Mother's Day Bible Trivia
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50 free Mother's Day Bible trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Mothers shape some of the Bible's most memorable stories. A woman long past hope of children laughs at the promise of a son, a desperate mother hides her baby among the reeds of a river to save his life, and a king's hardest court case turns on what a real mother would do. Scripture returns again and again to mothers who pray, protect, scheme and grieve for their children. This quiz gathers those stories for Mother's Day. It covers the matriarchs of Genesis, the women around the infant Moses, the mothers of prophets and kings, and the New Testament from the birth of Jesus to the early church. A few questions look at what the Bible teaches about honouring parents and at how Mother's Day itself began with a church service. The set opens with the best-known stories and ends with a handful for keen readers, and every answer comes with a short explanation. It suits a Mother's Day church service or brunch, a Sunday school class, a women's ministry gathering or a family quiz after lunch.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What did King Solomon order done to a baby claimed by two women, to reveal the real mother?
Cut it in two
Cut it in two, he said, and the real mother at once begged him to hand the boy to her rival instead. Solomon gave her the baby: only a mother would rather lose her son than see him die.
Q 02Which son, whose name recalls laughter, did Sarah bear to Abraham when she was ninety years old?
Isaac
Isaac means he laughs, because both parents laughed at the idea of a baby so late in life. Sarah said that everyone who heard the news would laugh along with her.
Q 03To which mother bird sheltering her young did Jesus compare himself while lamenting over Jerusalem?
A hen
A hen was his picture of protective love, spoken in a lament over a city that had turned away its prophets. Matthew and Luke both record the saying.
Q 04In the Book of Exodus, who found the infant Moses in a basket among the reeds and adopted him?
Pharaoh's daughter
Pharaoh's daughter even chose the name Moses, because she drew him out of the water. Without knowing it, she also paid the boy's own birth mother wages to nurse him.
Q 05Which reward do the Ten Commandments promise to those who honour their father and mother?
A long life
A long life in the land is the reward, which is why Paul later called this the first commandment with a promise attached.
Q 06Which elderly relative of Mary felt her unborn baby leap for joy when the pregnant Mary visited?
Elizabeth
Elizabeth had been childless into old age, and the words she cried out to her young visitor became part of the Hail Mary prayer.
Q 07Which mother of twins covered her son Jacob's hands in goatskin so his blind father would bless him?
Rebekah
Rebekah also cooked the goat stew herself, so that Jacob could pass for his hairy twin Esau and carry off the blessing meant for the firstborn.
Q 08Which disciple, by long tradition, did Jesus ask from the cross to take his mother Mary home?
John
John is the name usually given to the unnamed beloved disciple who stood by the cross. The fourth Gospel says he took Mary into his own home from that hour.
Q 09What title does Genesis give Eve to explain why Adam chose that name for his wife?
Mother of all living
Mother of all living is the meaning Genesis draws from her Hebrew name, which sounds like the word for life. Adam only names her after the forbidden fruit, just before the couple leave Eden.
Q 10Which widow from Moab married Boaz of Bethlehem and became the great-grandmother of King David?
Ruth
Ruth is one of only five women mentioned in Matthew's family tree of Jesus. She had arrived in Bethlehem as a penniless foreigner, gathering leftover grain behind the reapers.
Q 11Which angel told Mary that she would bear a son named Jesus, in the scene known as the Annunciation?
Gabriel
Gabriel had already brought an old priest named Zechariah news of another unlikely birth, and left him unable to speak for doubting it.
Q 12Which servant of Sarah fled into the desert, where an angel told her to name her son Ishmael?
Hagar
Hagar answered by giving God a name of her own, El Roi, the God who sees. She then went back and bore Abraham his first son.
Q 13Which wife of Jacob died giving birth to Benjamin and was buried beside the road to Bethlehem?
Rachel
Rachel used her last breath to name the baby Ben-Oni, son of my mourning, though his father renamed him. She alone of the four matriarchs lies outside the family tomb at Machpelah.
