130 free Christmas Bible trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
61 free Christmas Bible trivia questions with answers. This is Christmas Bible trivia for people who want the story as scripture actually tells it: the angel in Nazareth, the census, the shepherds in the fields, the Magi who arrive at a house rather than a stable, and Herod's fury. It also covers what the church did with the story afterwards: Advent and its rose candle, the O Antiphons, Epiphany, Candlemas, Midnight Mass, and Christmas customs from Mexico's Las Posadas to Ireland's Women's Christmas. Sixty-one questions run from easy (which angel visited Mary?) to genuinely difficult (which priestly division did John the Baptist's father belong to?). Roughly a third are Sunday-school easy, a third medium, and the rest are meant to trouble a seminary graduate. Use it for a church quiz night, a youth group, a family Christmas dinner, or a religious round in a general trivia night. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the nativity narratives, the individual figures, and the feasts of the season, and each question carries the sentence that supports it.
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Q 01Which angel told Mary that she would conceive and bear a son?
Gabriel
Luke has the same angel visit John the Baptist's father in the Temple first, and the Book of Daniel is the only book of the Hebrew Bible that names him.
Q 02In which town of Galilee was Mary living when the angel visited her?
Nazareth
Luke calls Mary a virgin betrothed to Joseph; the town later gave Jesus the label the Gospels render as 'the Nazarene'.
Q 03Where did Mary lay the newborn Jesus after wrapping him in swaddling clothes?
A manger
The Greek word usually translated 'inn', katalyma, may in fact mean the guest room of a private house.
Q 04In Luke, which Roman emperor ordered the census that sent Joseph to Bethlehem?
Augustus
Joseph had to go to Bethlehem because he was of the house of David, and Bethlehem was David's city.
Q 05According to Luke, the registration took place while which man was governor of Syria?
Quirinius
Historians place his census in AD 6, roughly a decade after Herod the Great died, which is why the nativity's chronology is still argued over.
Q 06Who were told of the birth by an angel while keeping watch over their flocks at night?
Shepherds
They stood near the bottom of the social ladder in first-century Judea, which is usually taken as the point of the story.
Q 07The angels' words 'Glory to God in the highest' open which Latin hymn of the Mass?
Gloria in excelsis Deo
It is also called the Greater Doxology, to distinguish it from the short Gloria Patri.
Q 08What three gifts did the Magi bring to the infant Jesus?
Gold, frankincense and myrrh
Marco Polo's Travels read them as symbols: gold for a king, frankincense for a god, and myrrh for healing power over death.
Q 09The Bible never says how many Magi there were. In Syriac Christian tradition, how many are there?
Twelve
The Western figure of three is only inferred from the number of gifts.
Q 10The Western names Caspar, Melchior and Balthazar first appear in a chronicle dating from when?
8th century
Syrian Christians call them Larvandad, Gushnasaph and Hormisdas, while the Ethiopian church knows them as Hor, Karsudan and Basanater.
Q 11Relics said to be the bones of the Magi are enshrined where?
Cologne Cathedral
Archbishop Rainald von Dassel had them moved there in 1162, and Marco Polo later claimed to have been shown the Magi's tombs in Persia.
Q 12In Matthew's account, in what kind of building did the Magi find the child with his mother?
A house
Crib scenes that show the Magi arriving on the night of the birth combine two separate episodes for convenience.
Q 13The Greek word magos comes from Old Persian and referred to the priestly caste of which religion?
Zoroastrianism
Some translations call them astrologers; by around AD 300 Christians were promoting them to kings to fit Old Testament prophecy.
Q 21In Matthew, the townspeople describe Jesus by his father's trade. What do they call him?
The carpenter's son
The Greek word tekton can cover any builder or craftsman, not only one who works in wood.
Q 22How does the angel deliver every message to Joseph in Matthew's Gospel?
In dreams
Matthew is drawing a parallel with the Old Testament Joseph, another son of a Jacob whose dreams carried him to Pharaoh's court.
Q 23The name Jesus comes from the Hebrew Yeshua, which is a form of which Old Testament name?
Joshua
The root y-sh-ayin means 'to deliver' or 'to rescue', which is why the angel says the child will save his people.
Q 14In Matthew, Herod ordered the killing of the boys around Bethlehem up to what age?
Two years and under
Josephus catalogued many of Herod's crimes, including the murder of three of his own sons, but never mentions this one.
Q 15Matthew links the massacre to 'Rachel weeping for her children', a line from which prophet?
Jeremiah
The very next verses of that chapter turn to hope and restoration, which has puzzled commentators.
Q 16To which country did Joseph take the family to escape Herod?
Egypt
On the way back they avoided Judea because Herod's son Archelaus now ruled it, and settled in Galilee instead.
Q 17The name Immanuel, which Matthew quotes from the prophets, means what?
God with us
The original oracle was a sign given to King Ahaz during the Syro-Ephraimite War of the 730s BC.
Q 18Matthew's genealogy of Jesus is arranged in three sets of how many generations?
Fourteen
Fourteen is the gematria, or numerical value, of the name David in Hebrew letters.
Q 19Matthew's genealogy starts with Abraham. Luke's works backwards from Jesus to whom?
Adam
The two lists even disagree on Joseph's father, whom Matthew names Jacob and Luke names Heli.
Q 20Besides Mary, which four women does Matthew name in his genealogy of Jesus?
Tamar, Rahab, Ruth and Bathsheba
Bathsheba is not named at all but called 'the wife of Uriah', and all four stories involve a scandal or an outsider.
Q 24Which priest was struck mute for doubting the angel who announced his son's birth?
Zechariah
He got his voice back only when he wrote 'His name is John' on a tablet at the boy's circumcision.
Q 25John the Baptist's mother, described by Luke as a relative of Mary, was called what?
Elizabeth
Her greeting 'Blessed are you among women' became part of the Hail Mary, and her unborn son leaped at Mary's arrival.
Q 26John the Baptist's father served as a priest in which division of the priesthood?
Abijah
His wife was descended from Aaron too, making John a priest's child on both sides.
Q 27Mary's song of praise in Luke 1 is known by which Latin name?
Magnificat
It echoes the Song of Hannah from 1 Samuel and is sung daily at Vespers and Anglican Evensong.
Q 28Which canticle did John the Baptist's father sing at his son's circumcision?
Benedictus
The Roman Catholic Church sings it every morning at Lauds.
Q 29Which righteous man in Jerusalem was promised he would not die before seeing the Messiah?
Simeon
He warned Mary that a sword would pierce her own soul, and Orthodox tradition makes him one of the seventy translators of the Septuagint.
Q 30Which Latin canticle, sung at Compline and Evensong, is taken from Luke 2:29–32?
Nunc dimittis
The title comes from its opening words in the Vulgate, 'Now thou dost dismiss thy servant, O Lord'.