Book of Philippians
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40 free Book of Philippians trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Philippians is one of the warmest letters in the New Testament. Paul wrote it in chains to a church he had founded years earlier, and in four short chapters he manages to send a status report, a poem about Christ, a fierce warning, a plea to two quarrelling friends and a note acknowledging a gift. Some of the most quoted lines in the Bible come from these pages. This quiz works through the letter chapter by chapter. Chapter 2 gets the most attention, especially the hymn in verses 5 to 11 about Christ's humility and exaltation. Chapter 3 covers Paul's list of credentials and the passage about pressing on in verses 7 to 14. Chapter 4 brings the best-known verses on prayer, worry and coping with want. Several questions use the wording of the King James Version, where a few words meant something different in 1611, and a handful step outside the text to the city of Philippi and the story in Acts 16 of how its church began. It suits Bible study groups, church classes, youth quiz teams and anyone reading through Paul's letters who wants to check what has stuck. Every answer comes with a short explanation that points back to the verse.
30 of 40 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Philippians 4:13, written about facing plenty and hunger, says Paul can do all things through Christ who does what?
Strengthens him
Strengthens him is the secret Paul gives for coping with whatever comes, and the line before explains it: he has learned how to be full and how to be hungry.
Q 02Philippians 4:4 repeats which one-word command twice, telling readers to do it in the Lord always?
Rejoice
Rejoice comes from a man in chains, which is why it lands so hard; Johann Albrecht Bengel summed up the whole letter as Paul saying he is glad and telling his readers to be glad too.
Q 03In the hymn of Philippians 2:10, what should bow at the name of Jesus, on earth and beneath it?
Every knee
Every knee is the phrase, and it travelled far: a third-century silver amulet found at Frankfurt quotes this passage in Latin and is among the earliest evidence of Christianity north of the Alps.
Q 04Writing in chains at Philippians 1:21, Paul says that for him to live is Christ and to die is what?
Gain
Gain is his word for death, because he expects it to bring him straight to Christ; two verses on he admits he is torn, since staying alive would be more use to the Philippians.
Q 05According to Philippians 4:7, what surpasses all understanding and guards hearts and minds in Christ Jesus?
The peace of God
The peace of God is the promise attached to the verse before, which tells anxious readers to stop worrying and take every request to God in prayer.
Q 06Philippians 3:2 opens a warning about rival teachers by telling readers to beware of which animals?
Dogs
Dogs is the insult Paul throws at teachers who demanded circumcision, in the same breath as evil workers; a few lines later he lists his own Jewish credentials to show he could outdo them.
Q 07Acts 16 says which seller of purple from Thyatira was baptised at Philippi and then hosted Paul?
Lydia
Lydia is regarded as the first documented convert to Christianity in Europe; she heard Paul at a riverside prayer meeting outside the city and pressed him to stay at her house.
Q 08In Philippians 3:14, Paul presses toward the mark for what reward of God's high calling in Christ Jesus?
The prize
The prize is still ahead of him, Paul insists: two verses earlier he says he has not already attained it, so he keeps pressing on.
Q 09Philippians 2:12 tells believers to work out their own salvation with what?
Fear and trembling
Fear and trembling gave Søren Kierkegaard the title of his 1843 work on Abraham, and Paul balances the phrase at once: the next verse says it is God who is at work in them.
Q 10The ruins of Philippi, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2016, lie in which modern country?
Greece
Greece holds the site, north-west of the modern city of Kavala, and Paul is believed to have preached on European soil for the first time there.
Q 11In the King James Version, Philippians 1:1 greets the saints at Philippi along with which two groups of officers?
Bishops and deacons
Bishops and deacons could as well be translated overseers and helpers, and their roles were not yet what those titles later came to mean in the church.
Q 12Which word does the King James Version use at Philippians 1:8 and 2:1 where newer Bibles speak of affection?
Bowels
Bowels reached 2:1 late: the commentator Handley Moule noted that no English version used the word there before 1582, and the Revised Version of 1881 switched to tender mercies and compassions.
Q 13In the King James Version of Philippians 1:27, which word, now meaning talk, describes a whole way of living?
Conversation
Q 21Philippians 2:7, where Christ empties himself in many translations, gives theology which term for that self-emptying?
