory song in which book of the Bible?

It is Judges 5, celebrating the defeat of Jabin king of Canaan and his general Sisera, whom Jael finished off with a tent peg in the previous chapter.

Which king of Judah wrote a song of thanks after God added fifteen years to his life?

Hezekiah had been told by Isaiah to set his house in order; he prayed in tears instead, and the shadow moving backwards on the sundial was the sign of his reprieve.

On bringing the Ark to Jerusalem, David handed a psalm of thanks to which musician and his brethren?

Asaph, who sounded the cymbals that day, was then left with his brethren to lead worship before the Ark every day; twelve psalms carry his name.

After rebuilding Jerusalem's defences, Nehemiah marked the dedication by sending two thanksgiving choirs where?

Along the top of the wall: the two companies set off in opposite directions, met at the house of God, and made such a noise that 'the joy of Jerusalem was heard even afar off'.

As the Second Temple's foundation was laid, how did the old men who had seen Solomon's Temple react?

They wept aloud while the younger crowd shouted for joy, and the two sounds blended so that no one could tell the weeping from the cheering.

In Leviticus 7, the thanksgiving sacrifice comes with cakes, wafers and, unusually for an offering, what else?

Leavened bread: Leviticus 2 bars leaven from anything burned on the altar, yet the thanksgiving sacrifice calls for it, and the meat had to be eaten the same day.

Which book's command, 'When thou hast eaten and art full, then thou shalt bless the LORD', underlies the Jewish grace after meals?

Deuteronomy 8:10 is why observant Jews say their main grace, Birkat Hamazon, after a meal with bread and not before it: the verse ties the blessing to having eaten one's fill.

In the King James Bible, which word opens the Israelite's firstfruits speech, 'A ______ ready to perish was my father'?

Syrian: the farmer bringing his firstfruits tells how that ancestor went down to Egypt 'with a few' and became a great nation; modern versions read 'a wandering Aramean'.

During which seven-day festival do Jews eat their meals in temporary huts?

Sukkot, the Feast of Tabernacles, comes once the year's crops are gathered in, and Leviticus 23 gives the reason for the huts: Israel lived in booths after leaving Egypt.

Shavuot is known in the New Testament by which Greek name?

Pentecost is Greek for 'fiftieth', as Shavuot is counted fifty days from Passover; Acts 2 sets the coming of the Spirit on that day, which is how a Jewish feast gave a Christian one its name.

Cain offered 'the fruit of the ground' in Genesis 4, but what did his brother Abel bring?

The firstlings of his flock: God accepted Abel's gift and not Cain's, and Cain's anger over it ends in the Bible's first murder.

Which king of Salem brought out bread and wine and blessed Abram after his rescue of Lot?

Melchizedek, 'priest of the most high God', was given a tenth of the spoils by Abram; Hebrews later builds on that, calling Christ a priest 'after the order of Melchisedec'.

What happened after Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises at midnight in prison?

An earthquake opened the doors and shook off every chain, yet nobody ran: Paul stopped the jailer from killing himself, and the man was baptised that night with his household.

Paul gave thanks and broke bread before 276 storm-tossed shipmates shortly before they were wrecked on which island?

Malta, the 'Melita' of the King James text: Paul had promised that not a hair of anyone's head would be lost, and all 276 reached the shore, swimming or clinging to wreckage.

In Revelation 11, who fall on their faces and say 'We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty'?

The twenty-four elders, seated before God on their thrones, fall on their faces after the seventh trumpet (Revelation 11:15-17), thanking him for taking his great power and beginning to reign.

Which English Bible, older than the King James and nicknamed the 'Breeches Bible', did the Pilgrims bring to America?

The Geneva Bible, first published in full in 1560, was the Pilgrims' Bible and Shakespeare's; its nickname comes from Genesis 3:7, where Adam and Eve sew themselves 'breeches'.

Which US president, lobbied by magazine editor Sarah Hale, proclaimed the last Thursday of November a day of 'Thanksgiving and Praise'?

Abraham Lincoln issued it on 3 October 1863, within days of Hale's letter; the author of 'Mary Had a Little Lamb' had pressed earlier presidents for years and been ignored.

Lutheran pastor Martin Rinkart wrote 'Now Thank We All Our God' around 1636 during which conflict?

The Thirty Years' War filled Eilenburg with refugees, famine and plague; in 1637 Rinkart was the only pastor left, burying as many as fifty people a day, his wife among them.

'We Gather Together', first printed in 1626, began as a Dutch song celebrating freedom from which country's rule?

Spain's rule was what the Dutch patriotic song rejoiced to be free of; it became an American Thanksgiving hymn after Theodore Baker put it into English in 1894 as a choral prayer of thanks.

