New Testament Trivia
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7correct to beat the crowd
This New Testament quiz has 109 free questions with answers and covers all 27 books, not just the famous scenes. You will find the nativity and the Magi, the parables and miracles of Jesus, the passion week from Gethsemane to Golgotha, the resurrection appearances, Pentecost and the early church in Acts, Paul's conversion, journeys and letters, and the seven churches, horsemen and numbers of Revelation. Questions start with basics anyone who has sat through Sunday school will know and build to details for people who have read the whole text: who fell asleep during Paul's sermon, which book is the shortest, what a tetrarch was, and which apostle was chosen by lot. It works for youth group, Bible study, a church quiz night or a family game, and there is nothing here that requires a particular denomination. Every answer has been checked against the text and standard reference sources, and each question shows an explanation and its citation once you have answered.
30 of 109 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01How many books make up the New Testament?
27
The New Testament contains 27 books; the Protestant Old Testament adds 39, giving the familiar total of 66 for the whole Bible.
Q 02In what language was the New Testament originally written?
Greek
Greek, specifically the everyday Koine Greek of the eastern Roman world, is the language of every New Testament book, as the oldest papyrus fragments show.
Q 03Which Gospel do most scholars believe was written first?
Mark
Mark is placed first by most scholars ('Markan priority'): it is the shortest Gospel, and almost all of its material reappears, often word for word, in the two other Synoptic Gospels.
Q 04The Gospel of Luke and which other book are widely thought to be a two-volume work by the same author?
Acts of the Apostles
Acts of the Apostles opens by addressing the same Theophilus as Luke's Gospel; together the two volumes make up more than a quarter of the New Testament.
Q 05Which Gospel builds Jesus' ministry around seven 'signs', ending with the raising of Lazarus?
John
John's Gospel builds its first half around a series of miracles it calls 'signs', from water turned into wine at a wedding to the raising of Lazarus at Bethany.
Q 06Which archangel tells Mary she will bear a son, in the scene called the Annunciation?
Gabriel
Gabriel, the same angel who had announced a son to the elderly Zechariah, greets Mary in Luke 1; the Annunciation appears only in Luke's Gospel.
Q 07Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist, is described in Luke as what relation to Mary?
Her relative
Luke 1:36 calls Elizabeth her relative (syngenis), a word that does not specify the degree of kinship; the traditional 'cousin' is a later gloss.
Q 08According to the first Gospel, King Herod ordered the killing of all boys in Bethlehem up to what age?
Two years
The first Gospel (2:16) says Herod killed every boy in Bethlehem 'two years old and under', the age he reckoned from when the Magi said the star had appeared.
Q 09Which ruler had John the Baptist beheaded after John condemned his marriage to Herodias?
Herod Antipas
Herod Antipas, tetrarch of Galilee and Perea, ordered the beheading; Josephus places the execution at the fortress of Machaerus, east of the Dead Sea.
Q 10In John's Gospel, Jesus turned water into wine at a wedding in which town?
Cana
Cana in Galilee is where the fourth Gospel places the first sign: when the wine ran out, the water in six stone jars kept for Jewish purification became wine.
Q 11Which Sea of Galilee village was the base of much of Jesus' ministry and Peter's home?
Capernaum
Capernaum, on the north shore of the lake, is where the Gospels place the fisherman's house and the synagogue where Jesus taught; a fifth-century octagonal church was later built over the house.
Q 12The Feeding of the 5,000 is the only miracle apart from the resurrection that appears in how many Gospels?
All four
All four Gospels record the Feeding of the 5,000, the only miracle before the resurrection that every evangelist includes; the fourth Gospel adds that a boy supplied the loaves and fish.
Q 13At the Transfiguration, Jesus is seen talking with which two Old Testament figures?
Moses and Elijah
Q 21The name Gethsemane, the garden where Jesus was arrested, comes from Aramaic words meaning what?
Oil press
Oil press: Gethsemane comes from the Aramaic gat shemanim, an olive-oil press, fitting a garden at the foot of the Mount of Olives where Jesus often went with the disciples.
