Book of James
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50 free Book of James trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
The Book of James is one of the shortest and most practical letters in the New Testament. In five brief chapters it tells its readers how to face hardship, how to treat rich and poor, how to watch what they say and how to pray, in lines that are still quoted from pulpits every week. This quiz works through the letter chapter by chapter. Chapter 1 gets the most attention, with its teaching on trials, temptation, and hearing the word without acting on it. From there the questions move through the argument about faith and works in chapter 2, the warnings about speech in chapter 3, the call to submit to God in chapter 4 (verses 3 to 6 included) and the closing words on patience and prayer in chapter 5. A handful of questions cover the letter's author, its language and its slow road to acceptance. It suits Bible study groups, Sunday school classes, youth quiz teams and anyone memorising James who wants to check what has stuck. Every answer comes with a short explanation that points back to the text.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01James 2 closes with the verdict that faith without works is what?
Dead
Dead is James's verdict, and his example is telling a cold, hungry person to 'be warmed and filled' while handing over nothing the body needs.
Q 02According to James 3, which small part of the body can no human tame, unlike every kind of animal?
The tongue
The tongue is called a restless evil, and James complains that the same mouth praises God and then curses people made in God's likeness.
Q 03James 1 says anyone who lacks which quality should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault?
Wisdom
Wisdom is promised to whoever asks, but James adds a condition: the request must be made in faith, because a doubter should not expect to receive anything.
Q 04James 4 tells merchants planning a year of profit that they are what, appearing briefly and then vanishing?
A mist
A mist is all a person amounts to in James's picture, which is why he calls confident talk about tomorrow's business a form of boasting.
Q 05Which Reformation leader derided the Epistle of James as an 'epistle of straw' and doubted an apostle wrote it?
Martin Luther
Martin Luther objected to what James says about faith and works, yet he still kept the letter in his German Bible, moving it to the end.
Q 06James 2 says that merely believing God is one is no achievement, because who else believes it and shudders?
The demons
The demons believe and shudder, James says, so belief that never turns into action proves nothing about a person.
Q 07James 1 defines pure religion as staying unstained by the world and caring for which two groups in their distress?
Orphans and widows
Orphans and widows come at the end of a chapter that calls religion worthless if a person cannot keep a rein on his own speech.
Q 08James 4:6 says that God opposes the proud but gives grace to which people?
The humble
The humble receive grace, a line James borrows from the Old Testament before telling his readers to submit themselves to God.
Q 09In James 1, someone who hears the word but does not act forgets his own face after looking into what?
A mirror
A mirror shows a face that is forgotten the moment the viewer walks away, and James says hearing without acting is the same kind of self-deception.
Q 10Which Old Testament sufferer does James 5 name as a model of endurance whose story ended in God's compassion?
Job
Job comes straight after the prophets in James's list of examples, as proof that the Lord shows compassion in the end to those who hold on.
Q 11James 1 opens by telling believers who meet trials of many kinds to consider the experience pure what?
Joy
Joy is the surprising response James asks for, and he promises that those who come through the test will be mature and complete, lacking nothing.
Q 12James 1:22 tells believers not to deceive themselves by being hearers only, but to be what of the word?
Doers
Doers of the word are the ones James says will be blessed in what they do, unlike listeners who forget what they heard.
Q 13James 3 pictures human speech as which small part of a large ship driven by strong winds?
A rudder
A rudder is tiny beside the ship it turns, and James applies the picture to human speech: small, he says, but boasting of great things.
Q 21James 1:19 says everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to what?
Anger
Anger comes third in the saying, and James gives his reason at once: a person's temper does not bring about what God wants.
Q 22James 1 compares a person who prays while doubting to what, blown and tossed by the wind?
A wave of the sea
A wave of the sea goes wherever the wind sends it, and James calls such a person unstable in everything he does.
Q 23Which woman does James 2 praise for welcoming Israelite spies and sending them away by another route?
Rahab
Rahab was a prostitute in the text, and James sets her beside Abraham as someone proved right by what she did.
Q 14According to James 4:7, what will the devil do when believers submit to God and resist him?
Flee
Flee is the promise, and James places it straight after his reminder that God opposes the proud.
Q 15Which prophet does James 5 call 'a man just like us' whose earnest prayer stopped the rain for years?
Elijah
Elijah prayed and no rain fell for three and a half years, then prayed again and the heavens gave rain, which James offers as proof that prayer works.
Q 16Which reward does James 1 say God has promised to those who love him and endure under trial?
The crown of life
The crown of life is promised to those who love God, and James goes straight on to deny that God is ever the one doing the tempting.
Q 17According to James 2, what triumphs over judgment?
Mercy
Mercy triumphs, James writes, straight after the warning that anyone who has shown none will be judged without it.
Q 18James 3 pictures the damage speech can do as a small spark that sets what ablaze?
A forest
A forest set alight by one spark is James's image for speech, which he says stains the whole person and is itself set on fire by hell.
Q 19According to James 4, what should people say before announcing plans to travel, trade and make a profit?
If the Lord wills
If the Lord wills is the condition James wants attached to every plan, because nobody knows what tomorrow will bring.
Q 20Christian tradition credits the Epistle of James to a leader of the Jerusalem church known as the brother of whom?
Jesus
Jesus had a brother called James the Just, the traditional author, though many modern scholars think someone later wrote in his name.
Q 24James 2 says Abraham was justified by works when he offered which son on the altar?
Isaac
Isaac on the altar is James's proof that Abraham's faith was working together with his actions and was made complete by them.
Q 25In James 5, what are those who pray over a sick person told to apply in the Lord's name?
Oil
Oil goes with prayer in this passage, which became the main biblical basis for the church rite of anointing the sick.
Q 26James 4 warns that anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world makes himself what?
An enemy of God
An enemy of God is James's blunt verdict on believers whose quarrels, he says, come from cravings at war inside them.
Q 27Which practice does James 2 say leaves believers convicted by the law as transgressors?
Favoritism
Favoritism makes believers into judges with evil thoughts, James says, and he points out that it is the rich who drag them into court.
Q 28As believers wait for the Lord's coming, James 5 points to which worker as a model of patience?
A farmer
A farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop, and James tells believers to wait the same way because the Lord's coming is at hand.
Q 29'Above all,' says James 5, believers must not do what, letting their yes be yes and their no be no?
Swear oaths
Swear oaths by heaven or by earth and a believer risks falling under judgment, James warns, so a plain yes or no must be enough.
Q 30James 3 opens by warning that not many believers should become what, since they will be judged more strictly?
Teachers
Teachers work with words, and James moves straight from this warning to how easily everyone stumbles in what they say.