The hymn 'Come, Ye Thankful People, Come' borrows which of Jesus's parables for its picture of the last judgment?

The wheat and the tares, from Matthew 13, lets Henry Alford turn a hymn about crops safely gathered in on its singers, who pray to be good grain on the day angels cast the weeds into the fire.

Which staple of worship comes from Thomas Ken's hymns for Winchester schoolboys?

The Doxology, 'Praise God, from whom all blessings flow', ended Ken's morning and evening hymns; he later refused to house Charles II's mistress Nell Gwyn, and the king still made him a bishop.

Which Pilgrim governor wrote the history 'Of Plymouth Plantation'?

William Bradford began it about 1630; the manuscript vanished from Boston around the time of the Revolution, surfaced in the Bishop of London's library and came home to Massachusetts only in 1897.

Edward Winslow's letter, the main account of the Pilgrims' 1621 'First Thanksgiving', describes what kind of event?

A harvest celebration: three days of feasting with Massasoit and some ninety men. To the Pilgrims a day of thanksgiving meant prayer, like the one they held in 1623 when rain ended a drought.

Which familiar phrase does Psalm 107 use of sailors caught in a storm?

At their wit's end is where verse 27 leaves the crew, who 'reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man'; the psalm has God raise the storm himself, then calm it when they cry out.

Psalm 118, 'O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good', closes which group of psalms sung at Jewish festivals?

The Egyptian Hallel, Psalms 113 to 118, is named for the Exodus from Egypt; at the Passover Seder it is recited in two parts, the first before the meal and the rest after it.

Which image from Psalm 118 did Jesus turn against the chief priests in Matthew's Gospel?

The stone the builders rejected 'is become the head of the corner', Jesus says after his parable of tenants who kill the owner's son; the priests saw he meant them and wanted him seized.

Which Christian sacrament takes its name from the Greek word for thanksgiving?

Eucharist comes from the Greek eucharistia, 'thanksgiving', after the thanks Jesus gave over the bread and cup. The name was already in use in the Didache, an early church treatise from the late first or early second century.

What was the first thing Noah built after leaving the ark with his family and the animals?

An altar came first: Noah offered clean beasts and birds on it in thanks for surviving the flood. The vineyard came later, and its wine left him drunk in his tent.

Which Old Testament man, stripped of his herds and children in one day, said 'blessed be the name of the LORD'?

Job tore his robe, shaved his head and worshipped, saying the LORD gave and the LORD had taken away. The narrator adds that in all this he did not sin.

Daniel thanked God for revealing the dream of which king, who had ordered all his wise men killed?

Nebuchadnezzar demanded that his wise men tell him the dream itself, not just its meaning, or be cut in pieces. Daniel's thanks came the night the secret was shown to him in a vision.

Which sister of Moses and Aaron took a timbrel and led the women of Israel in a song of praise?

Miriam is called a prophetess in Exodus 15, where her one-verse refrain answers the much longer hymn Moses had just led.

The Mayflower Compact, signed by the Pilgrims in 1620, opens with which religious phrase?

In the name of God, Amen is followed by a pledge of loyalty to King James and a statement that the voyage was undertaken for the glory of God and the advancement of the Christian faith.

Which word completes Paul's line in the King James Bible, 'God loveth a ______ giver'?

Cheerful translates the Greek hilaros, the root of the English word 'hilarious'. Paul sets it against giving grudgingly or out of necessity.

Which stage musical reworked the Victorian hymn 'We Plough the Fields and Scatter' as the song 'All Good Gifts'?

Godspell uses a shortened form of the hymn, which began as a German poem of 1782 by Matthias Claudius and was put into English by Jane Montgomery Campbell.

On the road to which village did two disciples walk with the risen Jesus, knowing him only when he broke bread?

Emmaus lay about threescore furlongs, roughly seven miles, from Jerusalem. Jesus took bread, blessed it and broke it, and the moment the two recognised him he vanished from their sight.

Abraham's servant bowed and worshipped the LORD at a well after which woman offered to water his ten camels?

Rebekah's offer was the very sign the servant had just prayed for in choosing a wife for Isaac. He gave her a gold earring and two bracelets, and she ran home to tell her family.

After crossing which river on dry ground did Joshua set up memorial stones at Gilgal, one for each tribe?

Jordan riverbed stones, each carried out on a man's shoulder, were meant to make later children ask what they meant, so the story of the miracle would be retold.

Which priest of Midian, the father-in-law of Moses, blessed the LORD for rescuing Israel from Egypt?

Jethro then brought a burnt offering and ate with Aaron and the elders. The next day he gave Moses some lasting advice: stop judging every dispute alone and share the load.