Q 21Which prophet lodged with a widow at Zarephath in a drought and brought her dead son back to life?
Elijah
Elijah stretched himself over the boy three times and prayed until he revived. Jesus later held up this foreign widow as an example to the people of his own home town.
Q 22What did a widow pour into borrowed jars, on Elisha's advice, to save her two sons from slavery?
Oil
Oil kept flowing from her one small pot until every borrowed jar was full. She sold it, paid off the creditor who had come for her boys, and lived on what was left.
Q 23In what did Mary lay the newborn Jesus in Bethlehem because the inn had no room?
A manger
A manger is an animals' feeding trough, and Luke makes it the sign by which the shepherds would know they had found the right baby.
Q 14By what name does the Bible know the mother of Moses, who hid him for three months after his birth?
Jochebed
Jochebed soon had her son back in her arms, hired as his wet nurse, and was paid wages to raise her own child.
Q 15Which sister of Moses is traditionally the girl who watched his basket and offered to find a nurse?
Miriam
Miriam's quick thinking put the baby straight back into his own mother's arms. She grew up to be called a prophetess and led the Israelite women in song and dance after the sea crossing.
Q 16What was the occupation of Shiphrah and Puah, who defied a royal order to kill Hebrew baby boys?
Midwives
Midwives Shiphrah and Puah told the king that Hebrew women gave birth too quickly for anyone to arrive in time. Exodus says God rewarded the pair with families of their own.
Q 17Which future judge was promised to the childless wife of Manoah by an angel who forbade her wine?
Samson
Samson was to be a Nazirite from the womb, so the vow's rules began with his mother's own diet, and no razor was ever to touch his head.
Q 18Which childless woman prayed so fervently at Shiloh that the priest Eli accused her of being drunk?
Hannah
Hannah was moving her lips without making a sound. She promised that any son she was given would be handed back to God, and that boy became the prophet Samuel.
Q 19Who was Solomon's mother, who reminded the aged King David of his oath that her son would reign?
Bathsheba
Bathsheba was later honoured as queen mother: her son rose, bowed to her and had a throne brought for her beside his own.
Q 20Which widow asked to be called Mara, meaning bitter, after losing her husband and both sons in Moab?
Naomi
Naomi said she had gone out full and come home empty. Yet her story ends with a grandson on her lap, and the neighbours saying a son had been born to her.
Q 24Where in Jerusalem did Mary and Joseph find the twelve-year-old Jesus after three days of searching?
In the Temple
In the Temple he was sitting among the teachers, listening and asking questions. His mother said they had been searching anxiously; he asked why they had needed to look anywhere else.
Q 25At a wedding in which Galilean town did Mary tell Jesus that the hosts had run out of wine?
Cana
Cana is where she then told the servants to do whatever her son said. Six stone jars of water became wine, the first of his signs in the fourth Gospel.
Q 26In which town in Galilee was Mary's home when an angel announced that she would bear a son?
Nazareth
Nazareth was so obscure that when a future disciple named Nathanael first heard of it, he asked whether anything good could come from there.
Q 27To which country did Joseph take Mary and the infant Jesus to escape King Herod's soldiers?
Egypt
Egypt sheltered the family until Herod died. Only Matthew tells the story, in which Joseph is warned in a dream and slips away by night.
Q 28By what Latin name is Mary's song of praise in Luke's Gospel known, after its opening word?
The Magnificat
The Magnificat takes its name from the Latin for magnifies. Mary sings it while visiting her pregnant relative, and churches still sing it at evening prayer.
Q 29Which judge and prophetess is called a mother in Israel in the victory song over Sisera?
Deborah
Deborah held court under a palm tree, and the army commander Barak refused to march against Sisera unless she came with him.
Q 30Which king's mother taught him the sayings that open the final chapter of the Book of Proverbs?
Lemuel
Lemuel is named nowhere else in Scripture. His mother's advice was blunt: leave strong drink alone and speak up for the poor and the voiceless.