50 free Baptism trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Baptism is the one rite almost every Christian tradition shares, and almost every tradition does it a little differently. This baptism trivia quiz covers the story behind it: where and by whom Jesus was baptised, what John the Baptist ate and how he died, what the Greek word actually means, and the difference between immersion, affusion and aspersion. It works through the big denominational splits (infant versus believer's baptism, the Trinitarian formula, the Anabaptists of 1525, the churches that do not baptise with water at all) without taking sides. Then it heads into history and culture: the emperor who waited until his deathbed, the Frankish king baptised at Reims, the prince who baptised a whole nation in the Dnieper, why fonts have eight sides, the Florence Baptistery doors Michelangelo praised, the angel Leonardo painted, the baptism scene in The Godfather, and why ships get 'christened' with champagne. Good for a confirmation class, a church quiz night or anyone curious about the rite. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on baptism, its history and the people and places involved, and each question quotes the sentence that supports it.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01The word 'baptism' comes from a Greek word meaning what?
Dipping
The verb baptizo was used for ships sinking and cloth going into dye as well as for ritual washing.
Q 02The baptism of Jesus is described in which three Gospels?
Matthew, Mark and Luke
John's Gospel has the Baptist bear witness to the Spirit descending rather than narrating the event; scholars count the baptism among the two most historically certain events of Jesus's life.
Q 03In which river was Jesus baptised?
Jordan
The traditional site, Al-Maghtas or Bethany Beyond the Jordan, sits on the east bank in modern-day Jordan and became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2015.
Q 04In the Gospel accounts, the Spirit descends on Jesus at his baptism in the form of which bird?
Dove
Luke insists it came in the 'bodily form' of the bird, not merely 'like' one, and a voice from heaven speaks in all three synoptic accounts.
Q 05What did John the Baptist famously eat in the wilderness?
Locusts and wild honey
He wore camel's hair, and the Gospel of Matthew has Jesus identify him as the returning Elijah foretold by Malachi.
Q 06Which ruler ordered the beheading of John the Baptist?
Herod Antipas
John had condemned his marriage to Herodias, his brother's ex-wife; the historian Josephus places the execution at the fortress of Machaerus.
Q 07What name does Josephus give the daughter of Herodias who danced for Herod?
Salome
Later art and opera, from Titian to Richard Strauss, made the name and the platter inseparable.
Q 08Which small sect reveres John the Baptist as its greatest prophet and practises frequent purifying baptism?
Mandaeans
They call every river 'yardena' after the Jordan and, by their own account, left the Jordan Valley in the first century AD.
Q 09The baptismal words 'in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit' are called what?
Trinitarian formula
It follows the Great Commission at the end of Matthew; Oneness Pentecostals instead baptise in the name of Jesus only.
Q 10Baptism by sprinkling water on the head is called what?
Aspersion
The third-century bishop Cyprian ruled that the amount of water used made no difference to a baptism's validity.
Q 11Between the 12th and 14th centuries, which mode became the normal way to baptise in Western Europe?
Affusion (pouring)
Immersion was still being practised in the West into the 16th century and remains standard in Eastern Christianity.
Q 12Traditionally, how many times is a person immersed or poured over during baptism, and why?
Three, one for each member of the Trinity
The rite is also called christening, a word usually reserved for infants.
Q 13Which of these Christian groups does NOT practise water baptism at all?
Quakers
Q 21The consecrated oil used to anoint the newly baptised in Catholic and Orthodox churches is called what?
Chrism
The name comes from the Greek for anointing, the same root as 'Christ', meaning the anointed one.
Q 22Latter-day Saints are baptised no earlier than what "age of accountability"?
Eight
The church also requires that the person performing the baptism hold its priesthood, and does not recognise other churches' baptisms.
Q 23Latter Day Saint proxy baptism for the dead is based on a verse in which New Testament book?
1 Corinthians
The practice dates from 1840 and is performed only in dedicated temples, on fonts that rest on twelve sculpted oxen.
The Salvation Army and some Unitarians also do without it; Quakers reject all outward sacraments, including the Eucharist.
Q 14Why, per its founders, does the Salvation Army not celebrate baptism or communion?
Christians relied on outward signs rather than grace itself
Its officers do conduct marriages, but even marriage is not counted as a sacrament.
Q 15The Anabaptists of the 16th century got their name because they insisted on what?
Re-baptising those baptised as infants
'Ana' is Greek for 're-'; the movement's beliefs were set out in the Schleitheim Confession of 1527.
Q 16In which city did Conrad Grebel baptise George Blaurock on 21 January 1525, founding the Anabaptists?
Zurich
Blaurock immediately baptised several others; the movement's Schleitheim Confession followed in 1527 and its author Michael Sattler was executed soon after.
Q 17Which three groups are direct descendants of the early Anabaptists?
Amish, Hutterites, Mennonites
Baptists also practise believer's baptism but have different roots; pouring rather than immersion remains the norm among the Amish.
Q 18In which city did John Smyth's exiled English congregation begin the Baptist tradition in 1609?
Amsterdam
Thomas Helwys later took the congregation back to England and argued that church and state should be kept separate.
Q 19Which 16th-century Swiss reformer regarded baptism and the Lord's Supper as merely symbolic?
Huldrych Zwingli
Luther, by contrast, kept baptism as a full sacrament, one of the fault lines of the Reformation.
Q 20In Eastern Christianity, the anointing that Western churches call confirmation happens when?
Immediately after baptism
Western churches usually wait until the child reaches the age of reason or adolescence, unless an adult is being baptised.
Q 24Latter-day Saint temple fonts rest on twelve oxen, following which object in Solomon's Temple?
The Molten Sea
The oxen represent the twelve tribes of Israel, as described in 2 Chronicles.
Q 25How many sides do many baptismal fonts have, echoing the day of Christ's resurrection?
Eight
The shape also echoes circumcision on the eighth day; octagonal fonts became the norm from the 14th century.
Q 26Which fourth-century Roman building, the first built specifically for baptisms, set the octagonal model?
Lateran Baptistery
Its central font is ringed by eight porphyry columns, and Italian baptisteries copied the plan from the fourth century on.
Q 27Michelangelo said the Florence Baptistery's east doors were fit for 'the gates of Paradise'. Who sculpted them?
Lorenzo Ghiberti
Andrea Pisano made the south doors; the building is dedicated to John the Baptist, patron saint of Florence.
Q 28Which poet, baptised in the Florence Baptistery, hoped in vain to return there for a laurel crown?
Dante Alighieri
Florentine infants were once baptised in large batches on Holy Saturday and Pentecost in a five-basin font at the centre of the building.
Q 29The left-hand angel in Verrocchio's 'Baptism of Christ' is credited to which young pupil?
Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo probably also painted much of the background in oil while the rest of the panel is tempera; it hangs in the Uffizi.
Q 30Piero della Francesca's 'Baptism of Christ', with its dove hovering like a cloud, hangs in which museum?
National Gallery, London
It was painted for a monastery in Sansepolcro, the artist's home town, which may be the town shown in the background.