Which army commander, cured of leprosy by washing seven times, went back to thank the prophet Elisha?

Naaman offered a reward, which Elisha refused. The prophet's servant Gehazi then ran after him to claim it in secret, and was struck with the same disease.

Whom did King Jehoshaphat of Judah send out in front of his army as it marched to battle?

Singers praising the beauty of holiness led the way, and as they sang the invading armies turned on one another. The place was afterwards named the valley of Berachah, meaning blessing.

At the dedication of Solomon's Temple, what filled the house as 120 trumpet-blowing priests thanked the LORD?

A cloud filled the Temple so thickly that the priests could not stand to minister. It came at the moment the instruments and voices sounded as one.

Which name, meaning 'stone of help', was given to a memorial raised after Israel defeated the Philistines?

Ebenezer was set up by a prophet who said the LORD had helped Israel that far. The hymn 'Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing' still mentions the monument by name.

Which short Old Testament book, set during a barley harvest, is read in synagogues at Shavuot?

Ruth gleans behind the reapers of Bethlehem in the fields of Boaz, whom she later marries. Their son Obed became the grandfather of King David.

Which festival, founded in the Book of Esther, is kept with feasting, gifts of food and gifts to the poor?

Purim takes its name from the pur, or lot, that Haman cast to pick the day for destroying the Jews. Mordecai's letters turned that date into a yearly celebration of their escape.

Which devout man of Jerusalem took the infant Jesus in his arms at the Temple and blessed God?

Simeon had been promised he would not die before seeing the Messiah. His words of thanks, known as the Nunc dimittis, have been sung at evening services since the fourth century.

The hymn 'Great Is Thy Faithfulness' takes its title from which Old Testament book, traditionally credited to Jeremiah?

Lamentations sets the line amid grief over ruined Jerusalem, saying God's compassions are new every morning. Thomas Chisholm wrote the hymn in 1923 about God's faithfulness over his own lifetime.

To which tentmaking couple does Paul say that he and all the Gentile churches give thanks?

Priscilla and Aquila had risked their own necks for Paul's life, he writes. The pair shared his trade, once took him in as a lodger, and hosted a church in their house.

Paul's short letter to Philemon opens with thanks, then pleads for which slave who had left his master?

Onesimus means 'useful', and Paul plays on the name: once unprofitable to Philemon, he is now profitable to them both. Paul asks that he be taken back as a beloved brother.

Psalm 50, which says 'Offer unto God thanksgiving', has God claim the cattle on how many hills?

One thousand hills' worth of cattle already belong to God, the psalm argues, so he needs nobody's bullocks or goats. What he asks for in their place is thanks.

After the Last Supper, Jesus and his disciples sang a hymn and then went out to which hill?

Mount of Olives was where Jesus warned the disciples they would all fall away that night. He then prayed in a place called Gethsemane, and came back to find them asleep.

In Matthew's Gospel, Jesus thanks his Father for hiding truths from 'the wise and prudent' and revealing them to whom?

Babes, the King James word for the simple and childlike, are the ones shown what the learned miss. The prayer leads straight into the invitation to all who labour and are heavy laden.

A lame beggar healed by Peter went 'walking, and leaping, and praising God' at which entrance to the Temple?

The Beautiful Gate was where the man, lame from birth, was carried each day to beg. Peter told him he had no silver or gold to give, then took his right hand and lifted him up.

In Psalm 23, after the table is prepared and the head anointed with oil, what 'runneth over'?

My cup overflowing is a picture of a generous host. The psalm has by this verse moved from green pastures and still waters to a feast laid in full view of the guest's enemies.

Which word completes Psalm 30 in the King James Bible, 'Thou hast turned for me my mourning into ______'?

Dancing comes with a change of clothes in the same verse, as the sackcloth of grief is taken off. The psalm's heading links it to the dedication of the house of David.

Which word completes Psalm 34's invitation in the King James Bible, 'O ______ and see that the LORD is good'?

Taste is the unexpected verb, and the heading gives the psalm an odd backdrop: David had just 'changed his behaviour' before a foreign king, feigning madness to get away alive.

Which early president refused to proclaim national days of fasting and thanksgiving, as his predecessors had done?

Thomas Jefferson regarded such proclamations as religious exercises that were not a president's to prescribe. His 1802 letter to the Danbury Baptists, drafted to explain the refusal, speaks of a wall of separation between church and state.

In 1777 Congress declared a day 'for solemn Thanksgiving and praise' after the British surrender at which battle?

Saratoga ended with General Burgoyne surrendering his whole army that October. Congress set December 18 for the observance, the nation's first official holiday to carry the Thanksgiving name.

