Easter Bible Trivia
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88 free Easter Bible trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
The Easter story is the one part of the Bible that all four Gospels tell in full, and they do not tell it the same way. Matthew has a dream, an earthquake and bribed guards; Mark stops short at an empty tomb; Luke adds a second hearing before a second ruler; John gives the trial its longest scene and the garden its most famous meeting. These 88 questions run from Palm Sunday to Pentecost: the ride into Jerusalem, the upset tables in the temple, the upper room, the garden, the arrest and the hearings, the road to the cross, the empty tomb on Sunday morning, the appearances to the women and the Eleven, the ascension and the day the church began. It suits a church quiz night, a Sunday school class or a Holy Week Bible study, and it keeps asking what each Gospel alone records. Play on your phone with instant explanations, or print it and read it aloud.
30 of 88 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What 'separated and came to rest on each' of the believers at Pentecost, the event that ends the Easter season?
Tongues of fire
Tongues of fire came after 'a sound like the blowing of a violent wind' filled the house, and the believers 'began to speak in other tongues' that visitors each heard as their own language.
Q 02How did Judas identify Jesus to the armed crowd in the garden, a signal he had arranged in advance?
With a kiss
With a kiss and the words 'Greetings, Rabbi!' Judas marked his man, and Luke has Jesus ask whether he would betray the Son of Man with that greeting.
Q 03What did Pilate do in front of the crowd to declare himself innocent of Jesus's death, in Matthew alone?
Washed his hands
He washed his hands, the origin of the phrase 'to wash your hands of' something; the gesture echoes a rite in Deuteronomy, where a town's elders wash theirs to disown an unsolved killing.
Q 04What does John record as Jesus's final words from the cross, spoken just before he bowed his head?
It is finished
'It is finished' is one word in John's Greek, tetelestai, said after he took the drink; Luke's Jesus instead dies with a prayer and Mark's with a loud cry.
Q 05Which Hebrew cry from Psalm 118 did the crowds shout as Jesus rode into Jerusalem?
Hosanna
Hosanna meant 'save, we pray' in the psalm but had become a shout of praise; when children took up 'Hosanna to the Son of David' in the temple, the chief priests were indignant.
Q 06What flowed from Jesus's side when a soldier pierced it with a spear, a detail only John records?
Blood and water
Blood and water came out in 'a sudden flow', John says an eyewitness saw it, and later legend named the soldier Longinus and made him a saint.
Q 07How many people, roughly, were baptised after Peter's sermon on the day of Pentecost, according to Acts 2?
3,000
About 3,000 were 'added to their number that day', a crowd swelled by pilgrims in Jerusalem from 'every nation under heaven' for the festival.
Q 08At which village, reached as Jesus approached Jerusalem, did he send two disciples to fetch a tethered colt?
Bethphage
Bethphage is where Matthew alone has the disciples bring back two animals, a donkey and her colt; Mark has them fetch a single colt that no one had ever ridden.
Q 09Which prophet wrote 'See, your king comes to you... riding on a donkey', the verse Matthew says the entry fulfilled?
Zechariah
Zechariah's next verse takes away the chariots and warhorses, so the donkey marks a king who comes to end war, not to wage it.
Q 10Whose tables did Jesus overturn in the temple courts in Holy Week, calling the place 'a den of robbers'?
The money changers
The money changers swapped pilgrims' Roman coins for the Tyrian shekels the temple tax required, and Jesus also tipped over the benches of the dove sellers.
Q 11Which tree did Jesus curse on the road from Bethany for bearing nothing but leaves, so that it withered?
A fig
A fig tree withers 'immediately' in Matthew, but Mark splits the story in two, and the disciples only find it withered 'from the roots' the next morning.
Q 12For what did Jesus say the woman who poured perfume on his head at Bethany had prepared him, in Matthew 26?
His burial
His burial was what the perfume prepared him for, and he promised that 'wherever this gospel is preached' her act would be told 'in memory of her'.
Q 13How many demons does Mark 16 say Jesus had driven out of Mary Magdalene, the first to see him risen?
Seven
Seven demons are also mentioned by Luke 8, where Mary Magdalene is among the women funding Jesus's travels 'out of their own means'.
Q 21Where did Jesus tell Pilate his kingdom was from, adding that otherwise 'my servants would fight' to prevent his arrest?