Kenosis
Kenosis comes from the verb the verse uses for emptying; the noun itself never appears in the New Testament, though the verb turns up five times in Paul's letters.
Q 22Which co-worker does Paul hope to send to Philippi in Philippians 2:19, praising him as a son serving with a father?
Timothy
Timothy is also named beside Paul in the letter's opening line, and Paul says he has no one else like him who will care so sincerely about the Philippians.
Q 23Philippians 2:27 says Epaphroditus, the messenger who carried the church's gift to Paul, suffered what misfortune?
A near-fatal illness
Conversation meant behaviour to the 1611 translators, not chat; the Berean Standard Bible renders the same instruction as conducting yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel.
Q 14Philippians 2:3 warns against strife and vainglory and says each person should esteem others as what?
Better than themselves
Better than themselves is the standard, and Paul adds that nobody should look only to their own interests; the hymn about Christ's humility follows straight after as the model.
Q 15In the King James Version of Philippians 2:6, Christ thought it not what to be equal with God?
Robbery
Robbery translates a word scholars still argue over: some read it as something to be grasped after, others as an idiom for taking advantage of a status already held.
Q 16Philippians 2:7 says Christ made himself of no reputation and took on the form of what?
A servant
A servant is the King James wording; the New Revised Standard Version puts it more starkly as a slave, the opposite extreme from the form of God in the verse before.
Q 17Philippians 2:8 says Christ humbled himself and became what unto death, even death on a cross?
Obedient
Obedient is the word, and the cross marks the lowest point of the hymn; the turn comes at once, as the very next verse says God therefore highly exalted him.
Q 18Philippians 2:11 says what should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father?
Every tongue
Every tongue confessing Jesus as Lord closes the hymn, a passage some scholars believe was composed before the letter itself and then quoted by Paul.
Q 19The closing lines of the hymn in Philippians 2:10–11 quote an oath recorded by which Old Testament prophet?
Isaiah
Isaiah has God swear that all will bow to him alone, so the hymn gives Jesus a homage first reserved for God the Father.
Q 20The Roman Missal appoints the hymn of Philippians 2:5–11 as the epistle reading for which day of the church year?
Palm Sunday
Palm Sunday gets the reading in the Roman Missal and the Revised Common Lectionary alike, so the hymn's story of descent and exaltation is heard as Holy Week begins.
A near-fatal illness struck him on the mission, and he was distressed mainly because the Philippians had heard about it; Paul sent him home and told the church to honour men like him.
Q 24Listing his Jewish credentials in Philippians 3:5, Paul names which tribe of Israel as his own?
Benjamin
Benjamin comes up again in Romans 11:1, where Paul repeats the claim; in Philippians it sits in a list of reasons he could boast, all of which he then sets aside for Christ.
Q 25In Philippians 3:5, Paul says that as touching the law he was a member of which Jewish group?
The Pharisees
The Pharisees were known for careful observance of the law, which is Paul's point: by that measure he calls himself blameless, then says none of it counts beside knowing Christ.
Q 26In Philippians 3:7, Paul says the credentials he once prized he now counts as what for Christ?
Loss
Loss is his verdict on a spotless religious record, a reversal the Jesuit scholar Robert Murray called a transvaluation of values, borrowing a phrase from Friedrich Nietzsche.
Q 27In the King James Version of Philippians 3:8, Paul counts everything he gave up as what, to win Christ?
Dung
Dung is the blunt King James choice, softened to rubbish in the New King James Version; Paul applies it to his pedigree, his sect and his moral record alike.
Q 28In Philippians 3:10, Paul says he wants to know Christ and the power of his what?
Resurrection
Resurrection power comes paired with something harder: in the same breath Paul asks to share in Christ's sufferings and to be made like him in his death.
Q 29Philippians 3:13 names the one thing Paul does: reaching for what lies ahead while doing what with the past?
Forgetting it
Forgetting it is half of his one thing; the other half is straining forward, and he tells mature believers to take the same view.
Q 30Philippians 3:20 tells readers in the Roman colony of Philippi that their true citizenship is where?
In heaven
In heaven is a pointed answer for this audience: Philippi had been refounded as a colony for Roman army veterans and was run as a miniature Rome under Roman law.