60 free Ten Commandments trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Ten Commandments trivia quiz covers the Decalogue from the mountain to the movie screen. The first half is scripture and history: where and how the commandments were given, the forty days, the tablets that were smashed and replaced, where the second set was kept, why the Hebrew name means "the ten words", how Jews, Catholics, Lutherans, Samaritans and Muslims count and read them differently, the ancient papyrus that preserves them, and the American courtroom battles over posting them in schools. The second half is Cecil B. DeMille's 1956 epic: Charlton Heston, Yul Brynner, Anne Baxter and Edward G. Robinson, the Broadway show that landed Brynner the part, the actress rejected for not filling out the costumes, the baby in the basket, the voice of God, the 360,000-gallon Red Sea, the Disney animators behind the pillar of fire, the budget, the Oscar and the annual Passover-and-Easter TV airing that has run since 1973. Easy questions suit Sunday-school graduates and anyone who has caught the film on television; the expert ones are for people who know their Septuagint from their Samaritan Pentateuch. Every answer was checked against the Wikipedia articles on the commandments and the film and their cited sources before publishing, and each question shows its citation once you have answered.
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Q 01According to the Hebrew Bible, to whom did God give the Ten Commandments?
Moses
He went up the mountain twice: the first set of tablets was smashed, the second was stored in the Ark.
Q 02On which mountain were the commandments revealed?
Sinai
The mountain is also called Horeb in the text; the revelation came amid thunder, fire and a very loud trumpet.
Q 03What were the Israelites worshipping when Moses came down and smashed the first tablets?
A golden calf
They had decided something must have happened to him and pressed Aaron to make it.
Q 04Where were the second set of tablets later placed?
The Ark of the Covenant
The tablets themselves are called the "tablets of the testimony" or "tablets of the covenant" in Hebrew.
Q 05What alternative name for the Ten Commandments comes from the Greek for "ten words"?
The Decalogue
The Septuagint translators coined dekalogos, which passed through Latin into English.
Q 06How long was Moses on the mountain when he received the tablets?
Forty days and forty nights
The mountain had been covered by cloud for six days first, and he went in on the seventh.
Q 07Besides Exodus 20, which book of the Bible contains a second full version of the commandments?
Deuteronomy
A third, very different list in Exodus 34 is nicknamed the "Ritual Decalogue" by scholars.
Q 08What does the Hebrew name Aseret ha-Dibrot literally mean?
The Ten Words
Tyndale's English Bible called them "ten verses"; the Geneva Bible popularised "ten commandments".
Q 09On which day of the week is the Sabbath commandment observed in Judaism?
Saturday
It runs from dusk to dusk; most Christians moved their day of rest to Sunday, the day of the resurrection.
Q 10The Samaritan version has a tenth commandment about the sanctity of which mountain?
Mount Gerizim
Samaritans count as nine what others count as ten, then add the command to build an altar there.
Q 11The Nash Papyrus contains the commandments followed by the opening of which prayer?
The Shema
It preserves the Second Temple practice of reciting the commandments daily before that prayer.
Q 12During which festival are the commandments read aloud in synagogue, besides the regular Torah cycle?
Shavuot
They are heard three times a year in all: in the Exodus and Deuteronomy readings and on this feast, which commemorates the giving of the Torah.
Q 13Which Church Father's Ten Commandments numbering, used by Catholics and Lutherans, splits coveting in two?
Augustine
The Reformed and Orthodox traditions instead follow the Septuagint and keep images as a separate commandment.
Q 21According to Exodus 31:18, the tablets were uniquely written with what?
The finger of God
That, their terse style and their place in the Ark are the ways the Bible marks them out from all other laws.
Q 22Which surah of the Quran describes Moses meeting God on the mountain and receiving the tablets?
Al-A'raf
The Quran presents the commandments as guidance on monotheism, justice and righteousness, close to but not identical with the biblical text.
Q 23Which English Bible established the phrase "ten commandments", later followed by the King James Version?
Geneva
Tyndale and Coverdale had preferred "ten verses".
Q 14In which 1980 case did the Supreme Court strike down Kentucky's classroom commandments law?
Stone v. Graham
The court found the statute lacked any nonreligious legislative purpose; the ruling was cited again against Arkansas's 2025 law.
Q 15Which state's governor signed a 2024 law mandating the commandments in every public school classroom?
Louisiana
A federal judge called it "unconstitutional on its face"; Texas and Arkansas passed similar laws in 2025.
Q 16Which organisation placed thousands of Ten Commandments displays in US courthouses in the 1950s?
Fraternal Order of Eagles
They used an unnumbered ecumenical text; the 2024 Louisiana law's wording turned out to come from that campaign.
Q 17Scholars have compared the structure of the commandments to the treaties of which ancient empire?
The Hittites
Like a king's treaty with his vassals, it opens by recalling the ruler's benevolent acts: "who brought you out of the land of Egypt".
Q 18Jewish tradition counts how many commandments in the Torah in total?
613
The Ten are seen as headings under which the rest can be grouped, an idea going back to Philo.
Q 19Dekalog, a ten-part television series built around the commandments, came from which country?
Poland
Each film is set in the same Warsaw housing estate and loosely explores one commandment.
Q 20In Matthew 19, after listing five of the commandments, Jesus adds which further command?
Love thy neighbour as thyself
Paul does the same in Romans, tying five of the ten to the neighbourly-love command.
Q 24In one rabbinic pairing, "I am the Lord thy God" matches which second-tablet commandment?
Thou shalt not murder
The reasoning is that a murderer destroys the image of God; adultery is paired with idolatry, and theft with false oaths.
Q 25Which scholar argued that "thou shalt not steal" originally meant "thou shalt not kidnap"?
Albrecht Alt
The Talmud reads it the same way, as a ban on stealing people rather than property.
Q 26Who produced, directed and narrated the 1956 film The Ten Commandments?
Cecil B. DeMille
It was his fourth biblical picture, his first in widescreen and the last film he ever directed.
Q 27Who plays Moses in the 1956 film?
Charlton Heston
All three of the others were in the running; he won it partly for his resemblance to Michelangelo's statue of Moses.
Q 28Who plays Rameses, the Pharaoh who says "So let it be written, so let it be done"?
Yul Brynner
He was the first actor cast, and won the National Board of Review's Best Actor award for it.
Q 29Who plays the scheming princess Nefretiri?
Anne Baxter
The director chose her after watching Carnival Story at home three times; Jane Russell had wanted the part.
Q 30Which blacklisted actor did the director rehire to play the treacherous overseer Dathan?
Edward G. Robinson
He later wrote that the director "returned me to films" and "restored my self-respect".