Q 22Which disciple cut off the ear of Malchus, the high priest's servant, during the arrest of Jesus?
Peter
Peter is named as the swordsman only in the fourth Gospel (18:10), which is also the only one to name the servant Malchus; Luke adds that Jesus healed the ear.
Q 23For how many pieces of silver did Judas Iscariot betray Jesus?
Thirty
Thirty pieces of silver, the price the chief priests paid (26:15); the first Gospel adds that Judas threw the money back and the priests bought the potter's field with it.
Moses and Elijah, often read as standing for the Law and the Prophets, appear with Jesus on the mountain in all three Synoptic accounts, witnessed by three disciples.
Q 14Zacchaeus, the tax collector of Jericho, climbed what to see Jesus over the crowd?
A sycamore tree
A sycamore tree, the sycamore-fig of Luke 19:4, gave the short tax collector his view; afterwards he promised half his goods to the poor and to repay anyone he had cheated.
Q 15How many days had Lazarus been dead when Jesus raised him?
Four
Four days: the Gospel says Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days when Jesus arrived at Bethany, and Martha warned of the smell.
Q 16In the parable of the Good Samaritan, which two people pass the wounded man first?
A priest and a Levite
A priest and a Levite each see the man and pass by on the other side before the Samaritan stops; Jesus tells it in Luke 10 to answer 'Who is my neighbour?'
Q 17In the parable of the Prodigal Son, what job is the younger son reduced to before he returns home?
Tending pigs
Tending pigs, unclean animals to a Jewish audience, is the low point: Luke 15 says he was so hungry he longed to eat the pods the pigs ate.
Q 18The Samaritan woman whom Jesus meets at Jacob's Well had had how many husbands?
Five
Five husbands: at Sychar Jesus tells her she has had five, and that the man she lives with is not her husband; Eastern tradition names her Photine.
Q 19The Sermon on the Mount opens with which set of sayings?
The Beatitudes
The Beatitudes, the 'Blessed are...' sayings, open the sermon in chapter 5 of the first Gospel, which arranges Jesus' teaching into a series of long discourses.
Q 20Nicodemus, who visited Jesus by night, was told a person must be what to see the kingdom of God?
Born again
'Born again', a phrase that can also mean 'born from above', is Jesus' answer in chapter 3 of the fourth Gospel; Nicodemus later helps Joseph of Arimathea bury Jesus.
Q 24Which prisoner did the crowd ask Pilate to release instead of Jesus?
Barabbas
Barabbas, described as a rebel and murderer held for an uprising, was released by Pilate at the crowd's demand; every Gospel tells the episode.
Q 25Who was compelled by the Romans to carry the cross of Jesus?
Simon of Cyrene
Simon of Cyrene, a passer-by coming in from the country, was pressed into carrying the cross; one Gospel names his sons Alexander and Rufus, and Cyrene lay in modern Libya.
Q 26The crucifixion site Golgotha is translated in the Gospels as 'the place of' what?
A skull
'The place of a skull' is how the Gospels gloss Golgotha, from Aramaic gulgulta; the Latin calvaria, 'skull', gives the name Calvary.
Q 27Which woman is honoured as the 'Apostle to the Apostles' for first witnessing the resurrection?
Mary Magdalene
Mary Magdalene is the first to see the risen Jesus in the fourth Gospel and is sent to tell the disciples, hence the title; the church later dropped the medieval conflation of her with the sinner of Luke 7.
Q 28Which of the two disciples who walk with the risen Jesus to Emmaus is named?
Cleopas
Cleopas is named in Luke 24:18; his companion is never named, and the pair recognise Jesus only when he breaks bread at supper.
Q 29The Great Commission, Jesus telling followers to make disciples of all nations, closes which Gospel?
Matthew
Matthew ends with it (28:16-20): on a mountain in Galilee Jesus tells the eleven to make disciples of all nations, baptising them, and promises to be with them always.
Q 30After Judas' death, the apostles chose his replacement by what method?
Casting lots
Casting lots: after praying for God to show which of the two he had chosen, the apostles drew lots and 'the lot fell on Matthias' rather than Joseph called Barsabbas.