Gospel of Matthew Trivia
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100 free Gospel of Matthew trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
This Gospel of Matthew trivia quiz walks through the first book of the New Testament in order. It opens with the things only Matthew tells: the genealogy that starts with Abraham, the Magi and their star, Herod's massacre, the flight into Egypt and the dream that sent Joseph to Nazareth. Then it covers the Sermon on the Mount with its Beatitudes, Lord's Prayer and Golden Rule, the parables of the weeds, the pearl, the talents, the ten virgins and the sheep and the goats, and the road to the Passion: Peter's confession, Judas's thirty pieces of silver, Pilate's wife and the Great Commission on a mountain in Galilee. The easy questions ask what gifts the Magi brought and how many loaves fed the five thousand. The harder ones ask which chapters hold the Sermon on the Mount, why Matthew writes 'Kingdom of Heaven' instead of 'Kingdom of God', how many discourses the book is built around, who first attributed the gospel to Matthew, and what the Field of Blood was bought with. If you want the rest of the Bible, our Bible, New Testament and Bible stories quizzes carry on from here. Every answer was checked against the encyclopaedia entry for the passage, parable or person before publishing, and the sentence that supports it is stored with each question.
30 of 100 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Where does the Gospel of Matthew sit in the New Testament?
It is the first book
It is the first book: the early church thought Matthew the earliest gospel and placed it first, a view most scholars now reject in favour of Mark.
Q 02Which three gospels are known as the synoptic Gospels?
Matthew, Mark and Luke
Matthew, Mark and Luke: set side by side they often match nearly word for word, which is why most scholars think the other two drew on Mark.
Q 03With which figure does Matthew's genealogy of Jesus begin?
Abraham
Abraham: Matthew counts forward from him, while Luke's genealogy runs the other way, backwards from Jesus all the way to Adam.
Q 04According to Matthew, who was Joseph's father?
Jacob
Jacob: Luke names Heli instead, and one old explanation for the clash is that Luke was really tracing Mary's family line.
Q 05Which two gospels contain accounts of the birth of Jesus?
Matthew and Luke
Matthew and Luke, and they tell different stories: only Luke has the shepherds and the manger, and only Matthew has the wise men and the star.
Q 06In Matthew 21, which tree does Jesus curse for bearing no fruit?
A fig tree
A fig tree: in Matthew it withers on the spot, while in Mark the disciples find it dried up only the next morning.
Q 07What three gifts did the Magi offer the infant Jesus?
Gold, frankincense and myrrh
Gold, frankincense and myrrh: Matthew never says how many Magi came, and tradition most likely settled on three because of the three gifts.
Q 08In Matthew 12, Jesus tells critics they will get no sign except the sign of which prophet?
Jonah
Jonah: Jesus says that as Jonah spent three days and nights inside the great fish, the Son of Man will spend three days in the earth.
Q 09On which feast day are the Magi commemorated in Western Christianity?
Epiphany
Epiphany, though the feast may have begun in the eastern Roman Empire mainly as a celebration of Jesus's baptism.
Q 10Which king orders the Massacre of the Innocents in Matthew chapter 2?
Herod the Great
Herod the Great: Matthew says he killed every boy in Bethlehem aged two and under, yet Josephus, who lists many of Herod's crimes, never mentions it.
Q 11How was Joseph warned to flee to Egypt with Mary and Jesus?
By an angel in a dream
By an angel in a dream: the Magi had been warned in a dream too, so they went home by another way.
Q 12After returning from Egypt, where did Joseph settle the family?
Nazareth in Galilee
Nazareth in Galilee: Matthew says the move fulfilled the prophets' saying, 'He shall be called a Nazarene'.
Q 13In Matthew 9:9, Matthew is described as what when Jesus calls him?
A tax collector
A tax collector: when Jesus then dined with tax collectors and sinners, the Pharisees demanded to know why he ate with such people.
Q 21In Matthew 5, which group does Jesus say 'shall inherit the earth'?
The meek
The meek: Jesus is echoing Psalm 37, which had already promised that 'the meek shall inherit the earth'.
Q 22The Lord's Prayer is also known by which Latin name?
Pater Noster
Pater Noster, Latin for 'Our Father': its familiar ending, 'for thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory', appears only in late manuscripts of Matthew.
Q 23Which famous teaching does Jesus say sums up the law and the prophets in Matthew 7:12?
The Golden Rule
The Golden Rule: before Jesus, the sage Hillel had summed up the Torah with a negative version, 'That which is hateful to you do not do to another'.
Q 14In the scene where Jesus calls Matthew, what name do the parallel accounts in Mark and Luke give the man?
Levi
Levi: the scenes match so closely that tradition treats Levi as Matthew's other name, though neither Mark nor Luke says they are one man.
Q 15Which early bishop provides the first attribution of the gospel to Matthew?
Papias of Hierapolis
Papias of Hierapolis: he said Matthew compiled Jesus's sayings in Hebrew, yet most scholars now doubt that the apostle wrote this gospel.
Q 16Which city in Roman Syria is often proposed as the place where Matthew's gospel was written?
Antioch
Antioch had a large Jewish quarter and an early mission to gentiles, a mix that suits a gospel steeped in Jewish law yet open to all nations.
Q 17In Matthew 28, what are the tomb guards paid to say happened to Jesus's body?
His disciples stole it
His disciples stole it: Matthew adds that this story was still being told among Jews 'until this day'.
Q 18Which animal, Jesus says, passes through a needle's eye more easily than a wealthy man enters God's kingdom?
A camel
A camel: the disciples were so astonished by the saying that they asked who, then, could be saved.
Q 19Matthew's usual term for God's reign is 'Kingdom of' what?
Heaven
Heaven: no other gospel says 'kingdom of heaven', yet Matthew still uses 'kingdom of God', the wording of Mark and Luke, a few times.
Q 20In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus calls his followers the salt of the earth and the light of what?
The world
The world: no one lights a lamp to hide it under a bushel, he says, so their good works should shine before others.
Q 24In the parable that closes the Sermon on the Mount, the wise man builds his house on what?
Rock
Rock: when rain, floods and wind beat on it, it stood, while the foolish man's house on sand fell, 'and great was the fall of it'.
Q 25For how many days did Jesus fast in the wilderness before being tempted?
Forty
Forty: the forty days of Lent before Easter echo this fast in the wilderness.
Q 26In Matthew 13, what does an enemy secretly sow among a man's wheat while everyone sleeps?
Weeds
Weeds: the master lets them grow until harvest, because pulling them up early would root up the wheat as well.
Q 27In Matthew 13, which precious object does a merchant sell everything to buy?
A pearl
A pearl: the parable's 'pearl of great price' became an English idiom for anything of immense value.
Q 28Which miracle is the only one, apart from the resurrection, recorded in all four gospels?
The feeding of the 5,000
The feeding of the 5,000: only John says the five barley loaves and two fish came from a boy in the crowd.
Q 29In Matthew 21, whose tables does Jesus overturn in the Temple?
The money changers'
The money changers': Jesus said they had turned a house of prayer into 'a den of thieves'.
Q 30In Matthew 14, a girl's dance at a birthday feast ends with whose head brought on a platter?
John the Baptist
John the Baptist: he had been jailed for telling the ruler it was unlawful to take his own brother's wife.