In which Dutch city did the Pilgrims live and worship for over a decade before sailing on the Mayflower?

Leiden let the congregation worship as they chose, but Dutch society stayed foreign to them. Villagers from farming country, they found the pace of life in an industrial centre hard.

In which present-day state did Berkeley Hundred's settlers hold a thanksgiving service in 1619, on the day they landed?

Virginia's Berkeley Hundred charter ordered that the day of the ship's arrival be kept holy every year as a day of thanksgiving to Almighty God. Captain John Woodlief led the first service.

In which Florida city did a priest celebrate a Mass of thanksgiving at its founding in 1565, followed by a shared meal?

St. Augustine was founded on September 8, 1565, when the expedition's chaplain said Mass on the grounds. That was 56 years before the Pilgrims' feast at Plymouth.

Some historians trace North America's first Thanksgiving to which explorer's 1578 search for the Northwest Passage?

Martin Frobisher's fleet was scattered by ice and freak storms, and when the ships met again their preacher, Master Wolfall, urged the crews to be thankful to God for their deliverance.

Which ancient Latin hymn is the core of church thanksgiving services held to mark a victory, treaty or royal birth?

Te Deum services can be called at short notice when good news arrives. The hymn is also sung to give thanks for a pope's election, a bishop's consecration or a saint's canonization.

Observant Jews recite Modeh Ani, a short prayer thanking God for returning the soul, at what moment each day?

On waking, while still in bed, is the moment for Modeh Ani, whose opening words mean 'I give thanks'. Because it never uses God's name, it may be said even before washing the hands.

What did the Puritan Separatists aboard the Mayflower call the fellow passengers who were not of their congregation?

Strangers were mostly workers recruited by the voyage's investors, among them the soldier Myles Standish. Their talk of using 'their own liberty' on landing helped prompt the Mayflower Compact.

After the feeding miracle told in all four Gospels, how many baskets of leftover pieces did the disciples fill?

Twelve baskets of fragments were left once everyone had eaten as much as they wanted. Jesus had told the disciples to gather up the pieces so that nothing would be lost.

In the house of Simon, a grateful woman washed Jesus's feet with her tears and anointed them with what?

Ointment from an alabaster box was her gift. When the host disapproved, Jesus told him a story of two forgiven debtors and said that whoever is forgiven most loves most.

Which priest, struck dumb until his son was named John, then burst into the song of thanks called the Benedictus?

Zechariah had doubted an angel's news that his elderly wife would bear a son. His speech came back the moment he wrote 'His name is John' on a writing tablet.

Which daughter of Saul despised King David for leaping before the Ark as it was brought into Jerusalem?

Michal watched from a window, then mocked him for uncovering himself in front of servant girls. David answered that his celebration had been before the LORD, who chose him over her father.

Which two-verse call for all nations to praise the LORD is the shortest chapter in the whole Bible?

Psalm 117 runs to just seventeen words in the original Hebrew. Short as it is, it speaks to every nation and people on earth rather than to Israel alone.

Which Latin phrase do worshippers say in reply to the dismissal that ends the Latin Mass?

Deo gratias, 'thanks be to God', answers the 'Ite, missa est' that ends the Mass. The wording goes back to the Vulgate, the Latin Bible, where it appears in two of Paul's letters.

The modern church Harvest Festival began in 1843 with Rev. Robert Hawker's thanksgiving service in which English county?

Cornwall's parish of Morwenstow was where Hawker invited his parishioners to a special service of thanks. The modern British tradition of church harvest services is dated from it.

In Leviticus, the meat of a thanksgiving peace offering had to be eaten by the end of which day?

The same day was the rule, with nothing left until morning. Meat from a vow or a freewill offering, by contrast, could still be eaten on the following day.

Which prophet vowed to rejoice in the LORD even if the fig tree failed to blossom and the stalls stood empty?

Habakkuk ends his short book with the vow, listing failed figs, vines, olives, fields, flocks and herds before the turn. A closing note directs the prayer to be set to stringed instruments.

Whom did Jesus test by asking where to buy bread for the crowd, just before the feeding miracle in John's Gospel?

Philip replied that two hundred pennyworth of bread would not give each person even a little. The narrator adds that Jesus already knew what he was about to do.

Which tribe's men were assigned by King David to stand every morning and evening to thank and praise the LORD?

Levi was the tribe set apart for the house of the LORD, serving from the age of twenty under David's last instructions. Its men also looked after the courts, the chambers and the holy bread.

Which prophet's short song of thanks promises 'with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation'?

Isaiah gives the song a chapter of its own, only six verses long, opening 'O LORD, I will praise thee'. It looks ahead to a day when God's anger has turned to comfort.