Not of this world
'Not of this world' is how Jesus described his kingdom, in a private exchange John sets inside the governor's palace, which the priests would not enter for fear of becoming unclean.
Q 22Which Aramaic name does John give the 'Stone Pavement' where Pilate sat on the judge's seat to sentence Jesus?
Gabbatha
Gabbatha was long shown to pilgrims as the Roman paving beneath Jerusalem's Sisters of Zion convent, but archaeologists date those flagstones to Hadrian's rebuilt city, a century after Pilate.
Q 23What did Pilate's soldiers twist together and set on Jesus's head, mocking him with a scarlet robe and staff?
Q 14Where did Jesus and the disciples go after singing a hymn at the end of the Last Supper, per Matthew 26?
Mount of Olives
The Mount of Olives faces the temple across the Kidron Valley, and Judas knew where to lead the arresting party because Jesus often met his disciples in a garden there.
Q 15What did Jesus ask his Father to 'take from me' in Gethsemane, adding 'yet not as I will, but as you will'?
This cup
'This cup' echoes the prophets' image of the cup of God's wrath, which Isaiah pictures Jerusalem draining 'to its dregs'.
Q 16Which Aramaic word does Mark alone record Jesus using to address God as he prayed in Gethsemane?
Abba
Abba is Aramaic for 'father', and Paul keeps the Aramaic word in his Greek letters to Rome and Galatia, each time beside its translation: 'Abba, Father'.
Q 17How many legions of angels did Jesus say his Father could send him at the arrest, in Matthew 26?
Twelve
'More than twelve legions' would top 60,000 at Roman strength, and Jesus said he would not call them so that 'the Scriptures' could be fulfilled.
Q 18How did a young man following Jesus escape the arresting party in Mark 14, once they seized his linen garment?
Naked
Naked, 'leaving his garment behind', he fled, and because no other Gospel has the episode, many readers have guessed the young man was Mark himself.
Q 19How many times does Mark say the rooster would crow before Peter disowned Jesus three times, unlike the other Gospels?
Twice
Twice is Mark's count, and 'the rooster crowed the second time' as Peter broke down and wept, a detail the other three Gospels trim to one crow.
Q 20How did Jesus end his rebuke to the sleeping Peter in Gethsemane, 'Couldn't you keep watch with me for…'?
One hour
One hour is the span in his rebuke, and he went off to pray two more times, each time coming back to find the three asleep, 'exhausted from sorrow' as Luke puts it.
A crown of thorns
A crown of thorns venerated as the original was bought by France's King Louis IX, who built the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris to house it.
Q 24Which title, abbreviated INRI on crucifixes, did Pilate's notice above the cross give Jesus of Nazareth?
King of the Jews
King of the Jews was written in Aramaic, Latin and Greek, and when the chief priests asked for a rewrite Pilate answered 'What I have written, I have written'.
Q 25Which prophet did bystanders think Jesus was calling when he cried 'Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani' from the cross?
Elijah
Elijah was expected to return before the Messiah, and the cry is actually the opening line of Psalm 22 in Aramaic.
Q 26What was soaked into a sponge and lifted to Jesus's lips on a hyssop stalk after he said 'I am thirsty'?
Wine vinegar
Wine vinegar was the cheap sour wine Roman soldiers drank, and the hyssop recalls the plant used to mark doorposts at the exodus from Egypt.
Q 27Which name does the apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus give the penitent thief crucified beside Jesus?
Dismas
Dismas, never named in the Bible, is the thief Luke has Jesus promise 'today you will be with me in paradise'; the same tradition calls the mocking thief Gestas.
Q 28Who does Matthew say rolled back the stone from the tomb and sat on it?
An angel of the Lord
An angel of the Lord arrived with an earthquake, his appearance 'like lightning', and the guards 'shook and became like dead men' while the women were told not to be afraid.
Q 29In its oldest manuscripts, Mark's Gospel ends abruptly with the women at the empty tomb doing what?
Saying nothing to anyone
Saying nothing to anyone 'because they were afraid' is where the two oldest manuscripts stop, at verse 8; the dozen verses that follow in most Bibles were added later.
Q 30Which Aramaic word did Mary Magdalene cry out when the risen Jesus said her name in the garden?
Rabboni
Rabboni, which John glosses as 'Teacher', came the moment he said 'Mary'; until then she had taken him for the gardener.