Saint Peter Trivia
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48 free Saint Peter trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Sep 2026.
This Saint Peter trivia quiz covers the fisherman from Bethsaida whom Christian tradition regards as the first bishop of Rome. The early questions deal with his names, from Simon bar Jonah to the Aramaic Cephas and Greek Petros, his brother Andrew, his mother-in-law at Capernaum, the miraculous catch, walking on water, the ear of Malchus, the confession at Caesarea Philippi and the 'rock' dialogue that Catholics read as the foundation of the papacy. The middle of the quiz turns to Peter's fall and restoration: the three denials before cockcrow, the threefold affirmation of love by the Sea of Galilee, his place in Paul's list of resurrection appearances, the vision at Joppa, the rescue from Herod Agrippa's prison, the confrontation with Paul at Antioch and the tradition that he was Antioch's first bishop. The last questions follow him to Rome: Simon Magus, 'Babylon' in his first epistle, the Great Fire and Nero, the crucifixion head downward, the Quo vadis legend on the Appian Way, the bones under the Vatican altar identified in 1968, the feast days, the Fisherman's Ring, the Chair of Saint Peter and the basilica of Bramante, Michelangelo and Bernini. Every answer has been checked against the Wikipedia articles on Saint Peter, his tomb and his basilica.
30 of 48 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What was Saint Peter's birth name?
Simon bar Jonah
Simon bar Jonah means Simon, son of Jonah, and it is how Jesus addresses him in Matthew. 'Peter' began as a nickname from Jesus and ended up replacing the name he was born with.
Q 02John's Gospel names which town on the Sea of Galilee as the home town of Peter?
Bethsaida
Bethsaida was also home to the apostle Philip, says John. It got no thanks for producing them: Jesus later cursed the town for shrugging off his miracles, 'Woe to you, Bethsaida!'
Q 03What was Peter's trade before he followed Jesus?
Fishing
Fishing on the Sea of Galilee was his living until Jesus called him with a pun on the job: 'I will make you fishers of men.' He left his nets on the spot and followed.
Q 04The name Cephas, which Jesus gave to Peter, comes from an Aramaic word meaning what?
Rock or stone
Rock or stone: kepha in Aramaic, turned into Greek as Petros, which gives us Peter. The pun drives the famous line 'you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church'.
Q 05Soon after praising Peter's confession of faith, Jesus rebuked him by calling him what?
Satan
Satan: 'Get behind me, Satan!' Peter had just been blessed for calling Jesus the Christ, then took him aside to insist he must never suffer and die, and was told he was a stumbling block.
Q 06Which brother of Peter, a disciple of John the Baptist, brought him to Jesus in John's gospel?
Andrew
Andrew went straight to fetch his brother with the words 'We have found the Messiah'. Because he followed Jesus before anyone else in that Gospel, the Eastern churches call him the 'first-called'.
Q 07What happens when Peter leaves the boat to walk to Jesus on the water?
He panics and starts to sink
He panics and starts to sink when he notices the wind, and Jesus catches him: 'You of little faith, why did you doubt?' Only Matthew tells it; Mark and John leave Peter in the boat.
Q 08Near which city, in Matthew and Mark, did Peter declare that Jesus was the Christ?
Caesarea Philippi
Caesarea Philippi was a pagan town at the foot of Mount Hermon, built round a grotto sacred to the god Pan. It was there, of all places, that Jesus asked who the disciples thought he was.
Q 09What did Jesus promise to give Peter in the 'rock' dialogue?
The keys of the kingdom of heaven
The keys of the kingdom of heaven, with power to 'bind and loose'. Crossed keys, one gold and one silver, became the badge of the popes and still sit on the Vatican flag.
Q 10According to John's gospel, whose ear did Peter cut off at Jesus's arrest?
Malchus, servant of the high priest
Malchus, servant of the high priest, is named only by John, who is also the only one to say the swordsman was Peter. Luke adds that Jesus touched the ear and healed it on the spot.
Q 11Peter first refused to let Jesus wash his feet, then swung round and asked him to wash what?
His hands and head too
His hands and head too. Peter had protested 'You will never wash my feet', and gave way only when Jesus said that otherwise he could have no part with him.
Q 12With which two apostles did Peter form the inner three at the Transfiguration?
James and John
James and John, the sons of Zebedee, were also the two Jesus took with Peter to see Jairus's daughter raised and to keep watch in Gethsemane. There the chosen three fell asleep.
Q 13Jesus foretold that Peter would deny him how many times before the cock crowed?
Three
Q 21Who eclipsed Peter as leader of the Jerusalem church?
James the Just
James the Just, called the Lord's brother, has the last word at the Council of Jerusalem in Acts: 'my judgment is', he says, after Peter has made his case. Galatians even lists him ahead of Peter among the church's pillars.
Q 22Which man did Peter rebuke for offering the apostles money in exchange for the power of the Holy Spirit?
Simon Magus
Simon Magus gave his name to simony, the buying of church office. Legend adds a rematch in Rome, where he flew above the Forum by magic until Peter's prayers brought him crashing down.
Q 23Peter's first letter sends greetings from a church in which city, a name most scholars read as code for Rome?
Babylon
Three, and Peter swore he would die first. When the cock crowed after his third denial he remembered the words, went outside and wept bitterly.
Q 14According to one gospel, what betrayed Peter as a follower of Jesus at the third denial?
His Galilean accent
His Galilean accent: 'your speech makes you known', say the bystanders in Matthew. Peter answered with curses and an oath that he did not know the man, and at that moment the cock crowed.
Q 15By the lakeside after the resurrection, Jesus keeps asking Peter which question?
Do you love me?
'Do you love me?', asked once for each denial beside the fire. Each yes earns the charge to feed the flock, and John notes that Peter was hurt to be asked yet again.
Q 16How many fish were caught in the post-resurrection catch described in John's gospel?
153
153 large ones, John says, and the net did not tear. Readers have puzzled over so exact a figure ever since; Augustine pointed out that it is every number from 1 to 17 added together.
Q 17At Pentecost, how did Peter answer the bystanders who said the apostles were drunk?
It was nine in the morning
It was nine in the morning, 'only the third hour of the day', so nobody could be drunk yet. He then preached the first Christian sermon, and Acts says about three thousand were baptised that day.
Q 18In which port did Peter have his rooftop vision that unclean animals could be eaten?
Joppa
Joppa, today's Jaffa, is where Peter, praying on a tanner's roof, saw a sheet of forbidden animals lowered from the sky. He was still puzzling over it when messengers from the centurion Cornelius reached the gate.
Q 19According to Acts 12, which ruler imprisoned Peter in Jerusalem before an angel freed him?
Herod Agrippa
Herod Agrippa, grandson of Herod the Great, had just put one apostle to the sword and meant Peter to be next. The escape cost the guards their lives, and Acts has Agrippa himself die soon after, eaten by worms.
Q 20Which apostle wrote that he opposed Peter 'to his face' at Antioch?
Paul
Paul tells it in Galatians: Peter had been eating with Gentile converts, then drew back when visitors arrived from Jerusalem. Paul called it hypocrisy in front of everyone, noting that even Barnabas had been carried along.
Babylon was the empire that had sacked Jerusalem and its Temple centuries earlier. When Rome did the same in AD 70, Jews and Christians gave it the older enemy's name, and the Book of Revelation uses the same code.
Q 24Under which emperor is Peter traditionally said to have been martyred in Rome?
Nero
Nero blamed Rome's Christians for the great fire of AD 64 and, Tacitus says, had them torn by dogs, crucified or burned as lamps in his gardens. Tradition puts Peter's death in that purge.
Q 25How, according to Origen and Jerome, was Peter crucified?
Head downwards
Head downwards, and at his own request: Jerome says Peter declared himself unworthy to be crucified in the same way as his Lord. An upside-down cross has been St Peter's emblem ever since.
Q 26At the Temple gate, Peter told a lame beggar he had none of what, then healed him instead?
Silver or gold
Silver or gold: 'but what I have, that I give you', said Peter, and told the man, lame from birth, to get up and walk. He went in leaping, a crowd gathered, and by evening Peter was under arrest.
Q 27In the Quo vadis legend, where does Jesus tell the fleeing Peter he is going?
To Rome, to be crucified again
To Rome, to be crucified again, says the risen Jesus, meeting Peter on the road out of the city. Shamed, Peter turns round and walks back to his own execution, in a tale from the apocryphal Acts of Peter.
Q 28On which road outside Rome does the Quo vadis encounter traditionally take place?
The Appian Way
The Appian Way still has a small church, Domine Quo Vadis, on the traditional spot. Inside is a marble slab with two footprints said to have been left by Jesus, a copy of one kept in a basilica down the road.
Q 29Whom does Irenaeus name as the man the apostles made bishop of Rome after Peter?
Linus
Linus appears once in the New Testament, in a list of greetings at the end of the second letter to Timothy. Irenaeus says this is the same man, which makes that passing name the second pope.
Q 30Which emperor began the first basilica over Peter's grave in the early 4th century?
Constantine the Great
Constantine the Great's builders buried a Roman cemetery that was still in use and levelled a hillside to set the altar over the grave. Visitors can still walk those streets of tombs beneath St. Peter's.